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

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