West Virginia Charleston Mission

West Virginia Charleston Mission

Monday, September 28, 2015

"My first area was announced as Covington..." Virginia that is.

Hellooo!

So it's been a while since my last real chance to email. Lot's has happened. I really loved the MTC and all that happened there! I learned so much about doctrine and teaching and studying and just everything! I saw Josh and his Swedish friends, I'm not sure if I already said that or not.

Getting up at 2:45 am to fly wasn't fun. I sat next to other missionaries on our first flight to Atlanta so I slept the whole time. There were a total of 50-ish Elders and Sisters on our flight going to WV, Atlanta, Tennessee, and Baltimore. Then our flight from Atlanta to Charleston was delayed 1.5 hours, so that was lovely. We got to the airport and met the Mission President and the APs, and they are all super cool! The President and his wife are super nice and the mission home is giant! Transfers are on Thursday here so we got a day of training and touring with the Mission President on Wednesday. Thursday was transfers. They had all of the new missionaries line up at the front of the chapel and called us out one by one and announced where we were going and then our trainer would run up and greet us! It was pretty cool, although I went last, which was terrifying haha.

My first area was announced as Covington, but that was all I heard. After we got there is when I realized Covington WV isn't a place. I am serving in Covington VA, outside of Lexington, right on the border of our mission! It is a tiny town that is pretty much all centered around a huge smelly paper mill. But it is super awesome here, I love it. My trainer is Elder Rasmussen and he is really cool. He's kinda quiet but we are a lot alike other than that :) He has been out for 10 months, and has been in Covington for the last 4.5 months I believe. He's from Utah and loves Les Mis, so we're pretty much best friends. He did theater and musical choir stuff in high school before.

Even though we have a car, we still walk a lot, even though there aren't sidewalks half of the time! Our house is two stories, our living room and kitchen are downstairs and the bedroom, bathroom and study room is upstairs.

The first person I met here is named Jodie. She is a long time (almost 12 months) investigator. She is large, loud, has a son Logan, a lot of animals, and even more problems then she has pets. She follows all commitments of the missionaries except smoking and coffee. She recently hurt her back and need surgery and a shot to fix it. Because she is in so much pain from her back, she feels too bad to smoke, which is kind of a blessing, but she has told us that if we say it's good she feels too sick to smoke, she'll knock our teeth down our throats. She likes to say stuff like that a lot, loves to joke around. The first time I was over, I said the prayer before we left, and she started screaming Amen and Praise Jesus during the prayer, but I just kept going like it was nothing. Afterwards she started dying of laughter because she was trying to freak me out. Other than going and just talking with her, we do have a ton of other people here.

There are 2 girls who have similar situations that have been taught though. They both have heard all of the lessons and want to be baptized, but are both living with their boyfriends. That kinda stinks, but hopefully soon they'll get married. One of them is dating a member of our branch anyways. Speaking of the branch, I'm in a branch. It's decently close to becoming a ward, but it's a branch nonetheless. It's smaller than the Roseville YSA. We had meeting before church, mission meeting and branch council. They are all really nice people. I got up in testimony meeting to introduce myself so that was fun.

I met the missionaries in the area over, Clifton Forge, and we actually share the branch. One of the missionaries is legit a 50/50 mix of Brady Holmes and me. It's terrifying, but he is the best. We then drove to Hot Springs, an even smaller town outside of Covington, to take a man the Sacrament and it was the prettiest drive of my life, holy cow. People were right about it being pretty here, especially with all of the hills, trees and fog/low clouds. It's pretty much been cloudy and drizzling everyday here so far. I had to buy a rain jacket from the Wal-mart. It is way colder and rainier than expected.

We try to meet people here a lot, just stopping by different houses and stuff, but people are rarely home. We haven't taught a lesson yet, but we have 2 actual discussion lessons so far this week and possibly 1 other tonight. I'm excited; I can't wait to actually teach! We tried teaching this guy named Tony about where he was reading in the Book of Mormon, but then he was going on about how Alma's book is huge and hilarious (?). He also said how it was confusing when Alma was saying the Lamanites were wicked because, according to him, the Lamanites were never mentioned in the Book of Mormon before Alma....What?!?! He also told us about how Joseph Smith was the best/smartest farmer Idaho had ever seen. He was interesting...Anyways, that's about it not too much has happened here so far, but I really do love it. Thanks for all your emails and such!

Sincerely to everyone,

Elder Goold
Elder Goold with President and Sister Salisbury

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

First Week in the MTC

Tuesday, September 15, 2015:

So everything here so far I have really loved, but only because I love studying, the scriptures/church topics, and enjoy classes. If you don't, the MTC will probably be harder, in regards to others coming here in the future. Our District Leader is really cool. He is about 3 years older, he went to BYU-I first. The district is 3 elder companionships and 2 sister comps. All district are all the same size but not always that ratio. My comp is Elder M from Idaho. He is interesting. Super funny! 2 Elders are having a harder time with adjusting and focusing all 7 hours of sitting in the same classroom all day and often makes semi-serious jokes about this being prison and wanting to leave... That kind of attitude can be a bit much, but I love them and our whole district anyway. 

Class is really cool, I have learned a ton, but I have also realized just how prepared I was compared to a lot of missionaries. I actually wanted to come, I enjoyed studying the scriptures a lot before, I enjoyed class and school, which when combined, allows me to focus much better and want to do the studying during class so… that is a good thing. Lessons are pretty close to what I imagined, it is just hard to think about both investigators and balancing what we need to plan to teach them both, and have time to do it all. But I really am doing quite well. Also, if you ever plan on teaching someone how to read from the BoM, have a chapter already picked out. Using 1 Nephi 17:2 is a horrid idea...especially to someone pregnant.

Food is okay, cereal is always safe. Haven't tried the OJ, but the 'fresh' fruit is just as bad, minus the bananas. The Residence Halls have 6 elders on bunks to a room. Our 6 District elders are one room.

Gym is fun, I have just run by myself every time so far. I am in quite better shape than I thought, haha.  So Saturday at gym, our district leader hurt his ankle so we got to give him a blessing and that was awesome. We could all feel the Savior in the room watching over us.

I really loved Sunday, our Branch President gave an awesome address about how we are all here because we are capable, and showed us some scriptures about God foreordaining people before this life and it reminded me of my Patriarchal blessing. Sunday doesn't feel like Sunday. They have all missionaries write a 3-5 min talk, then choose who speaks during Sacrament. That's fun. The Sunday choir practice was great, the conductor is super cool! The devotional was about following the spirit and recognizing it, which was cool. Then we watched Elder Bednar’s The Character of Christ. It was life changing to be honest, I would have never thought about the things he talked about, 10/10 would recommend, really try to find it.

<regarding seeing his Friend, Elder Brandon Pulley>  Yeah it kinda kills me on the inside to not call him Brandon. We had a devotional Sunday and I recognized his head, and I had the puzzle, so I got it to him. We also met up for pictures with the map.

I really am learning to love the district and other Elders and our investigators. It really is awesome here. The two Elders who are having a harder time, love to make jokes that Goold is a funny name. I have a new phrase, "Whatever floats your goat" - Elder M. I also realize how blessed I was in my life with being able to serve in the Temple, being in the Elders Quorum Presidency, study habits, everything.

I am sick, despite my best efforts, sore throat is all though. I had an issue with my white shirts rubbing my neck raw, but that stopped. Not any other physical problems other than having a cold, or the nightly rampage of the Tongans on our floor. They start the Hakka(?) and then they start yelling and running around. It is terrifying. I love our teachers and the other people in our District. We have learned so much already. It is hard to fit into mini lessons though. I have been humbled by many things I realize I don't know, or for how many views I have missed in the past. But the most humbling thing so far was meeting Brandon’s companion, who is missing his right hand fingers.

We went to the temple this morning.  I won't be able to write until 2 Mondays from now, since we leave next Tuesday morning. But yea, hope you are all doing well, I am really pumped for people coming to the MTC, it is all about attitude and your ability to study and focus before your mission that will help in the MTC, and not make it a prison like it is for some. See ya on the flip side, I'll try and send pics in another email.

Love, 

Elder Goold