"He might work us off the earth!"

This last week has been very interesting and very very windy! 

Monday: Last week we went and visited the Southall's after our Preparation Day stuff! They are a super awesome family in the Branch and we taught them about the Sacrament! That night we also visited and taught Mitzi! We talked to her about the blessings of Church attendance and committed her to stay longer than just Sacrament meeting and she told us how it's been something she has wanted! She does have some problems with her health but she said on weeks it's not a problem she will come for longer!😀 

Tuesday: We did our normal Tuesday routine with Genealogical Society and going to Philippe’s! We taught the Thompsons about keeping the commandments and they expressed a desire they both had to renew their Temple Recommends!! It was so awesome! Of course they do need to come to church, which will require them to have a car, but they are definitely showing progress and it is awesome!:)

Wednesday: It was a very strange day. The weather went from cold and POURING rain to 60's within a few hours.  (Note to parents from the Mission President:  “We did have a tornado touch down in our mission all missionaries are safe.  The tornado was unusual for this time of year and touched down specifically in the city of Appomattox, Virginia.  The weather here has been volatile.”  It touched down about 2 hours from where Elder Goold lives)   I started getting sick this day as well, and I really didn't want to be sick so I was fighting it and I felt like I was going crazy. But I'm all good now, haha. Anyways, we did get to teach Robert!! He is literally such an awesome guy! He says he remembers they Apostasy and Priesthood from when missionaries taught him before and it made a lot of sense to him! We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon again and learn for himself if the Gospel truly has been restored!! He is also the nicest guy and Elder Norman swears he looks just like Luke Bryan, some country musician. 

Thursday: We had a house and car inspection with Brother Gibson. He didn't have any sort of form or checklist, so he said we passed, which is nice. We didn't really do much other than weekly planning because I was feeling pretty bad. 

Friday: We worked a lot trying to find people but to no avail. We visited with the Simpsons, some non-members who love the missionaries. We taught them from the Tree of Life in 1st Nephi a few weeks ago, and asked if there were any families they knew that they felt we should visit and meet! It was something I never though would happen with non-members, but it went well! Since then they said they have talked to all sorts of people but none have been interested! Pretty awesome I think!

Saturday: We had Coordination meeting with our new BML Brother Arritt! He is so awesome and absolutely loves missionary work! He might work us off the earth! He is really great at getting the members ready and excited to help, so that is really nice! We got to visit with the Mullineaux (Mull-i-no) and that was really awesome! Sister Mullineaux and the kids are active but her husband is less-active. He is a super nice guy though and work does seem to be a problem for him and church. He did talk to us after a while though and introduced us to Jasper, their 7 year old Great Dane. He is so giant! I haven't ever met a fully grown great dane from what I can remember, but his head was up to my chest and he outweighs me, which is really funny. They said fully standing he is 6'3. It was so awesome. I loved it. Did I mention I like dogs?? We also had an awesome lesson with Mitzi!!!! The Becktels came with us and we talked a lot about accountability and how with the help of the Becktels and the Scriptures and prayer she can stay accountable for her smoking and it will greatly help her! It went super well and Mitzi is doing great!

Sunday: We had an awesome time at Church! We didn't have any investigators, but it was an awesome Sunday! We Saw Philippe and the Thompsons like usual! The Thompsons are doing awesome and are keeping their commitments really well!! 

Not sure if I mentioned this, but frozen snow poorly treats Corolla Bumpers! Don't worry it wasn't me. Elder Norman ran over some frozen snow and we wrecked.   We tore the bumper off cause it made funky noises on the freeway.  It is currently getting fixed.

This next week will be awesome, I hope all of you have a good week too! Transfers are next week, so I may be getting transferred, which is exciting! Pictures to follow!

Take Luck!

Elder Goold

"Elder Higgins nailed some squirrel, so he wanted Elder Norman to skin it..."

Hey there everyone!

This week has been very quick. The weather here remains completely inconsistent. Last Sunday it was 7 degrees outside and snowy. And just 2 days ago it was 70 degrees rainy and humid. It is very confusing. 

Monday: We didn't really do anything since everything was closed down due to snow. We spent a good 25 minutes driving to Walmart in the snow, in a Corolla. I'll just tell you, it's very difficult. Then we walked to the Church that night to get the snow shovels so we could dig stuff out.

Tuesday: We walked to Genealogical Society and helped them move a bunch of bookcases. Later when we went to see Philippe, we ran into Julia, a lady who requested a Bible, and talked to her for a little while! She is going to be out of town for a little while, but she is super nice and wants us to come and talk to her family in the future!

Wednesday: We talked with the Tucker Family, trying to set up a time when we could do a family home evening activity with them, but they're a very busy family, so we'll have to try back in a few weeks. Mostly normal missionary activities the rest of the day, talking to people, then we got a call from Clifton Forge. Elder Higgins apparently nailed some squirrel who failed his road safety classes, so he wanted Elder Norman to skin it. Hence, graphic pictures. You have been warned. 

Thursday: We did some weekly planning and later we had an appointment set up with Sister Carter. Brother Lockhart was signed up on our splits schedule, so he was coming with us, but Sister Carter had to take her brother to the ER. Instead we ended up going to the Dunihue's with Brother Lockhart since they are really close. The Dunihues are a less active family, but they are such nice people and they have testimonies for sure! It was the first time I got to visit with them and we had an awesome discussion on focusing our lives on the Gospel!

Friday: We had a great district meeting and that night we went over to Jodie's again. She texted us a few days ago and wanted us to come over. We talked and realized that she had never learned about the truth of the Godhead. She didn't know that the Spirit was his own Personage, so we taught her how God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are all separate distinct beings, and that the Spirit is the only one without a physical body. That kind of shook her and we haven't seen her since, but hopefully that made sense to her and she could feel the truth of it!

Saturday: We got to visit with the Gibson's for a short while and Brother Gibson showed us his very impressive woodworking garage. We also got to visit with Robert!! Missionaries met with him a while ago, but he was hard to get a hold of. We talked to him and his two sons and he was super nice and wanted us to come back and teach him! He is seriously the nicest guy I have ever met. We are pumped to go and teach him on Wednesday! 

Sunday: So the Arritt's gave their homecoming talk, since they just got back from their mission in Kansas! So many people came and visited to hear them speak! Definitely the most people I have seen in this Branch in one week! Brother Arritt is actually the new Branch Mission Leader so that is very exciting! I taught Elders Quorum and taught about "Help from on High", which was an awesome topic. Something I re-learned was about progress takes time, sometimes more time than we would like. A quote came from Joseph Smith that said "We consider that God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin; and like the ancients, arrives at that point of faith where he is wrapped in the power and glory of his Maker, and is caught up to dwell with Him. But we consider that this is a station to which no man ever arrived in a moment"  

It was an awesome week and I hope you all feel the same! Pictures on the way! 

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"...everything shut down except for Walmart."

Hey there everybody!

Well it's probably weird that I am emailing on Tuesday, but yesterday the Library was closed, not because of President's day, but because it snowed like 4 or 5 inches. It's kinda funny, people freaked out and everything shut down except Wal-mart. Oh well.

Monday: Last Monday we went to Jeff’s with Clifton Forge missionaries and played Axis and Allies, which is super fun. British Empire for the win. Elder Norman was America, of course. He loves America, probably more than anything. We tried visiting some other people near Sister Carter’s home, but people gave us funny looks because it was supposed to snow half an inch and they assumed we would be inside. Silly people. 

Tuesday: We visited Philippe and the Thompsons. The Thompsons were especially grateful for having a working bathroom floor, and they are doing really well. We came back and set up an appointment with Mitzi for Friday and Brother and Sister Becktel would be coming with us! We also talked with Fernando at his door about the Book of Mormon very shortly, he said he was still thinking and praying about it.

Wednesday: We didn't get out to do much, Elder Norman was feeling bad so we stayed in. Lately he has been getting really bad headaches, so we were pretty mellow the whole day.

Thursday: We had our Zone Conference!!! This is where President and Sister Salisbury, along with the Assistant missionaries, come and teach and give instruction for a big portion of the day. It was really dang awesome! President Salisbury taught us lots of really helpful things and is just awesome overall. He is also really good at magic tricks, so he showed us a couple of the tricks he could do. Plus, since he went on his mission to Paris, France (not sure if I have mentioned that before) he talked to me in French very briefly and it went right past me. Sorry Mom :) 

Friday: Friday we were supposed to have our lesson with Mitzi, but sadly her work went late and so we had to cancel. We work a lot trying to find people, but it's quite hard in this area. We did talk to a lady, another lady named Jackie actually, who asked us to come by Sunday, so that was pretty nice! We talked with Tonya, a referral from quite a few months ago, and she is really nice and very open to what we do, she just has lots of kids she watches for her friends and family, so she's hard to catch. It was actually quite a blessing to see her and hopefully we will be able to teach her soon! She was also very concerned for us being out in the cold!

Saturday: Elder Norman unfortunately had another bad headache so we had to rest inside. In the mean time, I'll tell you a little bit more about him. He is from Greenriver, Utah, he played football in High School as well as trap. He loves guns, football and America more than anything. He isn't super talkative, but we get along great! He is pretty good with cooking too, which is nice. He actually worked building houses and closing off old Uranium mines before he left on his mission. He loves to work hard and he is awesome to be companions with!

Sunday: Really great day at church! I'll focus mostly on Brother Southall's lesson. He taught about adversity and challenges in our life, and read how President Hunter related our challenges to a boat in water. Just like the boat cannot move forward without the water for the oars or propeller, we cannot improve or move forward in this life with out things that are challenging! Those things are placed in our life so that, if we push forward with faith, we can become more like the Savior and strengthen our own testimonies. In D&C 121:7-8 there is a phrase that sticks out to me.. "then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high" We are expected and we should use these events as ways to grow, not setbacks. I really liked his lesson, if you can't tell!

It was a really good week, despite some obstacles, and we are hoping to find a new investigator this week! We also just grew slightly since Brother and Sister Arritt just returned from their mission in Kansas! Brother Arritt absolutely loves missionary work, so we are totally pumped to have him in the mission! Keep up the good work and I would challenge you to all learn from those things that come your way! They are definitely there for a reason :) I know for a fact that Heavenly Father watches over every single one of us and He gives us exactly what we need, when we need it!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold