"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!