{Letter #36} God's Work

 Hey y'all! Pretty low on time, things are going fantastic here! I know that this is God's work, and He is in every single aspect of it.

Some thoughts I wanted to share from the living Prophet's, called of God to lead His church, most recent address to all of us.

He taught:

"The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers... Contention drives away the Spirit—every time. Contention reinforces the false notion that confrontation is the way to resolve differences; but it never is. Contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to choose contention or reconciliation. I urge you to choose to be a peacemaker, now and always... Charity is the antidote to contention. Charity is the spiritual gift that helps us to cast off the natural man, who is selfish, defensive, prideful, and jealous. Charity is the principal characteristic of a true follower of Jesus Christ. Charity defines a peacemaker."

I also wanted to put in some of the words of the ancient Prophet Mormon from the Book of Mormon. He taught:

"Pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." (Moroni 7:48)

We can pray to become true disciples of Christ! We can pray to be filled with this love that is the pure love of Christ! As we do this we will be more unified with all those around us, and with God!

I love all of you! Let me know if there's anything I can help y'all with.

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #35} Check Your Speed!

 Hey Everyone! I hope all of you are doing well! This week has been crazy pretty busy, but also  seriously amazing! I'm a little short on time this week, so I wanted to mostly write about Zone Conference!

This week I was able to have Zone Conference and hear from President and Sister Haymond and the other leadership in the mission.

The theme of this zone conference was Check Your Speed. That was amazing! Sister Haymond started out the conference by talking about how our driving safety devices in our car (called TIWI) is similar to the Holy Ghost. Much like this device in our car occasionally reminds us to slow down, put on our seat belt, or drive more safely, the Holy Ghost will also remind us when we need to slow down and focus on God more in our life. The Holy Ghost is always there to keep us safe from sin, to help us through the difficulties we face, and to bring us peace and joy in all situations if we just listen to the little reminders that it gives us!

Sometimes these reminders are as simple as a warm feeling, a thought to do something, or to stop doing something. no matter what it is, it will help us find more lasting joy in our life!

When President Haymond was talking to us he taught us about doctrines, principles, and applications.

Often people tend to get caught up in the applications, such as: reading the scriptures, keeping the commandments, praying, coming to church, etc.. What we need to do to draw closer to God. While this isn't a bad thing, it leaves a lot of room for questions. Sometimes we juts get caught up in the motions of trying to live these applications.

We need to focus our life more on the doctrine that we know to be true. The doctrine such as God is our loving Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and we have a living prophet.

"True doctrine understood changes attitudes and behavior."

We will be able to understand, through the Holy Ghost, why we must go through these applications as we focus on the doctrine such as this and other eternal truths.

I know and promise that as you learn about the eternal truths of God and Jesus Christ that you will find joy in this life!

I love all of you! I hope you all are doing well! Let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #34} Is That a Bike with 4 Wheels?

Hello Everyone! I hope y'all are doing well! This has been a very exciting week! And no, unfortunately I am not on a four wheeled bike--as cool as that would be. But I am in a car again! Which means I'm not constantly getting rained on anymore! 

A quick summary of what else has happened this week: whitewash (in & out), Easter, Portland, Niels, and Laura!

First off, last Wednesday we had transfers! Both Elder Goff and I got transferred out of Beaverton (that's what a whitewash is). I got transferred to the neighboring area called West Hills! Both me and my companion, Elder Gillett, are brand new here too! It covers Beaverton and most of downtown Portland. So it has been a big adjustment serving in downtown. It's been really good for the most part though! Definitely lots of interesting people in the city!

Here are some random pictures from the city:

This week was Easter! It was absolutely incredible! It was amazing to study the life and ministry of Jesus Christ leading up to this past Sunday. I would just like to testify that I know that Christ lives! I know that He suffered and died for every person! I know that this is His gospel restored on the earth today! I know that as we allow the light of the gospel into our lives we can find peace, joy, and strength through all trials!

We were able to see quite a few miracles as we studied about Christ and increased our faith in Him! These stories are going to be a little long, but they are incredible.

First off, Niels. This was incredible! Last Thursday Niels just walked into the mission office and told the missionaries there that he was baptized a long time ago and wanted to start coming back to church to find some extra stability in his life. The missionaries there were able to get his phone number and help him get in contact with us. We reached out to him and invited him to come to church this Easter Sunday. At the end of the church service, the bishop of our ward decided to spontaneously announce that if you were new to the area to talk to the ward clerk about getting your records transferred to the area. Niels went to go talk to the ward clerk, and he found out that he was actually never baptized when he was younger. After discovering this Niels came to us and asked how soon he can be baptized! It is incredible that Niels already has such a strong testimony and knowledge of the strength that can come through making promises in baptism! He also felt very strongly that He needed to do the temple work for his family, so they can receive the blessings that come from baptism also. Seriously such an amazing thing.  An amazing example of how the gospel can bring light into your life!

Second, Laura. Some of you might remember Laura from previous emails. A few weeks before transfers, Laura just kinda disappeared. She didn't have a phone, so we had no way of calling her, and she just vanished from her apartment and left it completely abandoned. It was a little sad with how much she was progressing that we weren't able to get a hold of her. But this Easter Sunday, after transfers, the new elder's got a call from her! Laura had been flipping through a Book of Mormon we gave her, when the card we wrote our phone number on fell out. She asked for Elder Goff and I specifically and said that she came to truly know Christ because of the Spirit she felt when we taught her. She was sad to inform those elders that she had been in a hospital for a few weeks. But it turns out that that hospital is in my new area! As soon as Elder Gillett and I heard about it we were able to go visit her in the hospital! She was very grateful, and we are going to continue teaching her!

It is incredible how the Lord will truly direct our paths when we put our trust in Him!

Which leads me to my spiritual thought for the week!

In the Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the prophet Moroni teaches about faith. Moroni teaches:

"I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith...And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God." (Ether 12:6,18)

I love these verses and I add my witness to Moroni's! I know that as we learn of Christ, trust in Him, and put our faith in Him, we will see miracles! God is a God of miracles! We just need to have the faith to see when He is working in our life!

I love you all! I hope all of you are doing great! Let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #33} Abide in the Lord

Hi everyone! I hope y'all are doing really well this week! This has been another kinda crazy week, but really good! A summary of what has happened: General Conference, Karim, and a very flat tire in the rain.

I am once again going to talk about these in reverse order.

First off, I got a very flat tire. It happened right as we were arriving to the first session of general conference on Sunday. So we went and watched conference, then came out and had to deal with it at the end. Which wouldn't have been an issue, except that it was hailing and pouring rain during that time. We tried to patch the tire, but couldn't get it to work due to the size of the hole. Thankfully, we were close to our Bishop's house, who rides bikes a lot, and he was able to patch it (after 3 attempts over the course of an hour)! The bike has been functioning fully since then!

Yesterday we had a lesson with our friend Karim. He's an awesome guy! He was interested in learning more about baptism and reached out to the mission Facebook page about learning more. We were able to meet him at the church and teach him about baptism, how it can bless his life, and he was able to make friends with some members that we brought with us. It was a really good lesson, he is currently praying to know if Christ is the Savior and if the Book of Mormon is true!

Lastly, General Conference was this weekend! It was an absolutely incredible opportunity to hear from the living Prophet, Apostles, other church leaders that God has called to lead His church in these days! We were able to watch the sessions with a bunch of different members in our ward! All in all a very Spirit filled weekend with lots of guidance and answers to questions that I had! If you were unable to watch it, only watched some, or even watched it all, I strongly encourage you to go rewatch the talks of the living Prophet and Apostles that God has called!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be one of many things that stood out to me in General Conference. I will start off by sharing a scripture that the Apostle, Elder David A. Bednar, shared in his talk. In this scripture Christ is talking to Enoch. Enoch is wondering why Christ has called him to be His servant, despite all His inadequacies. This is Christ's response:

"Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good... Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." (Moses 6:32, 34)

I love the principles that Christ taught us in these few words. All people will have their inadequacies, and generally, I at least, beat myself up about them sometimes. I may think that no matter what I do it will not be enough. But Christ teaches us that as we go forth and do as He has commanded, we will Have His Spirit to be with us. We will be able to walk with Christ.

Even though all people will fall short sometimes, Christ will make our efforts enough. He will grant us God's grace, through His sacrifice, to strengthen us and lift us to the point that we are enough. We are enough to do God's will, to face the challenges that life will throw at us, and to feel God's love in every aspect of our life. I know that we can find joy, even in the hardest times of our life, as we keep Christ's commandments and seek to walk with Him.

I know and promise each one of you that your efforts are enough. I promise that Christ will strengthen you to be able to face every trial that you go through. If you walk with Him and abide in Him, you will be blessed!

I love you all! I hope all of you have a great week! Let me know if there is anything I can help you with!

Love,
Elder Goold