Kreechmas!‏ (Dec. 29, 2014)

This is the white elephant gift I got from the mission Christmas party.  I put a family picture in it.

 Happy navidad! it was awesome talking to you guys again! i miss you all lots and lots! As always it weemed really short so there were a lot of things that i wasnt able to say in there so i will try and remember them all now but no promises... 

Christmas for us was pretty chill! we visited a few people, more members but it was good, we havent had too much trouble finding stuff to do this christmas so that has been really nice because i remember last year i didnt really know what i was doing and we did not use our time very wisely haha. but it has been good. Christmas eve we didnt have anyting to do after a few things failed in the morning so we went out with our "he is the Gift" cards and just started talking to everyone in the street! it was awesome though because we found  this guy that we had been trying to contact but we didnt know him... we just walked up to this guy and started talking to him about christmas and stuff and then asked him if we could come visit him and he said of course that the doors would be wide open for us! sweet! so he tells us where he lives and we realized that it was the house of the sister of one of our investigators named Fernando! we had been trying to find a way to get to that family for a while because their daughter goes to church with Fernando and his family so we definatley have an appointment with them for later on tonight. 

also, to help us contact people we started playing a game where we had to say a key word during the conversation... so my comp was like a pro, one time he had to say motorcycle and he totlally just snuck it in there without them even noticing, "people are more interested in buying cars and motorcycles than in JEsus"  and another time where he just alked about a seed like a pro... i however, am a little biut more CLUMSY with my delivery... one time he gave me the word Honduras... so i was like alright this will be ok, i can do this.. So we get talking to this girl and as we were talking i remembered that i had to say honduras.... so without any tact or anyting ata all i just bust out with "are you from honduras?" gaaaahhhhhh.... bumbling idiot! she gave me the wierdest look, and the same to my comp... yeah... she still said we could pass bye but, i totes sounded like amiassive idiot, another time he gave me the word Lung... so i said in the middle of the contact, jesus is the reason that we can breath with our lungs.... yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppppp. the pure essence of being smooth and subtle, that Elder GoLd for ya. but it was good, we found some good people.

On christmas eve night, which is really the biggest deal here, we ate with this awesome little family who gave us some candy and mugs as a gift and then went home and went to bed... that was all. sooo yep. pretty calm. Chrsitmas day we woke up, opened up our other gifts that we had from some other members. and from the fam and then kept studying , went to go do our weekly planning and then in the afternoon went to go visti a few poeple before calling you and then we went our caroling with some members at night, caroling was fun! we all packed ourselves into the car so we could go from house to house. to some investigators and some members. then the day after christmas it was all over. thus the christmas celebration is basically gone. everyone is talking about new years now haha. 

Also, speaking of Fernando... we were talking to him this week and he told us that he wants to get baptised!!! he says he know its true and he loves what hes learning! now... its complicated because he is currently living with a woman and she doesnt want to get married yet... so thats a little complicated for now, but she is awesome as well and she goes to church and reads and prays and everything, she just is afraid of marriage, so we will probably be seeing them get bpatised pretty soon! im super excited for that as well!

All in all, we have seen lots of tiny miracles the past few days, lots of people who we can see are truly being prepared to recieve the restored Gospel. it is SUCH a blessing in our lives if we let it be. i know lots of members who just feel constantly afflicted for stuff thats going on, but thats because they dont understand the gospel well enough. When we take upon us Christs burden, and lose ourselfes in Him. he gives  us all the hope and help that we need to be able to enfront any difficulty. I love the Gospel. i know this is true. I hope all of you also know that, and if you dont, you can come to know it, just by living it, but living it fully.

Have a great week! i love you all soo much!

Elder Gold

Choirs of angels (December 22, 2014)

yes, we are the angels of the choir ;) haha, but hello once again my friends! is anyone else amazed that its already the 22nd? crazy! 

but back to the choir thing! we had a crazy week of choirs! this week on friday we had a preformance in the plaza in the middle of the city with all the other missionaries it was a pretty awesome time! i definately made a fool of myself afterwards because everyone started singing that song in spanish and english... "i wanna wish you a merry christmas" and they called me and another elder over and made us dance with these signs... why i did that i will never know. it was just one of those things from the moment... so that was interesting! but lots of poeple saw us! and a few of them asked. so that was good. 

Then we had a big activity in the ward this saturday and we had to sing in ANOTHER choir that the ward had put together with us... that one was a tiny bit less beautiful... but still fun! and the activity went really well! we had lots and lots of poeple there! and like 13 investigators! we have some awesome inestigators right now. they have gone to hcurch a lot! just waiting for their baptism! 

This week we spent some more fun time in Tur Bus waiting for missionaries, but it was way better than last cambio. we didnt lose THAT much sleep this time but it still made the beggining of the week go by pretty slow. and then after that. FLEW by again. there is no stopping it.

We had a few lessons with an investigator from Colombia named Ronald... he is so cool, i love him to dath but he is soooo closed to the book of mormon. he accepts it like a good book. but as the word of God... never. but he is reading! so one day he will know! and we have this awesome hermano that comes with us that matches his knowwldge of the bible and helps us out a ton. plus the hermano always gets pumped after we go.  I love the members of this ward, they are all soo awesome. so dedicated. we have excellent families and excellent support. Plus i have another 2 and a half months here so we are just gonna take advantage of that. im sad that i never had the opportunity to go out with the missionaries before i left. i really would have liked that i think. basically every member we take out gets super excited about it.

Ive been working a lot on like setting more specific goals for myself these few days and its been awesome to see how much more effective i have been. especially in study. studying for like 20 minutes in specific things and not worrying so much about reading like straight through. thats what i used to do. i did finish the BOM 3 times this year, but i think it will be more effective to study more in themes. though i do have to keep reading straight through the bible and the DyC before i end my mission. then once i have finished it all i wont have to worry about it again haha. im currently reading in psalms... its a little bit slow... but there are some sweet things in there as well.

God is Great! its incredible to watch him help us in so many ways. I love the mission and im so grateful for this opportunity to change myself and to serve Him and my brothers and sisters! There is nothing more important than the things we learn about in church. nothing. im sure of it!

Im ecited to talk to you guys on thursday!! love you!!!

have a great week!

Elder Gold

I love the mishhhh (December 15, 2015)

So, im just gonna start his letter off talking about life. Its funny learning things. i have always always heard how we learn things line upon line right. but its just awesome everytime i learn something that i already know but i learn it just a little deeper than before! I learn about the importance of challenges, and then i learn it again, and then i start to connect it with other concepts... this probably isnt even making sense! but!!! God is Perfect! His plan is Incredible! everything just goes to help us... gah! We need to pass through hard things. its truly a need. if we were to just be in happyvill forever we would be so miserable. i used to get all sorts of worried when i had a bad week on the mish, when stuff would go wrong. i would worry that i was doing something wrong and try and figure out what i needed to do to be better. but the honest truth is that sometimes we just need to hae bad days! clearly we should always use those moments to improve ourselves, but we dont have to worry about everything when things are bad. This week Carolina got really mad at us, we hadnt really done anything but she was just mad. and it was hard to see her mad at us and everything, but it was just a moment for her, and it was a moment for us, but it just had to happen... yeah... i make no sense but God is just awesome. and He is always helping us. even when we cant see it. thats part of the whole faith thing. just move on with what we feel is right and he promises that one day we will understand why.

Ummmm this week was a little rogh as far as the missionary work went! we had LOTS of things planned that just did not happen. for one reason or another, but thats ok! it was just one week. next week will be better! And! im staying with Elder Gines for the next 6 weeks until he DIES! im going to KILL my comp! hahaha. thats just how we say it in the mish, but i love him, its gonna be a great 6 weeks! 

In other news.... We may or may not have definately waxed our legs.... right where the sock is... man! that hurt! but sometimes the little leg hairs get all tangled up in the socks and it hurts, sooo we just decided to wax it! our mamita has all the equipment and such... it was interesting! but now my legs are super duper smooth!

But! we did have an AWESOME lesson this week with one of our investigator families that is attending regularly to church.. they have had TONS of problems... tons. but they are just working out of them. it is so great to see thier progress. i love the gospel. i love seeing changes in people. this isnt just another religion. this isnt just eh way that we choose to believe in God. this is REAL, and this is what he wants us to do. this is the way to Eternal Happiness and happiness here on earth. im so sure of that. i will never be able to deny it. i love you all! have an excellent week!

Elder Gold