Conference...s! (October 6, 2014)

This week was the fastest week of my life again! But great! Last monday we met a few more people and had a lesson with like... a retired preacher it seems like. he just pulls out a whole bunch of stuff from the bible, and he gets all into his sermon stuff, moving his arms, standing and sitting, from whispers to yells... its pretty entertaining! But he is sooooo stuck on the sabath day. whatever thing we talked about he always applied it to the fact that the sabbath day should be saturday, not sunday... it was hard! but after lots of patience and explication he said he was going to start to read the Book of Mormon! hopefully yes! We also had 2 amazing lesssons on wednesday... man! we could just feel the Spirit guiding us SO MUCH! One was with one of our investigators who is having a REALLY hard time smoking... she had woken up in the morning and decided not to smoke that day... which was big for her! and she was doing so good! we went over at like 630 and she was telling us about how hard it was and how she didnt feel like she could, how it scared her because she knows that it really is an addiction. we tlaked to her about Christ and his enabling power and she felt better, then at the end we gave her a blessing and she cried some more and then said she knew that she could do it and that Christ was helping her lots... it was great! then later on that day we went over to see Carolina who was from El PAlomar and we were talking with her about her trials and her duties and she was understanding a little more about the faith that she could show. and she was just so set on meeting her baptismal goal! for the 22 of november! she wants to be prepared! but she needs to get married or stop living with her... boyfriend. theres a wierd word for it in spanish... i couldnt think of how to say it. Then on wednesday night we went to the bus terminal at 1 am to catch our bus.. which was late and we left at like 2. bus all night long and we got to Antofagasta to go to a Leadership Council. That was sweet! for a lot of things! it was awesome to see lots of my friends again, Elder Mangum was there so we chatted for a long time as well. Plus it was an amazing conference where we will able to learn a little more about how to help out our zones and what the focus of the mission was, and it was just really spiritual! the whole thing! there is such a great view about misisonary work, everything is and should be pointed on the Lords work and Will... its so inspiring. so i just felt really great leaving the conference. plus i got letters early! 

Shout out time! Tom Bird, you always write me! i always have letters from you! and you said i didnt have to respond so i havent worried about it too much, plus i dont have any information on how to contact you, but i just wanted to say Thanks for that! its nice to always have something! its a blessing not everyone has!

I had a long conversation with a random guy in the bus terminal that i went and sat by, and then on the bus we met some people from ENGLAND! they lived like one hour outside of Birmingham! which they say really cool by the way. bermingmm. they had saved up a bit of money and then they came to south america nd they just travel... theyve been here for 2 months and they just go by bus from place to place, and if they start running out of money... they teach english! really easy! they said they were going to end in Thailand in about a month more... and they arent even sure if they will go back to england! Then we got back to Copiapo at like 2 in the morning and made it back to the house very tired after 2 nights on a bus and took a bit of a nap before we left again in the morning. Friday FLEW bye, and we had another lesson with Susana... that was supposed to be an FHE but it fell threw and we just had a lesson. ANd the long awaited CONFERENCE! 

So good. loved conference, i would start talking about specific talks but we might be here all day. i felt very grateful for the spirit and guidance that was felt, its true that lots of times the words arent the most important things you hear, personal revelation is real. And i was intrigued by the VERY forefront theme of living prophets! i wonder whats in store! but it was great! a little bit of fire from a few! and Elder Scott who just said it like it was! Super blunt! and his face looked almost disgusted mixed with saddened! wow! strong feelings! PLUS on saturday night i saw ELDER BAUER! so awesome! i about jumped out of my seat saying "there he is! thats my friend" i felt like a little kid again "i know him!" Elder Bauer is famous. but it was sweet! they had a great Choir! then we ended the night on sunday (because it ends for us at 7, then we help clean up) going and contacting some references that we had recieved from a member! They are Golden! we were able to share with them a little bit about how they can make changes in their lives and learn to live with Christ! And we challenged them to baptism and they accepted! so prepared! its gonna be great to see their progress as well! Over all, just feeling good! I feel like i have the tools and the help i need to be able to give people the help that THEY need! there is a lot of stuff im not prepared for, and soooooooooo much work to do that i will never finish, but it will be awesome to just keep working and doing the best i can! thats all that matters.

The Chruch is true, and Christ is at the head of this church and this work, evrything he does, and asks for, is just for us. He loves us, so much. Lets remember that and try and remember why we do the things we do. lets simply try to think more about Christ every day. He WILL guide us.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and your love! i will do my best to return it!

Cuidaos ;)

Elder Gold

 At Leadership Council  - Elder Mangum (MTC companion)

At Leadership Council

  At Leadership Council  - Elder Villavicencia (first companion in Chile)

At Leadership Council  - Elder Cazier (Assistant to the President)

Another week in paradise! (Oct. 27, 2014)

So! we had a party this week! On wednesday we went to paint this ladies house, well its actually the aunt of one of our investigators but it was a fun time, they were suuuper impressed with our work hahaha, we had to put up some styrofoam molding stuff and the person she had paid to do the first part was really really bad, and didnt even try to do corners, he just like filled it with putty and called it good, so we came in and measuered it and made it look nice and then painted and she was super happy with  us ha. But she invited us to eat lunch with them after... not like we were gonna turn that down! but the awesome part was that after we left we saw her again yesterday and she said that ever since we went her 6 year old son wont let them eat unless they do the prayer first! hahaha! that was super awesome! 

Also on wednesday we went to go visit carolina again and she is still just super excited with everything!, she went to church again this sunday, but its always cool to go with other families, we have 2 families that have helped her a TON, with their experiences and in the church just being their friends and inviting them to stuff, its so awesome. we barely even have a chance to talk to her in church because all of the members are jsut taking her everywhere! what an awesome problem to have!

We also did another service on friday... that was a party! We had to build a wall out of rocks on an incline and put a bunch of dirt up behind it... i wish i had taken pictures but... i was busy haha. anyways, the rocks were really easy to find... but the dirt... out of the whole MOUNTAIN there was no place that wasnt comepletely full of big rocks... so we had to go down the mountain a bit, use a pick axe to break it all up, take out all the rocks and then we could think about putting it in the wheel barrow. party! so we did that for like 2 hours and we were able to finish a decent chunk. now, we wanted to make sure it was really secure because there were gonna be little kids running around and she had started building this wall on an incline... with sand on the bottowm, sooo the foundation was questionable at best, but we were putting in a few more rocks and evening out the dirt when.... the whole thing slides down... gah! all of that work ruined! now the worst part is that we had to go right after that... so we basically  just had to tell them we would go back next week... and i got fried hahaha. my legs and neck. but thats just normal.

Then on satuday we went a little bit to the interior of copiapo.. like towards the mountains it was like 40 minutes on a bus to go do an interview. it was suuuper prettty once we got up there. i dont know how stuff grows but it was awesome! really pretty green and then straight desert without a sign of life. but these are the grape vinyards that get shipped to the states during winter over there. there are LOTS! i was able to take a few pics of that haha. 

On sunday we also went to go pick up a few investigators but when we got there, nobody was there... so we left them a little note on a card thing we have, and my comp wrote : "we trust you! we will be waiting for you there!" i was thinking... ummm ok. and they toatlly showed up to church! late, but they got there after sacrament meeting! and they LOVED it. so that was awesome. we just have so many people who are progressing! sometimes its a little hard to teach them all because they mostly all have time at night, but its awesome. Sunday night we went to go visit a family, it seems like every time we go someone else from the family decides they want to share with us. so thats awesome! but we were able to help 4 of the people in this family set themselves a goal to get baptizd in november! its gonna be awesome! they all are just super sincere! 

I love the mission! the spirit is so strong. we went to visit a member family and that morning while i was praying i had randomly felt that we neeeded to share something with them... so as are about to share she jsut says "alright Elder I hope you are gonna share what i need" hahaha, talk about pressure, so i was a little nervous but i decided to just keep going with the plan... EXACTLY what she needed... small and simple means. love that. I love feeling that Christ is just directing his work here. all we have to do is keep our part and he does miracles, in us, and in the other people around us. sometimes its hard sometimes we fail, but we can always feel him. i love it.

I hope you all have an awesome week! 

Love you!

Elder Gold

Happiness (Oct. 21, 2014)

So! we are just havin a great time here! yay! 

This week we had interviews with the president on monday, so thats why im writing a day late. fyi. that was fun! the interviews we had like a big chat and study session while president was doing the interviews and it was really cool. we were able to all share a little bit about what we had been learning about faith and such, it was fun! plus, we had intercambios with the assitents sunday night and monday nigh, and they stayed with us both nights as well, i was with Elder Cazier, he is just a massive stud, i love him. he has helped me a lot in the mission. i always learn new things from him. hes just got a really contagious love for the work, but he was also helping me to understand a little better how we could help out the zone, but i basically realized that the best way to do that is gonna be by trying to be like him in that way! i love the work but somehow he just shares that love with EVERYONE. ive know other people with that same attitude at home, even if its not about misisonary work, i always love them.

We had dinner for like the first time in the mission with a  returned missionary from hawaii who studied at byu i and is now working for a few months here in chile! he is way cool. We had an intercambio (exchanges i think) with a few elders this week, i got to go to a little tiny city called Tierra Amarilla (yellow earth) the funny thing is that Elder Mangum started the mission there, so i got to meet his converts and they were so happy to know that i knew him, they love him a ton! but it was good, its funny that we just changed positions, im a zonle leader where he started and hes a zone leader where i started, yet again on opposite sids of the mission haha! but! im pretty sure hes gonna be the next assistent in a few weeks so then we will get to be in contact a bit more ha.

I dont know if i already tlaked about hermano paulino, but he was a peruvian that we met that was here on vacation for two weeks who helped us out with a couple appointments, he has a GREAT testimony, plus, he is helping us out on his VACATION. soooo we love him. and he has helped us out a lot, yesterday we went to 2 appointments with him and both times he testified so strongly and just really helped these people out. we had to amazing visits, the spirit was felt SO strongly. i love that. both families were very decided that they were gonna do better to follow christ. I was alos able to give a blessing to Carolina, that was awesome, i really felt that my words were guided by the spirit a lot! and when we finished there was just this great feeling of calm and happiness and then she just said... "i can feel the spirit" and got choked up and started crying and could continue. i just said, "He is here, this power is real", and we just sat there all in silence for a moment. it was really awesome, she loves the gospel so much! im so happy for her!

Paulino is headed back to peru sadly, so we will miss him, but it was great to met him, it was just a great week, we are going to be working with his family that he was visiting as well. LOVIN IT! God loves us all! and he IS there!

I love you all! have a great week! you are always in my prayers!

Elder Gold

More happiness! (Oct. 13, 2014)

Just another awesome week her in the mish! what more can i say! i loved last week being able to download all of the conference talks THE DAY AFTER conference! sweet! so we have been re listeneing to all the conference talks this week over breakfast, some of them are even better the second time! i love how the spirit teaches you just as much as the words do, you just pick little things up every time.

This week yet again it just didnt feel like there was enough time in the world to do all of the things that we needed to do, but it makes it very entertaining, and its really satisfying to come home tired all the time. a funny experience that happened was while we were working with a list of members that we have and when went and knocked on a door and this lady came out with just this funny like smirk on her face like... oh these mormons... and we started talking to her, the lady we wre looking for was her sister in law and that she was currently there, but we just kept talking to her and we found out she was member but she didnt go to church anymore because a memmber one time did something that she didnt like, but she loves the church! so i just asked her, hey can we come over sometime and te4ach you a little more? and her response... "welllll im not making any promises, but i have time in the afternoon most days" hahahaha. i loved that! she definately wanted to come back but she just needs a good reason, we also gave her a book of mormon because she wanted one and didnt have one, and then we left and will go another day, but we just kept laughing about that response... thats like asking someone on a date and this is what they say "i dont know... but you can pick me up at 7" :) perfect 

Carolina is still just Super energetic. we went to stake conference this sunday (which was SUPER packed btw, they didnt have enough chairs in the building for everyone and we didnt all fit, the missionaries got moved out to the hallway haha) and she loved it! then as she was leaving she immediately points at me and says "when are you coming back to teach me!?" She is just so hungry to keep learning more! she loves to feel the spirit. her biggest challenge has been that she has been living with someone, he doesnt wanna get married, nor listen to the gospel much... so that been hard for her, but this week, he got annoyed with her and left... sooo its like a blessing, sorta, i dont even know how to treat that! we just keep telling her that God is helping her on her path to happiness. but she took it really well and just keeps moving forward with faith!

We are also working with a bolivian family who have been awesome, the 30 year old daughter is REALLY excited to learn about the gospel and she reads the scriptures always, she just wants to have a mighty change in her life, and her husband is also really cool, we are gonna keep working with them, even though its gonna be a little interesting because they are starting to build themselves a house, we went to help them saturday afternoon... the land that they were given was on an angle and FULL of rocks... we went to help for a little more than an hour and i was dead tired, trying to use a pickaxe and a shovel to get it all smoothed down and flat! big old blisters! so much for all those calluses i used to have! defiately should have brought a pair of gloves, but thats ok.

there were just lots of times this week when we just knew we were guided to be in the exactly right point at exactly the right time. God just guides you through small and simple ways, and sometimes just being in a certain place is all that someone needs. i love that. Gods plan is so perfect.

I love you all so much! i hope you have a great week, you are in my prayers!

Elder Gold