West Virginia Charleston Mission

West Virginia Charleston Mission

Monday, May 23, 2016

"I found a $100 dollar bill"

Well hello everyone! As you may assume from my email heading, yes, I found a $100 dollar bill #Benjamin. I will explain in more detail further on in my email.

Last week we went for a bike ride on a very long bike path here in Morgantown and biked quite a long ways away (we don't have an area which is nice for this).

Tuesday we saw lots of people, which was sweet. We taught Wenji in the morning. He is literally the most awesome guy! Like I have mentioned before, he speaks very little English, but this time he asked us what was different about our church from other Christian churches. So we used lots of very simple words and stellar diagrams to teach him about prophets and how we are the only church today with a living Prophet. So that was an adventure. Then we got to teach Hawa, the lady from Liberia and her husband and cousin, so that was pretty sweet!

Thursday was our next exciting day: We had Zone Conference in the morning and it took up a large chunk of the day. It was super great, a lot was taught and much was learned by all. President Salisbury is really awesome and he talked a lot about his recent 2 day meeting with Elder Oaks (the Apostle), so it is cool to see how close we are to his teachings! I think my favorite thing that I learned came from a question President asked, saying "Do your actions reflect desire?" I have thought about this a lot recently and it is such a good introspective tool for improvement. It really applies to every aspect of life too, not just missionary work, which is why I wanted to share it with everyone. Not only does it help us look at the things we do and how they relate to our goals, but it also relates very well to the scriptural teaching of "Seek and ye shall find."  Basically, if we put effort into something, we can accomplish or find what we want, and without any action on our part, we can't expect the same results. 

After Zone Conference, we had exchanges with the Southpark Elders. Elder Christensen came to University with me and he loved it, mostly because we have bikes and he does mountain biking back home, so it was good. We were able to teach a new guy named Sam. He is also from China, but he speaks much better English than Wenji, so we could teach him much easier. In fact, our lesson with him went super well, he is such an open person! He really wants to read the Book of Mormon and even prayed about it at the end of our lesson!  We also taught Luther at the institute about tithing. It was something Elder Vai and I felt would be good for him, even though he had grown up in the church and was just returning to activity. As it would turn out, Luther actually never had paid tithing growing up and now that he is returning to activity, doesn't know how to do tithing! So it was really a perfect lesson for him and he is committed to now pay his tithing in full, which I know will bless him more than anything.

Saturday Elder Vai and I were back together and we decided to go to Brunno's apartment and tract the other doors (even though their complex was locked with a code, I may have seen the code Brunno put in J ). Turns out, there were so many awesome people to talk to and we taught one girl, Bethany about the Restoration! So that was pretty sweet! Later was probably one of the best parts of the week. We taught Wenji again and this time we taught him about who God is and the nature of God and us as all of His Sons and Daughters. He told us how in China, there are many different gods people worship and how if someone wants to, they can "transfer gods". So then he said, "If I believe in your God, can I transfer gods?" It was so dang funny! Then, I proceeded to draw a very convoluted diagram to display how only on God was the true and living God and how others are not true gods. We both thought we would have to try a different approach, but he understood it! We were both very excited and then he used his translator app to ask, "Do you feel accomplishment?"  We were laughing so dang hard, it was great.

So, Sunday was a kind of lack-luster day. Mostly. We were tracting on Beechurst Ave as usual and I had been finding a pretty good amount of coins, more than usual. Shortly after, we saw this really sketchy spray-painted trailer in the bushes, so naturally we wanted a picture. We walked over and while Elder Vai pulled out his camera, I am still searching for coins. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spot a green, new Benjamin lying on the ground!!!!!!! I freaked out. It was pretty awesome, but I decided to split it with him because I am me. We concluded it was probably drug money.

Anyways, later that day, we were on the bus, still in shock. We were chatting it up with the bus driver, Jim, and I decided I wanted to look at the nice bill one more time, since I had quickly put it in my bag to keep it dry. Lo and behold - it was fake. It looked so real!!!!!!!!!!!!! It had the tiniest print saying it was for movies only! Also, Benjamin was making a strange face. But now we plan to prank people with it. Sad, but kind of funny.

It was overall a pretty good week, I hope it was for all of you as well!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold






Monday, May 16, 2016

"We did talk to lots of people who were diverse in their cultures"

Hello everyone!!

This last week went by really fast, but to be honest, I can't remember a whole lot of what happened. We were able to teach and find more people than the last few weeks, but nothing too outstanding. However, we did talk to lots of people who were diverse in their cultures. Examples include:  1. A Chinese guy (only speaks Chinese) who desperately wanted to come to church    2. A Chinese lady (only speaks Chinese) who kept saying "haha" at the end of each sentence (not sure if it means something in Chinese...?) 3. Tons of Arabic people (as usual) but we met one girl who is a part of some sub-group of Muslims 4. A Native American girl, who has a sister who recently joined the church 5. A Spanish-speaking guy, Eddie, from Mexico 6. An Irish lady and her son (both kind of crazy, but really nice) 7. A very nice lady from Liberia. 8. Muslim circle time!! Now I will attempt to recall some things that happened this week!

We were able to teach some new people! Hadis is a lady from Iran who doesn't have a solid religion and is looking at as many as she can. We had a really awesome lesson with her, and Evie (a member) shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon at the end, which I think was really led by the Spirit.

So "Muslim Circle Time" happened on Tuesday. We had an appointment with this Muslim girl Soraya. We brought Craig with us because we though we it was just her, but when we came, there were about 7 other friends of hers there, all Muslim with varying degrees of faithfulness. We sat on the floor in a circle and taught them the whole Restoration. It was pretty great!!

We knocked a lot of apartments on Wednesday and we ran into Weinji, the Chinese guy. He has only been in America a few months and speaks very little English, but all we could understand is that he REALLLYY REALLLLYY wanted to come to Church on Sunday. So, we had Mikey help us out and we got him to church. He loved it!!

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Friday-Saturday which was fun. Elder Stoddard came to the University with me! We ended up talking to a non-denominational Christian guy for a little while that night and Saturday morning we found the Irish people! So first we met the mother who was freaking out that her son was missing. About 5 mins later he showed up and talked to us. He said his mom was a little crazy and freaked out any time he ever left. But he invited us in and we taught him the Restoration. It went super well because he said he was Catholic and believed in God and Christ but the Church didn't do everything he thought was right and he understood and loved the truths we taught him!!

We also met with Bert at his apartment (we biked on the "rail trail" to get there) and taught him a little more about the temple. I really felt the Spirit during that lesson because I remembered the last time I had been to the temple. I whole-heartedly know that temples are real blessings in our lives and that the Spirit there is very unique and strong. I could feel the love of Heavenly Father there every time, even just in the waiting room! I miss going a lot, but someday there will be a temple in West Virginia, I know it!

Elder Vai and I also found Eddie, the guy from Mexico, waiting for the bus and had the best Spanglish conversation ever. We gave him a pamphlet in Spanish to read and he wants to come to church on Sunday! We actually have been meeting lots of Spanish speakers recently.

Church was really awesome yesterday, we had 4 people there!! Brunno was there for his last Sunday in America for a while (sad day), Weinji was there, and Joe & Holly were there. Joe and Holly are some people the missionaries taught a decent while ago who never got baptized (sadly) but they come to institute all the time and read the scriptures together and know the church is true but they just never felt like they wanted to be baptized I guess. But they are really awesome people.

Also, fun fact: Without noticing, Elder Vai will often talk to these foreign people with their accent; Asian people with an Asian accent, Spanish-speaking people with a Spanish accent and so on. It is really flippin funny!!!

Anyways, that is about it, it was a good week as well as a hard one. We did find lots of awesome people though and we should be able to see them soon! I hope all of you had a great week!!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold J



Monday, May 9, 2016

"Morgantown is now a Ghost Town."

So this week was officially finals. Everyone and their dog have now left Morgantown, so it is very empty and quiet. Lots of the week was filled with finding and fixing our new bikes, so I will leave out the details of our endless campus contacting and tracting.

Last Monday we played a lot of Ultimate Frisbee and I got very, very dirty because it was exceedingly muddy. Pictured below!

Tuesday we got our bikes and so we worked on them a little. I have a very awkward and uncomfortable seat, but none of the other ones from other missionaries fit, so I am stuck with this one. We got to teach Brunno on Tuesday after we helped Ky and Emily move out of their home. We went to his house and taught him about the ten commandments and showed him a lot of the online church resources.

We were able to teach Gui and Nicole again and this time we had all sorts of French materials so it went super well. They understood a lot about the resurrection from Alma 40, which is what we taught them since Gui's mother had just recently passed. He is talking about even coming to church in a few weeks when is he is able to take time off!

Kory is someone new. We actually taught him last Sunday but I forgot to mention him. He is actually good friends with a member here, Josh (neither are leaving for the summer. ) We taught him last Friday or Saturday and it went really well, he read the Book of Mormon and had some really good ideas and questions about it!

Not much happened this week, other than the mass exodus out of town. I had never seen so many Uhaul trailers! It is much more quiet since people have left. A lot less partying and music, but sadly a lot less people to talk to. We really have been blessed recently though, we have found random groups of people interested that will actually be staying during the summer!! It is quite awesome.

Something I wanted to share with everyone this week is about questions. Last night, Elder Vai and I were talking with some very interesting people and he asked us why we were Mormon. Elder Vai said something I really liked about how this Gospel can answer any serious gospel question because we are the only church with modern revelation and that can answer questions for everyone. I know this is true and that is something we tell our investigators: Come to church with a question you really have and be prepared to have it answered. The Spirit can always give us unique answers, exactly what we need to hear, as long as we are open to it!

I just realized that I never told you all about our trek through the woods! We decided we were going to blaze a trail through the woods to get home faster. Well, everything but that actually happened. The woods here are very difficult to navigate, especially in the night. Lots of random water and animals. But it was a very thrilling 25 mins of being lost!

Anyways, you are all great, Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold!





Monday, May 2, 2016

"Many people are studying for finals"

Hello everyone! I hope you all have been doing well! This last week has been very interesting because so many people are studying for finals, but it was good!

Last Tuesday we played soccer again and it was mostly fun. The one part that was not fun was when Elder Stoddard kicked the ball as hard as he could while I jumped in the way. The ball hit my stomach so hard I immediately collapsed and almost threw up. But I was good about 5 mins later and then went back to running fast everywhere.

Wednesday we had a short lesson on the Restoration with this guy Mohammad we just met. It went well, probably because he loved the Arabic pamphlet, but he wasn't too interested in the end. We also had dinner with Stacey, a sister here who can’t make it to church just because she works basically every Sunday. Wednesday was also transfers and so we got three new missionaries in our district! Elder Ballard, Sister Lee and Sister Fonua. Sister Fonua is being trained by Sister Flake and she's actually from Antelope which is super cool!

Thursday we visited with Bert at the institute and went over the first lesson about Prophets and Joseph Smith and the Priesthood and why it is so important. We walked quite a bit to some of the outreaches of the campus to try and find students who would maybe be here for summer or just lived here but were student age. Later that night we taught Natalie and Andrew for the first time. They are actually a pretty awesome couple and we had a super great lesson! Sadly, because Andrew is a rocket scientist (literally), they're moving to the outskirts of DC this weekend and so they'll try to meet with missionaries there! They also had a Nintendo 64, which made me very happy.

Friday morning we had district meeting, which was actually really awesome. We each took turns teaching a section about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a very spiritual meeting. Then right after, we got to visit and teach Matt again! We taught him about the Gospel so it was nice that we had just come from a meeting all about it! It was a super awesome lesson and he said that he would be baptized! But of course, he's moving to Florida in a few weeks so we'll hand him off to missionaries down there once he moves. That night we had a lot of student activities at the institute going on, so we just came, ate their food and then went back to finding people. Pretty typical of us. J  Saturday was pretty awesome! We worked a lot up by Ruby hospital and found quite a few awesome people who won't be leaving for the summer! Later we taught Brunno and read from the Book of Mormon with him. He did tell us how he has decided that he wants to wait until he is home in Brazil to be baptized so that he can tell his family and girlfriend more about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. At first I was kind of down, but then I realized how much of an opportunity it really was and how if it leads to his whole family going to the temple someday, then there is absolutely no reason for me to be sad. He is really such an amazing person the Lord has prepared and we are really excited and him and hopefully his family in Brazil! We also had dinner that night with Brandon, one of the members, and his family. It was weird but nice to be with a whole family for dinner again!  Then we had a night full of lots of cool blessings. We found this Muslim guy, Mortadtha and his wife who set up for us to come back the next night! Then when we were about to go inside and only had a few minutes before we went in, we decided to knock just a few more doors in one complex and of course, we were blessed to find the most prepared lady and her fiancé. They aren't very actively religious but are looking for something for their family and she told us how she loved learning so much in just 5 mins of talking to us at the door! It truly strengthened me to see that immediate blessing from the Lord and we are excited for teaching them soon! They won't be leaving Morgantown either, just moving into the Sisters’ area in a few weeks, so we can still hear about them!

Sunday we had church and it was pretty fun, Bert was there and came in the white shirt we had got for him, so that was sweet.  Then we walked a lot from one side of campus to the other and then back for different appointments we had. We were able to teach Mortadtha and his wife. We had told him about President Monson the night before so he looked up some stuff. He was telling us all about how President Monson has 3 children and his wife had passed away and he could wiggle his ears! It was super funny and the lesson in general went really well! Luckily we have all our supplies in Arabic versions so that helps a lot. They were super cool though!

We have also been having lots of fun with random stuff. We found a super nice soccer ball in these bushes on the side of this one street that some drunk kids had kicked up there, so now it's ours. Friday night there were also some girls drinking out behind our apartments that we could hear from the window, so Elder Vai got his deer call and started blowing it super loud out the window. They FREAKED OUT!! J It was so funny, we couldn't stop laughing for a while.. We also made some really good and really bad food this week. Elder Vai loves cooking and makes really good food, but we need some help in the banana bread category, because ours was trash.

My spiritual thought for the week is that God really does love each of us as His children. I think sometimes we can forget that and not recognize the power that it brings to have that relationship with Him. Everything that God does is for us and everything we have is because of Him. Sometimes though, we just need a little reminder!

Anyways, I hope all of you have had a really great week and have fun this next week!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold