{Letter #97} Rejoice in Christ!

 Hi everyone! I hope you all have had a great week! What have you done this summer? What have you learned recently?

This has been a fun week here! We had several exchanges and I got to go to downtown Portland, got to give a last minute talk in sacrament meeting (again), and some awesome things with our friends!

Elder Cherry and I

On my first exchange I went with Elder Crum to downtown Portland again. Old area with my old companion and my MTC companion too! It was lots of fun! The day wasn't too exciting, but it was just a solid day of missionary work.

Downtown Portland

My second exchange was with Elder Gilleland. I've lived with him for the last 4 months now, he's awesome! He usually works in the other half of Canby and does a great job. We had a good full day, most of our lessons fell through, but it's alright! Still worked hard!

Elder Gilleland and I

On Saturday night we got a call from President Botchway, our mission president. That's pretty unusual when we didn't call him first. He had some exciting news though! Our friend James got approval to be baptized! We called him immediately after and he's getting baptized in 2 weeks! He's been putting in a lot of commitment and faith for the last several months, so he was very excited!

On Sunday as we were welcoming people to church our bishop let us know that the main speaker wasn't going to be there and they needed about 20 minutes to be filled. So Elder Cherry and I got to give 10 minute talks each with about 20 minutes advance notice. If this sounds familiar, it's because this was the second time that this has happened in this ward! Both talks went really great! I talked about finding joy in Christ and in our covenants.

Which leads to my spiritual though. I want to share 2 sets of verses. In Proverbs 3:5-6 it says:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

And in 2 Nephi 25:26 Nephi taught:

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

When we continually trust in Christ, trust in His timing, and trust in His power, we will find joy!

We will be able to find lasting joy no matter what our circumstances are! I invite you all to write down ways that Christ has blessed your life! You will begin to see His hand more each day!

I love you all! I'm praying for you! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Goold

P-day kickball

A glimpse at our family call today:  Me in Canby, Dad, Emma, Mom, and Grandma at home, Ellie in Rexburg, Spencer in the car on the way to or from the gym.  Not pictured:  Cami and fam, while she was at work

{Letter #96} Have Courage, and Be Kind

Hi everyone! I hope you've had a great week! I'd love to hear how you are doing and anything that you are looking forward to!

This has been a good week here in Canby, Oregon! Here's a few things that happened: zone conference, exchanges, ward parties, and of course some fun lessons!

Zone conference was awesome! We talked about having courage in the ways we behave ourselves and being true to God and the commitments we make.

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Partridge again. This is transfer # 9 serving close to him! It's a lot of fun to work with someone for over a year of my mission. We had a good day and we're able to find a few people to teach!

On Saturday we had a ward party in both wards we serve in! Both were great missionary opportunities and we got to meet a lot of new people that the members had invited! It was pretty awesome!

We have started to get fed by the members a little bit more! People are finally realizing that we were getting an average of less than 1 meal with members per week, so they are doing things about it now! The first one this week was lasagna (my favorite meal)! It is the only time a member has made lasagna for me my entire mission!

My spiritual thought comes from chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel, specifically integrity, which was mentioned in Elder Gerard's talk in General Conference

“Recent revisions to the Preach My Gospel missionary manual notably added integrity as a Christlike attribute... A life of integrity is not a life of perfection; it is a life in which we strive every day to foremost be true to God and within that context to be true to others.”
-“Integrity: A Christlike Attribute”, Elder Jack N. Gerard, April 2024

The whole chapter is awesome! I would highly recommend reading through it as a part of study time someday.

"When you have integrity, you understand that there is right and wrong and that there is absolute truth—God’s truth. You use your agency to choose according to God’s truth, and you promptly repent when you do not. What you choose to think—and what you do when you believe no one is watching—is a strong measure of your integrity."

Anyways, I hope you're doing well! Have a great week! I'm praying for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

An interesting sight we saw this week

The eggs were frozen  / Another shot with Elder Partridge

{Letter #95} Church is Awesome!

 Hi everyone! How has your week been? Anything fun happen? Anything you're looking forward to?  How have you felt God's love in your life this week?

This week has been busy. Very very busy. We've had a lot of meetings, some good lessons, and some service. Busy is good.

In this area we usually have anywhere from 1-6 hours of just meetings every day. One of the longest days of meetings is Sundays (since we attend 2 wards + meetings). Church is awesome!

In a meeting with the Stake President here in Oregon City we talked a lot about the sacrament and why it is so important in our personal conversion. It is the only time that we have to renew all our covenants that we have made with God!

Now what does that really mean? It means re-committing to keep our end of the covenants with our current experience that we have gained each week. And in addition to that, God re-commits His promises to us.

The best way that we can continually feel close to God is regularly partaking of the sacrament.

We also had Mission Leadership Council and Zone Council this past week. We talked a lot about goals. When we set goals we are preparing for the future and thinking how we can be better covenant keepers. Regularly reviewing and following up will help us to learn and improve from past failures or successes!

We had a few fun service opportunities this week. Mostly just helping people move. It was fun. We got to work with some missionaries from other areas on those!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be the blessing on the sacrament! It has been revealed by Christ, who said:

"O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen."

The sacrament is an opportunity to review and follow up on each week. But it is not meant to be a time that we beat ourselves up for everything we did wrong! It is meant to be a time to look forward to how we can deepen our commitment to follow Christ!

I'd love to hear how you have made the sacrament more meaningful to you!

I love you all! I hope you are doing great! I am praying for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Elder Cherry has a cherry

Elder Cherry and his shoe phone

The member owned ice cream place that gives missionaries a 50% deal (?)

A glimpse at our family phone call this week:  (me in Canby, Mom and Dad at home, Ellie in Rexburg, Spence on his way to the gym)

{Letter #94} I Will Walk with Jesus

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week! It has been busy busy here! We had transfers, interviews (3 days after transfers!), exchanges, and lots of fun lessons!

First off, transfers! Elder Cherry and I are both staying here in Canby! This is the first transfer of my whole mission that I haven't attended for some reason. It was nice not to have to worry about going to Beaverton! We just got to keep working in Canby!

Just yesterday we had interviews with President Botchway! That was far earlier in the transfer than normal. We got to talk a bit about what's happening with zone conference in a couple weeks. We also talked a lot about continuing to point others to Christ to change their nature. It was a cool topic of discussion!

In one of our lessons this week our friend Bailie decided on a date to be baptized! She has such an amazing testimony of the gospel already and is so prepared! She bore her testimony at church of how the gospel has changed her in the past year since she started coming to church.

The gospel truly changes lives! It is not meant to just make us happy for a little or be a once a week thing. As we truly look to Christ we will have lasting joy! We will become more Christlike!

My spiritual thought this week is from 1 Nephi 19:23. Nephi taught:

"And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning."

The scriptures are for us to learn about Christ! They will only truly bless our lives as we seek to apply them to our circumstances though! As we do it allows Christ into our life to change and lift us!

I would love to hear what things you have been applying from the scriptures recently!

I love you all! I hope you all are doing great! I am praying for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

P.S.
The new hymns came out. You should go listen to them. They're awesome.

Exchanges with Elder Willardson:

P-day fun.  We played ultimate frisbee:

A glimpse at our family phone call today:  (Ellie in Rexburg, Mom at home, Me in Canby, Garrett and Cami in the car on the way home from Chicago, Spence on his way home from the gym)