"We were able to find a new person totally by inspiration!"

Hello everyone!! This last week has been super fun but super hard. Everyone this week is prepping for or taking their finals already, so not a whole lot of people are wanting to meet with us or make time.

Last Monday was awesome, we played soccer and it was great. I thoroughly loved just running in circles chasing the ball while most of the other missionaries were dying. Humidity, however, is not very fun.

Tuesday was an awesome day! We were able to teach this guy Brandon. He came to Bert's baptism and was taught a little by the Morgantown Sisters, but now we are teaching him! He is looking for direction in his life and feels like he wants this so he can just start over! We also saw and taught this new guy named Sean. He is super relaxed and has almost no furniture, he just chills on the floor.

Wednesday was interesting. We had a lot of people bail on appointments until later in the day. But that night, we taught Will and Elise, a Spanish couple, and Anthony and Chad. The best part was who came with us! We brought Luther, a kind of less active kid, teaching with us! He is actually super good with teaching and talking to people, so it was awesome to have him with us, especially since he still thinks going on a mission is something he needs to do! It would be so awesome to see the chain reaction from him if he were to serve a mission for the Lord! He does need to work on some things, but we are super excited to see him moving forward! There were also some interesting people partying that night. More on this later.

Friday to Saturday, we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders again and it was sweet. I went with Elder Kropushek to the Zone Leader area and we had a pretty good time. He is super cool and a great missionary for sure!

Saturday morning, Brunno was interviewed for Baptism by Elder Stoddard! He passed his interview, but his only concern was he's not sure if he wants to get baptized here, or wait to be baptized in Brazil so his family can be there. Luckily there are 20 wards in his hometown, so he'd be in good shape. Anyways, since he's still deciding, his baptism wouldn't be until the 7th if he did it here.

Sunday was Bert's confirmation! It was really cool to stand in while he was confirmed a member of Christ's church on the Earth today. It was such a powerful moment and Bert has been doing really awesome since then! We are hoping to get him to the temple this next month while he's working!

Yesterday was a good day as well, we saw an awesome blessing in the morning! We were able to find a new person totally by inspiration! We were walking to work a nearby area for a short while and on our way, we felt like we should stay at this certain apartment complex and so we did. The first person who answered was Matt. He had met with missionaries about 8 years ago and had frequently seen them around, but never learned anything past the basics of the Restoration. So he invited us right in and we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he seemed to understand it really well. It was pretty awesome to see that as such an obvious blessing from following the Spirit.

Well, nothing too crazy happened this week. Wednesday while we were walking with Luther, there were about 10 girls out on their front porch ledge place, drinking, dancing and singing along to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.   We also had some fun getting a new soccer ball out of some bushes, that way, we can play with a better ball.  We seriously find all sorts of random things here. I have been averaging 2 cents a day from the side walks.

My spiritual moment from this week comes from President Benson, specifically chapter 18, pointed out to me by Elder Kropushek. He talks all about pride and its different forms and how we can recognize pride within ourselves so we can change and be better people. He taught "The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity‍ means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.”  I think pride is something that everyone can always be working on and the way we do that is constantly trying to be more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have really been thinking about this a lot this part week and I would challenge all of you to think about it and even read that chapter!

So this week is weird because transfers are on Wednesday instead of Thursday like normal. So today is our P-Day and Elder Vai and I are both staying here in Morgantown for part of the summer! I am super excited, except for all of the students leaving...Anyways, I hope all of you are doing well!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"I absolutely love being a missionary!"

It was such a fun week, sadly no hike last week like planned, but we just went adventuring in the woods on some trails and found a pizza in a waterfall.  There was just a sealed frozen pizza floating down this waterfall.  I absolutely love being a missionary!

Brunno is doing really well also! We taught him both the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom this week, so that was quite the double whammy, but of course, he is awesome, so he is doing well. He has a girlfriend back home in Brazil and said that the Law of Chastity would be hard for him because of that, but then on his own, he told her what he was learning about and said that he wouldn't do anything against the Law of Chastity with her because he really wants to follow God and Christ! She was totally okay with it too and is really starting to be interested in the Church through him! We are so excited to see the progress he is making and it was pretty amazing that he was humble enough to do that. He is really prepared and I thank our Heavenly Father for his willingness and humility because of how much it will bless him.

We were able to teach a couple on Friday who are French speakers!!! Gui and Nicole are both from France and he is here for school! He speaks both languages and she only spoke French, although she understands English. We taught them the Restoration and it went really well! I just thought it was cool to run into someone who is a native French speaker here. Just like French class in school, I had no clue what they were saying, but cool nonetheless.

This week has also been really crazy with parties since it's almost summer and the weather is nice now. So lots of crazy, naturally. We had some guy drive by in a Batman mask and scream "WHERE IS SHE???" at us. Elder Vai got a Gatorade bottle thrown at him from a car and we played cornhole (bean bag toss) with a party of drunk guys. Funny enough, they had no clue about what we do, so they wholeheartedly offered us beer and invited us to play cornhole. It was way harder then I thought and we lost terribly. But don't worry, we found someone to teach from it, so it was worth it, haha!

Well, like I mentioned last week, Bert's baptism was last night! It was so awesome! Sadly the bishop got sick that morning, so we had a change for Heston to perform the baptism, but other than that, everything went really well! Heston accidently messed up with the prayer part, so he was kind of baptized twice, but it was all good. We had awesome support from the ward and a few people we are teaching were able to make it!  There we met an awesome guy the sister missionaries are going to let us teach and he told us about how strongly he felt the Spirit during the ordinance! There were also lots of refreshments, which are always good.

Something that I have been noticing a lot this week has been how we can apply the Gospel and the scriptures to everything. I have been able to see how random things apply to the way we live the Gospel and follow the Spirit, especially last night at the baptism. Heston, as well as performing the baptism, gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and used an example about the way cities and gates and guides through the city used to work and how similarly, the Spirit

can guide us through our Father in Heaven according to the heed we give it.

This has seriously been the best, most crazy week ever. It was awesome. I finally had a pepperoni roll! It's like 400 calories or something crazy like that. But super good... :)

Well, I hope all of you had a good last week and enjoy this next one!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

My first pepperoni roll.

Me, Heston, Bert and Elder Vai!

"He then told us his name was 'Rock and Roll'

Hello! I hope everyone has had an awesome week! It's a huge blur so I'll try to remember some good things and some funny things.

We were able to meet with Brunno (His name has 2 N's apparently) and he is doing super awesome. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and prayer. It was such a great lesson and we are just so excited with Brunno's readiness! He also came to church, which was awesome and he really loved the fast and testimony meeting! We've got most of our meetings with him scheduled and he told the other missionaries that he's excited about getting baptized on the 30th!

Tuesday we had dinner with Cody and Jescha and taught him about Priesthood and service in the Church, which went really well! He's progressing very well, but he works on Sunday, so he'll meet with missionaries over the summer when he goes home and work with them there.  We got to meet with him on Friday as well and he's been doing really well with reading and actually learning things from the Book of Mormon!

Wednesday was a very strange day. We were walking down High Street and we stopped to talk to John, a local homeless man. After a little bit of conversation, we were joined by Tom, another homeless person. It was all good because homeless people are pretty awesome, until Steven showed up. He came stumbling out of Buffalo Wild Wings and saw us, came over and screamed "MORMON PARTY!!!" He then told us his name was Rock and Roll and he was repeatedly trying to hit on me and get our phone number while Elder Vai talked to the homeless people. Then when his ride showed up, he gave me a hug. It was very funny and strange at the same time.

Thursday to Friday, Elder Vai and I exchanged with the Zone Leaders so I went with Elder Stoddard (featured below) to their area. The Zone Leaders actually live in a garage/house/thing and it's kind of awesome. Anyways, I got to go to Pennsylvania, a little town called Point Marion. We found a lady there who was super ready to meet the missionaries and learn about the Gospel, it was awesome. Elder Kropuschek interviewed Bert on Thursday and he is ready for Baptism! We did have to move it to this upcoming Sunday for planning purposes, but it will still be happening!

The cold weather (ie: snow) isn't fun when you walk everywhere. See picture below. Saturday decided to snow, which severely limited the number of people outdoors, that's for sure. We did some indoor tracting within the apartment complexes here. Sunday evening we were tracting some apartments when we decided to knock on one last door and we found a super solid potential girl named Amanda!  Then we went home and we cooked up plantains. 4/10 would not recommend.

Anyways, something I wanted to share with y'all comes from the Book of Mormon, Alma chapter 41. I decided to call it Super Karma. In the last 3 verses it teaches that whatever we do, whatever we give to other people and however we act will be rewarded to us in the next life, but of course, in greater ways, because God loves us all as His children. So what goes around, comes around, but better if we do good things. So do good stuff, I think it's pretty simple😀 

I also can't believe I have already been on my mission for a whole 7 months! It feels like 2 years and a week all at the same time. I really love it here and I'm not too sure I want it to end. I really hope all of you have a great rest of the week and stay safe where ever you are. A pro safety tip I have learned since I have been here is to stay away from large gatherings outside of clubs and bars. Alrighty, I have talked too much, time to go

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"General Conference...It was pretty dang awesome right?"

Hello everyone! This last week has been awesome and of course, Conference was the highlight! So many good talks and it was just full of goodness.

Monday: Last week we played kickball, but I forgot my shoes, so I played barefoot which resulted in lots of tiny cuts all over my feet, but it was worth it. We taught Amar, the crazy funny Muslim kid from when I first got here, and he is just very strange to say the least. He is definitely concerned about following the truth, he just is going about it differently than most people haha!

Tuesday: We had very opposite experiences. First we got to teach Bruno! He is an awesome Brazilian guy and he is totally prepared! Brad, our ward mission leader, talked to him in Portuguese on the bus and gave him the Book of Mormon. He has been to church 3 or 4 times and loves it! We finally got to meet with him and taught him with Ky, another member who speaks Portuguese. It was an awesome lesson and he prayed at the end, which was super powerful. HE is just so humble and open to following Jesus Christ, it is amazing. Then, we went and taught Marshall and Brandon. Now, I love these guys and they are both super fantastic people, but Marshall is a lawyer and so this time, we ended up in a very long "conversation" about certain terms we were using and it was just not the best. But it was a great day overall.

Wednesday: We had lots of appointments set up but sadly they fell though. We did get yelled at by some large black man that we were harassing him because his roommate told us to come back and visit, so we decided to never go back. We were able to have a spontaneous lesson with an investigator, Tanner. He is such a great dude, a lot like me I feel, but it kinda stinks that we don't see him as often because he's in an accelerated program at the school. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation which went really well!

Thursday: We went on exchanges with the Elders in the Southpark area, so I was with Elder Lawrence all day. He just got done with training, he's from Mesa Arizona, and he likes a lot of the same music as me. He actually knew Elder Brown a little at the MTC! We worked the residential side of Morgantown a lot and it was fun! We also got to have dinner with some members, which was sweet.

Friday: We had district meeting and exchanged back. Not too much else happened Friday except our lesson with Bruno and Ky! We taught the Plan of Salvation and it all clicked for him! He has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and accepted to be baptized on April 30th! He said when he goes back to Brazil for the summer he will look for our church and he wants his parents to learn from missionaries there! We are so pumped for him!

Now I think I'll just talk about conference... It was pretty dang awesome right?  My favorite talk is hard to choose. My favorites were President Hallstrom, President Uchtdorf (Priesthood), President Eyring (Priesthood), Sister Oscarson (Sunday Morning), President Uchtdorf (Sunday Morning), and Elder Holland. We just watched it at the institute here and had a bunch of members there as well. It was so great and I feel like I appreciate it way more as a missionary because of 1) I recognize more and more just how significant it really is and 2) it's a nice 2 hour break from walking! I really loved it and I hope you all had or will have the chance to watch it. Bert made it for the Sunday Morning Session and we are super pumped that he should be having his baptism next Sunday!!!! He is a really great guy and hasn't had any problems with any of the commandments, which is awesome. I haven't really gotten to talk with him much because I was on exchanges when they taught him last and then break, but he is a super great guy and I am real excited for him. I can't get over how awesome conference was and I just have to tell you all how happy I am out here! I love being able to work here and tell people about Jesus Christ and His Chosen Prophet in these days.

Take Luck,

Elder Goold!