More parties (November 3, 2014)

Had a good time this week! its awesome because we go vistit people with a lot of memebrs. lots of visits, and lots of different memebers. its an awesome way to help them see the power of missionary work as well. time continues to FLY bye... halloween came out of nowhere! on like thursday we remebered. but its not that big here anyway, lots of poeple dress up and goes ask for candy, but nobody decorates or anything... sad. we got super excited when we saw one house that had some decoration on it... but thats ok. another thing that we heard, and got asked a lot, was if halloween was ok to celbrate. apparantly there are some churches down here that say celebrating halloween is like worshiping the devil and that you are condemning the children or something... so pople we knew always asked "hey, so halloween... is that ok?" we just tell them thats its great to share time with the family and that its fine as long as they dont go worship the devil or do bad things to people.

This wednesday we went to paint again in the house of the aunt of one of our investigators, it ws fun! we are pro painters, then they invited us to eat lunch with them and we shared some of the GOSPEL with them! awesome! reaslly short lesson, but they were really excited, we talked about the Book of Mormon and its purpose. The nanny got really excited about it and before we even finished explaining all of it she was asking us how much it cost because she wanted to buy it! Awesome! so she was super suuuuper happy to fin out that it was hers for free! she will definately be reading that! we were hoping that she was going to come to an activity we had on saturday... but she went to the graveyard. hopefully next week!

We went and helped the same people out again so that they can finish their houses! we worked there again on friday morning for like 3 hours, i put a couple of pics on the one drive. digging on that hillside is sooooo much harder than it should be! wow! but thats ok, we got a good workout! i got a huge blood blister that immediately opened back up and then was just a big open wound. it didnt really hurt at the time but afterwards... a lot. but luckily our mamita gave us some gloves! so next time we go work like crazy men we will have some gloves, though Elder Gines also had a great idea... we may just walk around with gloves on  like mickey mouse for the next six weeks... you know, just to keep it classy. 

And friday we just had an awesome day, taught some Great lessons. i used to be really disappointed in the lessons when i was just starting... i just felt like the spirit wasnt there... it was just information and talking, we were just teaching the principles but it was like empty. but im so glad that has been able to get better. we can really feel the spirit as we teach while we search to do one thing. build the faith that people have in Christ. as long as we are doing that. its just natural that the spirit enters into the conversation and thats when it gets really good, because thats when you start to take paths in the conversation that you hadnt thought about, thats wehn you can see the people learning and thinking about their lives and the goodness of God. We have so many AWESOME people that we are teaching right now! so many people that are so prepared to recieve the restored gospel! CAroline is continually just so awesome. she is so hungry for the gospel. she loves it. hopefully she can get the problem with her boyfriend taken care of soon! thats basically her only hold up. This sunday we had a class about the Atonement we had an awesome discussion about mercy and our responsability. the faith unto repentance. it was great. im so greatful for this life changing knowledge that we have and so often take for granted.

Saturday we had a couple of appointments fall, so we were heading to go contact a couple people and... we found the other half of the investigator family that had been building in the hill. they were building a house down below and apart. we saw them and started chatting. then asked them if they needed to help, at that point it was just 4 walls and a few "trusses" so they agreed and we just went to town in our church clothes! Tucked the ties into our shirts and went to business! climbing on the roof, building fences, good old construction stuff! Also, i definately slammed my thumb with the hammer... goodness, but thats ok! the guy said that slamming your thumb doesnt make you an idiot... everyone does it... i dont know why that comment just made me chuckle. but we had a good time. we were able to build our relationship with them, and help them advance a LOT! sadly... i didnt get any before pics, but i got some after pics! put the whole roof up! it was fun, 4 people will be living in this little house. and part of the family was able to go to church on sunday as well! the dad had to go finish the cement because they have to finish as soon as they can becasue they dont want to keep paying rent where theyre at. next week!

Basically the mission is awesome! this week we are going to be in the bus terminal alllll day. we had to go at 3 last night, at 730 this morning, again at 9, again we will go at 2, at 7, 830, 10, 2AM and 630AM the next day... then on wednesday someone else is leaving at 2 AM, and on wednesday night we are traveling to antofagasta... basically we wont be sleeping this week! party!!!!! but its fun. new responsabilities. Lovin it! loving the Gospel! LEarning Tons! living it up!

Hope you all have a great week! take care! also, almost forgot! happy birthday Janie! and Justin! im sorry im so bad at this but time... its just so crazy! i love you tons!

Elder Gold