Monday, Tuesday, Happy Days (November 17, 2014)

And the party continues! So i wrote you last week and efinately thought that i had already passed my birthday but.... i was misstookened! my birthday was just late. on monday we went to go eat lunch with Roman and Yanina from my old sector wich was DELICIOUS as always! and then afterward they big out this massive gift! "happy birthday!" whaaaat.... so that was crazy and then they definately got me a suit! a suit! way to much money! but... its pretty feakin awesome. i feel pretty sexy in it... hope thats not bad to say. but that was awesome, then on wednesday we we had a family home evening with some members and we just had the lesson and normal and then they made me close my eyes and bam! massie birthday cake! totes enexpected! but thats ok! it was tasty! 

Also, we made the cake from the states......... sooooooooooooooooooooo ggggooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddddddddddd. we were both just rememvbering what real cake tastes like... it was fantastic. if anyone ever get more random urges to send me stuff, you could definately include a cake mik and i would not complain. yyyyuuuummmyyy. though it does feel really wierd to make your own cake haha. 

This week we also had some awesome moments with investigators... i dont think i can explain them. but we were just there with members and everyone is just expressing their feelings and you just feel this awesome spirit and you just get the urge to start shout singing praises or something. those moments are my favorite. CAroline is getting baptised! we arent sure exactly when but she is currently living the commandments! sooo shes ready! she is so excited. she went through some really big trials but she has so much faith its just awesome. We also shaed with Carmen who has been an investigator for like 9 months and she got super duper excited! and this sunday they showed up at like 9 30 to churh, they were the first people there. that was awesome. we went and helped them out again this weekend, working in the dirt, that is full of rocks, and the suuuuuunnnn is crazy here. but its a great workout! and we always have a good time. and we wlso went to help out at another house... we just have a lot of people who are doing big projects right now, but i put down cement for the first time there, like go it all even and such... that was fun. and then they made us food. also, we had 8 people in church this week... the pricipio del evangelio class was suuuper full! awesome! lovin that!

And an intercambio this week as well. just havin a good time. workin hard. teaching the gospel! seeing miracles! enjoying every second, theres nothing better than that!

I hope you all have an incedible week, keep the faith. there is nothing that has changed me more than the mission. i love this experience. thank you all for everything you have done to help me get here!

Elder Gold

Birfday Week! 20?!?!?!? (November 10, 2014)

Wow! so we had a party this week! last week i tlaked about how we were gonna have to be in the bus terminal every night... that definately happened. every night this week until 4 in the morning until friday night. 5 nights in a row. and it cost 10 bucks to take a taxi back to the pensh... luckily we had a couple people that saved us so we didnt have to do that EVERY night. but it was fun! we were suuuuuper tired. but thats just the mish ;) lovin it. on thursday we went to antofagasta again for a conference and our bus left like 12 and a half hours late... so we got to the cnference when they were already taking the break... but if nothing else we got some dominoes pizza :) mmmmmmmmmmmmm hahaha. no but the conference was sweet. we read all together 2 nephi 2 and talked about  some of the doctrine in there and applied it to missionary work... but it just barely struck me, in like... Jarom i think some guy basically just right "i know that the plates are true and im writing this down, and i dont have to write anything else because they have already written the plan of salvation down here" really bad paraphrase but there it is. anyways, i always htought wow... the plan of salvation is really well hidden then because i definately didnt take it out from there! but 2 nefi 2 is definately a huge part of it! it talks all about the creation and the fall of adam and the purpose of Jesus Christ. When you read the chapter well and analize it you can see how well it explains everything, the need for good and evil. the patterns of choice and the agency principle. it tells us exactly wht we need to do to be saved.... awesome. so that was a really uplifting experience for me. one of those huge testimony builders when you just have this moment like... "wow, the church is so true" and you just feel it so much. basically loved that! This saturday was my birthday! crazy how things like that sneak up on you in the mish, i had told my comp but nobody else. he remembered in the morning and said, happy buirthday. then we just kep working, we went to a couple apointments, then in the afternoon we had this big activity with the whole stake and we went there. it was really cool, the missionaries in our city (like 30 of them) all sang a few himns in a choir, im so glad that we had some awesome really talented musical people there. i kinda got put in charge of it but i do NOT know enough about music to do this stuff, so one of the hermanas helped us out a lot. PResident Dalton and our stake president both spoke during the activity and then after that we had a few baptisms... it was really awesome to see that. 4 people who were just REALLY excited to be baptised. it made us really happy and you feel the spirit. when it was about to end 2 hermanas who had seen that it was my birthday in the mission newsletter said happy buirthday and my comp started telling people but i escaped most of it :) just a really chill normal day! then the next day we went to go visit an investigator and it was his brothers birthday so my comp told them and they re lit the candles for me hahaha. so i got a little bit of cake the day after. and your packages :) thank you so much!!! This sunday we had a TON of people who said they were going to church and something happened with EVERY ONE OF THEM! well not everyone. 2 of them went, but i was expecting like 9... cant say i was super happy that moment but thats ok. next week will be better. just barely realized that the organization of this letter is terrible... one huge pragraph... but thats what happens when you are in a hurry. i will upload a few pics and such next week! hope you guys have an awesome week! keep it strong! keep the faith! read your scriptures! love you all!

Elder Gold

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

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)