Easter Week!

 

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!!!! 

We had so much success it really was a blessing! We were able to teach 3,  member present lessons to

investigators, 1 other lesson to an investigator, 7 less active lessons, and 2 of our investigators and a less active member came to church yesterday! ALSO, WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE!! Kathy our investigator is planning to be baptized on May 7th! She is so sweet and was telling us that whenever

she reads the Book of Mormon and prays she feels "good and warm." We are SO excited for her!

This Saturday is the big Lu'au activity that we as missionaries planned! We are getting pretty excited and it sounds like a lot of members are planning on coming and bringing friends! And a big surprise, our mission President and his wife decided they want to make an appearance! Wow! That makes me a bit nervous, but even more motivated to be sure it is successful!

This week we had Zone Conference. It was focused a lot on planning as a missionary. One analogy I loved during that meeting was that we need to be "Sniper" missionaries, not "machine gun" missionaries. We need to genuinely take the time to really focus on people and their progression not just try to talk to and teach as many people as possible to improve our numbers. It was so nice to be among all the missionaries of the Christchurch Zone and be led by President Hudson and his sweet wife. I felt so uplifted and motivated, which is probably why we had such an awesome week!

I am really looking forward to the days to come. To keep working with the awesome people and spread the gospel around New Zealand!

Easter is a wonderful time of year to be a missionary! People like to talk to you more about Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Easter and getting the chance to really reflect on Christ's ministry, atonement, and resurrection. As much as I appreciate it, nothing makes me feel more inadequate than trying to understand for myself or teach the Atonement to someone. There are no words of gratitude eloquent enough (unless you are Jeffrey R. Holland) to get across the magnitude of what happened on our behalf in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross of Calvary. It is something I will never comprehend enough in this life. But, I am so eternally grateful for Christ, who knows me, and you perfectly because of what He did. I hope there is never a day that I take for granted the opportunities and knowledge that I have because of His great atoning sacrifice.

If you have not yet, please visit FollowHim.mormon.org and watch the video that the church put out for this Easter season.

I hope this Easter finds all of you and your loved ones as happy and healthy as can be. I love you all!

Love, Sister Golden

Week 6

No earthquakes!!! But, my companion had a pretty gnarly bike crash.

Thursday we had District meeting and went over bike safety. Two hours later heading to an appointment a man in his car opened his door into Sister Hiatt right as she was going by. She went FLYING and ripped up her hand, knee, elbow, and ankle and has some big bruises too. She couldn't immediately get up because she was stiff so once we got her out of the road she turned white and said her ears were ringing and she was gonna pass out. I laid her on some grass and called the Zone leaders (our District leader's phone was broken) because they were in the area.  I started to clean up her wounds with my handy dandy first aid kit and bandaged her all up. I moved her arm leg and ankle to be sure nothing was broken or strained. Once the Zone leaders got to us they got our car keys and drove to our flat to get our car for us. She is doing way better now and gets less sore each day!

We have a wonderful progressing investigator named Kathy, she is a college student and she is so sweet and gentle! We got to teach her the Restoration and she has been reading in her Book of Mormon! We are pretty excited about her.

With Easter coming up it's been really nice to talk to everyone about the Atonement, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It really puts into perspective how hard such a sacrifice is to understand when you try to teach it to others. It truly makes you grateful for the blessings we receive through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

The work is good here in Christchurch. We are ready to get back on our bikes and work hard this week! I am so grateful for the chance to be here as a representative of Jesus Christ in bringing forth the Kingdom of God on earth!

Here are some pictures of my flat (apartment). 

My Study Area!

Love you all!
-Sister Golden

Week 5!!!

Well, no bike crashes this week! But another earthquake hit Christchurch on Saturday night around 11:30. It was a 4.4, but I slept through it!

This week, Sister Dial was transferred, so now it is just Sister Hiatt and I. Sister Dial was our designated driver because Sister Hiatt is not allowed to drive anymore because she lost her glasses! ha! So I got to take a drive test and I am now legal to drive on the other side of the road!!! It's so crazy! But definitely a good experience to learn!

Taking Sister Dial to the airport

This week was a slow one for us. Our numbers were pretty low which is never fun. Most of our appointments seemed to fall through or the people just weren't home. Steve, our only progressing investigator was sick, and might be admitted to the hospital so we were not able to see him this week. We spent a lot of time trying to find new people to teach and found about 5 solid potential investigators which is exciting!

A couple nights before Sister Dial was transferred we visited a family in our ward and did Family Home Evening with them. Their name is the Agavales (a G here makes an NG sound so it it pronounced Ang-uh-va-lee). They have the parents of the husband, the brother of the husband, and their 7 kids all living there. What a wonderful family! The husband served his mission in Independence Missouri and LOVES talking to us about the United States! At the end of FHE they all went around and shared their testimonies in Samoan then finished in English by thanking us for always visiting them and bringing the spirit to their home. Brother Agavale told us they had very little money, but they knew they were so blessed by feeding the missionaries that ANY time we didn't have dinner, to call them and they would feed us. The islanders here have very strong beliefs in the blessings they receive by feeding the missionaries.

In our ward, the Riccarton Ward, the boundaries are pretty big so we share the ward with our district leader Elder Dumbrell and his Companion Elder Bean. Together we are planning a big Lu'au ward activity for April 2nd. Each member is to bring food from their island to share, then there will be island dances and Haka's. But to finish the night we will be leading a chapel tour, so it's a big push for them to bring their non member friends to learn more about the church! We as missionaries are pretty excited!

Sister Hiatt and I are excited to make this week ahead a powerful one!
Missionary work is amazing. New Zealand is beautiful and I am SO blessed to be a part of the Lord's Army! I love you all dearly!

Love, Sister Golden

Week Four!

No earthquakes this week!! YAY! but... it happened everyone... my first bike crash. HAHA! Right after I finished emailing last week, we decided to go check out this new art museum that just opened. On our way we were going past a hospital, Sister Hiatt was in the front, me next, then Sister Dial. An older lady was riding her bike in front of us and all of a sudden just stopped in the middle of the bike lane, so Sister Hiatt slammed on her brakes and tapped the lady, Sister Golden was coming in hot staring at the hospital and realized they were stopped, so slammed on her front brake and did a front wheelie into Sister Hiatt as Sister Dial did the same and fell into the road as a semi truck was driving past. Luckily nobody was hurt and we just have minor bumps and bruises.. our ego's took a little jump down though!

This week was mostly focused on less active members so we didn't do as much finding. We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Steve, and for now he is our only progressing investigator! He is awesome! I love him!

Sister Dial is being transferred this week so we will be a two person companionship, my first time ever on my mission!

Sister Hiatt

It is really surreal to think that Mallory gets home this week from her mission. I am SO thankful to have an older sister as an example to me of an awesome missionary. She served so honorably and with all her heart, might, mind and strength; how lucky of Raleigh North Carolina to have had her for 18 months! It's hard as well knowing I won't get to hug her for another 17 months, but what a joyful day it will be when I see her again after 3 years!

I am so grateful for all your support and prayers as I serve the Lord. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Golden