{Letter #75} Til We Meet Again

Hi everyone! It's been a great week here! We weren't allowed to leave our apartment until Friday due to the snow and ice on the road.

After that things have just been absolutely crazy!

We went to the temple today. It was Elder Shaw's departing temple trip. He completes his mission this Friday.

The temple is amazing! It is the house of the Lord! No place is as holy or sacred as the temple.

If you haven't been or haven't been recently, go! At least just visit the grounds. You will feel peace!

We also had Stake Conference (a congregation from a larger area) for church this Sunday! That was awesome! A couple specific reasons why:

-we got recruited to sing in the choir last minute
-we had 3 of our friends come on Sunday
-Elder McKay from the Quorum of the Seventy was there

The biggest takeaway from this church was the importance of the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day is as holy and sacred as the temple.

We cannot let our activities on the Sabbath become commonplace. They should be sacred activities! As we do this we will know Jesus Christ in a newer and more personal way!

My spiritual thought for today is going to come from Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"The beauty of the gospel is that we can be forgiven as we repent—and the Lord wants us to repent without delay. If you make a mistake,... repent in that moment and keep trying to live His law. This is part of being a disciple of Christ."

I love this! Repentance is not God's backup plan for if we mess up. Repentance is God's plan.

Always has been. Always will be.

If we were all perfect always that would be Satan's plan.

So follow Christ! Turn to Him! Repent! Discover the joy of repenting daily! Discover the joy of Jesus Christ!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

 PS  P-day included a temple trip, bowling, shopping for the first time in a couple weeks, and some board games.

A close up of some of the ice...

Elder Shaw's final District Council

Damage on the temple grounds from the ice storm...

A glimpse at our family phone call today (me in Tualatin, Mom making dinner, Ellie in Arizona, Spence just finishing up at the gym) 

 

{Letter #29} No Hablo Espanol

Hi everyone! I hope that y'all are doing well! This week has been a pretty fun week! We have had lots of opportunities to share the gospel and invite people to start learning more about Christ! A brief summary of what happened: exchanges, speaking Spanish in church, international food activity, lots of rain (again), and lots of new people to teach!

This entire week has been on and off raining pretty hard and it has made for some very wet biking.

It's also been good though, because we have discovered that people are a little bit more likely to let us in to talk with them! So there are definitely some plus sides to it!

Last Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Cotton in his area!

We didn't have a ton of opportunities to teach, but the biggest thing I learned was the importance of acting to feel spiritual promptings. We will not receive spiritual promptings, or guidance from the Spirit, until we show the Lord that we are willing to act on the promptings we receive. the example that comes to mind of this is the prophet Nephi {from the Book of Mormon} who said:

"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless I went forth" (1 Nephi4:6-7)

I love this. We often will not have a clear idea of what we need to do when we are making decision. But when we show the Lord that we are willing to act, we will receive guidance from the Spirit!

This Sunday we were at church greeting people as they came in to sacrament meeting. about 10-15 minutes before church started one of the Hermana's friends that they are teaching showed up! His name was Jose and it was his first time coming to church. It was a full 1 hour 15 minutes before the Spanish ward started. So with our very broken Spanish, and the help of a ward member, we sat with Jose through sacrament meeting and tried to help him understand what was going on. It was a really cool experience!

Over the course of the last week we were able to find 5 new people to teach! Their names are Pramira, Sam, Laura, Slater, and Malik! We found them through a variety of different ways, but it is seriously such a witness to me that God is placing His children in the path of the missionaries so they can receive the restored gospel! Whether it is through spontaneous service, fake referrals, random street contacting, or door knocking, God will provide a way for His children to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

My spiritual though for this week is from a scripture that has been coming to mind a lot recently. In this scripture the Prophet Lehi {from the Book of Mormon} is teaching about Christ and all that He will do for us! Lehi taught:

"Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise." (2 Nephi 2:6-8)

How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth! it is only through Christ that we can find eternal joy, receive strength to overcome our trials, and be forgiven of our sins!

My invitation to each one of you this week is to study a story about Christ and apply it to your own life! Learn how the stories of Christ contained in the scriptures can help you find peace and joy!

I love you all! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Goold 

Some random pictures from biking around this week...

A sampling of food from the international food activity at the church

A member from Portland that is good friends with someone from back home in Virginia...