{Letter #101} Creator of All Things

 Hi everyone! I hope that you all have had a great week! What is something you're looking forward to? It's been a pretty good one here! We had zone conference, some exchanges, awesome lessons, and fun training things!

First of all, zone conference was awesome!

President Botchway talked a lot about the importance of becoming converted to Jesus Christ and the importance of focusing on him in everything we do! It was awesome!

What are some ways that you all focus on Christ every day?

On exchanges I got to go back to my very first area.... Boring, Oregon! It was awesome! I didn't see too many people that I knew while I was here, but it was still cool to be back. Kinda a full circle moment!

The people that we are working with here are awesome! There are a good number of people that are really close to accepting a baptismal date. If you could be praying for the Montiel family, Ashley, Blessing, Viola, and Wendy that would be great! The members in this ward are really great at connecting with our friends and being a part of their lives so it's always great to bring them along and see them become friends!

This week in training we have had all sorts of fun things. It's still a work in progress helping Elder Guymon, but he has already grown a lot! Working with new missionaries is awesome because they always give such simple and powerful testimonies! It's been awesome!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be from Alma's teachings to his son Helaman in The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Alma taught:

"I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

I love this principle! The Lord can do great things in our life but it often comes by small and simple means. This also applies to our own efforts! When we put forth small but consistent efforts, we will be able to make big changes!

I hope you all have a great week! I am praying for all of you!

Love,
Elder Goold 

Here are some photos from this week:

A cute duck family

P-day trip to Costco after a trip to the doctor for his comp earlier.  Rotisserie chickens were purchased...

Departing missionaries from my zone, along with President and Sister Botchway.

  I've been comps with three of them (Nielson, Moore, and Crum)

Another departing missionary shot...

A glimpse at our family phone call this week: (me in Gresham/Mount Hood, Mom at home, Spence at home--Dad was driving to Saint George, Emma, Cami, and Garrett were at work, Ellie is in the middle of finals week)

{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 #73} Exchanges x3

 Hi everyone! Super short email this week! It has been a great week though! I got to go on 3 exchanges. We also have been able to find quite a few new people to teach! All in all pretty awesome!

One exchange was with Elder Spence, another with Elder Crum, my old companion,

and the last was with Elder Nober. It was a lot of fun! All very solid Elders and good examples to me!

We got to eat at President Botchway's house for lunch today. He made fufu and peanut butter soup. Very good.

Also, as my spiritual thought, and something an invitation, BE OBEDIENT!

Doctrine & Covenants 130:20-21:

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

Mosiah 2:41

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it."

There was some troubles with several companionships in the zone. Being obedient makes you happier. You will be blessed of God.

So please, if there is something that you need to change to be more obedient to God's commands, do so! You will be blessed in all things!

I love you all! Have a great week! Let me know if there is anything I can do for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Here's a glimpse at our family phone call tonight:
(Ellie and Lucie in Birmingham, Mom in the car on her way to a RS activity in Alpine, Dad in Saint George, Me in Tualatin, Garrett in Birmingham, and Spence in Alpine.   Emma and Cami were at work and couldn't be a part of the phone call)

{Letter #63} Happy Halloween!

 I have very little time this week!

We got to go to the temple earlier today! It is the House of the Lord! A place to feel peace. (Haggai 2:9)

A quick summary of this week:
-Set off a fire alarm at a church
- fire department had to come to turn it off
-everything was fine though
-Had a great zone council
-Ward Halloween party that our friend Joao came to


I hope you all are doing well! Here's a verse from my studies!

"Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."  (Acts 2, 37-38)

When we come to Christ we are able to have the Spirit more in our lives!

Love you all! Let me know if I can do anything for you!


Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #62} By Faith Are Miracles Wrought

Hi everyone! I'm going to be completely honest. I feel like not much happened this week. I'll just write a short spiritual thought.

This week I finished The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In one of the last chapters the prophet-historian Mormon taught:

"Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. And after that he came men also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons [and daughters] of God. And as surely as Christ liveth he spake these words unto our fathers, saying: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you."

When we exercise faith in Christ and act on that, there will be miracles! It is through Christ that we are able to lay hold upon every good thing!

I invite you all to do something this week to help you increase your faith in Christ!

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #61} Shine On!

 Hi everyone! I hope this past week has been good! This last week was really good-- between President Bragg (our area President for all of Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Alaska) visiting our mission and my birthday (as I'm sure you're all aware thanks to my mom)!

Thank you for all who sent birthday wishes! It is greatly appreciated!  I had cheesecake leftover from MLC and some other good food. 

With Elder Bragg visiting we had a special mission leadership conference and zone conference (which was actually the entire mission). Those were seriously so awesome!

I'm pretty short on time today so I'll just say a couple things that really stood out to me.

-my call as a missionary is of God and from a living prophet!
-is true of any calling in the church that we are called of God
-spiritual power will come as we are obedient to covenants, commandments, and mission standards
-once again applies to all people!
-love God and love people

My spiritual thought from this week is going to be a couple verses that Elder Bragg shared with us. It is a promise from the Lord to us! He said:

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever."

The Lord asks three things of us and promises these amazing blessings in return! When we have faith in Jesus Christ, charity for others,and live virtuously, we are promised that we will be more confident, have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion, and we will understand the doctrine the God has given us!

These are pretty remarkable blessings! They will come as you diligently look to Christ!

Love you all! have a great week! let me know if I can do anything for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Here are some pics: 

Some good food

A glimpse of the annular solar eclipse from Portland.  We didn't have any glasses, but the sky looked cool anyway.

Pumpkins created by the youth that each represented a scripture story...

A  beaver statue and a random frog

A glimpse at our family phone call today... (me in Tualatin, Mom at home, Ellie in Rexburg, Spence at home, Emma in Provo, Cami at work with her camera turned off, and Garrett and Lucie at home in Birmingham.)  Dad had something going on and couldn't get on.