{Letter #72} New Year, New Goals

 Hi Everyone!  Happy New Year's!   I hope y'all are doing great! It's been a good week! We had zone conference, went to the temple, some more exchanges, and lastly New Year's day!

Zone conference was great! They talked a bunch about finding people to teach and having faith in Christ and in His work. My companion also gave his departing testimony due to it being his last transfer.

Exchanges were great! I got to go with the Spanish Elders. We talked about leading by example. Lots of fun!

New Year's was great! We got to be with some members. They had a giant plastic wrap ball with lots of prizes in it. We had to unwrap it with oven mitts on. That was difficult, but I won $23 and some candy. Fun times!

We also got to go to the temple today! If you haven't gone recently, I invite you to go! It is a place of peace and learning!

My spiritual thought for this week is Alma 13:27-29. 

"And now... I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance;  But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;
 Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest."

Follow his counsel! Christ will bless you!

I love you all! Let me know if there's anything I can do for you all!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS from Mom:  He mentioned that he was sick this week.

Here's a look at our family phone call this week: {Ellie in Birmingham, Mom and Emma in Alpine, Me in Tualatin, Spence in Alpine, Cami and Lucie in Birmingham; Dad was driving to Saint George and Garrett was at work}

{letter #71} Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas! I hope you all have had a fantastic day (and week)! It's been a super busy week here between MLC, Mission Christmas devotional, exchanges, and today.

All those were seriously awesome! But today I just want to bear my testimony of Jesus Christ!

He lives!

Jesus Christ lived a matchless, sinless, and perfect life! He performed His great and infinite atonement on behalf of you! He has restored His priesthood and His church, through the prophet Joseph Smith, on the earth so we have a way to return to our Heavenly Father!

All things Christ did were on our behalf so we can obtain God's greatest gift of eternal life (Doctrine & Covenants 14:7).

Christ loves you individually and specifically! Turn to Him! Find His Joy! He will bless you and help you!

I hope you all are doing well! Have a merry Christmas! I love you all! Please let me know if I can do anything or pray for anything for you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Watching for falling walnuts...

Christmas gifts...Names of Christ ornaments, 12 days of Christmas caramels, lots of ties....

{letter #70} Jesus is the Living Christ!

Hi everyone! I hope you all are great! This week has been awesome! We had a great zone council, transfers, and an awesome Christmas concert!

Zone council was seriously so fun! We did it just before transfers happened, so it was a great way to reflect on the last transfer and everything that has happened. We talked a bunch about the Doctrine of Christ and how we can apply it to our life. It was very beneficial! I would invite you to study and apply it to yours as well!

Transfers was Friday! I'm staying in the same area with Elder Shaw! This is only the second time on my mission that I'll be with a companion for 2 transfers. Or 12 weeks. It's kinda crazy. It's gonna be a blast though! It's Elder Shaw's last transfer. We are ready to put in some hard work!

Lastly, the choir concert was amazing! Lots of Christmas songs. And lots of people from past areas I've served. We tried to get a friend that we are teaching to come because he loves music. But he didn't come unfortunately. It was still great!

My spiritual thought for this week is from "The Living Christ"

"We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

I love this! Christ is the light and life of the world! This time of year is special because of the extra light in each of our lives through Christ!

Study His life! Express gratitude for it! You will feel the happiness and peace that only He can bring!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

 

 A glimpse at our family phone call this week:   (Ellie, Mom, and Spence in Alpine; Me in Tualatin; Emma in Provo; Garrett, Lucie, and Cam in B-ham; Dad was in a meeting and couldn't get on)

{Letter #19} Merry Christmas!

Hey y'all! I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas! This week was actually quite uneventful, despite it being Christmas and Christmas Eve! The quick overview of what happened: I got sick, it sleeted, we got stuck inside, there was a Christmas Eve devotional, and it was Christmas!

On Wednesday it was about 20⁰ and windy the entire day. It also happened to be the day that I woke up with a mild fever. So I was just very cold and tired the entire day. We did a bunch of phone calls  and definitely tried to keep it pretty low key. 

Thursday the weather got COLD with  a high of about 15⁰. I was feeling a lot better though, so we were able to go out for most of the day.

At around 6pm, it started sleeting, so the mission president asked us to go back to our apartments and stay there unless it was absolutely necessary to leave.  This picture was taken just after the sleet started.  

We finished the day up with a bit of facebook work.

When we woke up on Friday nearly six inches of sleet had fallen and the world was encased in ice.  This was the view out our apartment window.

 Oregon has some of the worst road care I've ever seen and it seemed like they never even treated the roads. Because of this fact, we did not leave the apartment at all on Friday. We made many many phone calls though trying to get in contact with a bunch of our friends that we're teaching. 

Saturday was Christmas Eve and it had warmed up enough that the roads were much better and we were  finally able to safely leave our apartment. The church parking lot, however,  was still an ice skating rink, so that was fun. 

Most of the day was taken up by our mission's Christmas Eve Devotional! That was amazing! President and Sister Haymond talked a lot about Christ, and how His Atonement for us is the reason that we celebrate the Christmas season!

It was a super good devotional. They also made a video of the entire year in the mission, it was cool to see a bunch of those memories that people have!


Christmas day was really good! I got to call my family and go to church.  Church was also a really cool Christmas devotional, lots of singers and great talks on Christ. All around just a great way to celebrate Christ!

Monday was pretty uneventful, we had district council like usual, then the rest of the day was filled with normal missionary stuff. We had a phone call lesson with our friend Robin, we were able to set up a time to stop by and drop off a Book of Mormon to her.  It was really good! She seemed excited about coming to church this next Sunday.

And now for my spiritual thought! A verse that stood out to me this week comes from a vision that the prophet Nephi, from the Book of Mormon.  After this vision Nephi wrote:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory."
(1 Nephi 14:14)

I love the promise this scripture makes, and it also reminds me of President Nelson's (our modern day prophet) most recent general conference talk where he says:

"My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead. In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time He returns “with power and great glory,” He will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful"

Our Savior can and will bless us as we make and keep our sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. He will give us the power and strength to face anything that we face. This does not mean that life will be easy. But we will see the Savior's hand strengthening and enabling us to overcome these hard times!

My invitation to all of you is to focus on heavenly covenants this week.  Think of what you can do to be more faithful to them. I know that if you do that, you will be blessed with strength!

I love y'all! I hope y'all are doing well! I hope all of you had a great Christmas!


Love,
Elder Goold

PS  Can you spy me in this picture?    

{Letter #18} So This is Christmas

Alrighty everyone! Another week in the books here! Unfortunately I am running out of time so this will be a pretty short email. It was a pretty busy week, so a quick summary of what happened: our ward Christmas party, Exchanges... again, and today a zone Christmas party! All in all it was a very good week!

Our ward Christmas party was on Saturday, We went to the church Saturday morning to help set up chairs, tables and other decorations. I didn't take a picture unfortunately, but they decked out the gym with decorations. It was really cool! They set up chairs for about 200 people at the Christmas party and they actually filled it all almost exactly! It was a really good time, an a lot of people brought their friends and family, so it was a great opportunity to meet new people.


On Monday we had exchanges again! I stayed in Damascus and took Elder Jensen along with me!

 It was a fun time, we were able to find a few people who were interested in meeting with us and learning more! we also ran into someone who had just finished serving in the Salem mission a few months ago, so that was cool to talk to him for a minute.


Finally, today we had our zone Christmas activity!

We went to the church, did a little gift exchange, played a couple other games, and drank way too much fruit punch. It was fun to hang out with the other missionaries for a bit!

My spiritual thought for this week will come from my personal study.

I was studying Preach My Gospel about the Plan of Salvation. and in the section about the Creation the very last sentence says:


"We must walk by faith rather than by sight."


Which is also stated in 1 Corinthians 5:7

This just really stuck out to me this week again. Faith is not stagnant. It does not say that we must wait in faith. It says that we MUST walk by faith. We must act on what we have faith or a hope in. When we have faith in Christ we will act on His teachings before we recieve a sure knowledge of it's truth. we do not know manythings in this life with absolute certainty. Desite that we still walk forward, walk forward trusting that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. Find ways that you can walk in faith this Christmas week! Christ is the reason that we celebrate this season! Find ways to shine that light in faith!

Love y'all! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #17} Eyes to See

 Hello friends and family!  

So we had a very busy week--the good type of busy. 

On Wednesday the zone leaders went on exchanges with us, so I took Elder Boss to Damascus with me! It was a very fun time and we got to talk a lot about how when we set ambitious and faithful goals that we will be blessed in our efforts to achieve them. It was fun leading out the area with another new missionary, and just all around had a good time.

On Thursday we had a very long lesson with Marty. He talked a whole bunch about the gift of tongues and how there should be physical manifestations of the Spirit. He then proceeded to say tell some stories about how he had healed people and spoken in tongues. So that was an interesting lesson to say the least. We will see how that goes in the future. He's definitely an entertaining guy to talk to.

On Friday we had Zone Conference!

 That was really good! The theme of the Zone Conference was "Eyes to See". The first counselor in our mission presidency is an optometrist so he had some really cool analogies and examples with physical eyes and spiritual eyes.

And of course, President and Sister Haymond both had some excellent stories and analogies as well. I will talk a little bit about what they said in my spiritual thought.

 Saturday wasn't too eventful. We just had a bunch of lessons that fell through and also a bunch of random ones that popped up. It all worked out in the end thankfully.

On Sunday we got a new ward mission leader called. We'll see how the dynamics change with the new one getting into the swing of things. Right after church we also had the Temple and Priesthood Preview for the youth that are turning 12 this upcoming year! We were asked to give a brief talk about how priesthood responsibilities had helped us prepare for our missions. That was super cool! I will add that it is incredible how many temples there are being built and that already are built! The Lord's work really is progressing!

On Monday morning we discovered a nail in our very flat front driver side tire. We had to put the spare on then sit in a Les Schwab for two hours while they patched and refilled our tire.

 After that we had Elder Strand's last district council, which President Haymond came to. That was really good, but it also went really long.

Today we got to go to the temple first thing in the morning. The temple truly is an amazing place that invites peace in every way.

 After that we just came back here and Elder Strand packed up and left for home. It will definitely be different without him in the apartment.

 

And now for my spiritual thought! One of the many things that was talked about in Zone Conference is how faith is a forward looking action word. It is never something that looks back. We cannot have faith if we are living in the past. An amazing example of looking forward is Nephi (a prophet from the Book of Mormon). Nephi said:

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." (1 Nephi 3:7)

I invite you all to find ways that you can look forward and act in faith this Christmas season!

I love you all! I hope you have a great Christmas season!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS  Here's a screenshot from our phone call this week: