{Letter #99} Canby Rocks

 Hi everyone! My time is extremely limited this week so sadly this email probably will not get the time it deserves. I hope you all have had a great week! It's been awesome here! Here's a summary: James got baptized, several zone councils/trainings, and Elder Cherry wrapping up his mission, and finally transfer news today!

First off, James got baptized! He is amazing! He has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 2 years straight now and is super committed to follow Christ! He is awesome!

James is on the left, Brother Basargin from the ward baptized him

We had zone council and also a training by Sister Botchway. Both we talked a lot about studies and how they are key to our conversion. In Doctrine & Covenants 11:20-21 the Lord says:

"Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength. Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men"

Very true! Seek to obtain the word of God in our hearts! He will bless us!

Elder Cherry finishes his mission today. Things have been very busy with that. It's sad to see him leaving!

I also start my last transfer tomorrow, I'm going back close to my first area and training a new missionary and back on bike! It's going to be so awesome! Kinda a full circle moment.

My spiritual thought for this week is Hosea 6:6 which says:

"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."

In the context of the law of Moses this is really cool to consider. Everything that we do as disciples of Christ and members of His church is to help us know Him! I invite you all to think of how the things you do help you know God!

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." John 17:3

You will feel His love and guidance more and more!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

 

 

 King Benjamin's Tower Mission Activity from last week

{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 #85} He Is Risen!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Easter week! It was really awesome here! We had 4 of our friends we are teaching participate in ward/primary choirs! So that was cool! What did you all do to celebrate? How did you choose to remember Christ extra this week?

Not a ton happened here this week. We had some good lessons, an awesome Easter,

and some fun zone things!

This week with Easter we got to talk a lot about Jesus and invite a lot of people to church! A few questions that we were inviting people to ponder on were:

What did Christ suffer?

Why did He suffer?

What does that mean to me?

I encourage you all to think about those too! It will help you increase your faith in Christ! I'd love to hear any thoughts you all have :)

Our friend Tree was one of the ones who sang in the choir on Sunday! She absolutely loved that! She is doing really well and is loving every bit of the gospel! She is currently facing some challenges so if you all could pray for her, that would be great!

As for the zone things, that mostly happened today. We played pickleball and had a fun time with everyone there! We only had to borrow paddles from 4 different families for everyone to play😅

My spiritual thought this week is going to be from an ancient Prophet named Samuel the Lamanite. He taught:

"The resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord" (Helaman, 14:17)

Quite simply, because Christ rose from the dead we will all have the chance to return to God's presence!

The more we learn about Christ the more you are able to see His hand in your life every day! I hope and pray that you all will be able to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!

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

Love,
Elder Goold


Some random photos from this week:  

A glimpse at our family phone call this week.  (me in Canby, Mom and Isaiah at home, Emma in Provo, Spence at home, Dad on a walk in Saint George.   Cami and family were hosting people from out of town, Ellie was out with a friend).

{Letter #84} I Like Public Speaking

Hello everyone! How has your week been? Did anything fun happen? What are you doing to celebrate Easter this Sunday?

This week it felt like I was wearing a sign that had something to the effect of the title to this email. In case you were curious, I don't actually love public speaking.

This week was busy and pretty epic! We had zone conference, gave a training there too, temple tour, spoke in sacrament meeting (with about 10 minutes notice), and exchanges!

First of all, Zone Conference! That was awesome! It was held in a historic Portland Tabernacle. It's the first stake center in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the pacific-northwest. It is pretty cool! Lots of cool history around it. If you want to know more, you can email me!

In zone conference we got to give a training on planning! The main teaching point was actually the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether chapters 2-3. I highly recommend you read them and listen to what the Spirit teaches you about planning!

We had an awesome temple visitor center tour with our friend James! He is so cool! He knows a lot about the gospel already and is working towards being baptized! If you could pray for him that would be great!

This Sunday (Palm Sunday), we were outside the chapel greeting people as they walked in. The bishop walked in then turns around and comes back. "One if the speakers couldn't come today, would you be able to speak?"

That was fun! If you haven't given a talk in front of a few hundred people with 0 prep time, I wouldn't recommend it! It's okay though, it actually turned out really well! The Spirit definitely guided that😂

That goes very well into my spiritual thought for this week! It is some of the verses I shared in that talk. The prophet Alma taught his son Helaman. He talked about a compass that worked by people's faith in Christ. Alma said:

"And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.... The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever. And now, my son, see that ye take care of these sacred things, yea, see that ye look to God and live". (Alma 37:45-47)

(If you want more context you can read verses 38-47)

I love these verses! Christ is joy! If we look to Him we will have life, joy, and direction!

Especially during this Easter season I invite you all to ponder on Christ and His atoning sacrifice! You will feel those things.

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

Love,
Elder Goold

Here are some pics: 

Our friend Bailey and a couple of her friends

Our friend Jana

Our friend Diane

On p-day, we got to tour this incredible house built from scratch by a member of one of our wards.  It's huge and has lots of personality.   Our whole zone spent a couple hours touring around it.  Come to find out, one of the owners of the house grew up in the same ward I did in Virginia!  

Check out that dragon gargoyle! 

The scenic views from the house were incredible!

The grounds were pretty amazing too.

There were different themed rooms throughout the house

From last week's temple trip

P-day shenanigans

Last week's p-day included lunch at the Botchways' with the whole zone

Some more temple pics

A glimpse at our family call today 
(Me in Canby, Mom at home, Dad in Saint George, Spence in the car on the way to the gym, Emma in Provo, Ellie in Vietnam, Lucie in Alabama, Cam,Garrett, and Oliver were also there, but not in the picture)

 

{Letter #82} I *CANBY* Like Jesus

 Hi everyone!

Did you all have a good week? What was a highlight? How did you see God's hand this week?

This week in the Oregon Portland Mission was full of excitement!

Here's why:   I got transferred, some awesome lessons, and zone council!

It doesn't look like much when I type it out, but things were constantly moving and just very busy.

So on Wednesday we had zone council! It was awesome! We studied out our call as missionaries as a zone! We talked about all that is expected of us as disciples of Jesus Christ and what blessings come from that! It was really awesome!

Then on Friday, I got transferred from Tualatin to Canby! There's a lot of craziness with the transfer. I am now companions with Elder Moore, who I have served around (in the same apartment)  for 3 months previously! I am also still covering 2 wards.

My new comp, Elder Moore, and I

In addition to getting transferred, we were also moving apartments at the same time. So I got to help out with that when I got to Canby. Fun times! We successfully got everything moved before the end of the first night.  In both Tualatin and Canby we had some awesome lessons this past week!

I also got to say goodbye to a bunch of the people I was teaching in Tualatin.

Elder Nielson and I went out with some youth before transfers

We also talked with Jim about baptism. He said that he didn't feel ready yet, but that he would keep coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. So that's awesome!

There are quite a few people that are progressing towards being baptized here in Canby! Our friend James has been getting ready for a while. I don't know everyone here yet, but I a sure that I will learn to love them!

My spiritual thought this week is going to be from a prophet named Jacob. He taught:

"...they despised the words of plainness,... and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it" (Jacob 4:14)

In this verse Jacob is specifically talking about the ancient people in Israel, but it applies to us too!

Ask yourself:
What is the focus of my life? Am I allowing to let God prevail? Or am I "blinded" by everything going on?

When we let God prevail in our lives we will find joy, peace and understanding! President Nelson, a living prophet of God, taught:

"the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives"

I know this to be true! Focus on God in your life! He will bless you!

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

Love,
Elder Goold

PICS FROM THIS WEEK:

My last picture with Elder Nielson (who is 6'10") and the official Tualatin Zone Leader Tie, which has been in the rotation for many years.

District Lunch with the new district at a Mexican place. 

The temple pic was taken by Elder Britt;   Elder Moore and I out for lunch one day

A glimpse at our family phone call today: 
(Me in Canby, Mom at home, Ellie in Vietnam, Spence at home, Dad in Saint George, Lucie, Oliver, & Cami in Alabama)