5 Months Down!

Hello! So on the 28th I will have been out on my mission for 5 months! The time has really flown by! It is so crazy to think about!

This week was really cold and pretty wet, and to make it even better, the car repair place is short staffed so the car still hasn't been fixed! We walked a lot this week, which isn't so bad except now we are both pretty sick.

This week was a bummer week for our numbers. We were both kinda sad yesterday when we had to call our district leader to report. It felt like everything kept falling through! We had members ahead of time to come to lessons with us and they would cancel right before. We were both sick and had to stay inside more than we would have liked. But, we are ready for the week ahead! We had a great weekly planning session and made some great goals for ourselves so we are pretty excited to get out and achieve them!

This week to spice things up a bit Sister Pulsipher and I decided it would be a great idea to push our beds together and build the coolest fort ever!!!!!!!!!! It didn't end up being as cool as we hoped, it's kinda messy, and it's only being held together by some clothes pins, a garden rake, and some rusty broom handles. But, we have slept in it for a few nights now and it hasn't collapsed on us yet!!!

Yesterday at church Sam joined 2 other guys at the sacrament table and broke the bread with them! He is pretty shy, so I was really happy to see him up there! Hopefully soon he will be ready to say the sacrament prayers! He also texted us last night and said he is planning on trying to get his temple recommend so he can go to Hamilton in October with the rest of the stake for their temple week and do baptisms and confirmations! I am just so happy! Whenever I think of him my heart just overflows with joy! He was so ready for the gospel and he is so personally motivated to keep pressing forward and staying strong! I am so grateful for him!

Last night was a stake meeting when the Ward boundary changes were announced! There were some pretty big changes made! A new unit was created called the Parklands ward. Our ward, the Riccarton ward had some big changes made! We lost a lot of ward members, including our bishop, but gained some other members from another ward! A new bishop and bishopric were called for our ward and most of the other wards last night! Luckily, although our ward changed a bit Sister Pulsipher and my proselyting area wasn't affected! We are very grateful for that! There will be a lot of work to do to really get our ward back to running, we lost a lot of our auxiliary presidents last night so it'll be fun for a few weeks ;)

Today, as I logged onto lds.org there was a new message made based off of Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, Like a Broken Vessel. I watched it and was so touched by it! Although I don't personally suffer from mental issues or depression it was so good to be reminded that at anytime we feel low or lonely we can turn to the Lord who loves us perfectly, that all these trials will not matter in the next life, and for me to continue to be positive and hopeful about the future. Everyone should take the time to watch the video! It was truly wonderful!

I love you all! Thank you for the continued support and prayers!

Love, Sister Golden

Visiting Authorities!

Hello!!
This week was a busy one for us! It started off with a flat tire on Tuesday morning, the day we were supposed to shuttle senior couple missionaries from the bus station to their hotels for Zone Conference the next day! Immediately channeling my inner problem solving... we called the Elders to come change it for us :) HA!

                                                                        Elders Dumbrell and Fangufangu

We called the mission office to talk to the missionary in charge of the cars and he asked us to take it to the tire place so we did and they fixed it all up for us! That night we were able to accomplish our assignment and all visiting missionaries were safely placed in missionary flats and hotel rooms for the night.

The next morning was Zone Conference! I was so excited! We were going to get to see our mission president and his wife and hear from 3 general authorities! Before the meeting actually started we got to shake hands with all of them! It was really neat to have them at our Zone conference because they stopped each of us and had a conversation since there weren't tons of people there! I loved it! Elder Pearson, the presiding authority at the meeting shook my hand and asked where I was from, since nobody knows Gig Harbor I usually answer with Washington State. He then asked where about, I asked if he was familiar with Washington and he smirked and said he was, so I asked if he knew Tacoma, he said yes and then I went on to ask if he know Gig Harbor and he smiled really big and goes "We love Gig Harbor!" and his wife was smiling and nodding too! It turns out he was the mission President of the Tacoma Washington mission from 2005-2008! It was so cool!!!!

After everyone got to mingle with the authorities the meeting started! We got to hear from Brother and Sister Reeves (she's the General Relief Society 2nd Counselor), Brother and Sister MCConkie (she is the General Young Women's 1st Counselor) and then Elder and Sister Pearson. As a missionary, meetings and events like these are SO nice because we are here to spiritually feed and uplift others so when we get the chance to be on the receiving end it is amazing! I have truly been on a high ever since that meeting! I feel like I learned so much and I am just ready to go and work even harder! Also, the special musical number that I was a part of went really well!

After Zone Conference my companion and I went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders! I was with Sister Paia'aua! She is a new STL and this was her first exchange! It was really fun though! I like her a lot and we had a really nice time :)

Also this week we found out that our Stake Presidency is changing the ward boundaries. The most anyone knows is that the changes are pretty big and will affect each ward pretty drastically. That is my worst nightmare. We might be assigned to a different ward, we might have to move flats, we might not be able to work with our less actives or investigators or Sam; we will have to all get together as missionaries and swap teaching records and brief each other on specific people and so forth. I am already stressing out a lot about it, prayers would be much appreciated! haha

So this week we will not have a car to use because it is in the shop being repaired from our accident. It is SO cold here so if I don't email next week it is safe to assume that I am dead from being too cold :)

We had another Volleyball night on Friday! Those are fun and really good because a lot of less active and non members come and can meet us and see that the church has other fun activities! Also I love being able to play volleyball!

BIG NEWS! Sam was able to receive the Aaronic priesthood yesterday!!! We got to be there when he received it! It was so cool to be able to witness that! I am so proud and blessed to be one of the ones who has seen him through this journey!

We also have an investigator named Joey who is starting to progress well! I am excited about him! We taught him about the plan of salvation and he liked it a lot! We invited him to be baptized but he is a bit hesitant at this point but says he would like to be baptized someday!

This week I was studying the Book of Mormon in Jacob chapter 5 about the parable of the vineyard. I came across a phrase in verse 11 when the Lord of the vineyard says "It grieveth me that I should lose this tree." That really hit me hard, and I began to cry a little bit. I reflected on each time I passed someone and didn't try to share the gospel with them, each time I didn't knock on a door because I couldn't figure out how to open the gate latch, and how any of those people could have been the ones that the Lord has been preparing to learn about the restored gospel, and that it truly does grieve Him to lose those people. I resolved with myself to never let a gate latch or "awkward situations" stop me. I know that someday when I stand before the Lord that a hard gate latch or awkward situation is not going to be a good enough excuse as to why I let those people pass. We all have people in our lives who need our help, this week let's all resolve to reach out, love more, and be kinder to those around us so that the Lord does not have to grieve over one of His struggling children.

I love you all! Happy Father's day to all those men out there who have been an influence in someone else's life, and especially to my Dad, one of the kindest, humblest, loving people I have ever known. Have a wonderful week!

                                                                 Always prepared for an earthquake, ha!!

                                                                           #WatchYourCabeza 
Love,
Sister Golden

Crazy Week!

Hello Hello!
I hope everyone is doing well :) So this week was a pretty crazy one for Sister Pulsipher and I!

To start, the work here has been pretty slow ever since Sam's baptism, which has been a bummer! But we are working hard to really connect with all of our potential investigators and help them become solid progressing investigators! We are excited for this week ahead to work hard and find new people to teach!

We also have an upcoming Zone Conference this Wednesday! President and Sister Hudson will be coming as well as three general authorities! It's a great opportunity since they will be coming to spend a few hours with just our Christchurch Zone! Elder Pierson of the 70, Sister Reeves and Sister McConkie will all be there! Sister Pulsipher and I were asked to sing for the conference! We will be 2 of 8 missionaries singing! Yikes! I am way excited though! Not many authorities come to visit our mission since it is spread out on 2 islands and we can't all get together easily.

So this week we had to get our DVD player replaced, got in a car accident, and dropped our phone in a puddle!!! :D YAY! The DVD player wasn't our fault, the cord was just fried and it wouldn't work.

The car accident also was not our fault. We were driving to the Zone Leader's flat to get the mission trailer to do some service and help a member family move. On our way we took a wrong turn, so we found a neighborhood to turn into and flip around. As I was turning left, blinker on and everything (which is an easy turn since we drive on the other side of the road here) a car that was parked on the side of the road decided they would like to turn back into traffic and successfully clipped the rear passenger side of the car with their front driver side of the car. I was so mad!!! hahah so we pulled over and both got out and met a 17 year old girl and her friend. We asked if they were alright and the driver was like limping and goes "I am so sorry I have a cramp in my toe and accidentally hit the gas!!!" -_- But, being the missionary I am I was nice and said I was sorry she had a cramp. Then I asked her to please get out her insurance stuff. She said it wasn't in her car but we could just text her and get it, so I was like UH NO FLIPPIN WAY GOOD TRY (inside of my brain of course) and actually said, “we have a procedure we have to do as missionaries,” so we went to grab the forms we are given from the mission to fill out. We turn around and her friend is WALKING AWAY DOWN THE STREET?!?! So I was like,”oh is your friend okay?” She goes, “yeah she's just going home,” so obviously this girl was NOT supposed to be driving friends! So I call the mission office as Sister Pulsipher gets all her info. I took some pictures of the cars and we got her license plate, phone number and address. Everything turned out alright and the car is drivable!

Lastly, the phone will need to be replaced soon because my lovely companion dropped it in a puddle! Being the people we are our first reaction was not to snatch it up but to look at each other and start cracking up! hahaha but it kinda works right now, but it has water in it so talking on the phone kinda sounds like you're under water! ha!  We had a good week though and we are ready for the week ahead!  Love you all! Have a fantastic week :)

                                              The Elders helped us put together Sister Pulsipher's bike:)
Love,
Sister Golden

New Companion!!

Hello! I am now into my 4th transfer! Still in Christchurch but I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Pulsipher! She is From Arizona and has been out on her mission for 7 months now! This is her second area and man are we having a BLAST! She and I are a lot alike so we are always laughing together!

This week started with Sister Hiatt's and my last P-Day together so we decided to get out and go see some of New Zealand! We went for a hike up in the mountains and had a beautiful view of Christchurch and Lyttelton Harbor! It was amazing!

On Tuesday I ATE HORSE! Yes, horse! It is kind of a joke that if you eat food at a Tongan's house they will cook you horse, so the Elders had dinner in a Tongan less- active's home and ate horse, took the leftovers and made us sisters eat it! HA! it actually wasn't bad! It tasted like.. meat. The way they cooked it was good though so I actually liked it! I just couldn't think about what I was eating while I ate it! HA!

Wednesday was transfer day! So I drove Sister Hiatt to the airport bright and early, then awaited the arrival of my new companion! When she arrived we hit it off right away and have been having a blast ever since! It's been a fun week!

This week we got to visit a member, Sister Whippy, so that she could meet Sister Pulsipher! Her husband is a professional basketball player for Christchurch and was down in Dunedin for the semi-finals. During our visit Sister Whippy told us that she felt that every time her husband was away playing basketball we stop by to see her! She said that day she was sitting at home wondering of we would show up and then we did! She went on to say that she felt it was us acting on behalf of the Lord to come and check in on her, bless her, and brighten her day. It was so sweet and it is so nice to know that the members feel like the missionaries are blessings to them.

This week we had to drop Steve. It was really sad! But, it needed to happen. He just was not progressing. He had attended addiction recovery the day before and liked it but when we asked him if he would continue going he said he had already done something like it before when he went to AA. So I asked if he would do it for Cigarettes and Coffee instead and he said he wasn't convinced he needed to give those things up. We kindly told him we loved him and loved getting to know him, but our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ and prepare them for baptism so we wouldn't be able to come see him anymore. He took it really well and said he would still read his Book of Mormon so we were glad to hear that!

On Friday we had a sports night and got to play volleyball! Islanders LOVE volleyball and they go hard so it always turns out to be way fun for me! It's always nice to be able to take a break and play some sports and it's a plus cause members, less actives and non members always come!

This week I was studying the Book of Mormon a lot and a scripture that I like is in 3 Nephi Chapter 18 verses 19-21. It is Jesus Christ instructing the Nephites to pray. I love that He says that whatever we pray for, if it is a righteous desire, we will receive it. He then says to pray in our families, and if we pray in our families we will be blessed. Prayer is such a simple, wonderful thing and I love knowing that communication with my Heavenly Father is as easy as getting on my knees and just addressing Him. I know that He does answer our prayers, and will grant us our righteous desires.

It was a great week! Today, New Zealand is celebrating the Queen's birthday so there are tons of people bustling around on holiday! It is crowded! They love their queen! haha:)

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

Love you all!
-Sister Golden

4 Months Down and a Baptism!!

Hello everyone!!!

So lets just get down to it! This weeks letter will probably be all about SAM AND HIS BAPTISM! Sam Smith was baptized on Saturday, May 28th! It was a great service! But, let's start from the beginning ;)

10:00am: Sister Hiatt and I drive to the chapel to meet the Zone Leaders and grab the key to the Stake center so we can come back to fill it later that day!

10:30am: They key does not open the font control panels! HA! So, we call the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and he came to open the door for us.

2:00pm: Sister Hiatt and I come to the chapel to fill the font. The font in this chapel fills with cold water then you have to heat it. It takes about 4 hours to heat so we came 4 and half hours early ;) We were pretty excited! Haha before we left we turned the heat ventilation knob and shut the closet.

5:30pm: (1 hour before the baptism) Sister Hiatt and I come back to the chapel to set up and test the water. Sister Hiatt goes into the font, feels the water, looks at me and says "It's freezing..." My heart drops and I start to cry. Then I jump into action and run to the kitchen and start boiling, microwaving, and putting water into crock pots! HAHA

IT WAS HORRIBLE! We were heating, carrying, and dumping water as fast as we could and it wasn't making a DENT! Sam came, changed, we took a few pictures and bless his heart he said it was okay that the water was cold.

Lots of ward members and Stake YSA showed up to support! The chapel was almost full! Our Assistant ward mission leader conducted and he really set the spirit for the program. He is our wards most recent convert and was baptized 10 months ago so he started by saying something like this: "Sam, I just want you to know that 10 months ago I was sitting exactly where you were, wearing the same white clothing, and probably feeling the same things as you are. I was so nervous, but excited! Sam, I just want you to know how much this gospel and that decision I made have blessed my life. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner, when I was younger. Your journey in the church is about to begin and I am so happy to be here with you tonight." Then we had a song, prayer and a talk. After that Sam was baptized. I cried of course, the spirit was so strong and I was so happy for him! We went back to the chapel, had another talk, bishop gave some remarks then we sang and closed with a prayer! Lots of members brought food along so there was tons to eat and Sam was definitely the center of attention! Everyone was so friendly to him! It was amazing!

We went out to dinner with Sam, the bishop and his wife, the elder's quorum president, his fellowshippers and his friend Jasmine after the program. It was so fun and I think Sam had a good time!
The next day he was confirmed in Sacrament meeting as the newest member of the Riccarton ward! I have felt so great ever since! It feels like I am walking on clouds! I am so happy that we knocked on his door one day and that he was prepared to learn the gospel! He is such a blessing to me and my testimony is so much stronger because I was able to find, teach, and be a part of his baptism.

A couple fun things we did this week:
Sister TePuke made me FuFu!! I had bad memories of this from Liberia, but it was actually good here in NZ! And then we got to play dress up with Sister Downes saris. It was so much fun!
 

Thank you for all the prayers and support! I love you all! Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister Golden

A Little Under the Weather!!

Hello everyone! SAM IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!! I am so beyond excited and I feel so blessed that I was able to knock on his door one day and teach him the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! He was so ready to receive it and it was such a powerful experience for me to see firsthand that the Lord's angels are preparing the hearts of people for us to find! He will be baptized May 28th at 6:30pm! He is very afraid of water so is actually pretty worried about the actual baptism part so please pray for him and us that everything will go alright!

Also, we have decided that we probably need to put Steve on pause for a little while. Ever since we taught him the Word of Wisdom he has really hit a wall and lost all his motivation. He isn't really progressing that much anymore. We are going to give him some time to reflect and see if he actually wants to live the gospel or just enjoys the way he feels when we visit him in the retirement home! It's kinda sad, but he needs to recognize the spirit more and not become desensitized to it.

Early this week I got to go on exchanges with Sister Christianson, one of my STL's! She is SO fun and it was a blast to spend the day with her! We had a really fun time and laughed a lot, but had a really good day of teaching and talking to people and doing some unplanned service... we ended up moving firewood for 3 hours for a less active! HA! After all the splinters were out we realized how sore we were from lifting and moving it so much! haha it was rough! She is a great missionary though and we had an awesome day!

So, our other investigator Josh that we met at the traffic lights and he came to church... he kinda fell off the face of the earth..? I am so sad! We have tried to call and text him a couple times with no answer or reply. We tried to go to the address he gave us and the people who answered said he had moved out! The house was kind of a boarding house and one of our High Counselors said when he dropped him off he got a weird vibe that it was a religious one and Josh might have gotten in trouble for going to a different church. I am bummed cause he was really excited to learn more, but someday he can meet missionaries again!

This week Sister Hiatt and I realized that we have TONS of extra Kilometers this month and decided to go on a little road trip to visit a member who lives at the VERY edge of our mission boundaries, about an hour away from us! She was so excited when we asked if we could come over, and said she had never had missionaries over because it was too far! We spent a couple hours cooking with her, made a pumpkin pie, and read some scriptures! It was so nice to be in her home :) The weather was also beautiful that day and the drive to her house was kinda out in the country so I finally got a glimpse of NZ not in the city life! I loved it!

This week was a bit tough for me physically because I got a really bad cold! My ears were really plugged making me dizzy and I have been tired from lack of sleep! I am getting better, but we worked hard this week!

I feel so blessed to be a part of this work. To learn firsthand that I was placed here for a reason to meet those that the Lord has been preparing to learn about the restored gospel! I am so excited about this Saturday, to watch someone enter the waters of baptism and make their first covenant with God! It has been such a blessing to watch Sam grow from the first time we met him until now!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Golden

                                                                                         Sister Beck

                                                                        The missionaries in my Zone

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