{Letter #80} One Day with the Savior

Hi everyone! It's been another week! I hope it's been a good one for you all! I'd love to hear why or why not-- let me know!

It's been a pretty good week here! We have had a few really awesome things,  specifically: interviews with President Botchway, Theresa, moving, and more exchanges.

First off, interviews were this Friday! Those were awesome! It's always good to talk with President Botchway about how things are going as missionaries and just with life. He is awesome. Something he invited me to do was to listen to "A Master Class in Leadership: One Day with the Savior" (BYU devotional by Elder Mark Bragg).

It just got me thinking what I would do if I had one full day with Jesus Christ. It's a very interesting exercise. I encourage you to do it as well!

We have had a couple lessons with our new friend Theresa. She is seriously amazing! She loves everything about what we have shared so far. She has jumped into reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Between two meetings 3 days apart she read all of 3 Nephi (which is about 60 pages)

She said that she loves it and feels that it is all true! She has read from the Book of Mormon, she has pondered on Christ's mercy, and she has prayed to know the truth of the Book of Mormon. And she has received a witness of its truth!

If you do not have a testimony of the Book of Mormon yet, I invite you to follow the same process that our friend Theresa did! Read, ponder, and pray! You will feel God confirm it to you and you will feel His power in your life!

On Saturday we got to help two people move. One was a new move-in. The other was moving out. The family that was moving out had a lot of German royalty in their family. The have a lot of 1000+ year old furniture that has been passed down through their family. They also have original paintings from Da Vinci, Picasso, Van Gogh, and other such artists. Basically, I have never handled such expensive things in my life. I unfortunately did not get any pictures, but we are going again this week and I will see if I can.

My spiritual thought for this week is from my studies. I read recently in Moroni 7. In that chapter the prophet Mormon taught:

"Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ."

I love this verse! When we diligently seek Christ and to lay hold upon the gifts that he has given us, we will be His children! That is a very peaceful promise!

What better person to be our covenant Father than one who has suffered all that we have gone through. One who can help us in everything we face!

I love you all! I hope you all have a great week; I am praying for you! Please reach out if I can do anything for you all!

Love,
Elder Goold

PICS:   Dinner with Bishop Williams and family.  We get fed by members quite  a bit in this area. 

1st pic:   Ghanaian food made by President Botchway,
 2nd pic:   random person treated us to dinner at  Taco Bell

Interviews with the zone

A beautiful rainbow 

A glimpse of our family phone call today (with an outfit change):    Me in Tualatin, Mom, Cami, Garrett, Lucie and Oliver in Alabama, Ellie in Arizona, Dad in Saint George, Spence at home, Emma walking home from class

{Letter #79} Arms of Mercy

Hi everyone! This week has been pretty great! Honestly a pretty typical week of missionary work. We had some exchanges, good lessons, and some good connections made!

First off, exchanges! I love exchanges! I got to go with Elder Kennelly and Elder Britt (on two separate exchanges). Both were very good! We got to talk a lot about what makes a successful missionary for both. In essence, just love the people! Love the people and do your best to serve them! They are awesome Elders!

We had a couple really solid lessons with some new friends. We met a lady named Pili. We were able to pray with her a give her a copy of the Book of Mormon in the first interaction. When we came back she was telling us how much all of these things came at the right time of her life.

She had been going through a lot, but she said that us coming across her was a witness to her that God was aware of her. It was really cool!

Lastly we had our friend Jim at church again! He was able to meet a lot of local members here in Tualatin. He's a very good guy, he loved church yet again and is going to finally start listening to the Book of Mormon.

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be from Jesus Christ's teachings to the people in the Ancient Americas. He said:

"Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me." (3 Nephi 9:13-14)

I have shared these verses before, but they have special meaning this week. We shared these with Pili and that is what really touched her!

Christ's arm is outstretched to all of us. It's up to us to choose to come to Him and be converted! Do what it takes! He will heal you and bless you!

I love you all! Have a great week! Let me know what I can do for you all!

Love,
Elder Goold

Here are some pics from this week:  

Elder Britt and I

Elder Spence and I

A zone phone call

A zone activity

 

 

 

A glimpse at our family phone call today (me in Tualatin, Mom at home, Dad in Saint George, Spence at home, Ellie in Mesa, Emma at work, and Cami/Lucie in B-ham)

{Letter #78} I'll Meet You There

Hi everyone! This week has been pretty good! Lots of meetings. Like that's legit most of what happened! But it's fun! I always learn a lot from them! Here's a couple of the things that happened: temple, zone conference, exchanges, mission prep, and a fun little mission stake coordination meeting!

We went to the temple today! If you haven't been or haven't been recently, go! It will be a blessing to your life!

We got to lead out mission prep for the Tualatin and Tigard area this week and will continue to do so for the next few weeks for all the youth preparing to serve missions! It will be fun!

Zone conference was amazing this time around! One of the big topics was about the power of The Book of Mormon.

Sister Botchway invited us all to read it 2 times in the next 3-4 months! That is a lot of reading! 1062 pages to be exact. And we're trying to truly study it and learn about Christ!

I decided to accept the challenge. I'm about 100 pages in right now! I have already learned so much about Jesus Christ as my Savior!

My spiritual thought for this week will be a promise that President Nelson, the living Prophet of God on the earth today, gave us as we study The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ. He promised:

"I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions."

I know that to be true! If you are looking for any guidance in your life, I invite you to start reading The Book of Mormon every day! It will be a blessing to you!

I love you all! I hope you all are doing great! Let me know if I can pray for anything for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

A glimpse of the family call this week (Me in Tualatin, Mom at home, Lucie and Cami in Alabama, Spence at home, Ellie in Arizona on her way to Temple Prep class, Dad in Saint George on his way to a meeting)

{Letter #77} We're Going

 

Hi everyone! This week was super good--lots of fun things happening, including Mission Leadership Council (MLC), Stake President's Council (SPC), Just Serve meeting, zone council, and baptism.

First off,  Hunter, who I talked about last week, got baptized this weekend! I wasn't able to go because he lives pretty far away, but he said it was really great! Hunter is very very prepared to come closer to Christ and continue to do so now that he has been baptized.

Between MLC, SPC, zone council and the JustServe meeting, we had a lot of meetings this week.   Most of them were planned, except for the JustServe one which we got pulled into right as it started.

Here are a couple of the big takeaways from these meetings:

-this is the Lord's work, not ours
-as such, we should be anxious to account to the Lord for what He has trusted us with
-we are partners in this work with all people who have made covenants with God (i.e. people who have been baptized or been through the temple)
-serving in the community is also an important way to do the Lord's work
-Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice are central to everything we do

All in all, having so many meetings was fun and inspiring, but definitely a little tiring as well.

My spiritual thought for this week is going to come from Abinadi's teachings in The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

Abinadi, quoting Isaiah, taught:

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Mosiah, 14:3-5)

Jesus Christ knows all that we go through! He can heal us from all our troubles and pains if we choose to turn to Him!

I love you all! let me know if I can do anything for you all! I hope you have the best week!

Make it count!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS  I got a new nephew this week!   Oliver Glen Bourne was born yesterday and is very, very cute.

PS #2   Here's a glimpse at our family phone call this week.   Ellie in Arizona, Mom at home, Me in Tualatin, Dad in Saint George, Spence at home, Cami, Garrett, and Oliver in Alabama, Emma in her car on the way to the temple.