"Literally everyone here has dogs or cats"

Hello Friends and Family,

It has been a great week! Well it was supposed to be a "hurricane" here over the weekend, so everyone in town was buying storage supplies since the power usually goes out, but nothing happened. It was raining a lot earlier in the week though.

We tried talking to Harry and Josh, a father and son that live in a trailer park and are super awesome people, but Josh was the only one home. The two of them are literally the most chill people I have ever met, and are both super faithful, but both have a hard time reading, so the scriptures are a little hard for them. Although they do have a Book of Mormon on CD, but the don't really use it. Later in the week we had a lesson with Harry, Josh wasn't home, about 1 Nephi 4 and how the Lord blesses us and strengthens us through hard things. Then we challenged him to try and read a verse or passage or something from the Book of Mormon daily and told him that he would be blessed for doing something the Lord commands, even if it is hard for him, to which he replied "Yeah you don't have to promise me that God will bless me, I already know he will." Literally word for word. It is so cool to see the hand of the Lord in this work! 

Tuesday we went and did service at the Genealogical Society by using Photoshop to touch up all sorts of old photos.

We've been trying to share a talk with Jodie, but it's either raining outside so we can't meet or she can't sit very long because of her back. But this week we are determined to get it! She is seriously so dang funny. I have determined that she is Sarah, if Sarah wasn't a member and lived in the south her whole life. Super loud, rude in a funny way, loves food and watching movies and TV all the time, and loves animals, especially dogs. She is actually getting 2 goats soon named Salad and Barbecue.

Wednesday we had a lesson with a lady I had never met her before and the entire time I thought she was just an investigator I hadn't met yet. So I was constantly thinking "This lady is amazing! She totally is showing her desire to follow Christ and come to church this is awesome!" and I was about to offer her a Book of Mormon when Elder Rasmussen asked her about her scripture reading, which she said was lacking. But that means she had a copy already, everything was good. Then, she asked me to say the closing prayer. Since I had no clue what her name was, I couldn't exactly say her name in the prayer. Have you ever tried praying for someone when you don't know their name?! It's kinda super hard. Anyways, afterwards is when I was told that she was Sister Carter, a less active. Oh well.

I also met another investigator William who lives pretty nearby. He reminded me of Spencer! Total hippy. He has a huge beard, loves to camp and is a professional painter, speaking of which, some of his paintings are super impressive. He's also super funny and has 2 adorable dogs. Literally everyone here has dogs or cats, which is awesome.

Speaking of cats, Friday afternoon, we had a lesson with a lady named Mitzi, who is an investigator already on date for baptism December 20th. She has 6 fat cats that love to snuggle. We had an awesome lesson with her, we talked about prophets and shared a talk with her from last Conference. We had an awesome discussion and she is super faithful and prepared for baptism, she just needs to stop the last little issue of smoking and stop working Sundays. Speaking of which, for being an old lady, she works as a security guard at the paper mill, which is hilarious 😄.

Earlier Friday we had a Zone meeting and there are 2 new missionaries besides me that are in this Zone. It was super cool to meet all the other missionaries!

And of course, Conference. We watched all the sessions at the church on a projector. It was amazing! The 3 new apostles are going to be amazing witnesses of this Gospel, I know it. Sunday when President Monson was speaking and starting to have a hard time, I felt sad for him, but I also felt the Spirit so strongly. To see him not turned away from speaking the words of God because of his health, testified to me of his calling as a Prophet and reminded me of King Benjamin speaking in Mosiah 2:30. My favorite talk was either President Eyring speaking about the Spirit and his Dad, or Elder Oaks talking about the Atonement. Both were amazing. But overall conference was great!! I know that this is the true Gospel restored on the earth today and it is what can bring us true lasting happiness! Hope everyone is doing great!

Sincerely to all,

Elder Goold