Zone conf! (June 29, 2015)

So, we had a good week this week! it was fun! This monday we had a guy tell us that we werent built on a sure foundation because we believed in Joseph Smith... and as we were talking to him at least three people drove by screaming things about "mister esmith!" "Buscan a esmith" and such... so that was good. we explainind to him really clearly and basically gave him a short version of lesson one but he did not want to understand. it was hard to get anything into his head... he told us we were never going to have sucess because we built our foundation wrong. but those are the experiences of the mission... its interesting how i grew up in the church and i was NEVER told to worship the prophet... but now on the mission lots of people tell me i do! i never knew!  Im proud to be a member of THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS. i follow the one True and Living God. and noone else. that makes me happy. no matter what anyone tells me, i know this chruch is the true church of God because he revealed it to me by the Holy Spirit. period.

We had a few rough days this week but i had an awesome experience. we had been doing our very very best that whole day, through the morning and into the afternoon.. it was now about 7 and... it had been a rough day. honestly nobody had even pretended to show interest in our message. but i was just happy. I have been able to learn through a lot of hard experinces, even though its not always easy to apply, that not even JESUS CHRIST Himself walked around having sucess at every turn. He had a few rough heart wrenching times. as did ALL of the prophets. Many have been rejected, beaten, persecuted, and all sorts of other stuff for this Gospel, but that doesnt change the truthfullness of it. nor does it change the need we have to proclaim it and preach it. It is a privelage to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, in times of sucess and in times of utter rejection. so i had the happy ability of just continuing, and with joy and hope! doing my best to give every person an opportunity and a desire to accept our invitation. that night we were also able to teach a lesson to a newer family, one of the highlights of the week. They are called Carolina and Mario. he is a little less receptive but still cool, he just doesnt like to read. but she is awesome. she had a crazy week this week and wasnt able to read much of the book of mormon but she read everything up until it says "El Libro de Nefi" she said she has felt good about it so far and is going to contnue to read. we talked alittle bit about the plan of salvation and included the baptismal invitation. she says that she thinks so. she asked a lot of questions about our way of baptism and everything, how we baptised what it means etc. and also commented on how in our church it seemed like we were actually expected to repent and be better! yes! she told us that was good because in the catholic church they just had to go say a few Santa marias and some PAdre nuestros. so she is amazing. looks like they couldnt come to church this week becaus ethey had to travel... but hopefully next week!

Also! this is the time of the year of the COPA DE AMERICA!!!! and CHILE is rockin it! we got a call on wednesday that we get to see all of the Copa games that Chile plays in as long as we have the purpose of finding news... they played that night! and we had no time to make plans so we just said a prayer and let God guide us... it was awesome! i just kept getting these little promtings... we started walkling down one street then another, then got to a corner and i felt to stop. we stopped and a recent convert who has been struggling a bit came around the corner... so we talked to her for a bit. we were able to help her out and tlaked for about half an hour in the street. talked about some scriptures but mostly just let her vent and told her that everything was gonna be ok! so we said goodbye and we had missed most of the first half... so we tried a few other things, thinking about where we could go but nothing was working out... so i just asked one more time and tried to listen.. where should we go?... and i had a picture of this street corner come into my head... soooo we went their! and we kept walking down that street and all of the sudden i looked at a house and i felt that that was it... we couldnt see the game on in the house... or hear people... nothing but we had to go there. so we were apporaching the house and a few other people came up and asked us what we needed! we told them we wanted to see the game. and they let us in! a father a mother and their 16 ish year old daughter and an Aunt. awesome people. they had no alcohol (which is a miracle) they said almost no swearwords, and they were as into it as we were so we could scream and get all excited just like them! it was awesome! it was right at the edge of time when the game ended so we had to fly from the house without much time to talk to them, but we are going to go back tomorrow with brownies to thank them and to try and contact them again because they were AWESOME people! God showed them to us!

Chile plays again tonight, and we already have a house and some references to contact planned, and on saturday they are going to beat Argentina or Paraguay in the COPA DE AMERICA at 5 o clock chilean central awesome time. soooo Eder Brown. prepare yourself. plus its july fourth. and the chileans have connections with the US. AND the flag is red white and blue!!!! ITS MEANT TO BE! CHILE 2015! 

And next saturday the branch has 2 baptisms in the morning so its gonna be an AWESOME day!

And!! this week we had zone conference... it was really good! i felt that i recieved personal revelation and we talked some more about santificacion personal. i love that subject. the lord keeps all his promises. if we are consecrated to him. he will do miracles through us. and i had to give my last testimony.... i will have to do it again in the leadership council this thursday... wierd experience. but its amazing how much its grown in this short time... AND! President Dalton was here in church on sunday. and it was my turn to conduct! yay! but it actually went well i think. probably one of my best days. it was all mostly fluid. plus we had 50 people in church! thats the highest its been since the flood! i was stoked!

It was a good week! this one will hopefully be just as good! life is awesome! have an awesome week! the church is true! God loves us! dont expet a big letter next week :) dont worry about me. im finishing at a sprint! not letting up at all!

Love you!

Elder Gold

p.s. VIVA CHILE!

ive been traveling....‏ (June 22, 2015)

Well! we had a fun week this week! more adventures of life.

First off we had to travel up to El Salvador and Diego de Almagro this week to do something for the branches up there that i got assigned to do by President Dalton. El Salvador is like 2 hours away and up waaaaay higher than chañaral. i think its a little over 2 miles of altitude if im not wrong. so we got to go up some sketchy switchbacks on tiny little chilean roads with straight drop offs in a old 2 story bus! in the front of the bus! so that was exciting! when we finally got up to the top we were cruising a long jsut finine. i was estimating that we were gonna show up in about 20 minutes, and our bus started slowing down... crawling and then came to s shuddering halt and the engine quite running.... so the bus broke down!

 i would love to send a few more pictures of exactly where but it looks like they did an update to onedrive because none of us can get pictures on right now... so you will have to wait a few weeks. i will try and send a few of them by email. It w2as just the best wasteland of your life... pure rock and sand forever :) 

it was just such a funny situation to be in. they came up and informed us that the bus had died but that they had another bus coming to pick us all up. so were were ok. 

then all of a sudden. the bus started up again! and we started rolling! slowly... but we were moving! and about 200 meters or so in front of where we had stopped the first time... we rolled to a stop again, just that this time we were next to a small edge and not near an open plane hahaha... i think we were worse off.  but the bus came and picked us up and we made it to El Salvador, it was a super beautiful city. it was built by gringos when they used to run most of the mines here in chile. it was just so... organized, and well structured. and the streets were HUGE. it was awesome.

  

 We got up there a little after lunch time and we had called to ask the sisters who are serving up there where we could buy food and they volunteered to cook for us! 

so we got delicious tacos and a banana strawberry smoothie... i almost cried! i was super hungry as well but it was sooo deliscious. i loved it. we were so super grateful so i think we are gonna make them brownies or something when they come down this weekend for a conference with president.

Then we got to go back down to Diego de Almagro... that town also got hit REALLY hard by the mud... but it wasnt as far along on the cleanup as chañaral. there are still parts of the city that dont have runnign water, and most places only have it a few hours a day, and all over the city it was just bad. My comp and i wore the masks all day long because you could SEE the dust in the air it was so thick, plus, that dust is contaminated with heavy metals and other strong chemicals that they use up in the mines... sooo really really bad for you, and we were just about the only people walking around with masks. i was grateful for mine. that poor little place is gonna have a lot longer recovery process than chañaral.

We got back to Chañaral friday morning and went out to work! that night chile played bolivia and beat them 5-0 so there was a huge celebration until like midnight and almost everyone woke up hungover hahaha. the people here go CRAZY for soccer, i heard that next year we are gona have the Copa de America in the USA though? that would be sweet! 

The sister missionaries are doing great with the references we have given them, they are teaching all of the families sitll who all have diesires to continue learning and 2 of them even have baptismal dates! so hopefully they should be getting baptised in july! thats awesome to see them progressing! and the branch as well! there are always little things here and there that could be better, but i can see a great progression with the way the branch is working together and working to HELP OTHERS. we have a lot more particiaption. plus this wekk we got an awesome new family that is moving into the ward. they are 4 returned missionaries, an older couple with their daughter and her new husband who has been home for 5 months! and they all have all sorts of ganas to work! its gonna be great!

Sundays now mean so much more to me... its incredible how my perspective on that has changed. its such a spiritually relaxing and uplifting time for me. Its also a lot more stressful because of all the things that i have to do now, one would think that it would be easier in a smaller ward, but i think its pretty balanced, because we dont have as many people, but we also dont have as many helpers for the same reason, so there are always just a zillion things to do and a zillion different people to help all at the same time. but its wonderful to take the sacrament and just listen to the talks, its really the only moment of free calm time i have in the whole time im in the church and it has become so much more spiritual. I know that Christ has suffered for all of our sins and that he is always there trying to help us to be better. our eternal progression of trying to become perfected through Him is an every day struggle. and its our battle to fight.

The Gospel is true! we need to live it! we so desperately need it in this world. Its the best and only way to find happiness. this i know. I hope we can all be better everyday and do our very best to search for the impressions of the spirit, and become closer to Jesus Christ so that He can help us return to our Father and to be with our families. our eternal families, forever!

Have an awesome week! i love you!

Elder Gold

New week (June 15, 2015)

Well hi!

More fun times. ummm where to start... ok! on monday! good place right? The perez family FINALLY o back after lie 2 and a halfalmost 3 weeks. so that was great. and they taold us that they are getting married!!! August 14th, which is a little late for me but still awesome. they will be able to get baptized after. we have been working with them for a long time and we keep finding there little nuggets of progress... hopefully it all works out. they are a great family and they would be SOOOO blessed by the gospel. sooo much.

Ontuesday at 9:30 we had a surprise, a truck of supplies was coming in from Santiago and we had to be out in the interstate with a truck witing for it at 2. 
thankfully we were able to find someone with a truck to help us, but us four missionaris and the driver of thetruck had to unload 600 bottles of water. 3600 liters plus other boxes and stuff of cleaning supplies flower and food. it was fun! but suuuper tiring, we had to unload the from the semi, load them into the truck and unload them from the ruck in 2 trips and then move them all into the church, as fast as we could. me and my comp went hamjust throwing and catching the bottles but the fnext day we were soooooorrreeeee. we did that for about 4 hours straight. one of those adventures thats once in a life time, i ruined a shirt as well, i went in a shirt and tie bcause i didnt think it was going to be as bad as it was, but it endedwith blue marking and some dirt and grime that i couldnt wash out, so i lost a shirt but all was well.

Wednesday we got a deliscious meal called a Chorillana. its sooo good for your body i almost cried. but it was deliscious. everybody needs a good cheat dayright :)

Thursday night we had to go in the afternoon to Taltal, for an iassignment i got from President Dalton. we drove 2 hours, stayed for an hour and a half nad came back. we got crab, shrimp, and octupus empandas in this cool place up there as well. it is a pretty city. i got some pictures of the green that sis starting to grow in the desert! thats whathappens when it rains. soupposedly it gets better into august. all sorts of flowers and such. but it was cool. 

This week we also found a cool new family! she istrying to get coser to God, but hekinda feels lie he has already found Him. but there is room for growth, they are both really cool! she wants to read the book of mormon and he doesnt lie o read but she said she would just read it out loud to him :) ihope they keep progressing.

I also had to conduct in church, and give a talk because the guy who was assigned didnt show up... so that was fun! conducting went well. i was happy with it. it still feels wierd being up there though. and the talk... i had almost no prep time so the begining was rough for me, though my comp saysit didnt sound bad, i was tlking about sealing and didnt know what more to sy after like 3 minutes. i had enough prepare time to write down one scripture. then i just heard this voice telling me to start taling about "how to get there" and it just started flowing! that was a huge blessing!

Life is good. im learning so much. the learning process is hardbecause its full of mistakes and often big let downs, bu you just have to keep pushing and everything is gonna be ok. we had some pretty big let downs and rejections with people this week. but yu just have to keep moving. its the sme with personal mistaks, sometimes its hard to see that you are imperfet, especially when you want to be perfect. but every day is a new opportunity. you just have to keep trying.

God loves us! HE LOVES YOU! He just wants us to behappy. thats the whole plan. I loveyou all! take care!

Elder Gold