{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: