"I got to say no to drugs finally"

Hey everyone! 

This last week has probably been more exciting for all of you on Spring Break versus us who had no one to talk to during Spring Break. It was a good week though!

Monday: We went and played kickball again with the whole district! We had 3 appointments set up for the afternoon, but all of them bailed.

Tuesdsay: We had another lesson with Park. Not really sure where things will go with him, because he is convinced that if the Book of Mormon is true, God will tell him that it is true before he reads it and that he won't read it until he knows it's true. To be honest, I never thought of that as a possibility of coming up. We also met with Luther Raleigh. He is a super awesome kid but for some reason he just doesn't always make the effort to make it to church. Then we had dinner with the Brimhall’s and they gave us a referral to their friends just a little ways away! More on that later...

Wednesday: We walked around and tracted just trying to find people to talk to and we ended up talking to this guy, Mike, who is a recovering addict and he is super solid! He loved the idea of apostasy, which was super great! Later, we talked to this girl, Maleehah. She's friends with a girl from here who's on her mission in Las Vegas. She told us that she is just ready to turn her life around and we had a pretty great meeting with her!

Thursday: We had “Specialized Training” which was awesome as usual. We didn't really have anything else happen, just lots of walking, talking to anyone who was actually home, and a few random conversations with people. We gave this Muslim guy a Restoration pamphlet in Arabic (yeah, we've got those) and I think that simply because it was in his language, he just automatically assumed it must be 100% true and it was just really strange overall.

Friday: We did some planning and we got new bus passes. Most everything was closed due to Good Friday, so even less was going on. But, we did have the best lesson ever. This guy Jimmy talked to us Thursday across the street about Family Home Evening. He apparently had met missionaries a long time ago through FHE and they gave him a Book of Mormon, which he read entirely by himself. He since had a hard time with drugs and went through a rehab and now he is here. We taught him the Restoration and he absolutely soaked it up! He is so prepared and is preparing to be baptized on the 7th of May!! He is super cool and more on him in the future!

Saturday: We walked all the way out past the hospital to visit the referral the Brimhall's gave us, and sadly they were not home. But over the next little while, we got like 3 or 4 neighbors to refer us to a ton of other people in the neighborhood and we talked to almost all of them! We met a sweet dude, Albert, whose sister was in the hospital and we said a prayer with him and I think it really opened his heart to us. We're going back this next week!

Sunday: Nothing really happened today actually, just lots of students getting back to campus so lots of people walking around with headphones and suitcases. I got offered weed the first time and got to say no to drugs finally! That was a momentous occasion if I do say so myself! We had a really awesome time at church though and Bruno was there again! We are finally going to get to meet with him on Tuesday this week, so that will be sweet!!!

It was a pretty fun week to be honest, despite campus being super empty. I absolutely love sharing the Easter video the church put out with people! So if any of you haven't watched it yet, it's only 2 minutes, here is the link! followhim.mormon.org The video is great and I am pumped for General Conference next week! #GC2016 Wish you all the best!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"Prayer is sweet"

Hey-there everyone! 

Each week seems to go by so fast! This last week was really interesting. We had lots of people not be home because of studying or leaving for spring break and what not. It was a good week! First, here is our workout schedule:  Monday-Sunday: Leg Day. Seriously everyday here is a total leg workout, this place is so not flat! It's crazy, but I like it. Anyways, I'm not sure what even happened on which days, so here is just stuff.

We picked up a new investigator named Park, an African dude from Kenya! He is so awesome and we had a great lesson with him. He does like to talk a lot, but it went really well! He even said the prayer at the end of the lesson.

We picked up another new investigator, whose name is Cody. He was an investigator before and his girlfriend is a member, but his parents were going to stop paying for his college if he joined the church, so that was a barrier, but we are working with him! He is super solid in the gospel already though, he also said the prayer at the end of our lesson on Friday!

This whole week we had been praying to run into Bruno, who is a guy from Brazil that is friends with Ky, one of the students here. He's come to church about 3 times now and he is such a great guy. This was an awesome experience. He doesn't really have contact information, just a Facebook, which we can't use. So we had been praying to run into him through out the week and 3 days in a row we saw him while on the bus and got to talk with him! It's crazy!! A bunch of the members who know him also have been seeing him even more often, which is so awesome!

We had 2 lessons this week with Marshall and Brandon and I totally love these guys. They are both super smart and funny, so they understand pretty well and have some of the best questions. I can definitely tell the difference, especially in Brandon, since the first time we met with them. We taught them both the Plan of Salvation lesson and the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and they both went really well! Both of them were sort of against praying after the P.O.S. lesson we had, but after we taught the lesson on Sunday, Brandon prayed at the end of the lesson! The two of them are super awesome!

Thursday was absolute craziness. St.Patricks day. Everyone was wearing green, ignoring their midterms and drinking since 8am. No Joke. We purposely walked right through "Frat Row" during some giant parties at noon and Elder Vai got it on video! It was so crazy and really entertaining.

Friday was actually awesome. We expected everyone to be hung over and leaving for spring break, but we tracted for probably 45 minutes and got 7 or 8 awesome contacts! It was such a great day. We had prayed that something good would come from the day since we thought it would be futile and we saw the blessings!

Totally forgot: Tuesday we did a booth in the Free-speech Circle in the middle of the school and the 4 of us (Elder Vai and I and the Southpark Elders) got so many awesome contacts! It was literally so much fun to randomly talk to so many random students. All sorts of responses from "Wow, that's really interesting" to "I'm a devout Satanist". It was awesome.

It was a great week overall, other than being sick. I hope everyone had an awesome week and didn't do anything crazy on St.Patricks day!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"I absolutely love it here."

Hey there everyone! SO much has happened since last Wednesday! I'm not even sure what to think, but it is awesome and I love it. Elder Vai (sounds like pie or pi since it’s pi day J) and I am on the West Virginia University campus and in the student ward here. Elder Vai is awesome, literally so cool, and probably the most hard working comp, my legs might fall off. We are in a walking area on the campus and basically anywhere close by is our area. It is super busy and populated here and I love it! We are in a walking area and it is very hilly as well, so I'm sore for the first time in a while! Anyways,

Thursday: Transfer day. So Elder Norman and I drove up to Beckley early in the morning. From there, Elder Flint and I drove a car that was being moved areas to Charleston. Our GPS took us a wrong way so we got there late and almost got hit twice because roads here are crazy. Then we threw all of our stuff onto the North Transfer Train (a van full of missionaries, not really a train) and drove all the way to Morgantown, switching a few cars along the way. Elder Vai, my new companion, and I got back at like 5 or 6 and we went to have dinner with Josh Morgan, a student here.

Friday: We did some weekly planning and call-ins since Elder Vai is our district leader. We then went to the Institute (we basically live there and it's also the church building) and had lunch. We walked around for a good while after that and talked with everyone we could along the way. We ride the bus around here a lot too, which is really entertaining at times (further explanation later). Then we tried to meet with this guy Finn who lives right near Zeke, who's another member. He wasn't home but we were able to teach this Muslim guy, Amar, about the word of wisdom. Then after we were able to meet and teach Abdula, another Muslim guy about the Restoration. We talk with a lot of Muslims here on campus, haha.

Saturday: So many blessings this day!! We had an appointment set up with a referral but he ditched so we did some work on Mormon.org and our booth. After, we planned to catch a bus, but we missed it and for a good reason. We walked out all the way to Marshall and Brandon, who are brothers. They are seriously super awesome! Brandon said he was Atheist but not really and Marshall we think was Jewish or just a non-denomination guy. Anyways, they were both so awesome, our lesson went great and they asked some really great (some weird) questions about the Restoration and things we believed, but everything we shared with them made sense and we're seeing them again on Wednesday. Then while walking back we stopped and talked to this girl Birdie. She grew up Catholic and we were able to teach her about the Restoration on the street! Super great contact! Later we walked up to a set of apartments and taught this girl from a few days before I was there and she was also an Atheist. It was a pretty good lesson, but she didn't seem too willing to believe. That night we rode the bus home from another point in town and on a Saturday night, the buses are always entertaining. A few drunk guys were telling us that they were from Belgium and that Elder was a funny first name, until one of them said "Woah, guys...I don't think their names are Elder" and then they all started laughing. Pretty great day overall.

Sunday: We had Brad, our ward mission leader, drive us to the Institute/Chapel since it was raining. Church was pretty sweet, Bert, our investigator on date for baptism, was at church and he is super cool. He loves to build robots and electrical stuff. Pretty sweet. Then we had a lesson set up with Anthony at the Institute with Craig, but he didn't show up at first. So we walked up the hill to his apartment to see if he was home, but he wasn't. We knocked a few doors with Craig and then we saw Anthony on his way back because we missed him by a minute or two. We had an awesome lesson with him and he is so ready for the Gospel!! The rest of the day was pretty quite because to be honest, lots of the people are just hungover on Sundays.

Yeah, it was pretty great though!! I absolutely love it here!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold!!

Transfer Day Companion Elder Flint

Elder Goold with Elder Vai

"I am headed up to Morgantown... and I have been out for 6 months"

Hey there everyone!

This week is transfer week and I am so excited to be getting transferred for the first time! I am headed up north to Morgantown University area with Elder Vai! We are in the YSA and it is going to be awesome! Also, I think it is kinda funny, today is P-Day and I have been out 6 months today! Totally doesn't feel like I have been out for 6 months, but time goes by when you're a missionary! Lot's has happened so I will just talk about the best stuff!

We visited with Philippe last Tuesday and read from the Book of Mormon with him, like usual. He said that he might be gone the next Sunday and Tuesday to visit his wife, so it seemed like the last time I would get to see him, assuming I was getting transferred. But luckily he hadn't left by Sunday so I did get to see him one last time and take a picture! I did forget my camera so next Monday I'll send photos!

Last Saturday we had a lesson with Mitzi and Brother Arritt came with us. It was such a great lesson!! We planned to talk about ordinances and their spiritual significance, but it turned to be a lesson on the Restoration and Prophets. It seemed there were some things that she had questions or misconceptions about in the past and we were able to answer her questions and the Spirit was so powerful as we did so! She asked lots of hard questions too, which made it really intense and awesome. For example, understanding and believing in Joseph Smith she asked "So are there Prophets today? And if there are, do we know who?" and then asked us if some guy from another Church was a prophet. It was awesome to be able to bear testimony that our church is the only church with a TRUE prophet of God. Mitzi was very receptive and I know she could feel the power of what we were teaching! I also got a picture with Mitzi on Monday night, but that will come next Monday. I have noticed since I have been out, lots of people have a misconception of who and what a true prophet is and it is great to be able to share the truths about our prophet Thomas S. Monson with people!

On Friday we did a booth at Wal-mart!! That was actually really fun! We did our booth focusing on the Questions of the Soul. It's actually one of my favorite sections in Preach My Gospel. It talks about the different questions people have in their lives that the Book of Mormon can help clearly answer! We had some pictures of Christ and sheets of paper we gave out that had the questions on them! We didn't get to give out any copies of the Book of Mormon, but we did shortly visit with some awesome people who came by!

Sunday was fast Sunday and it was awesome. So there is a less active family in our branch boundaries. Missionaries taught them many years ago and all of the kids were baptized except one. He met with missionaries and it didn't go to far with him in particular. So this last week he had been going through some rough times and posted about it on Facebook. One of the awesome members, Brother Robison, in our branch saw his post and talked to him about it to help him out, since they were friends in the past through church. So on Sunday, this kid came to fast and testimony meeting! He felt like he needed to come back and after meeting with Brother Robison all of Sunday School and just talking, we sat and talked and taught him during the 3rd hour! We had an awesome lesson/discussion on the Restoration and the Atonement and it was so clear how the Lord had prepared him and his heart was soft and ready to receive this time around. The Elders here in Covington will have another lesson with him this Friday! He is 20, so about our age, and is super nice. He works at Rent-a-Center and plays video games. He is awesome!

We were also able to visit the Thompsons 3 times over the last weeks and recently they have been reading all of the chapters we have been leaving them! Yesterday we finally got them to commit to coming to church, as long as we work out their rides to and from church!!!! I was so pumped! They are doing super well and it was sad to leave them! They actually gave me their contact info so I can find them once I'm home! I got a picture with them as well.  :)

Funny story, so some people around Covington are very strange. Example #1: This African American guy who looked completely gangster yelled at us from down the street the other day and came and wanted to talk to us before we drove away. As he came up, he was holding one of his hands inside his sweatshirt pocket, carrying something. He was distracted by a phone call once he was close to talk to us and we could see he was holding a large beer (at 3:30 pm mind you) in his shirt pocket and we weren't about to get shot. Luckily, Elder Norman, the hunter he is, told me afterwards that he had the thought "Am I really going to have hurt someone today?" as he walked up to us, haha. Example #2 About once a month, there is a random day people decide to yell at us out of their cars. Most of it is just random screaming. But sometimes people yell "Jehovas Witness!" and they are clearly just very confused.

Those are pretty much the highlights of the last week and a half! We didn't see Robert because he was in Nebraska buying bulls for his cattle farm he has out there, which is cool, but totally random. Later today, we are actually going as a district to some cave in White Sulfur Springs! It will be real cool and lots of pictures will be taken. Hope the best for all of you!!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

Elder Goold and Phillipe

Elder Goold and Mitzi

Elder Goold and the Thompsons

Elder Vai and Elder Goold in a cave