{Letter #74} Let it Snow

Hi everyone! I hope you have had a great week! Things have been great here! It snowed a few inches here on Saturday, which may not sound too bad, but Portland does not know how to handle snow and it's stayed cold.  

That means all that snow is still there from Saturday and it is snowing more right now, so that's exciting!  The roads aren't great and the mission has advised us against driving until it melts away, so missionary work has been a challenge.  

We have been doing all sorts of phone calls, texts, and Facebook finding, which is great, but I miss being out and busy. Something that has been remarkable about all this, though,  is that we are still allowed to go out and walk around to visit with people nearby.

  And the biggest miracle of this whole situation is that every time we step out of our apartment to visit and talk to people, we have found someone to teach!

As missionaries we have been promised by a living prophet of God that "As you serve with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, the Lord will lead you to those who will hear His message."

This means that we have been promised this by God!

"What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." (Doctrine & Covenants, 1:38)

Besides all this we had interviews with President Botchway again. Those were amazing as always! He is very good at teaching what matters most in every situation. I had two main takeaways:

1. Lead by your example. Not just your words
2. Correct when necessary! it will benefit all people involved in the long run

Being stuck inside can honestly be tough. It is a bit of a challenge to be around 5 other people, who all have different opinions, constantly almost for 5 days straight.

But it has also taught me so much about love, service, and patience!

All things are for our benefit! To help us know Jesus Christ!

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth... For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hosea, 6:3-6)

All things that are given to us, trials, joys, commandments, laws, liberties, or literally anything, is to help us know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

My invitation to you all is to find Jesus Christ in your every day life! Look for what God is trying to teach you about Him!

He will bring you joy!

I love you all! I hope you all are doing great! Let me know if I can do anything for you all!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS from Mom:  Elder Goold mentioned that one day while they were trapped at home, he decided to do 35 pushups every 10 minutes for 5 hours.  He ended up doing almost 1200 push-ups!  😂

A doordashed meal from Mama G while we couldn't leave the house

 

Exchanges

A pre-snowstorm meal out

It's been very cold this week

Mealtime at the Botchways:  they fed us traditional Ghanaian food

Beautiful sunset view from our apartment

A glimpse at our family phone call this week:   (Me stuck in the apartment in Tualatin, Mom at the church in Alpine waiting for Ellie, Cami in Birmingham, Spence at home, Emma walking home from campus, Dad in Saint George:  NOT PICTURED:   Ellie having an interview at church, Garrett at home but not in the picture, Lucie sleeping)

 

{Letter #28} Snow Day Part 2

 Hey Y'all!! This has simultaneously been a  crazy week, but also fairly uneventful! Most of the eventfulness has been caused by the unusually snowy weather Portland has been receiving. 

 

A quick summary of what has happened: snow, snow, snow, rain, transfers, service with Auntie Lynn, temple, and lots of biking adventures.

First off, transfers were supposed to be last Wednesday! Elder Goff and I were unaffected this time around, which means it will be my first time with the same companion for 2 transfers. It started to snow Wednesday morning though, so transfers got delayed and we all had to be in our apartment early!

It snowed all day and all night long too, so when we woke up on Thursday there was about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground! 

Fun fact #1:   Portland does not have snowplows because they don't often get much snow and they use stickers for the reflective lines on the roads, which plows would damage. 

Fun fact #2:  Portland will not use salt or chemicals on the road, because it's bad for the environment.   They do use sand, but it's not as effective. 

In other words, it's been kind of a mess out there ever since. 

We did not go anywhere that day besides just walking around the complex.

We contacted a lot of people over the phone that day and also filled the time making cookies without a recipe, making homemade pizza, and trying to teach some people that lived in our complex, even though we live outside our area.

Thankfully we survived our second day stuck inside.

On Friday We had a service with the Elders serving in the Tongan ward living in our apartment! We helped a member of their ward named Auntie Lynn unpack a storage unit and move it into her house! That went really fast with 5 of us helping out! Thankfully the snow didn't inhibit that too much. She was very appreciative for our help with that.  We also shoveled at the church. 

After the service, transfers finally happened! Although we were unaffected by the transfer, we still had to go so I could get a new bike. Again. The bike I got is one of the biggest in the mission and has not managed to get a broken axle yet. So hopefully I can manage to not break its streak so far. I did already manage to get a flat tire that we couldn't patch due to the size of the hole, so we had to wait for the bike maintenance elder to bring us a new one.

Biking around in the snow and ice has also been quite the adventure, after transfers we went out into our area on our bikes. It took us about 1 1/4 hours to bike a distance that usually takes about 15 minutes. With how icy it had gotten, traveling was a bit of a struggle for a few days. We made our way around though!

Ever since Saturday afternoon it has been raining pretty steadily and non-stop. So we have gotten quite soaking wet for a few days in a row. But it's good! Thankfully we both have pretty good rain gear!

Just today we were able to go to the temple again! It is such an amazing experience, and I learn so much every time I go! If you haven't gone to the temple recently, you should go soon! It is a beautiful place and I promise you will learn something new!

My spiritual though this week is going to be from the prophet Alma's teachings {Alma is a prophet from the Book of Mormon} about the doctrine of Christ and His atonement. Alma taught:

"I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism. And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me."  Alma 7:15-16

I love the promise in these verses! As we show God that we are willing to keep the commandments that He has given us, to exercise faith in Him, repent of our sins, and make and keep covenants, that we will receive eternal life! Not only will we have this eternal blessing, but we will have joy in this life!

My invitation that I would like to give all of you this week is to study the covenants that you make to God. I promise each one of you that as you study these covenants, and seek to, either make them or continue to keep them, that you will have more joy every single day! I know that forming this connection with Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, will give you strength to overcome your trials!

Love you all! Have a great week! I love hearing from you all!

Love,
Elder Goold


Adam Goold
adam.goold@missionary.org

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