{Letter #89} Hail on a Tin Roof

 

Hi everyone! I hope this week has been great! What is the most exciting thing that happened to you? What are you looking forward to?

It has been a good week here! We had a pretty low-key week filled with lessons, service, nine friends that came to church, and lots of rain like normal!

In one of our lessons with our friend Kasey we were sitting outside on her back porch with a tin roof like we usually do. It was particularly rainy day out, so it was pretty noisy with the tin roof. (Going inside wasn't an option). We were practically yelling at each other even though we were sitting about 5 feet away from her and someone from the local church.

After we prayed, it started to hail. We could hear literally nothing. I couldn't even tell what I was saying. It was insane! It continued like that for about 5-10 minutes. we thought we were going to have to cancel and reschedule.

After a little while it just switched back to pouring rain so if we were yelling we could hear each other. That's when our friend Kasey started telling us that she had been praying all the previous day and most of the night asking God to help her know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the church was true. She said that she never really felt anything in that moment, and she was asking God to tell her "loud and clear" that these things were true.

She the said that she was pretty sure what we just heard was the loudest thing that she had ever heard in her life. She said that God spoke to her through the rainstorm and told her that it was all true!

After that, the rain stopped and the sun came out and we had a great lesson with her!

It was awesome the she was able to recognize the voice of God speaking to her. Although she didn't literally hear His voice, she was able to trust that that was the answer to her prayers. Which goes along with my spiritual thought this week.

In a couple verses Nephi teaches us these principles. Nephi said:

"the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding." (2 Nephi, 31:3)

"for when a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men" (2 Nephi, 33:1)

God does hear prayers and He does answer them! He will speak to each of you to your understanding by the Holy Ghost. It is our choice to choose to recognize it as God speaking and answering our prayers! It can be hard though to recognize His voice at times!

I invite you all to listen to this talk from General Conference. It helped me understand how to recognize God's voice better! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Pillars and Rays

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/15dushku?lang=eng

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

Love,
Elder Goold

Some very random photos from this week: 

A glimpse at our family phone call this week:   Ellie in Rexburg, Mom, Emma, and Spence at the Copper Onion in SLC eating Spence's birthday dinner, Dad in Saint George, Me in Canby. 

{Letter #65} Car Time!

Well, my excitement of having a minivan has turned into me driving for 3-4 hours today. 

So I'm a little short on time! It's been a great week though! We had Mission Leadership Council (MLC), zone council (with President and Sister Botchway!), and a bunch of lessons!

At MLC there was a lot of good discussion on what we can do to improve our efforts to find, teach, and baptize as a mission. It was really good for the most part!

Something interesting that happened was a lot of missionaries there were focusing a lot on the negative and everything that our mission is currently doing poorly. It ultimately ended up in a lot of discussion of HOW we can do things different. HOW we can change.

But they completely skipped over the WHY and the WHAT. The things that actually influence our attitudes and behaviors.

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behaviors" -I don't remember who

But when we understand doctrine and the WHY behind what we are doing we are far happier. We are far more likely to actually have lasting change.

Although it wasn't the most productive council, I still learned so much!

At Zone Council we talked about some changes that the mission had in rules. Most of these seem like looser rules at first glance, but are actually an invitation for us missionaries to step up and live a higher law. Really interesting

And then we talked about how living the doctrine of Christ blesses our lives and the lives of all God's children! It was awesome! The Spirit was very present and I learned a lot from all the missionaries in the zone!

We have had a lot of lessons this past week with a few of our friends. It's really interesting to see how big of a difference it makes in people's conversion when they try to keep the invitations we extend.

When we invite someone to read the Book of Mormon, pray, or come worship church, we invite them to take the foundational steps to build their testimony and increase their conversion! When people act on it I can see them become happier, gain more hope and peace, and find a true lasting purpose!

It's amazing!

When they don't act on these things they simply stay the same way they were when we first met them. It's a little sad when that happens. All we can do is continue to love and pray that the Spirit will work in their hearts.

Some other things that happened this week:
-went to a baptism and ran into a friend from VA
-some amazing talks in church and lessons in EQ
-linger longer after church + about 5 lbs of brisket to take home after that

My spiritual thought for this week is from Alma's teachings. (And my Dad sent this verse to me today and I really loved it) He said:

"And now we only wait to hear the joyful news declared unto us by the mouth of angels, of his coming; for the time cometh, we know not how soon. Would to God that it might be in my day; but let it be sooner or later, in it I will rejoice."

As we look to Christ we will have true lasting joy! I promise that to each of you! Look to Christ this week!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

 
PS  Here's a glimpse of our family phone call today:

(Me in Tualatin, Mom in Alpine, Dad in Saint George, Emma in Provo, Cami at work in Birmingham, Spence in the grocery store in Highland.  Missing:  Garrett at work, Ellie doing homework in Rexburg)