{Letter #25} Crazy Week in Beaverdam!

Hey everyone! I hope that y'all have had a great week! It has been a bit of a crazy week here in Beaverton (which my mom has informed me used to be called Beaverdam, so I will now refer to it as that because I like it better). A quick rundown of what happened this week: exchanges, lots of lessons, boundary changes, and a very friendly {and drooly}stray cat.

 

On Friday, I went on exchanges with Elder Stallard to the West Hills Ward! The West Hills Ward is a really interesting one, it goes from Beaverdam all the way to downtown Portland. So it definitely made for an interesting day going around Portland. But it honestly wasn't as weird as I was expecting. While we were there we were able to teach Nathena, the lady that was baptized last Sunday! So that was awesome to talk to her a bit more since that experience! It was also a very rainy day, so it was a good day to be in a car for me.

Saturday was probably the busiest day yet on my mission! We had 9 lessons all over our area! When we weren't in a lesson we were pretty much biking to a different lesson. There are definitely worse problems to have though.

On Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting, that was amazing to hear from the ward members! After our normal church we had an extra meeting where they redrew the ward boundaries! They completely dissolved the Griffith Park Ward right next to us and we got some new areas added in to our ward boundaries, it will be rather large to be covering on bike now. After that meeting we were doing some Facebook work in a park. A very friendly and temperamental cat just came and sat on my lap for about 10 minutes. Rather unexpected, but mostly a nice surprise until it scratched and bit me.

On Tuesday we went to the temple.  I love that place. 

For my spiritual thought this week, I wanted to send some of the teachings of the prophet Lehi {from the Book of Mormon} in 2 Nephi 2:6-8. In these verses Lehi is teaching his children about Christ and what 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."

I love these verses and how simply they teach the necessity of Christ coming to earth for each one of us! It is only through Christ that we are able to truly obtain a remission of our sins and return to our Heavenly Father. Christ willingly offered Himself as a sacrifice so this would be possible! In order to accept the gift that He has so lovingly given, we must turn to him and exercise our faith in Him!

My invitation for you all this week is to pray about how you can access the power of Christ's atonement more in your life!

I hope y'all are doing great! Love all of you!

Love,
Elder Goold 

PS {added by Mom}  This also happened on Sunday:   A ward member's older relative died {in the next room} while we at our dinner appointment.  😦

{Letter #24} Press Forward {in the cold}!

Alright everyone! This has been quite an eventful  and good week! It's been a little bit chilly this week to be on bike, but the Lord has been providing ways for us to stay warm thankfully!

Some highlights from this week: we had Stake Conference, new bike, emergency preparedness, Safeway, and lastly Nathena's baptism!

That list was very out of order^, but the first thing that happened was me getting a new bike. In addition to not shifting gears, the rear axle on my original bike also broke at some point on Wednesday. So Thursday morning I went to the mission office and got a new bike! It is fully functioning now, so getting around has definitely been a bit easier!

At the end of the day Thursday we finished up the day really close to a Safeway in our area, so we decided to go in to grab a scrub brush for our apartment. While we were in there we ran into a recent convert named Danny in the ward and we were able to talk for a little bit an set up a lesson with him! Super random, but good timing! We also bought 2 dozen cupcakes from the bakery, and Elder Goff biked around 6 miles back to our apartment while holding them.

On Friday, my front tire kinda exploded and got slime all over the place with a hole about the size of a nickel. We tried to patch the tire because we didn't have a spare, but that didn't work unfortunately. We had recently been checking out the emergency situations bike repair manual in our apartment though, and it suggested that you can tie your tube in a knot to plug a hole, so we tried it out.

It has now been functioning without any further issues for 4 days. Just a fun tip for the future if you ever get a flat tire.

Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference! All those sessions were absolutely amazing! The stake leadership, and President and Sister Haymond all gave a lot of amazing talks about Covenants and how you can increase your faith and learn from others. It was an amazing Stake conference!

On Sunday immediately after stake conference was Nathena's baptism! She was someone being taught by other Elders in our zone, but they asked us to give the intermediate talk! It was actually such an amazing baptism! Almost all of the mission leadership was there, President and Sister Haymond, the APs, our ZLs, and all the office Elders. So that was kinda cool to have that many people there to support Nathena in taking that first step towards God. All in all, an amazing baptism, and the intermission talk on the Doctrine of Christ went really well!

All throughout the week God has been placing His children in our path hat are prepared to receive the gospel. It is absolutely amazing! We have been biking around in the high 20s most evenings, but people keep letting us in and are showing genuine interest in progressing and learning more about Christ. It is amazing! We have been staying mostly warm, and teaching far more people than before!

My spiritual thought this week will come from Stake Conference. In one of President George's (the stake president) addresses he was talking about vertical covenants and horizontal covenants. Vertical covenants are the covenants that we make and keep with God. Horizontal covenants are the covenants that we make to help support others in keeping their covenants. An example of this that came to mind is contained in Mosiah 18:8-10 in which the prophet Alma {from the Book of Mormon} teaches:

"Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—"

These first couple verses are an example of the horizontal covenant!

Alma goes on to describe the vertical covenant that we make at baptism and says:

"Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?"

I love this idea. When we make covenants with God, we also covenant that we will lift and support others in their efforts of keeping the covenants that the have made. When we have made covenants with God we have a responsibility to keep those covenants, and to help EVERYONE be covenant keepers! My invitation for everyone this week is to study King Benjamin's address contained in Mosiah 2-5 and look for these covenants that we have made to God and to all people around us! I'd love to hear some of your insights

I hope y'all are doing great! Love all of you!

Love,
Elder Goold

Here are a few more pictures: 

I made hot chocolate cookies today!

A glimpse of our family phone call today:

{Letter #23} Feel the Fire!

Hey everyone!  It has been a very busy, but a very good week! A quick summary of what happened: rain, sun, exchanges, zone conference, and zone council!

It had been raining pretty steadily since I moved to Beaverton and have been on bike, but finally on Thursday the sun came out and it's just been  partly cloudy and about 35-40 degrees out! Definitely still a little cold for biking around, but better than getting rained on for sure.

On Friday afternoon, we had exchanges.  I was supposed to go to the West Hills area for that, but very last minute it was decided that I would be staying in Beaverton and leading out the area after only being here about a week! That was an adventure to be sure. It was really cool to learn a little more about the area and being on bike in general! There's more of an adjustment than just the physical factor of biking all day.

On Saturday we finished our exchanges and also had zone council! That was really good; we talked a lot about our goals and plans to achieve them. It is amazing the work that is being brought forth! This truly is the Lord's work and He is hastening it this day!

On Thursday we had zone conference.  The theme and title of this zone conference was Feel the Fire! At first Sister Haymond talked about the sanctifying and cleansing fire of the Spirit within us, then President Haymond talked about the fire of the covenant--specifically the Abrahamic covenant and how it's being fulfilled in this day!

My spiritual thought for this week is going to be some of my thoughts from President Haymond's remarks. The Abrahamic covenant is, in essence, that seed, or posterity, of Abraham would be as numerous as the sands of the sea, and that through the seed of Abraham, all the earth would be blessed.

When thinking about this after I came across Galatians 3:26-29 in which Paul says:

"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."

When we exercise our faith and are baptized into Christ's church, we are adopted into the seed of Abraham, and thus have all the blessings given to Abraham, by covenant, also given to us. The way that the seed of all the earth will be blessed is through priesthood power. The Handbook of the church says:

"God’s priesthood power flows to all members of the Church—female and male—as they keep the covenants they have made with Him. Members make these covenants as they receive priesthood ordinances."

This priesthood power is given to us as a gift from our Heavenly Father! As we strive to keep our covenants that we have made with Him we will have that priesthood power in our lives to guide and direct us for all things that we have been called or assigned to within the covenant.

This is God's work! He is gathering all the scattered children of Israel again! His power can and will be in your life as you make and keep covenants!

Love you all! I hope all of you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Goold

PS  Have you seen my new Facebook post yet?   Check it out. 

A screenshot from our phone call this week:  

{Letter #22} Beavers...? No, Beaverton!

Hey everyone! It has been a pretty eventful week! If you guessed last week that the beavers meant that I was getting transferred to Beaverton and that I'd be riding a bike, then you guessed right! If not, then I'm sorry, better luck next time. Also, unfortunately I have not seen any beavers yet. Only a nutria (see picture below inserted by Mom).   Don't worry, I'm still keeping my eyes open to find beavers, because beavers are cool and nutria look a little too much like rats.   ;)
 

Anyways on to the highlights from this past week: transfers, bike, Beaverton, temple, and lots of rain!

First off, last Wednesday the morning was spent mostly just going by friends' houses in Damascus and saying goodbye. After that, we drove to the mission office for transfers! My new companion's name is Elder Goff! We got everything situated and got my new bike figured out for me, then we went back to the new apartment! It was raining pretty hard that night, so it was a good way to break me into bike riding.

Being on bike is honestly a lot of fun; you just have to plan a little more time for getting where you need to go.  It takes about 30 minutes to get from one end of our area to another,  so that's fun! I quickly discovered that my bike doesn't shift gears, so that has made biking up all the hills fun! Thankfully, most of the time it's  not too bad driving around in one gear!   At least my bike has wheels, which is better than this car we saw.

Beaverton is a very different area from my last one. It is much more compact and our whole area is just a bunch of neighborhoods and apartment complexes. Whereas Damascus was mostly woods and had no apartments at all! It's definitely a different speed than the rest of my mission so far, but it's been amazing!

Today we got to go to the temple! The temple is such an amazing place to be, whether inside or out! If you haven't gone, or haven't gone recently, you should go! It's a beautiful and peaceful place!

It has rained pretty hard every day but yesterday, so I have been testing the limits of my rain gear while on a bike! I am glad to report that everything, including myself (mostly), has been staying dry!  The rain has made for a few very pretty skies out here!

We have already taught a few people that are making progress towards being baptized eventually! It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord moving His work forward in every way you can imagine! I know that this is His work, and He is blessing the lives of everyone who is a part of it!!

For my spiritual thought this week I wanted to share a little scripture from my personal study this past week! In this scripture, the prophet named Alma {from the Book of Mormon} is counseling his son Helaman about how he can receive strength and guidance from God. 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" (Alma 37:36-37)

I have gained such a testimony that this verse is true since arriving on my mission!! Whenever we are in need, if we ask God with a true desire to act on the answer we receive, and an open heart to the things the will of God, we will receive guidance and strength for our good! We will receive the support we need, whether it be directly through God, or through other people who have been prompted! I know this to be true! Next time you are in need of support, guidance, strength, peace, joy, or anything at all, just ask God! He will answer!

I hope y'all are doing well! I love all of you! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Goold