"Talking less and asking more questions. That is the real struggle"

Hello Y’all, I’m at the Libary,

Yes, that does in fact say "libary" because people here have a funny accent. This week has been an interesting one, as always.

Monday: We had P-Day like normal, cleaned stuff up, ate food, and then we actually went over to Jodie’s. Since her surgery she walks in her front yard for physical therapy, so while she walked, Elder Rasmussen stood by and watched as I ran up and down the 2 giant hills literally right at her house (she lives at the top of a hill). Running feels so great every time.

We taught Harry and Josh Monday night and we had a really good lesson! We weren't too long, the Spirit was definitely there more than other lessons but Elder Rasmussen and I both are working on talking less and asking more questions. That is the real struggle

Tuesday: We were supposed to teach Ashley but she was super sick and headed to the doctors, but we are meeting with her more this week. We saw Sister Carter, a lady who recently had heart surgery and she asked us to come over another day to see her! Then Juan took us to eat fried chicken again, and let me tell you, it was still the bomb. Patsy wasn't in town so we weren't able to teach her, which was unfortunate.

Wednesday: Lots of people started to be out of town by this point so it was hard to find anyone to talk to or visit. We did stop by Jodie’s though and read from the Book of Mormon. We caught William walking his dogs and told us to come back Saturday.

Thursday: Well, Thanksgiving was quite a day.  We had weekly planning and then we were able to see Steve but his washer had pretty much just given up the ghost so we just had a quick visit. Then we were picked up by the Lockharts and driven to President and Sister Edward’s house for dinner. We talked for a good while and ate some great food. Then we all went over to the Moran’s (another family) for dessert and the Edwards brought their Karaoke machine, which was really entertaining. The Morans had also deep fried their turkey, and it was super super good! There was also a Dr.Pepper chocolate cake (Dad would love it) that was good. Lots of food.

Friday: We had a Zone Meeting in the morning which was good! We have  improved in Covington since the last Zone meeting and since I got here! The rest of the day we tried working with some other potential familes in the area, but weren't able to meet any of them, probably because they were out of town for Thanksgiving still.

Saturday: We had a lesson with William and even though he is super strange, he is progressing in some of the weirdest ways. He told us whenever he wants to read scriptures he prefers to read the Old Testament (whaaaaattt?) because he likes how you have to put a more intellectual and spiritual effort into reading it. He also proposed the idea of our world being like the 10 millionth copy of the human existence, so that was fun. We read more of the Book of Mormon with Jodie and taught her about studying and actually got her a notebook (with pink camo) for studying. We also saw Mitzi and taught her about the Sacrament and shared the new Christmas.mormon.org website and video.

Sunday: I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting in on John 17:21 which was honestly a great topic. I think something I came to recognize was how the Savior, when He knew he was about to suffer for the pains and afflictions of the world, prayed out of love for everyone but Himself. He prayed for His Apostles specifically and then prayed that we may all be one as believers in Him. Then Elder Rasmussen and I taught Gospel Principles on The Priesthood. We had lunch with the Tucker Family, who are all related to like 3 or 4 other families in the branch, who were also there. We shared the new Christmas video and invited them all to share it with people on social media or in person and see with whom they can share their faith in Christ. Later we saw Philippe who has been doing great, he is seriously super funny. The 4 Elders here are all in our Branch Choir for the Christmas program, which is fun. Later we went to Jodie’s and talked to her about the Book of Mormon stuff she read and talked about the youth doing a service project for her Wednesday. She accepted since she basically can't do anything right now. Normally she hates other people cleaning for her. That should be fun though.

Random things: After showing the new Christmas video, Brother Tucker said "The Church is gettin' jiggy with it" because there is a #ASaviorisBorn at the end. That was hilarious. The Tuckers also had Mississippi Mud, which is brownies covered in marshmallows and then chocolate frosting on top. It's the best. The Christmas video is awesome and it helps both missionaries and members so much with finding, I hope you all will go and watch it if you haven't yet and share it with people you come into contact with! So many people know that Christ was born on Christmas but not every one knows what made His birth such an important event.

Hope everyone is having an awesome winter season. It is actually pretty mild here so far, no snow, and it hasn't been too cold the last few days. I have been told that winter here usually is like a month behind for no reason, so snow and the really cold times come in later December and January. That will be a blast.

Sincerely,

Elder Goold!!

"I got certified to drive"

Well this week I think has gone buy the slowest and the fastest. Elder Pickett is right about the MTC having no real sense of time, but the field is the exact same way. Some strange things happened this week.  I’ve been sick this week with a cold starting Tuesday which made me real tired, I was mostly better by Saturday and now I'm good.

Monday: We went to Jodie’s after P-day and had a lesson on the Sabbath. Also, President Salisbury called and I got certified to drive, so now I can drive every once in a while.

Tuesday: We had a training conference call and so we did our Genealogical service on Thursday. Really, not much else happened.

Wednesday: We got to visit with an investigator family, the Simpsons. They are both newly retired and some of the nicest, most Christian people. We also went to the Gibson's house and talked with them for a little while and they gave us Chicken and Dumplings, which were real good.

Thursday: We had our Genealogical society service and then weekly planning. We weren't able to meet anyone, which kinda sucked, but we got to have dinner at Brother Arritt's. He just had surgery so he has a caretaker who's not a member, but she is nice. She's from Roanoke but she does come to church with him!

Friday: We had the first District meeting of the transfer this week and it was pretty good! Then we had to go to Jodie’s and feed all her animals because she was gone for back surgery! We got a bunch of people to contact out of our area book and we walked/drove around to see these people, but no one was home. We had a good lesson with Mitzi that night and she's doing better with smoking! Our prayers and help has been strengthening her a lot! She told us that more and more, she's having days or parts of days where she just has no desire or feeling to smoke, which is such an amazing miracle! We are praying she will be able to stop and work towards baptism in the end of December (she personally wants to be smoke free for near a month before baptism)!

Saturday: We tried super hard to catch a lot of people, both new investigators and less actives, but to no avail. We did go tracting for a short while and that was awesome. Only one person was actually home, but I was determined to have a bold, truthful door approach like Elder Kopischke taught us. So I said "Hello! We are missionaries for the LDS church sent here by a prophet of God to share a message about our Savior Jesus Christ with you. What would it mean to you if our message helped you come closer to Christ?" It is amazing to see the power being bold has, because you wouldn't typically think that talking at the door would invite the Spirit, but it is true, we are called of a Prophet and we are called to share our message with everyone in our area! Turns out the guy who answered didn't live there, but it was still good! We did though get to go over to Jodie's with Brother Becktel and have a lesson with reading chapter 4 of first Nephi. It was good and then we also had dinner there! Oh we made Mitzi a church music CD and she loved it. 

Sunday: Mitzi made it to church, which was great because she had lots of obstacles in the morning but knew it was something she wanted and needed to do! The missionaries in Clifton have been working with Sister Defbaugh and her family for the last month or 2 and she gave a solid talk on prayer in church. Philippe is doing well still, he's been healthy for a few visits in a row now!

It was a hard week, but it flew by and we keep working and praying to find more people to teach and help progress. We haven't been able to catch William as of late and Harry & Josh seem to have disappeared off of the face of the earth. Sister Carter  just had heart surgery, but is doing well and we are trying to see her more often.

Fun Story: Saturday, we were proselyting and a suuuupppeeerrrr drunk lady (at 4:30 mind you) started sing to us across the street. Lyrics are as follows: "Sheee (pointing at her comrade) is myyy bessssttttt friiiiieeeennnndddd! Shhhheeeeeee iissssss my beeeeessstt frieeeennndd ever! Also my besssssssst frriiiiiieeeeeennnnnd is Christ and Jessssuuus! But SHeeeee iss myyy besssttt frrrriiieeenddddds!" Pure poetry, definitely has potential to top the iTunes charts. Also, once we got home from that episode, I literally had gotten 5 things in the mail on the same day! Thanks for writing me to those who did! Hope everyone is doing good and well. 

We've been invited to many people’s houses for Thanksgiving, but we are going with the Lockharts to the Edward’s (Branch President and His wife) for dinner.  Also, the Lockharts have a daughter on a mission in the California Irvine Mission! That’s literally the mission Charlie Riggs (Hunters Friend) lives in!

You are all the best!

Elder Goold

"We seriously had the best fried chicken"

What's up peeps? 

This week has gone by super fast! Or at least for me it has, I'm not sure. Anyways, I'll kinda do highlights and teaching things we did this week. 

Monday: We met with Jodie and Toni. Jodie, we've been working a lot with her and are trying to get her progressing more. We had a lesson on Alma 32 and faith with Toni and he thought those verses were supposed to be funny, so… He has lots of stuff from our church mixed up with other random stuff he reads, so we want to try and just teach the normal lessons over again with him.

Tuesday: We had a crazy day. All sort of good stuff was planned, but we had to change a lot of stuff and ended up going to dinner with Juan. He took us to D&J's, this restaurant right near our house and we seriously had the best fried chicken. And it was all you can eat. Now I know why people here get so fat - haha. We were able to have a lesson with Patsy and Juan after that. The chicken was seriously so good.

Wednesday: Wednesday was a good day. We had Elder Kopischke from the 70 come visit for our Zone Conference!!! It was so awesome to get to meet him!! He was super nice and gave us such fantastic advice. My favorite thing was a simple yet powerful teaching/contacting method. Missionary 1 will teach a simple principle, ask a "level 2" question, and then testify. Then the 2nd missionary will also testify and then repeat the first missionary’s steps. It allows for so many opportunities to bear witness of the Restoration or the Book of Mormon or anything! It also greatly helps with engaging the person we are talking to. And he talked a lot about agency, especially in regards to those we find and teach. 

Thursday: Awesome day. So we finally had our 1st first discussion with someone! We went over to Ashley's house and taught about the Book of Mormon and the whole Restoration! The whole lesson we were focusing on the ideas Elder Kopischke gave us and the Spirit of that lesson was so powerful, it was amazing. It was amazing to see how the Lord had truly prepared her to receive and be committed. She totally loves the Book of Mormon as well and how it so simply testifies of Christ and builds our faith in Him.

Friday: We had a good lesson with Mitzi and another reading session with Jodie. We actually had a whole lesson with Mitzi on Tithing and Fast Offerings. It was strange kind of, because I feel like pre-mission paying tithing isn't too financially difficult. Not that I didn't have a testimony of paying tithing before hand, but the Spirit testified to all of us during that lesson of it's importance and how much the Lord loves us when we sacrifice to help His kingdom here on the Earth. 

Saturday: I'm not even sure too much of what happened Saturday, lots of people were unavailable for us to come by but we were able to meet with Jodie and read from the Book of Mormon.

Sunday: Yesterday was a hectic day. So we had got to the church at 8 and Elder Rasmussen totally forgot he was teaching Elders Quorum, so nothing like planning for a lesson during Church right? Jodie, Logan and Logan’s friend Justice actually were there this week!! But unfortunately Brother Wilkins passed out right before blessing the Sacrament and the ambulance had to be called. Then Jodie and her squad left because a few years ago Logan actually watched his father have a seizure and die in the living room in front of him, so he started to have a panic attack that Brother Wilkins was dead, so they left. Logan is awesome, but he's had such a rough life.

We almost got ran into by a sheriff not paying attention while leaving church! Then we went to see Philippe out in Hot Springs. We were able to have a good contact with a family that lives near Philippe and they are some of the nicest people! We'll totally be trying to catch them again soon! We almost had a deer jump straight in front of us driving home from Hot Springs!

Elder Rasmussen and I made fun game, taking turns trying to name as many words as possible that start with a certain letter. This morning I actually bought a jump-rope so now I have a way of doing some aerobic exercise indoors. We don't go out to run every morning when it's less than 30, that's for sure.   I may or may not have made Spaghetti Tacos. Shout-outs to iCarly 

Good luck in all your future endeavors and Godspeed, 

Elder Goold

Ps: Elder Rasmussen and I always quote Brian Regan 😆

"So I am kind of horrified and mystified at the same time"

It's been pretty good here!

Thursday we weren't able to get any lessons, but Jodie had us come over to meet her friend Fred and her new bunny Oreo. She already had a male bunny Nate and so she got Oreo so they could have kids. BUT, she wanted her bunnies to follow the law of chastity, so she had me marry her rabbits together! I actually found an old High School Graduation Diploma up in our attic and so I edited it so it was a bunny marriage license  - haha. That was pretty unique. 

Friday, we had a dinner appointment, but they had to cancel, so that was a bummer. We are getting a new phone, so we've been going through all of our contacts and have actually found a few potential investigators from the past who are cool with meeting us! Then that night we met with Mitzi and gave her the 12 Step Recovery book we got her and she's really working with quitting smoking so she can be baptized in December!

Saturday met with Brother Arritt who's just recently returned from knee surgery in Roanoke and so he's slow moving but has been able to come to church the last two weeks. 

Yesterday it got really cold all of a sudden. That may be random but it kinda plays in later. Church was great as usual and Patsy was there with Juan, which was good. We actually had two high councilmen from the Stake come and speak. Brother Larsen, funny enough, actually served IN ROSEVILLE for 4 months of his mission back when he served!!! He didn't tell me the year because he said he feels old, but pretty freaking cool right? So later we met with Philippe who has been doing pretty well recently. We were going to teach Ashley, Jodie friend from the last email, but she was working on moving firewood inside because of how cold it was, so we are going back today. Funny enough, Jodie at first told us her name was Angela so we asked her kids if Angela was home and they were very confused. Then we did talk more with Jodie and are starting to help her read the Book of Mormon more! 

Okay fun stories. 

1. Last night was a good experience with prayer for me, yet it was awful. So Jodie made us meatloaf. I reheated some and ate it. It was really good, but super fatty and greasy, which of course made it better. But at 2:30 in the morning I wake up after some really odd dreams, and the meatloaf has pretty much been still in my stomach from how fatty it was. I felt awful like I was going to throw up any minute now, but I don't enjoy up-chucking very much (scout campouts...*shudders*). So I turned over and prayed asking that I would be able to feel better soon and be able to sleep without throwing up a whole bunch of meatloaf. And it was such a miracle, because almost instantly I felt a calm come over me and then my stomach felt better! It was super weird, I never though I would have a spiritual experience with meatloaf but hey! 

2. So, yesterday after church, we were coming inside to change before we left. And there was a very very strange giant bug on our front porch, along the side of the door. It was probably an inch long, maybe a tad bit longer. It had this weird ridge thingy on its back and didn't move very fast. But it was cool so of course, I poked it with some grass. It actually grabbed my piece of grass a few times and was surprisingly strong. It actually grabbed hold and I lifted it up and got real close to it to see it! It looked super cool. Then, early today, Elder Rasmussen sent a picture he took of it to his friend from the MTC and they said to not go near it, because it's called an Assassin Bug, or a Wheel Bug, and they can hospitalize people! So Elder Rasmussen had some family look it up and I had my mother (Shout-outs to Mom😜) look up more about them. They apparently with inject this stinger kinda thing into people and it hurts instantly and intensely. They release this enzyme into their pray and then the enzyme liquefies their insides and then the bug drinks the fluid out!!!! They can carry some sort of disease that can cause humans all sorts of problems with internal organs. I WAS 10 INCHES AWAY FROM THIS THING WITH A PIECE OF GRASS! We actually got it on video with Elder Rasmussen's camera haha. So I am kind of horrified and mystified at the same time. Especially since we have some problems with bugs getting inside our house through a hole on the back of the house... Well hopefully I don't get bit by one!

The other night Elder Rasmussen heard me sleep talking and all I said was "Hey there! Are you free right now?"..."Oh, well is there another time maybe tomorrow or the next day we would come back and teach?"...."Cool"... So I guess I am being a missionary in my sleep. Is that good or bad? Haha. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well! Everything here in Covington is going well 😊

Sincerely,

Elder Goold