{Letter #100} Back in Mount Hood

Hey everyone! How have you all been this last week? Anything fun happen? Have you felt God's love for you this week?  It has been crazy week here in Mount Hood, but pretty awesome!

Here's a few things that happened: transfers, new missionary, training meetings, service, mission leadership council (MLC),  biking, and lots of finding!

So at transfers we all got to meet our new missionaries that we're training. My new companion is named Elder Guymon! He's from Huntington, Utah and is a very good hard working missionary. This was the last time I will be at transfers and see all those missionaries, but it was really good to be there one last time.

The next day we got to make the 1.5 hour drive back to the mission office (the furthest possible drive in our mission) for training meetings! Those were fun! There were 24 new missionaries that came in so it was a pretty big turnover. But it happens almost every summertime, and it's a good opportunity to help the incoming generation of missionaries start on a right track. Training is a lot of fun!

The next day we had MLC--the second to last one of my mission. It was another 1.5 hour drive back to the mission office for this. We got to talk a lot about how we will help other missionaries develop their skills and spiritual strength this transfer. It's always good to counsel with others and make specific plans!

In this area I get to bike everywhere! It's actually so much fun! It's only the second time on my mission that I've been on a bike. It creates a lot of opportunities to talk to people and invite them to talk more with us! It's cool to see how God works with our individual efforts and circumstances when we give it our all!

We have found a few really awesome people this week! One of the coolest is a woman named Ashley. She had just taken a step back from her church and was looking for a new one to go to with her family. She was super excited to read from the Book of Mormon and said she will come to church this Sunday!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be very simple but something that I've been thinking a lot about. In The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ the prophet Moroni teaches:

"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me" (Moroni, 7:33).

I know that this is true! When we put our faith in Christ we will have power to do all things that He has asked us to! I invite you all to do one thing to increase your faith this week! You will feel Christ's power acting in your life!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

More pics from this week:

Bailie (from my last area) just got baptized this past weekend!  I was sad not to be able to attend, but I was thrilled that she was so well-supported by the ward and was baptized by one of the young men. 

Look at that baptism attendance! 

 

 

 
A glimpse at our family phone call this week:   I only had time for a quick call with Mom and Dad.

{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 #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 #67} The Season for Giving Thanks

 Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing great! These last couple weeks have been awesome! We had zone conference, Thanksgiving, lessons, and many services!

Zone conference was awesome! I didn't get to give a training this time around, but I still learned a lot!

Some missionaries gave talks in zone conference about prayer and how we can have more meaningful prayers. Something they said that has stuck with me is the importance of praying with real intent! Meaning, praying with a intent to act on what answers we receive.

When Joseph Smith prayed in the Sacred Grove, he had an intent to act on what answer he received. It lead to him seeing God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

Although we likely won't seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ we can still learn from Joseph Smith's example! We need to act on what answers we receive. Whether or not it is what we expect or want.

You will be blessed to see God's hand acting in your life more as you do so!

Thursday was Thanksgiving (obviously) we were very blessed and received plenty of food from members of the wards.

Here's a scripture I like. Ammon said:

"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." (Alma, 26:37)

God is mindful of you! He is waiting to bless you! Turn to him in prayer. He will hear you and answer your prayers! Then, give thanks to God for all the many blessings you have! It will bring more joy than anything else can!

We have had a bunch of lessons this past week. Also a lot that fell through. People were busy with the holidays. But a lot of people wanted to reschedule for this week, so we will have a very busy week! It will be really good!

On Thanksgiving we were able to help out with a turkey trot.

That was a lot of fun! There was a member of the Tualatin stake that recruited our whole zone to help out and volunteer with it! They said it was a good chance to be in public with all the 600+ people.

Apparently they got a lot of positive feedback, so I think it went well!

Unfortunately, not everyone was here when we got the picture taken.

We also got to help a lot of people move this past week. Most of it just super random, got a phone call out of the blue asking for help. It was cool! Always good to help love and serve!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to come from "The Living Christ" which I am working on memorizing. While the entire thing is amazing I love this part:

"He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come."

As we come to know Jesus Christ and follow His example we will qualify for all the blessings that God has in store. We will find eternal joy, true peace and purpose, and a hope for all things to come!

Jesus Christ loves you! Learn to love Him by learning about Him and following Him!

I love you all! Have a great week! Happy Christmas season now! Let me know if I can do anything for you all!

Love,
Elder Goold

A glimpse of our family phone call this week....
(Ellie in Rexburg, Lucie, Mom, and Grandma in Alpine, Me in Tualatin, Cami at work in Birmingham, Dad in Saint George, Garrett on his way to work in Birmingham, Spence in the parking lot of the gym, Emma in Provo) 

{Letter #55} Serving in the Rain!

 Hi Everyone! I hope all of you are doing great! This last week has absolutely flown by. Training is a blast and makes things always pretty interesting. Some of what happened: service, service, service, and also an awesome lesson.   We always had something going on this week!

As I just mentioned, we had so much service this week, which is awesome! We helped 2 people move, did a wood-chopping service in the pouring rain, cleaned the church, and also helped someone set up a pool in their back yard.  Sometimes I miss teaching the Gospel when we are immersed in a service project, but then I remember that Jesus spent His days teaching AND serving.   This is part of God's work too. 

Elder Thatcher doesn't have a rain jacket yet, so he just got absolutely soaked while we were chopping and stacking wood. We're going to work on getting him one. He will definitely be needing it in a couple months when rainy season arrives.

We also had a couple meetings for new missionaries this week! It's been really cool to see all the ways that Elder Thatcher has grown, even in just the first half of the transfer. We currently are talking a lot about setting goals and plans and also developing Christ-like attributes. When we seek to turn outwards and love others, we will begin to become more Christ-like.

The awesome lesson we had this week was with our friends Chris, Pam, and their two kids. They have a few really close friends that are members of the ward that I'm serving in. We invited one of them to join us for the lesson and it was seriously awesome!

We read through the Introduction to The Book of Mormon with them and we got to this phrase describing what is in The Book of Mormon:

"It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come"

When we read this, the member bore testimony of the peace and the power that The Book of Mormon has had in their life. Pam just sat there for a second and said "WOW, THIS IS WHAT I NEED!"

It was amazing. The Spirit was very strong. They committed to come to church and were very excited to read from The Book of Mormon and pray about it also.

I have a testimony of this phrase from Preach My Gospel chapter 13:

"(The Lord) will magnify your efforts to the degree that you work in unity with local leaders and members"

My Spiritual thought from this week will be something I read in personal studies recently. The ancient prophet Alma taught his son Helaman about prayer. Alma taught:

"Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever. Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good"

When we turn our mind and heart to the Lord regularly in prayer we will be blessed! We will be guided!

God loves you all! He will guide and direct you when you turn to Him!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Let me know if I can do anything or all of you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Photos from this week:

Some really really tall sunflowers we saw

The ward I'm serving in is very generous and gives us so much food, we've hardly had to buy any recently.  Here is one of the more interesting items we've been given. 

A district lunch together after district council

P-day activity

 Here's a glimpse at our family phone call this week (in 2 parts, which meant we got everyone but Cami, who was at work):  

{Letter #44} Service is a Blast!

 Hi everyone! I hope all of you are doing well! This is going to be a pretty short email, but things are going really well here in Farmington! A couple random things that happened from this week: Stake President's Council, service, more service, and lastly some fun lessons.

First off. Stake president's council! All the missionaries in the zone met with the stake president and we talked about how we can help people gain a deeper conversion to Christ in each of our areas! One of the biggest things that he wanted to emphasize was the importance of regular temple attendance! Making sure that all members are worthy to hold, and do hold an active temple recommend. It was incredible to hear some of the reasons why temples bless our lives! They truly are the house of the Lord! We get closer to him when we attend regularly.

Second. We had a lot of service this week, ranging from wood chopping, moving people, gardening, and cleaning the church.  It was all good. Serving others is a blast!

And lastly, we had a lot of pretty bashy lessons this week! It has been really interesting that this area out in the farm country has a lot more people that want to bash with us than any other area.

My Spiritual thought from this week is the talk by President Nelson called  "Peacemakers Needed". I invite all of you to read it and focus on one thing he invites us to do! Try your best to do it through the coming week! I promise that as you do you will be closer to God, your family, and all people around you!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

A glimpse at our family phone call today:   Adam in Farmington, Lucie and I on a walk here in Utah, Garrett at home in AL, Cami on her way to work, Spence just finished with his first day at a new job.  Dad was in a meeting at work, Emma was at work, Ellie is at YW Camp at Flaming Gorge.  

{Letter #42} SEARCH AND RESCUE: To Seek and Save

Hey Everyone! I hope all of you are doing well! This week was very busy, but so good! A quick summary: Zone Conference, interviews, exchanges, and the temple!

First off, we went to the temple today! If you haven't been to the temple, or haven't been recently, you should go! It is a place that we learn more about God's plan for us and can feel His love!

Yesterday we went on exchanges! It was really fun actually! I got to ride around on bike for the first time in 2 transfers, so that was nice. We were able to find a couple new people to teach and a few more that were interested, it was a really good exchange. Elder Francom and I also got to talk a lot about goal setting and what we can do to set more effective goals that stretch us, but are still achievable. Ultimately, we decided that the key to doing that is involving Christ in our goal setting. As we do so, we will deepen our conversion to Him and also be more able to help others do the same.

We also had interviews with President Haymond yesterday! We did them in the mission office and just got to talk with Sister Haymond while we waited. It was really good! We got to hear a lot about their story from before their mission. It was a powerful witness that they were called of God to lead the missionaries here! The actual interview was super short. We talked a little bit about how to help other missionaries be more diligent and accountable, ultimately making these things natural and something that pushes us to be better. It was good!

Lastly, zone conference! The theme of this one was Search and Rescue, to Seek and Save.

 It was possibly one of the best ones that I have had since getting out. They talked about how it is our sacred responsibility to be the ones that carry God's children to Christ. We need to seek out the one soul that has strayed from the fold of God. As missionaries, we are called to invite others to come unto Christ. That is everyone's duty who has found Christ in their life! To be a light, a guide, and a support as other people are lost and seeking for truth!

I invite each one of you to find a way to be a light to those around you this week! Show your love for others! Jesus Christ taught:

"Let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

When we shine our light, we will be happier! God will bless us and we will have a stronger relationship with those around us!


I hope y'all have a great week! Love all of you! Let me know if there's anything I can help with!


Love,
Elder Goold