{Letter #98} Blessed and Happy State!

 Hi everyone! I hope you all have had a great week! It's been an awesome week here. A lot of fun things going on! We had several exchanges, lots of meetings, cemetery grave digging  service, and King Benjamin's tower.

So this week was crazy for exchanges! There was an elder that had to go to the hospital unexpectedly (he is okay now). We got asked by President Botchway to go on exchanges pretty much immediately so everyone would be out serving where possible. It was actually really good! I got to go with Elder Kennelly again! I've been on 4 exchanges with him now, he is an awesome Elder! I also got to go with a new missionary, Elder Hunt. He is super cool and is waiting for a visa to go to Japan for the rest of his mission!

We had Mission Leadership Council, some community service coordination meetings, and meeting with local church leaders. It has been a crazy week, but seriously so good! A couple things that stuck out to me are the ways that we can work together to solve problems. Seeking to learn from God and from the people around us is one of the most effective ways we can overcome challenges in our own life!

We had a cemetery restoration service. It was cool! We got to level and repair some headstones. I did not think digging up people's headstones would be something that I would do on my mission!

Today we had King Benjamin's tower mission activity! Each zone created their own flags for the event and we  talked a lot about serving others and being the Savior's hands. It was really cool! I invite you all to read Mosiah 2-5 in The Book of Mormon. The prophet, and king, Benjamin teaches a lot about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us! you will learn or feel something new!

This week our friend James is going to be baptized! He has shown forth so much faith since I have arrived! Prayers for him would be appreciated!

My spiritual thought for this week is a verse from what king Benjamin taught:

"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" (Mosiah 2:41).

As we follow Christ and keep His commandments we will be blessed in all things! we will have more lasting joy!

I love you all! I am praying for you! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #33} Abide in the Lord

Hi everyone! I hope y'all are doing really well this week! This has been another kinda crazy week, but really good! A summary of what has happened: General Conference, Karim, and a very flat tire in the rain.

I am once again going to talk about these in reverse order.

First off, I got a very flat tire. It happened right as we were arriving to the first session of general conference on Sunday. So we went and watched conference, then came out and had to deal with it at the end. Which wouldn't have been an issue, except that it was hailing and pouring rain during that time. We tried to patch the tire, but couldn't get it to work due to the size of the hole. Thankfully, we were close to our Bishop's house, who rides bikes a lot, and he was able to patch it (after 3 attempts over the course of an hour)! The bike has been functioning fully since then!

Yesterday we had a lesson with our friend Karim. He's an awesome guy! He was interested in learning more about baptism and reached out to the mission Facebook page about learning more. We were able to meet him at the church and teach him about baptism, how it can bless his life, and he was able to make friends with some members that we brought with us. It was a really good lesson, he is currently praying to know if Christ is the Savior and if the Book of Mormon is true!

Lastly, General Conference was this weekend! It was an absolutely incredible opportunity to hear from the living Prophet, Apostles, other church leaders that God has called to lead His church in these days! We were able to watch the sessions with a bunch of different members in our ward! All in all a very Spirit filled weekend with lots of guidance and answers to questions that I had! If you were unable to watch it, only watched some, or even watched it all, I strongly encourage you to go rewatch the talks of the living Prophet and Apostles that God has called!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be one of many things that stood out to me in General Conference. I will start off by sharing a scripture that the Apostle, Elder David A. Bednar, shared in his talk. In this scripture Christ is talking to Enoch. Enoch is wondering why Christ has called him to be His servant, despite all His inadequacies. This is Christ's response:

"Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good... Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." (Moses 6:32, 34)

I love the principles that Christ taught us in these few words. All people will have their inadequacies, and generally, I at least, beat myself up about them sometimes. I may think that no matter what I do it will not be enough. But Christ teaches us that as we go forth and do as He has commanded, we will Have His Spirit to be with us. We will be able to walk with Christ.

Even though all people will fall short sometimes, Christ will make our efforts enough. He will grant us God's grace, through His sacrifice, to strengthen us and lift us to the point that we are enough. We are enough to do God's will, to face the challenges that life will throw at us, and to feel God's love in every aspect of our life. I know that we can find joy, even in the hardest times of our life, as we keep Christ's commandments and seek to walk with Him.

I know and promise each one of you that your efforts are enough. I promise that Christ will strengthen you to be able to face every trial that you go through. If you walk with Him and abide in Him, you will be blessed!

I love you all! I hope all of you have a great week! Let me know if there is anything I can help you with!

Love,
Elder Goold

{Letter #32} Raining Love!

This week has been interesting and really good! We had a few fun things that happened this week and have some exciting things coming up.   A quick summary of what happened: fast and testimony meeting, returning missionary, lots of lessons, and lastly even more rain!

First off, this past Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. When we fast, we take a break from food and water for 24 hours, we donate the money we would have spent on food to the poor, and on the Sunday everyone has the chance to bear their testimony of Christ in church! It was amazing this time around! There were many powerful testimonies from members and the guidance that the Lord has given them in their life! We also had someone just return from their mission in our ward and it was really cool to hear some of his experiences from his mission.

We were also able to bring the freshly returned missionary to our district meeting this Monday. It was really cool to hear some of the insights he had  coming from a different mission that does things differently than we do. In that district meeting we also got to teach a few new members of the church!  I loved being able to hear their conversion stories and how they came to love Christ and the simple truths restored in The Book of Mormon.

We had lots of lessons this week and the work is definitely progressing!

We had a lesson with our friend Laura that I talked about last week. She was able to pray about the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon and the Church. She got an answer! It was such a spiritual moment when she was telling us about this!

Which leads to my spiritual thought for this week. This upcoming weekend, the whole world will have the opportunity to hear from a living prophet of God (click here for ways you can watch). This person has been called of God to lead and guide all God's children back to him! As we approach this weekend I encourage each one of you to seek for answers to questions you have, direction to guide your life, and how you can draw closer to God.

The prophet Nephi teaches us:

"For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him. For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round."
(1 Nephi 10:18-19)

I promise that as you diligently seek answers, guidance, and comfort, from God through His living prophet, that you will find answers! God will guide you! He will help you! He has a plan for each one of you and wants you to succeed in life! He wants you to be the best version of yourself possible! He has great love for each and every one of you!

I love you all! I hope that you all have a great week! Let me know if there's anything I can do for all of you!

Love,
Elder Goold




A glimpse at our family phone call today:  

{Letter #31} This is God's Work!

This week has been amazing! We've had lots of miracles, and signs over and over that confirm to me that this is God's work! He is with us every step of the way. A quick summary of what happened this week: interviews, exchanges, Jimmy, Laura, and Raven!

Those series of events happened in no particular order^^^

First off were exchanges last week! Those were a lot of fun! I got to stay in my area with Elder Stallard biking around with me!

 It was a pretty uneventful exchange for the most part, we did talk a little bit about following the promptings of the Spirit though. What we talked about made me think of the prophet King Benjamin (from The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ) said. He taught:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord"(Mosiah 3:19)

I love what this teaches us! The natural state of all people is to not follow the promptings of the Spirit. It is something that takes deliberate effort, in the form of diligence and faith, to follow the Spirit. But, despite this challenge of our natural state being to not follow the Spirit, we can overcome this! If we rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ for strength we can be more receptive to the promptings of the Spirit and increase our capacity to follow them.

I had never thought about that verse in that way, and thought it was kinda cool.

The next few things that happened were amazing lessons that we were able to have with some of our friends. First off, Jimmy. He has been taught by missionaries for a long time, and is facing a smoking habit that is difficult for him to break. In our lesson this Friday he expressed to us that he felt the need to be baptized so he can receive forgiveness. He also expressed that he just doesn't feel worthy though. We testified to Him of Christ's love and the redeeming power that comes through Christ's atonement. The Spirit was unbelievably strong. He is praying this week to know if it is the right thing for him to be baptized. We will be following up with him tonight.

The next cool lesson we had was with our friend Laura! We just met her a couple weeks ago, but she is awesome! She has some doubts about organized religion, but is still willing to meet with us and has been reading The Book of Mormon. We were teaching the restoration to her this most recent lesson, and we asked her what she would do if she knew that God had restored His church to the earth today. She said that she would undoubtedly follow it. She then said that despite her bad experiences with religion in the past, it feels right every time we come over. She is now praying to know for herself if the church and the Book of Mormon are true. We will be following up with her tonight.

Lastly our friend Raven. We just met her this week knocking on a random door. At first she seemed really uninterested, ubt as we asked a couple more questions she opened up to us about the things that she's been going through. The Spirit was very present as we testified of the strength that can come through Christ. She invited us back and we will see her again this Friday!

All of these things, and more, were just confirmations to me that this is God's work! The Gathering of Israel is truly the most important thing that anyone can be involved in on the earth!

The last thing that happened this week were interviews with President Haymond! These are honestly always a highlight. One thing that he encouraged me to do was to study and memorize the words of the living prophets! That is something that I will be working on for the next while!

Also, we went to the temple this week.

 If you haven't gone or haven't been recently, you should go! It is a place of learning and growth!

My spiritual thought this week is going to be from the living prophet's, President Russell M. Nelson's, most recent address to all God's children in General Conference. In this address he teaches how we can overcome the challenges, opposition, an failures that we all face in this world. President Nelson taught:

"Overcoming the world is not an event that happens in a day or two. It happens over a lifetime as we repeatedly embrace the doctrine of Christ. We cultivate faith in Jesus Christ by repenting daily and keeping covenants that endow us with power. We stay on the covenant path and are blessed with spiritual strength, personal revelation, increasing faith, and the ministering of angels...

"...I plead with you now—to take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Work for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. As you make the continual strengthening of your testimony of Jesus Christ your highest priority, watch for miracles to happen in your life."

I know that this is true. As you live the doctrine of Christ every day in our lives-- being: faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end-- You will be able to find strength in Christ. As you do these things and seek to increase your testimony and conversion to Jesus Christ, you can expect miracles to occur in your life. I know that.

I know this gospel is true, I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today, and I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of the church leading and guiding us and its leaders every day!

I love you all! Jesus Christ loves all of you! I hope all of you are doing well! If there's anything I can help anyone with, please let me know!

Love,
Elder Goold

We were introduced to the very Portlandian sport of roofball this week... 

It was actually discovered by someone in Beaverton and the world's headquarters are still here.  We were invited to watch when we rode our bike by and were quite entertained for the few minutes we watched. 

We got some B-Dubs for our lunch today....

A glimpse at our family phone call this week....

{Letter #30} Find the Path

Hey y'all! I hope all of you are doing fantastically! Things are going really well here! A quick summary of what happened: zone conference, exchanges, p-day hike, and more rain! I am, unfortunately, a little low one time, so this will likely be shorter than usual.

First off, we had zone conference this past Thursday! It was absolutely amazing! The theme from conference was Find the Path! President and Sister Haymond were talking about cairns (pile of rocks that act as a trailmarker, amongst other things) and what function as cairns in the gospel!

It was really cool to think of all these things that function as "trailmarkers" that can help guide us to Christ! I would encourage each one of you to ponder how you've seen that in your life! Ponder what events, places, people, or things have helped direct you to Christ and focus on Him in your life!

Second, we went on exchanges with our zone leaders last night! that was a fun time. I got to take the evening off from riding on bike and be in a car for a few hours. One of the biggest takeaways from the exchange was the role that charity plays in boldness! When we have a true Christ-like love for the people we come in contact with, we will be bold with them out of love for them! Being bold is something that has been difficult for me, so it was good to understand the role that charity plays with that! When we love those we serve, we will be bold with them to help them grow closer to Christ!

This whole week it has been on and off pouring almost every day. Today was the first completely sunny day that we've had since last p-day! Our district decided to take advantage of that and we went on a hike! It was in a place called Forest Park in Portland! We hiked to a place called Witch's Castle, it was an old run down place with lots of graffiti.

It was really cool though! Great to be in nature and enjoying the good weather!

My spiritual thought from this week is going to be from zone conference! One of the scriptures that came up that stood out to me was the prophet Alma {from the Book of Mormon} teaching one of his Sons about God's perfect plan for him. Alma taught:

"Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life."   (Alma 40:11)

This scripture brings such peace to me! to know that God has a plan for US. FOR YOU! He has a perfect plan that allows each and every one of His children to return HOME to Him! I love this promise of a home in heaven! I know and testify that God's plan truly is the Plan of Happiness! Through His plan we can have joy here on earth and eternal joy after!

I invite each one of you to gain a personal witness that God has a plan for YOU! I invite each of you to pray and ask God to know the truth of His Plan of Happiness! I promise that you will receive an answer, if you pray with a sincere heart!

I love you all! I hope all of you are doing great! Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Goold