"Oh my lands..."

Hello People!!

It has been an awesome week + 2 days. Lots of stuff has happened, this will probably be a long one. First some random things about Covington I have forgotten to tell you guys about. Although the houses here aren't that nice, almost everyone has a super nice car! I have seen just as many, if not more, Porches, Mercedes, Camaros, and Cadillacs than I ever have seen in or nearby Roseville. It's interesting. One of the roads we drive on often is a 35 mph street, but our black box has it recorded as a 25 for no good reason, so we make people angry haha.

Last Monday after P-Day, we went and visited Steve. We were able to talk to him a while and we gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to catch him since then.

Monday night I gave myself a haircut. I'll send photos of it in a bit, but I can report that it wasn't a horrific disaster. But I did cut the top a little shorter than I wanted, but it's okay. Also, one part of the top, I accidentally cut with the length I was using for the sides, so there is a small patch on the top that is shorter than the rest, but luckily it's not noticeable haha. 

Tuesday was pretty normal with our Genealogical Society and our drive to Hot Springs. But this time we visited Ford, a pretty old guy who enjoys talking but thinks he's too old to do anything, we actually taught him about the Atonement! Even though he wasn''t super invested, I really felt the Spirit inside me, testifying to me that what I was teaching was true. That Christ DOES love each one of us and that He truly went through the Atonement, not just for those who use it, but for everyone! It was quite an awesome experience. And he did finally commit to reading some part of the Plan pamphlet. That night we did have dinner with Juan and Patsy and the two of them have been reading 30 minutes or more each night, so Patsy is progressing really well! 

Wednesday, we had a lesson with William. This time he talked about how since Jesus Christ is part God, the reason he needed a body is so that he could survive in our atmosphere and therefore Jesus is an extraterrestrial. Elder Rasmussen talked about the scripture that says how this life is the time to prepare to meet God and he loved it.

That night was our Branch Chili-Cook off and trunk-or-treat and I swear I didn't even know that many people lived in Covington! Food is a pretty good motivator for less-actives apparently! 

Thursday was a good day!  Elder Rasmussen and I have been trying to pray more as a companionship and individually, as background. Thursday, we were also doing a district fast (perfect timing for a food package, which was still good, but it was funny) so we could break it Friday together after Zone Meeting. Thursday we had planned to try and visit this lady in the branch, Juanita, who's not actually Hispanic, for about the 5th time. We finally decided to pray about being able to meet with the people we had planned to visit the night before, and she was finally home! We had an awesome visit with her and she told us that she's been searching for people to share the Gospel with and that if she finds anyone, she'd call us immediately. Hilarious story about meeting with her! So Brad Wilcox has a talk we listened to the other day and he has a story where some lady got on this bus he was on and said "Oh my lands!" and his response was "Ma'am, what rest home did you just crawl out of?? I have never heard anyone younger than 97 use that phrase". So while talking to Juanita about something, she said "Oh my lands!" and Elder Rasmussen and I make eye contact and were so so so so so so so so so close to just losing it! It was so flippin funny, it was hard to talk after that. Anyways, later that night we taught the Sampson family, who are actually related to Juanita. It was awesome to feel the Spirit feed and uplift us and them! Feeding us especially since we were fasting haha. 

Friday we had a Zone Meeting, which was pretty awesome! Our Zone had 10 baptisms this last transfer! So many people making covenants with Heavenly Father is amazing. I finally got a new planner, since my old one from the MTC was full. I love the planners so much! I'll send a picture of my sweet planner cover I made. Also, the Chinese place we ate at in Lexington had such good shrimp. I was a happy missionary. That night we also got to teach Harry a quick lesson from the Book of Mormon!

Saturday was also a good day (all the days were really). We had my first member present lesson lined up for Saturday. We were going to be teaching Mitzi with the Becktels, our Branch mission leader and his wife. Well, they totally forgot, which was unfortunate, but we went ahead and taught the lesson anyways and it still went awesome! Later that night Jodie wanted us to go trick-or-treating with her and Logan. We did read Alma 4 and 5 with her, so we did get to have a lesson, which was good. For our "costumes" her and Logan wrote all over our faces, and I'll include pictures of that as well. It was super funny. Jodie dressed up as a Minion-Missionary, since she is obsessed with Minions. She couldn't walk the whole time so she actually gave her friend she brought along  some of our "I'm a Mormon" pass along cards and handed them to EVERYONE we passed. It was hilarious and so many people asked if she was a Jehovahs Witness. 

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting which was great! The Spirit was super strong and.... We had an investigator at church finally! Mitzi came for Sacrament meeting, which was super awesome. She's been plenty of times before, but not since I've been here. We didn't have much luck the rest of Sunday, but overall the last week had been amazing. Our efforts to pray more and pray specifically has really been strengthening us, we were able to get more lessons, member presents, and investigators to church than ever before! Obviously it's not about the numbers, but it's just representation of the amazing spiritual experiences we've had this last week! 

Monday was an equally great day! We actually taught 3 lessons just Monday! We met with William again and since he talks so much about loving Jesus, we told him how Jesus is actually in the Book of Mormon. His asked us if it was in his "alien body or his human form" but he was still excited and said he would check it out, which is great! We were supposed to go over to Jodie’s to teach her, but her friend, the one from Halloween, was there. Her friend was actually super interested about us since she knew nothing about our church and our discussion turned into a lesson all about the Restoration of the Gospel, Prophets, the Priesthood and Baptism! She actually asked to have a Book of Mormon and we gave her a restoration pamphlet to go with it! Hopefully we can start teaching her at her house and help her progress as an investigator!! And then later that night we ended up back at Jodie’s because she wanted us to try some awesome cake. We got to teach her then while eating cake! It was such good cake, haha. 

Yesterday we went and taught Mitzi another lesson, this time from Mosiah 5. Then we went to Logan’s last football game. His team made it to the "Kids Superbowl" so that was cool! Not much else happened.

So yeah, it was a really good week! Sorry if my email was too long, haha. Random things that also happened. One day, Jodie made me try her beans. I did not like them one bit, but I didn't instantly vomit or die, so that's an improvement. Still don't like them. I found a real cool pin in our attic. Umm we got doors slammed by two young children, that was funny. At one person’s house, we saw a little girl, probably 3, with wet pants sitting on the couch and when we knocked, she opened the door, looked at us and then closed the door and went back to Disney. Then when we were talking to a former investigator’s wife, their little boy ran to the door and said "NO BODY IS HOME" and then he tried to close the door! That's pretty much it! Hope everyone is doing well, having fun and had a good Halloween! Pictures to come.

Sincerely 

Elder Goold