Dumpster Doug and other Wells moments: 3/24/14

BIGGEST NEWS OF ALL: For the first time in history (not sure if this is entirely true but we have never heard of it before) President publicly announced what was going to happen next transfer a week ahead. People from the ward told us that they had been approaching president all throughout Stake Conference telling him that he can't take us away. Bishop Myers, when we told him maybe he should slip in a $20, told us he would slip in a $100. When we joked with president about it, he leaned forward and told us that we were already staying for at least another transfer but if we kept it secret he would split the money with us! haha. Then Sister Wood was like "Wait, are you serious. Are we staying another transfer?" And he was! We are staying! He even told the Zone leaders and half the ward! 

Funny story: We made a new friend this week in Burger King. Love Wells. We originally met him at June's funeral and we ran into him in BK and we started talking, His eyes were shifty and he kept looking around. We have some new favorite quotes. 

Him: Do you know Dumpster Doug?

Me: Yeah, we briefly met him in the Post Office, he seemed really nice!

Him: Well, I don't trust him. He keeps on wantin' me to go to Twin with him to buy groceries but there's just something fishy bout him.

Then he looked us right in the eye. "Did you know there's a Chinese Spoon Mine underneath the Shell Crest Motel?" Sister Wood looks at him back and says "No way!" and he continues after looking around. "Mmhmm. And have you heard about all the FBI in town?" Sister Wood, "No, I haven't." He leans closer and points to himself. "They're takin' notes on me". Sister Wood, "And why's that?" He sits up, looks around, leans in not quites as intense and says "I've been snitchin' on people. I'm gonna take my dog and just walk down 93. I'm gonna walk my dog"

Well, it's been a few days and he's still here in town. He waves and us and smiles every time we see him though! Guess the FBI haven't got him quite yet :)

In other news this week I can truthfully claim that I rode a caterpillar (not a farming equipment, but a stuffed animal) and I fought imaginary monsters with another little kid.

I was actually sick one day and we had to go to Elko three times this week! But regardless, we still had 14 lessons (17 being the mission average)! So we were pretty happy.

I think my most profound moment was when I was sick and we were listening to a talk titled "From Catholic Priest to Mormon" and he told his conversion story and when he talked about saying goodbye, he called them "My Missionaries". And Suddenly I got all teary eyed. I recalled all the people that have called us their missionaries and one day down the line someone will talk about their missionaries and that missionary will be me. I needed that. It helped me to remember just why I'm here, because someone needs me to be their missionary.

The pictures from this week are from the service project we did/doing. We are getting new people to manage the Shell Crest and we are helping them move in and renovate. We've done a lot of painting. The first day we were over brother Lee exclaims that he doesn't want their missionaries to be running around with paint in their hair, so he bought us hats! (Sidenote: Don't judge our mess. It's a small motel room and there is nowhere else to put it)

Randomness: Puppies and Baby Cows: 3/17/14

First off. It's Calving Season! The baby cows are so stinking cute I want to die! They are the size of puppies but they are cows!

The biggest thing that happened this week is of a sensitive nature and the person involved would not be happy with me sharing.

But a lot of weird funny things happened too! 

It's been a pretty random wild week and a lot we have at least two puppy stories.

-The Uhligs (in response to Sister Wood tripping on a pot whole on the way to the car) told us they had a gift for us, it was pink, but hey left it at Grandmas house. The whole day we live in anticipation of what this gift could be. It was a granny walker. It was Grandma Uhligs walker. We couldn't even keep it! We did laugh though.

-We both scrunched our hair and Brother Brough called our hair haggard! Only he could get away with that.He's lucky he pushed me on the tire swing earlier.

-Someone told us that Hitler was probably doing the will of God. We did not agree.

-Hitler was brought up in another conversation.... why? I have no clue.

-We were at the Uhligs returning a vacuum and they were in the back yard. They let the hunting dogs out of their cage and they go wild and starting pooping all over. Meanwhile Dusty makes me jump on the tramp with her, then she kicked me off because she wanted Sister Wood. While they were jumping the dog with a little piece of poo attached to it's rear jumps up on the tramp, puts it's rear end down and scoots across the entire tramp. Sister wood's face was that of complete shock and disgust, Dusty kept on jumping, and the mom says ever so calmly, "Oh gross. Dusty honey. It's time to get off". 

-The next day Sister wood picks up a puppy and it pees on her. Classic.

It's been a great week. We have three new investigators and we have two service projects next week! I am so excited. Another cool story is that we hadn't seen probably my favorite person we work with, Julie, for a week or so. Then we were walking into our dinner appointment and he hear our names. We didn't recognize her at first but then she walks out to give us hugs and we squeal! She told us she normally goes at a different time and a different way to the post office, but she felt the spirit telling her to come that way so that she could see us! She is just so great and amazing. Love her!

Well, these are pictures we took driving back from Deeth/ Starr Valley. You haven't gotten a picture yet of there. There are baby cows! The pictures don't give it justice, but they captures it somewhat.

Sister Wood taking a photo

Me after we were a while down the road. The moon and everything was so cool. This was thebest I could do.

There is Always a Tomato: 3/10/14

This week has been hard. Not because anything has really changed to make it harder--we still have the same amount of disappointments and successes--but it's our attitude towards everything.

As missionaries in upper Nevada you see a lot of crap--abuse crap, drug crap-- we are around it. There are so many people who want to change and want out but they don't necessarily actually want help or want out. They want all their problems to be fixed without any work, without any change. It can be frustrating and annoying. It's sad. You want to help, but they don't want to be helped. They don't want to forgive because that would mean losing their identity as the victim and part of them wants to be the victim. They want to be broken. They can't loose that. It's part of their identity, part of who they are.

At almost every dinner appointment we've been to we have been leaving a message of Faith. It's the most basic principle to teach and the hardest to master. Perhaps we left it because it was what we needed--faith that people can change, faith that miracles can happen, faith that we can make a difference. One of the ladies we ate with is a recent convert and we asked how faith has played a role in her life. In her cute little spanish accent she told us the following story:

When we first moved here from Mexico, we had no money. There is a Mexican dish you can make that's super cheap--an onion and tomato and you make a paste. But I look in the fridge and freezer--no tomato. So I say a prayer (She folds her arms) "Please god, I have no money. Please let there be a tomato". She opens the fridge and freezer--no tomato. She moves everything around in the fridge and freezer--still no tomato. So she goes--oh, well. I'll try again. I'll give you another shot. She prayed again. She opens the fridge and right in the front and center of the first self she looks at is a tomato.

What she said after that has stuck with me all week. She said, "With faith in God, there is always a tomato. When you rely on the Lord, he will always make sure you have a tomato."

Perhaps I'm still waiting for my tomato. I've been given plenty of tomatoes in my lifetime and I know that the Lord will provide and He will work miracles if we are patient and persistent and rely on his timing.

What started all of this was a scripture in Matthew 17. It's a story of a man who has little faith and exclaims "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief" to which the Savior replies

“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

I use to think that mustard seed was actually a great amount of faith. I can't move mountains. Then I was reading Jeffery R Holland's talk on this same scripture he said

"The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue—it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know."

It truly doesn't matter the size of faith, but whether you act upon the faith you have no matter how small. The result is miracles. I've been referring to a General conference talk "Faith--the choice is yours", because it explains so perfectly what these mountains are and what faith can do for us. He says

"I have never witnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optimism. Because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of sin replaced with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith I have personally witnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope, and gratitude. Yes, I have seen mountains removed."

I have seen many mountains removed. I have been the recipient of many tomatoes. I'm so glad to have faith in my life and the hope that things will get better.

Hope everyone has a great week!

If you want the full sources of the talks I'm referring to they are here

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng#6-10785_000_51holland

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/faith-the-choice-is-yours?lang=eng

Pictures:

So multiple people have told me the pictures didn't load. I don't feel like going through my camera again. But here are pictures from this week!

This is why we were late for a dinner appointment. Yes. Those are horses.

First Baptism!: 3/3/14

Oh hey! I had a baptism this week! I don't think I ever even told you about Quinlin! He's 11. He wants to go to BYU and serve a mission..... He's so awesome. His whole family are members and they stopped going for a while when he was young. They started coming back and he was like "yeah, I want to be baptized" in the first 5 minutes of us meeting him. He's so cool.

All of his family is in Utah so, unfortunately, we weren't able to see it because they did the baptism there. However, after his interview we made sure to take pictures. He was so excited about his little pocket square! He may be one of my favorite kids on the planet. 

In typical Sister Golding fashion, it took a while to get a serious picture. Actually.. I don't think I got a good serious picture before the end. But I got a lot of goofy ones. I'll have to get the other pictures off Sister Wood's camera another day.

He's laughing at the other pictures we took here. It may be my only goodish one.

Something was happening in the hallway, but when I announced we needed another another redo because I wasn't looking Quinlin goes "yeah.. and I think I was praying.. so that's weird" and we joked about how he really took to prayer like how we taught him. So here's the Prayer picture.

Brother Uhlig tells us that we need to take a serious picture and.. well.. this happens

Finally we got his mom and get down to business.

It's been a strange funny week. Other moments:

-I drink about a half gallon of milk in 1 hour.... I won't get into that one, but it happened. I've NEVER drank that much milk in one sitting.

-We play kickball in the street with four people and a deflated yoga ball. But it was an answer to a prayer! We didn't want to knock on the door and the people we wanted to see were already outside!

-You know you are in Wells when the Bishop pulls up for Ward Basketball in a horse trailer wearing cowboy hat and boots! Love it.

-At a first lesson a member brings up polygamy (hit face with palm)..... If this lady wasn't golden for any other reason she is because that happened and she still invited us back.

-We are teaching an Atheist. It's great.

-A lady we were working with gets kicked out on street and we can't find her.

-WE GET SPOONS!!!!!!! This guy in the ward makes awesome wooden spoons and he gives us his "rejects". These spoons cost $15-30 each and we got two!

Hope everyone is having a good week! Love you all