We continue having cooking adventures in the pension! (May 26, 2014)

Wow! so! life has just been fun all over again! we got a new Elder in the pension this week, Elder Peaua from... lots of places, most recently utah, but he lived 3 years in Tonga and a lot of years in reno nevada. but he is a great guy! hes shorter than i am but he is built like a tank. super ripped. but we all get a long really really well. sometimes i wonder if its too well! maybe we get distracted sometimes just talking and being friends... but its fun. Its awesome how fast we have all got used to each other. it took like no time at all to be just a bunch of brothers again.

We continue having cooking adventures in the pension! We tried fish this week... but then we were afraid we wouldnt have enough so we cooked a TON of rice... man... i swear that stuff grows exponentially. we had Tons left over... but! we fried the fish, the first try we just blackened the outside in like three seconds because the oil was way too hot! the second one just took YEARS but then we got in the groove, but. the problem was just the oil in the end... it was not oil anymore... it was brown and chunky... miracle that we survived that experience. and! just to add happiness! the apartment still smells like fish... ahhh. perfect! but those are the fun times!

Also! hermano Patricio Souza is getting baptized this saturday! he was just so well prepared! he is going to be a great benefit to the branch here. he has time and lots and lots of desires to work and help people! i am excited to see him keep progressing. We have had lots and lots of people coming to church recently and it seems like they will just keep coming. i am feeling so very blessed to be able to help these people. We had a lesson with a less active member and his two kids of 7 and 5 on sunday... and they are just fantastic.. he has lots of problems as he is seperated from his wife and she isnt taking care of the kids very well, but he has work 6 days a week so he is just really struggling with that, but he is a fantastic person, and we have been trying to teach his kids a bit more, like primary songs and how to pray and such. But we just feel the spirit so strongly with him, i just know that if he will make the jump and just start coming to church he will find SO much more that he may be missing right now. we hadnt even tried to challenge him to come this next week but during the lesson he just asked if we could make a deal, that if we would pass by to pick them up that they would all go to church... i hope that he goes!

I am truly enjoying the mission. there are some times that are hard, its the truth, but i am learning to roll with the hard times in a much... sturdier way. i just feel like there is a third power that is just kind of holding me up where i might have fallen down before. i know that its real. I know that God exists. I know that he has a Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered everything i have suffered, and he is there to bolster my weeknesses. Sometimes i feel like something is trying to drag me down, it holds on to my feet my shoulders, my stomach my eyelids and sometimes my head, but there is something much stronger that is just holding me up. Yo sé que vive mi señor. Lo sé con todo mi corazón. I love him. i love his work, and i wish i could be a better instrument in his hands. todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece. There is so much power and stability that comes form living his way!

Lets all do our best to not forget ourselves! lets not forget who is holding us up. and all of the rewards that we get from service to him.

I love you all! so much! be safe.

Elder Gold