Busy Week!

HELLO everyone! What an awesome week!

First I want to talk about Sam Smith our investigator! He is the bomb! he texts us all the time with questions and just tells us cool stuff about his conversion process. He came to Stake Conference last weekend and church yesterday! We have taught him about the restoration and plan of salvation so far! Here are a few of his texts!

After Stake Conference: "Also, I just wanna say I'm really glad I went today. It was an enriching experience and I felt I was able to achieve some personal growth."

During the week: "I'm sorry, it's just that since Sunday, I've found this hole inside me filled with a spiritual hunger that I haven't felt before."

After Church Yesterday: "I was sad to hear that Sister Hiatt was leaving us soon, I was hoping that she would participate in my baptism with Sister Golden as they were responsible for bringing me to church and me receiving the blessing of learning about our Heavenly Father. Although I very much understand her desire to return home and continue with her life. How long will I be graced with Sister Golden's presence? I feel like ever since last week at church, I have been awakened in a way I can't describe. As if all of my doubts have been replaced with a feeling of love and faith. But, I feel that this isn't something that one should jump into, and I have no intention of being disrespectful to those in the church. However, I have no doubt that I wish to devote myself to Him and keeping His commandments and living as he would and because of this I know that I want to be baptized in my future."

WOW! We are so excited about Sam! He is 21 and a bit shy but such a sweetheart.

We also met a new investigator this week named Josh! We were biking around and stopped at a light and he was at the crosswalk and noticed how weird we looked biking in skirts so asked what we were doing! We chatted for a second then left him with a card and our number. He texted us later that day and we found out he has a solid Christian background and loves to read the bible! We taught him the restoration and he came to church yesterday! We are pretty excited about him too!

Kathy has not gotten back to us for 2 weeks now, and Steve came to church yesterday but doesn't think he will be able to keep the word of wisdom anytime soon.

This week, Wednesday night we were planning and all of a sudden the earth began shaking! haha AGAIN! So this earthquake came to be a 4.8! People say there must be a big one coming!

We had to ride our bikes and bus everywhere this week because our car was being repaired from a past accident! We took it in on Monday and they said it would be ready by Wednesday and they would call us. Wednesday night rolls around and they never called. We found their number and tried to call Thursday morning but the line was busy so we just took the bus into town since it should be ready right..? IT WASN'T! The whole front bumper was off and it still needed to be painted! So we didn't get it back till Friday! ha!

                                                                             My little friend Ford

This week I was studying President Monson's talk about Keeping the Commandments from last conference's priesthood session. I really loved how he said our Heavenly Father institutes commandments because He knows us perfectly, and knows what we need to get back to Him someday. I love knowing that no commandment is given without a blessing in return and that He only gives them out of love for us.

                                                                      Funny sign we came across!!!

                                                                        Dream Truck (one seater)

Love you all!

Love, Sister Golden

Happy Mothers Day!

Hello everybody! This week was a pretty busy one for us! Our investigators right now are Steve, Sam, Kathy, and Anna. We were able to have a solid lesson with Steve this week on the Word of Wisdom. He will have a pretty hard time with that one and told us he would think about whether or not he is ready to commit to live it, I was bummed to hear that. Kathy is still avoiding us (she was sick haha) so we haven't been able to see her for 2 weeks now. Anna is having a tough time accepting the fact that if she gets baptized into our church she won't be able to go to her other church with her friends. We are trying to find a way to explain that once she is truly converted she will WANT to come to the church she is baptized into. Sam is amazing! He came to stake conference this weekend and reads his Book of Mormon, and texts us questions all the time! I really like him a lot! Challenges early on in his life have really prepared him to receive the restored gospel!

We also met a new investigator this week! His name is Joemel, he is from the Philippines! We had an awesome lesson with him and are super excited to teach him again this week!

We are working with Ann and Errol our less actives. Errol has always been very against having people come fellowship him but this week he actually brought out his scriptures when we came over and read along with us! I am so excited and glad that he is letting the spirit back into his heart!

I got to play volleyball this week with all the islander men in our ward! Something we are trying to do as missionaries is a sports night every friday that we can invite investigators and less actives to so they can be with the ward members but have a good time! It was WAY fun! I don't think all the guys realized that volleyball was my sport so they were pretty shocked when I jumped in and kept up with them! haha.

President Hudson and his wife came to Christchurch this weekend for Stake Conference and we had a district meeting with them on Saturday! It is always so good to be able to spend time with them! Stake conference was so wonderful and I received a lot of personal revelation and enlightenment from it!

This week I was also able to Skype my family for Mother's day which was SO wonderful! It was exactly what I needed to boost myself a little bit! I am so glad to have such a wonderful supportive family!

This week I have been studying Obedience, and I chose a scripture from the Book of Mormon to "ponderize". The scripture I chose actually goes along with Mother's day pretty well! So, in Alma Chapter 56 it is talking about the 2,000 stripling warriors and how they did not fear because their Mother's had taught them to trust in the Lord. The scripture I chose to ponderize is in Alma chapter 57 verse 21, and it says the warriors obeyed and performed all commands with exactness, according to their faith which they had in the Lord because their mother's had taught them to trust in Him. I LOVE THIS STORY! Mostly because who I am today is because of the faith I see in my own mother, and other mother figures. I am so blessed and grateful to have examples to watch and follow in my life to help me gain my own trust in the Lord. I hope we all take the time to think about those in our own lives who have taught us to trust the Lord.

Love you all! 
Sister Golden

Already May!

Time is really flying! I cannot believe that it is already May! This week went by REALLY fast! We finished making our lava-lavas and I love mine! They are so fun to wear! The people in New Zealand wear these like we wear sweats.

The Agavale family moved to Auckland this week, that was really tough for me! There were a lot of tears when we had to say goodbye to them. After they left, the primary of our ward lost about half the kids and our ward is slowly dwindling in numbers because people keep moving out.

So this week we had a great lesson with Steve about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is still working on fixing up his life, but enjoys learning about the gospel! He came to church yesterday and stayed for all 3 hours and enjoyed himself! The ward is pretty good about making him feel welcome which is always so helpful!

Another investigator is Anna. She loves to learn and we were able to teach her a bit about the Plan of Salvation this week! She isn't really willing to come to church yet because she has friends that she goes to church with, but she reads her Book of Mormon and prays so we are excited about her! We invited her to be baptized as she continues to learn about the gospel and know of its truthfulness and she accepted!

Our other investigator is Kathy, she has been frustrating me a bit lately! We didn't have a lesson with her this week because she wouldn't text us back... then we texted her to remind her about church... no reply. Sometimes it is hard to be patient, but we just keep praying that she will continue to progress!

We have a few more fun investigators in our teaching pool and we stay really busy having lessons which is a blessing!

Ann Gearry is a less active member that we have been working with for a while now. She loves our visits and always whips out her scriptures when we come. Her husband Errol just retired from work; in the past he has wanted nothing to do with the church or visitors from the church, but the last 2 visits he has sat and listened to the lessons!!! He is really sweet! So Ann is getting a surgery on an aneurysm soon and we talked to them about fasting and then invited them both to fast with us before Ann's surgery and they accepted!!! We are really excited that Errol is softening to us and our visits :)

This Saturday was a baptism. A lady in our ward named Sala had the Elders over to teach her 8 year old daughter about the gospel because she had been living in Fiji with her Aunt. Well she got baptized on Saturday and it was a very sweet baptism!

Funny story of the week! Sister Hiatt and I are walking down the street door knocking and we see this guy pushing a bird in a shopping cart! I decided I have to talk to him! So I run over and ask what kind of bird it is, it was a turkey! HAHA! I asked if he usually took it on walks and he laughed and said no, he was doing it because their flat was being inspected and they weren't allowed to have pets, so he was taking her for a little walk until the inspector left! HAHA

This week was a good one and a quick one! I am getting really excited for Mother's day since I will get to skype my family! I hope as Mother's day comes around we take the time to thank all the women in our lives, but especially our mothers, who have loved us and been there for us every step of the way! I have many women to thank in my life! I know that I wouldn't be who I am today without all the strong women I have had in my life to look up to!

Love you all! Have a good week everyone!
<3 Sister Golden

3 Months down!

Hello Everyone! in 2 days I will hit my 3 month mark! So crazy! It feels like it has already gone so fast!!

This week was a good one! We started it off by going out with a sister from the ward and buying material to make lava-lavas which are wraps like skirts. Men and women wear them over here, they are kind of the equivalent to sweats! I am really excited to use them!

Wednesday was transfer day, but sister Hiatt and I are both staying in Christchurch Riccarton area! She goes home June 1st so this is her last transfer of her mission. I will most likely stay another transfer after she leaves to help a new companion get to know the area, but after that, I am free game! haha

Heartbreak of the week: One of my FAVORITE member families is moving. They told us on Thursday night that they decided the night before to move to Auckland. I asked when they were leaving and they go "Oh, next Friday." It really made me sad because they are my family here! Change is not my favorite, so it wasn't fun for me to find out that they would be leaving so soon!

                                                                         The Agavale Family

                                                   Sister Hala with her daughter and Sister Agavale

TRIUMPH of the week: We invited Steve our investigator to be baptized and he accepted!! He was reading the book of mormon on his own and came across a verse that said he must be baptized to be saved in the kingdom of God and showed it to us, so we invited him! He said, yes, but that it might take a while since he has a few addictions to overcome. We set a goal date for May 28th. Please pray that he will be able to be strong as he prepares to be baptized!

This week we were door knocking a bit and behind one door we met a cool guy from Fiji. He was young and athletic looking and told us he was a pro rugby player and played for the Crusaders!!! A local professional team! We were stoked! He knew a few LDS people, but declined to learn more, sad day.

We finally got to have a lesson with Kathy our other investigator after not seeing her for a couple weeks! We had to push back her baptismal date, but she is still planning on being baptized, which is exciting! She is so fun to teach! She is sweet and really willing to learn and do things to find out for herself if this is the right path for her.

A less active we have been working with, Ruth, was admitted to a Psychiatric ward (alot of people here are put in those for no apparent reason HA!) so we went to go see her. It is interesting to see the different hospitals here in New Zealand. Ruth is quite out of it right now, she is on prescription medications for bipolar disorder and hadn't been taking them, but she enjoyed seeing us.

One of my favorite people to visit is Elaine. She is about 74 and lives in a nursing home. She has a hard time moving around but is very sharp! When we met here she was known as a less active, but as we talked to her we realized the only reason she was labeled that was because she couldn't physically get herself to church! So we got her bishop to go see her and now he and some Young Men take her the sacrament each Sunday. She really likes that. She used to be a temple worker and dressed the children who were about to be sealed. Well this week we saw her and while we were visiting her son came in to visit too. After chatting with them for a bit, he goes, "So mom, I hear you fell down recently and hit your head on the piano." To which she says "Yeah, I was just trying to play it by ear!" HAHAHAHHAHA I thought I was going to die laughing! I love that lady!

So yesterday was ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) Day here in NZ so our P Day got moved to today. It was a nice holiday and we got to talk to alot of people!

This week I have been studying the Christlike attribute Knowledge. I have really enjoyed it! I was reading in Romans chapter 10 verse 14 and it says : "How then shall they call on Him in who they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" This hit me pretty hard as I realized that as a missionary it is my job to help others gain this knowledge, that if I don't reach out and invite everyone to come unto Christ, some may never get the chance to know Him. I love knowing that the knowledge we gain in this life will follow us to the next, and I feel a responsibility to help everyone also have the same knowledge that I do of this gospel!

I love you all so much! Best wishes, and I hope you all are well!

Love, Sister Golden

Kia Ora!

Hello Everyone!
This week was a slow week for our numbers, but we were very busy! It started with Zone Training accompanied by our Assistants to the President coming to Christchurch as well as a missionary couple from the Mission office. We had all been studying for a big trivia quiz on Preach my Gospel, district against district. My District came in 2nd place, but won for best dressed because we sisters had dresses and the elders had matching ties with us! It was way fun :)

Then we were busy on Wednesday visiting all our less-active members and watching some of our favorite General Conference talks with them! They all really loved it and it was pretty powerful to have them be able to listen to the words of our Prophet and Apostles!

On Thursday we were on exchanges with our STL's and Sister Russavage came to Riccarton to work with me! She is AWESOME! I really enjoyed working with her. That day EVERYTHING I had planned for us fell through. The one person who was home was walking out the door so we spent THE WHOLE DAY street contacting and door knocking. We found a lot of potential investigators by doing that, so it ended up being a powerful day.

This week we found a new investigator named Sam. We taught him a restoration lesson and have a return appointment set up with him! I am pretty excited about that!

As for our progressing investigators, Kathy was not able to see us this week, so I was pretty bummed. We were able to see Steve and we taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation! He has been reading his Book of Mormon and marking some of the passages he likes! It is so cute! He came to church with us yesterday which was really exciting and stayed for all 3 hours! We are hoping to invite him to be baptized this week, so please pray for us that he will accept!

This week in the Book of Mormon I was reading in Mosiah, about King Benjamin's address to his people. He mentioned "Retaining a Remission of our Sins" Which reminded me of Elder Bednar's Conference address on that same subject this past conference! I feel so blessed that we can retain a remission of our sins. That the Lord isn't the type to forgive us once then never again. We are able to partake of the sacrament each week and renew the covenants we made at baptism with the Lord, we are able to draw upon the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and confess our sins to the Lord and upon forsaking them He will forgive us. I am so grateful for all the gifts and opportunities our Loving Heavenly Father gives us so that we can obtain a remission of our sins. We are never forgotten or left behind. He is always aware of us, our sins, and our trials and He continues to love us and guide us toward repentance and forgiveness! I hope we all realize how blessed we are to have the ability to be forgiven and be made clean and whole. I hope we are all taking advantage of the gifts our Father gives us and working each and every day to be more like Him.

I love you all! Thank you for the prayers!

Love, Sister Golden

                We found this little hedgehog while out door knocking. It was trapped in this hole!

A Busy, Successful Week!

Kia Ora everyone!
It was another wonderful week full of work here in Christchurch New Zealand!

The week with my companion breaking a glass bowl, cleaning it up, but then my foot finding the ONLY piece neglected to be cleaned... it was a few centimeters long and went all the way into the arch of my foot. I quickly pulled it out and it started bleeding a lot. Needless to say my foot has been pretty sore this week.

Kathy, our investigator is still progressing and planning to be baptized! We love her and the lessons with her are always very spiritual and uplifting. She is so sweet and sincere! I feel so blessed to have the privilege to teach her and watch her grow in her faith of the Restored Gospel.

This week we went to follow up on a potential we met about a month ago. We had tried numerous times to contact him and could never catch him. Well 7:30 pm rolls around and our designated lesson was not home so we went to see our potential, Joey as a backup. HE WAS HOME, and even more than that so were his 3 flat-mates! We taught a powerful restoration lesson. They all had other faiths so it made it pretty easy to discuss Jesus Christ but when we read Moroni's promise in the Book of Mormon with them a sweet spirit filled the room and the woman reading paused and was really touched by the sincerity of the words. We left 4 Books of Mormon and they all committed to read it! We are really excited to teach them the Plan of Salvation!

To wrap up a great week it was Conference weekend here in New Zealand! I think this was one of the most powerful overall conferences I have witnessed! Every talk was so relevant to me and my situation and i had many questions answered! The speakers were so divinely appointed, and there topics so good! I love conference and being able to sustain and be spiritually fed by our prophet and apostles!

Yesterday, our P-day my companion had the flu, which is why I am emailing today. Boredom has never been so hard for me as sitting in a missionary flat ALL DAY LONG! I came up with some pretty interesting things to entertain myself but I am stoked to get out and about this week and work!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts!

Love, Sister Golden

Another Good Week!

It was another busy but successful week! The weather is getting colder here and we just switched our clocks for daylight savings so our nights are shorter which is sometimes hard to plan the work around with bike safety.

Kathy is still progressing, we were able to teach her The Gospel of Jesus Christ this week and she is still on track to be baptized on May 7th! We love her! She continues to read the Book of Mormon and pray and is planning on starting to attend institute and Young Single Adult activities!

On Saturday we had a district meeting with President and Sister Hudson which was really awesome! We talked a lot about our mission, The New Zealand Wellington Mission, and having New Zeal FOR the Wellington Mission. HA! Sister Hudson was really proud of that! It was really enlightening and it is always a blessing to be taught by the mission President and his wife.

This week was really focused on last minute preparations for the Lu'au. After district meeting us 4 missionaries from our ward immediately started decorating and prepping for the activity. We had to clean, set up chairs and tables, cook, and decorate!

                                                                      Brother Agavale painted the background
 
It was busy, but we had fun! We ended up having about 150 people come to the activity. Lots of members, some less actives and quite a few non members! The food was amazing, and the performances were really cute and some were actually quite amazing! It ranged from Hawaiian to Samoan, and Tongan dances and hakas. After the performances we did a chapel tour. A member of our ward is a professional basketball player in New Zealand and brought HIS WHOLE TEAM! ha! They were all really nice and cool and they were fun during the chapel tour and had lots of questions. We got a few solid potential investigators from the activity so I am really happy about that!

                                                   Sister Agavale made the elders ties and dresses for us
 
On Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting which was really nice. President and Sister Hudson came to our ward that day and shared really nice testimonies. After Sacrament meeting I had an interview with President Hudson. I love him! I feel so blessed to have been placed in this mission with him and his good wife to lead us. The interview was really nice and he really loves all of us missionaries.

This weekend was General Conference, but we don't watch it until next weekend because we are a full day ahead here. I am SO excited to watch it! I am so grateful that twice a year we get to hear our prophet and apostles speak! I feel so lucky to know that we are lead and guided by someone who is so righteous and close to our Heavenly Father.

We have many hymns in the church, some that we have taken from other faiths and some faiths use ours, but, we are the ONLY church in the world that is able to sing the words, "We Thank thee O God for a Prophet, to guide us in these Latter Days."

I hope everyone had a good week. Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts! I love you all!

xoxo Sister Golden