The Intentions of My Heart

Hey Mom!

      So, the first thing that comes to my mind is to comment on Elder Carlyle (Landon’s friend from home who will be finished with his mission this week).  I’m so happy for him, I can only imagine how excited he is, and his family, but please, please don’t tell me about it :p All I want is one photo of him, maybe a comment or two, but (I’m laughing right now) I don’t want to hear about him.  I’m not scared of getting antsy for home, but I want to avoid all possible things that might make me think of getting on that plane... Because I don’t want to get on that plane.  We just had another transfer pass, and I am still with Elder Stengile.  We will be together till the beginning of January.  I’m glad we are still together.  He is a great Elder.

      Last week was very up and around.  You know we went to Welkom and Kroonstad, then got back to our area and worked Thursday and Friday.  Then Saturday we had to participate in the stake youth soccer day (as requested by the stake).  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  We put together a missionary soccer team and played through the tournament.  Meanwhile, the Carliles (The Senior Couple serving in his area) put up a tent and table with all our pamphlets and things on it for people to take.  I got probably the worst burn I’ve had in years. Everyone at church on Sunday was calling me Red Neck.  I couldn’t even button up my shirt it was so painful.

      So, you remember Veronica?  She is progressing really well.  She is still faced with challenges, but it is incredible to see how the spirit is helping her overcome them.  Example; she came to church two weeks back, and afterwards told us she was expecting more… more feelings, more spiritual impression, etc. We didn’t really try to resolve it for her right then and there, but when we went to see her later last week she began to explain again about church and how she had expected more.  We listened to her and she transitioned to talk about the challenges she faces with her oldest daughter who was kicked out and is living with her boyfriend and is expecting a child soon.  Just as the dimming of the lights in a movie theater just before the presentation, but in the opposite way, light came to her mind and she in puzzled reality expressed the possibility that perhaps she was too preoccupied at church, thinking about her daughter, to feel the things she was hoping for, and to receive the answers she is seeking. BINGO!!! It was wonderful to see the spirit work in her that way.  She also came to the DESIRE to quite smoking without any persuasion on our part.  Again, we had not spoken about it, and she even stated in our first few visits that she doesn’t think it’s bad and will not give it up.  Well, she said she FEELS it offends God and WANTS to stop.  I capitalized those words because they signify a change in her nature through her learning of and applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What is she doing to allow the Savoir to change her?  She is reading the Book of Mormon and the Bible every night with her youngest daughter, she is praying, coming to church, and working on repenting of what she has come to realize is wrong.  She is learning by faith, and growing by faith.  I have seen growth in her.  From the first day four-weeks back when she said she has such severe depression she wants to die, to today when she says, "I just can't lay in bed anymore.  Before, I never wanted to get out, but now I’m up and singing and cooking and doing all these things I’ve never done.  I’m happier!  Maybe not completely anti-depressed, but I’m getting there!" ....... How can this Gospel not be true?

      SO, I’ve made a decision; For my birthday, my companion and I are going to go on a convert retention mission for the day in Thaba Nchu.  Going to go there and work with all the converts and less actives that I was there for.  I’m excited for it.

      Do you remember Elder Roberts?  He was a missionary I was around for almost a year.  I probably spoke very Highly of him.  He is the one missionary I look up to the most out of them all, even though he has been home for 7 months. He wrote me last week and shared something I have adopted and sealed mine.  He said,  “One thing that helped me greatly, and which I encourage you to do, is say this in your prayers, ‘God, I am getting close to the end of my time here.  I love serving Thee!  It fills my heart with such joy!  These last few months I want to give my ALL, holding nothing back!  To Help me do this I plead that Thou wilt prepare things at home for me so that I don't have to waste this precious time thinking about them know, and help me not to be distracted by anything till I get off that plane.  Help me serve with ALL my Heart, Might, MIND, and Strength!’”

     That prayer has a few adjustments which I include in my pleads to Heavenly Father, but those are the intentions of my heart.  I've got three glorious months ahead of me.  I love this work.  I know with all my heart I am in the thick of the work of salvation for the children of God.

Elder Gold

Crazy Beef in Bloem

Hey mom,

       I thought of one more thing you could put in the package (if it's not sent yet).. Taco mix!  Not a lot, but a few packets.  I found some from a missionary when I was in Pinetown.  It was fun to make the best Mexican food I could and give it to the elders who have never had it.

      So, how was my week?  Well, I'm not sure.  It just flew by.  On Tuesday we had interviews with President Zackrison.  Normally whenever we have interviews, they're about 15 to 20 minutes, but my interview lasted 1 HOUR... It was really enjoyable though.  He is such a spiritually powerful man, and very personal.  For those two reasons, he is able to help a lot of people specifically.

      Let me tell you about something a little less spiritual.  We came across this great discovery last week Saturday.  We have named it LocoNkomo (A mix of Spanish and Zulu for Crazy Beef or cow).  In downtown Bloem, a really grimy place, right next to a storm drain/sewer canal, sits

three shanty tents with a constant bellow of smoke coming out of them.  Within each tent is a group of workers cooking Pap, making salads, and braai'n (BBQ) meat.  You may not remember that PAP is ground up Maize that gets cooked with a little water and becomes white and fluffy, and heavy.  You eat it with your hand, making little balls that you squish flat, then put on whatever other food is on your plate.  So, these tents are hot and sweaty and smell like smoke; and for 15 to 20 rand (2 dollars) they pile you a ton of pap, salads (which in most cases are beans cooled in sauces or grated vegetables in more sauces), 2 big pieces of beef and 2 Wors (kind of like sausages but bigger).  Anyway, it was a great discovery, and we went there three times last week.  Might go today who knows. :p

      Tonight we are driving up to Welkom and on Wednesday to Kroonstad to do exchanges with some of the Elders that work far away.  It's close to a two-hours drive to Welkom, then further for the other area, so we will be out of Bloem for a few days.

      We also had a very sweet experience with one investigator this week.  She is Afrikaans.  I will call her Veronica (of course this is not her real name).  She is single and has two teenage children and she suffers from great depression, along with a plethora of other things that cause her anxiety and stress and hopelessness.  We gave her an Afrikaans Book of Mormon about two weeks ago and she has been studying it with her kids.  It has been amazing to see a light come into her life which was not there before.  She came to church yesterday and likewise expressed peace. 

I love you guys,
Elder Gold

Climbing The Monster Mountain

Hey Family,

      This week was undoubtedly a good one, as are they all.  On Monday we hiked that monster

mountain I had told you about.  We estimated it to be around a 6-mile hike, and it was absolutely beautiful.  The mountain just sticks out of the Free State high desert like a sore thumb.  It rises nearly all at once and is a fairly wide mountain (maybe 2-miles wide).  The mountain front that faces north sweeps up and gets very steep.  We started our hike on the right side and traversed our way left.  There was a VERY large fence just on the ridge that prevented us from traversing on the more even top of the mountain, so we stayed on the steep side.  Eventually we pushed far enough to get to the other side of the mountain where it opened up to a plateau on the top with a massive rock cliff at the very end.  The plateau was amazing.

  There was green grass extending to the edges of the mountain’s steep drops.  On the plateau

there were five large rock features lined up along the out edge of the plain.  They were perfect granite features for climbing, and each were anywhere from 80 to 100 feet in height.  Really, they were a temptation.  The hike down after everything was steep and rough, but eventually we made it to the dry Serengeti plain at the bottom.  It really made me feel like we are in Africa.

      Then, on Tuesday, my companion and I held a ZTM (Zone Training Meeting).  I think I mentioned it last week, but anyway, it was another spiritual outpouring impart because a lot of the elders were prepared, and secondly

because we did not do a stand and present, but rather modeled the teaching [as I told you about with Elder Bednar’s address].  I learned quite a bit more about the price of spirituality, and I can say it is an ever-increasing fine line.  But, as you get there, the balance just seems to come.

      Well, the Lord is still blessing us in our area, as we continue finding people that are progressing.  Remember, I told you last week about Fabian, the guy who we met while fixing a car, and then he just showed up to church?  He is a gold miner, and at first impression you wouldn’t think so.  He is drinking in the Book of Mormon and really comprehends everything intellectually and spiritually.

      Anyhow, I love you guys.  I am still getting a list of things for you to send the zone.  It will be a little easier to identify once transfers happen and we know who will be here for Christmas.

Love you all,

Elder Gold

The Price of Spirituality

Hello again,

      Another week has gone by and It’s strange to think that it’s getting cold on that side.  I’m so accustomed to our seasons here.  We are rolling into summer, which means 80 to 90 degrees, and sometimes going over 100 with huge thunder and lightning storms, and a bounteous harvest of fruit.  The litchis, mangoes, grapes, melons, and a vast variety of other fruits and veggies are all in season.

      So, our trip down to Ladysmith was fantastic.  We left Bloem at 4:00 in the morning.  We

drove the open country and watched the sun rise over springing fields of corn and sunflowers.  After we got to Bethlehem and met with the Lesotho Zone leaders, we then went off to Ladysmith.  We arrived just after 9:00 AM.  Our meeting was with the Assistants to the Mission President, the Mission President himself along with his wife, and three other zone leaders.

      The meeting was one of the highlights of the week.  I know I told you last week that the conference with Elder Bednar was a spiritual out pouring, but I will have to say that our little council was filled with the spirit.  As we discussed the vision of the mission and what we are trying to become as well as what we are trying to accomplish, the spirit directed each member there to the points the Lord wanted us to see, and we all got a better idea of what to take back to our zones to help them become more spiritual creatures.

      One of the big things that have been on my mind lately is the price of spirituality.  I don’t know if you guys have ever thought of what prices we must pay to have the spirit guide us with greater influence, but it has been enlightening as Elder Stengile and I have been studying this thing.  When Elder Bednar was here a few elders asked him several questions as to how they can become better in certain areas.  His response to them was: A challenge to take a paper back copy of the Book Of Mormon, and read it from cover to cover with their question or topic in mind, looking and marking only those things which pertain to their question.  He then said to write a very short one page summary on the topic, fold it and put it in the book, and finally to mark the topic on the outside cover.  He then said that, when we get to his age we will have hundreds of paper back copies with topics written on the sides of things which we had sought out in the scriptures.  The purpose with looking back to the statement was to recognize how much time these spiritually giant men sacrifice to studies of the word and what bounteous rewards they yield for it.  I guess what I’m tying to say is that one of the great prices of spirituality (among hundreds) is a constant flow of study from the standard works.

      Also, I have really seen the blessings of the Lord as we served in our area this week.  I can see that, with the limited time we have in our area, the Lord is helping with our investigators and leading us to more and more people.  Isabel (as we will call her) is doing outstanding!   We have decided she will be baptized in Lesotho (where she is from) when she goes back for holiday so she can have the experience with her family.

      I think that above all things, I can say I feel the spirit in great abundances everyday.  I feel that I am living in the spirit.  I feel the strength of the Lord with me.  I'll tell you, even though it’s this way, the voice is still quiet.  It still is a still small voice.

      I love you guys.  Stay blessed!

Elder Gold