Adam Serving in Portland: December 2022

{Letter #19} Merry Christmas!

Hey y'all! I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas! This week was actually quite uneventful, despite it being Christmas and Christmas Eve! The quick overview of what happened: I got sick, it sleeted, we got stuck inside, there was a Christmas Eve devotional, and it was Christmas!

On Wednesday it was about 20⁰ and windy the entire day. It also happened to be the day that I woke up with a mild fever. So I was just very cold and tired the entire day. We did a bunch of phone calls and definitely tried to keep it pretty low key.

Thursday the weather got COLD with a high of about 15⁰. I was feeling a lot better though, so we were able to go out for most of the day.

At around 6pm, it started sleeting, so the mission president asked us to go back to our apartments and stay there unless it was absolutely necessary to leave. This picture was taken just after the sleet started.

We finished the day up with a bit of facebook work.

When we woke up on Friday nearly six inches of sleet had fallen and the world was encased in ice. This was the view out our apartment window.

Oregon has some of the worst road care I've ever seen and it seemed like they never even treated the roads. Because of this fact, we did not leave the apartment at all on Friday. We made many many phone calls though trying to get in contact with a bunch of our friends that we're teaching.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and it had warmed up enough that the roads were much better and we were finally able to safely leave our apartment. The church parking lot, however, was still an ice skating rink, so that was fun.

Most of the day was taken up by our mission's Christmas Eve Devotional! That was amazing! President and Sister Haymond talked a lot about Christ, and how His Atonement for us is the reason that we celebrate the Christmas season!

It was a super good devotional. They also made a video of the entire year in the mission, it was cool to see a bunch of those memories that people have!

Christmas day was really good! I got to call my family and go to church. Church was also a really cool Christmas devotional, lots of singers and great talks on Christ. All around just a great way to celebrate Christ!

Monday was pretty uneventful, we had district council like usual, then the rest of the day was filled with normal missionary stuff. We had a phone call lesson with our friend Robin, we were able to set up a time to stop by and drop off a Book of Mormon to her. It was really good! She seemed excited about coming to church this next Sunday.

And now for my spiritual thought! A verse that stood out to me this week comes from a vision that the prophet Nephi, from the Book of Mormon. After this vision Nephi wrote:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory."
(1 Nephi 14:14)

I love the promise this scripture makes, and it also reminds me of President Nelson's (our modern day prophet) most recent general conference talk where he says:

"My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns “with power and great glory,” He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful"

Our Savior can and will bless us as we make and keep our sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. He will give us the power and strength to face anything that we face. This does not mean that life will be easy. But we will see the Savior's hand strengthening and enabling us to overcome these hard times!

My invitation to all of you is to focus on heavenly covenants this week. Think of what you can do to be more faithful to them. I know that if you do that, you will be blessed with strength!

I love y'all! I hope y'all are doing well! I hope all of you had a great Christmas!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS Can you spy me in this picture?

{Letter #18} So This is Christmas

Alrighty everyone! Another week in the books here! Unfortunately I am running out of time so this will be a pretty short email. It was a pretty busy week, so a quick summary of what happened: our ward Christmas party, Exchanges... again, and today a zone Christmas party! All in all it was a very good week!

Our ward Christmas party was on Saturday, We went to the church Saturday morning to help set up chairs, tables and other decorations. I didn't take a picture unfortunately, but they decked out the gym with decorations. It was really cool! They set up chairs for about 200 people at the Christmas party and they actually filled it all almost exactly! It was a really good time, an a lot of people brought their friends and family, so it was a great opportunity to meet new people.

On Monday we had exchanges again! I stayed in Damascus and took Elder Jensen along with me!

It was a fun time, we were able to find a few people who were interested in meeting with us and learning more! we also ran into someone who had just finished serving in the Salem mission a few months ago, so that was cool to talk to him for a minute.

Finally, today we had our zone Christmas activity!

We went to the church, did a little gift exchange, played a couple other games, and drank way too much fruit punch. It was fun to hang out with the other missionaries for a bit!

My spiritual thought for this week will come from my personal study.

I was studying Preach My Gospel about the Plan of Salvation. and in the section about the Creation the very last sentence says:

"We must walk by faith rather than by sight."

Which is also stated in 1 Corinthians 5:7

This just really stuck out to me this week again. Faith is not stagnant. It does not say that we must wait in faith. It says that we MUST walk by faith. We must act on what we have faith or a hope in. When we have faith in Christ we will act on His teachings before we recieve a sure knowledge of it's truth. we do not know manythings in this life with absolute certainty. Desite that we still walk forward, walk forward trusting that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. Find ways that you can walk in faith this Christmas week! Christ is the reason that we celebrate this season! Find ways to shine that light in faith!

Love y'all! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #17} Eyes to See

Hello friends and family!

So we had a very busy week--the good type of busy.

On Wednesday the zone leaders went on exchanges with us, so I took Elder Boss to Damascus with me! It was a very fun time and we got to talk a lot about how when we set ambitious and faithful goals that we will be blessed in our efforts to achieve them. It was fun leading out the area with another new missionary, and just all around had a good time.

On Thursday we had a very long lesson with Marty. He talked a whole bunch about the gift of tongues and how there should be physical manifestations of the Spirit. He then proceeded to say tell some stories about how he had healed people and spoken in tongues. So that was an interesting lesson to say the least. We will see how that goes in the future. He's definitely an entertaining guy to talk to.

On Friday we had Zone Conference!

That was really good! The theme of the Zone Conference was "Eyes to See". The first counselor in our mission presidency is an optometrist so he had some really cool analogies and examples with physical eyes and spiritual eyes.

And of course, President and Sister Haymond both had some excellent stories and analogies as well. I will talk a little bit about what they said in my spiritual thought.

Saturday wasn't too eventful. We just had a bunch of lessons that fell through and also a bunch of random ones that popped up. It all worked out in the end thankfully.

On Sunday we got a new ward mission leader called. We'll see how the dynamics change with the new one getting into the swing of things. Right after church we also had the Temple and Priesthood Preview for the youth that are turning 12 this upcoming year! We were asked to give a brief talk about how priesthood responsibilities had helped us prepare for our missions. That was super cool! I will add that it is incredible how many temples there are being built and that already are built! The Lord's work really is progressing!

On Monday morning we discovered a nail in our very flat front driver side tire. We had to put the spare on then sit in a Les Schwab for two hours while they patched and refilled our tire.

After that we had Elder Strand's last district council, which President Haymond came to. That was really good, but it also went really long.

Today we got to go to the temple first thing in the morning. The temple truly is an amazing place that invites peace in every way.

After that we just came back here and Elder Strand packed up and left for home. It will definitely be different without him in the apartment.

And now for my spiritual thought! One of the many things that was talked about in Zone Conference is how faith is a forward looking action word. It is never something that looks back. We cannot have faith if we are living in the past. An amazing example of looking forward is Nephi (a prophet from the Book of Mormon). Nephi said:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

I invite you all to find ways that you can look forward and act in faith this Christmas season!

I love you all! I hope you have a great Christmas season!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS Here's a screenshot from our phone call this week:

{Letter #16} It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Hey everyone! I hope that y'all are doing well! This week marked the end of training for me, which also meant that it was transfers! I am staying in Damascus/Boring for another transfer, but I once again got a new companion! It was sad to say bye to Elder Jensen, but Elder Feltner is a super cool guy!

Exchanges took up most of Wednesday, but right after we got back we went to a youth, Mt. Hood Stake, Light the World activity. We basically just helped the youth make Christmas ornaments to give out to people. It was actually a really fun activity!

On Thursday we didn't have a whole ton going on, just introducing Elder Feltner to some of the ward members.

Friday wasn't too exciting either. My companion had MLC though, so I got to go on bike with the Powell Valley Elders for the morning! That was fun and we got to teach a guy named Tom. Tom is a really cool guy, he said he was going to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. Other than that, we had zone council. We were able to set some zone transfer goals. It is AMAZING how much the work is progressing. God is preparing His children to receive the gospel and it is incredible!

On Saturday we helped clean the church first thing in the morning. That wasn't too exciting, only 3-4 other people were there so it took a little while. after we finished that we went to the Anson's and helped them move around a bunch of their furniture. That night I had another mini exchange so Elder Feltner could go to ZLC. We biked through some very heavy winds to get to a lesson that cancelled. unfortunately. It was good though, we invited a ton of our friends to sacrament meeting throughout the day as well.

Sunday was pretty typical. We went to church and just kinda went around to get in touch with people after that. We had dinner with the Lee's that night, but they were sick so we sat outside and had a lesson with them and they gave us food to go. That was a very cold lesson, but they're an a amazing family. They also make some very good food.

It also snowed almost 3 inches while we were at church.

On Monday we had district council, and another exchange! Elder Feltner really wanted to go on bike, but it had to be after dark because he's kinda allergic to the sun.😎 So after dinner we started the exchange and I took Elder Strand with me to Damascus. It was really good. Also the Powell Valley missionaries got a car last night just after the snow, so they won't have to bike around anymore.

My spiritual thought this week is going to be John 14:5-6. In these verses Thomas is asking Christ how we can gain salvation. Verse 6 is Christ's response. They say:

"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

When I read these verses it reminded me of Helaman 5:12, in which Helaman says:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall"

When we follow in Christ's footsteps and build our foundation on Him we will receive strength to overcome anything we face. Christ is the perfect example of how to live our life, when we willingly strive to follow Him we are blessed more than we can imagine. My invitation to all of you this week is to look at the Light the World calendar and look for ways that you can follow in Christ's footsteps by lighting the world each day! I know that you will be blessed and strengthened as you do that!

I hope y'all are doing great! Love y'all!

Love,
Elder Goold