West Virginia Charleston Mission

West Virginia Charleston Mission

Monday, April 24, 2017

Hollerin' without a truck


Well this last week has been pretty awesome. Lot's of fun times for sure!!! 

So we were able to find a lot of cool people this last week!! Some of them in main-town, and some in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Good times!

We met this guy named John in Ravenswood. He was weeding a bocce-ball court and we walked by and started talking to him. He definitely enjoys talking, but he had a lot of similar beliefs to us and he really enjoyed that. So we talked with him for a while and turns out he lives right near Tim. Really funny too, and now he's interested in coming to church and he's starting to read the Book of Mormon! We were able to then go by his house yesterday and teach him about the Plan of Salvation which went really well, since he had always thought that "burning in hell" and other things other churches always talk about was too mean. 

Then, Earl was the other guy that was fun to talk to. We met him while walking in Ripley and he was visiting his friend at a trailer park. He and his wife have been wanting to get back into a church and so we talked with him about how we can know which church is true and receive our answers through prayers. Then, we asked where he lived and he gave us the classic WV directions, "just 'bout a mile up *insert holler name here* on top the hill". For all of you familiar with West Virginia, everything is a hill. Luckily, we knew where the road was and decided to just wing it later in the week trying to find him. Yesterday was that day. But we were successful! We drove about as far up in the holler as a Corolla can make it and then hiked the rest of the way. We were successful in finding them and they were busy, but invited us back. It was quite the holler though, hollers are just the best!!! I don't think I'd mind living in the middle of nowhere after my mission!

We were able to meet with and teach the “B” family on Thursday. They fed us dinner, which was really nice and then we were able to teach them about the basics of the Restoration and why our church is different. They're a catholic couple, but were really open to learning and reading the Book of Mormon and studying further!  

We also got to see Tim again on Saturday and taught him about the Plan of Salvation. That went really well. He is a super good guy who just wants to help people! He was going to make it to church on Sunday, but something happened. We actually knocked on his door in the morning and helped him wake up, but we think he may have fallen back asleep after we left. Next week!!!! And then we got to see Sister Meadows again but this time she didn't call her friend and all was well. In fact, it really seemed to help her understand the gospel better and why we are different than other Christians. Right now she works on Sundays so she can't make it to church, but we are going to work with her more to get Sundays off. 

Then like normal, we did service at the food pantry, had church, walked a lot and did a lot of talking to people. We're starting to work more with the branch presidency to inspire the missionary work in this area. It's going great so far! 

This week we did a lot of teaching about the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome. Something that really amazed me is just how perfect God's plan really is, and how careful and in depth everything is. And what's cooler is how we can never seem to learn it all. So I wanted to challenge you all to look for something in the Plan of Salvation that maybe you don't know a whole lot about, or something you want to know more about and then study it! I know for a fact that you will be able to feel God's love and draw closer to Him with a better knowledge of his plan. Hope you all have a great week!!! Peace out

Take Luck!

Elder Goold


Our Super Corolla Off Roading Edition

A tiny church in the backwood we found


We had a crazy thunderstorm

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

“Happy Easter!!!”

This last week + 1 day went by really quickly! There were a lot of cool things that happened!

We got to teach Roger last Monday. He is awesome! He is really nice and seemed to understand the Restoration of the Gospel pretty well, and he was pretty excited to read the Book of Mormon. He wants to come to church as well, but he wasn't able to make it because of Easter, sadly. 

We also got to see a family who lives nearby our place. Elder Scott and Strunk got to teach the husband on Friday while we were on exchanges! They are a super nice family though, hopefully we'll get to see them again this week and get them out to church!  Also, the “M’s” are still doing well, but now Sis. M is sick and so we're waiting until this Thursday, but we are really excited. We also got to visit with the Mullins, a less active family, 

So we had a fireside on Sunday night. Sadly, not as many people as we were hoping came! We planned it to be short so it didn't interrupt Easter too much but it didn't work out. We had a few members come, but that was all. Luckily we did talk to a lot of people who we invited to the fireside who now we can go back and teach! 

Easter morning was a little weird for me. I woke up really dizzy and couldn't walk around or get up and down very easily, so I was very slow going. We were able to get to church, but after sacrament meeting, we left. Luckily after getting home and sleeping and getting my appetite back I felt better. It was still bothering me yesterday but not nearly as much. Sis. Scott, the mission nurse, thinks my ears are just plugged so hopefully it's totally better by tomorrow! 

Yesterday we had a good day of interviews with President Salisbury! He is awesome and it's crazy to think that soon he'll be gone. That will be a sad day. Anyways, then yesterday we did a bunch of walking and we met this guy named Dakota. He called us over asking who we were because he'd seen us walking around so much! So we talked with him a little bit about the plan of salvation and he invited us back! He's from Indianapolis and he has a huge dog that was mix of mastiff, German shepherd and wolf, so he warned us to not get very close to his house, but we're going to teach him again later this week! 

Like mentioned previously, I went on exchanges to Spencer with Elder Kruger! He came out with me and he's from Canada. He's a funny missionary and it was a pretty good day. We also ate some delicious food he cooked followed by some cookies:)  It was a good time!

I hope all of you have had a good week and had a good Easter! My spiritual thought of the week comes from Easter’s central message: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ! I want everyone to read through Mosiah 16:7-9 in the Book of Mormon, they are some of my favorite verses, especially verse 9. Christ is the light we must look to, to be freed from spiritual darkness! His light never dims, and it never will! 

Take luck!!


Elder Goold🤓

Spencer WV has one of 2 McDonalds in the WORLD that sell pizza!!! So I got a McPizza while I was there:) 


Elder Strunk and I selfie status this morning!

Monday, April 10, 2017

“Chocolate Festival!”



Yep! We had the WV Chocolate Festival this weekend! 🍫 I had told myself I wouldn't get anything, but that was a terrible lie. Chocolate brownie explosion balls (not even sure how...) were my favorite. I also got some Amish chocolate bread. A lot of Amish things here oddly! 

We've been trying to work a lot with the Prince of Peace video here and so we did a few different things. First, we made a poster on some cardboard with metal hangers bent to hold it up and then planted it right along side the Wal-mart parking lot! It was pretty "missionary" for sure, but it is still there now, so we're pretty satisfied haha! Then we printed out a bunch of the posters for it and posted them up all over town the night before the festival to maximize people seeing it. Not sure if it did too much, but can't hurt right? Then we're trying to work with members to post it on social media but we don't have too many members that are tech savvy enough to do that, but hey! 

We got to see Tim again last night and we read some of the Book of Mormon with him. He's a really good guy, but right now he's getting trapped in the things going on in the world, so it's been a distraction for him in reading the scriptures. He's definitely sincere though and so we are going to teach him more about the plan of salvation tonight! He's also going to come to church this Sunday!

We had a good amount of appointments that we set up, but a lot of them fell through. A lot of people are getting sick around here, but we're going to have a good week this week. The “M’s” are a family who live in Ravenswood, and they are awesome. I haven't been able to teach them yet, but we're still working with them towards baptism. We were going to teach them this past weekend, but their 2 month daughter got sick, which is really sad, so pray for them! 

Sister Meadows is someone we saw yesterday. They started teaching her right before I got here and she is having a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation because her daughter recently passed away. So she finds a lot of comfort in the plan of happiness! Unfortunately when we went to teach her yesterday, she told us her friend called her and told her what she believes as a Pentecostal and then Sis. Meadows proceeded to teach her about what we believe. Her friend didn't agree with the things we taught and so she started questioning and to make a long story short, Sis. Meadows just called her friend while we were there and let her friend ask us all her questions instead of getting to teach her like we planned. It was pretty frustrating, but oh well, Sis. Meadows still believes what we've taught her so far, so it's all good. 

Something that I really liked this last week that I felt as I studied was how loving God's plan is. There isn't a single person who doesn't get a fair chance at partaking of all of God's blessings. Everyone, either in this life or the next, will have a perfect opportunity to come unto Christ and feel His love. I was reminded of this as I read one of my new favorite scriptures, 1 Nephi chapter 22 verse 28. It's so simple and so all encompassing. ALL nations and people and kindreds and tounges can have a relationship with Christ that will bring them peace. No one is left out!! 

I tried my best to get pictures this week, so hopefully you enjoy. I tried to get more from Elder Webb but he forgot his camera this week so next week! Haha. Peace out!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold


PS: If you haven't shared the Prince of Peace video on mormon.org, do it!!!! It's awesome!!

We found some legit green glasses in the closet!

Amish Chocolate Bread

The headquarters of the Food Pantry where we do service

Our Walmart sign

Monday, April 3, 2017

“General Conference: THE BEST!!!!”

Well this last week was something, that's for sure! We tried hard to get appointments with all of our investigators and others, but we weren't able to see too many of them. But it's going well. 

We were able to see the Moore's on Friday. So Sis. Moore is a less active lady from Utah, who is married to a non-member. He's been taught for a while but right now they are reading through the Book of Mormon together. They are in 2nd Nephi and it's going really well. They were able to watch some conference and so President Monson's talk was great for them. 

We also got to see Bro. Casto. He's an older gentleman with two HUGE Great Danes, one 7 years old, one 11 months old, both bigger than me by a lot. He's a really nice man. He was taught by missionaries before as well, but hasn't been seen in a while. We just talked with him about conference and got him the Gospel Library so that he can read the Book of Mormon in bigger print. 

We also got to see Tim again and set up an appointment for this weekend. And cool story as we were walking to see him this random lady yelled at us from her porch about not coming to talk with her!! That usually isn't the response we get, usually people are quite happy when we don't with them! But apparently elders and sisters used to come by in the past and she wanted us to come back again, so we get to meet with her as well! 

We did some service at the Food pantry on Friday and that was good. It's not always super busy, but we meet a lot of awesome people there. We got to share the initiative #Princeofpeace with some of the people there! 

Speaking of the initiative, EVERYONE CHECK IT OUT IT IS AMAZING!!!!! mormon.org has the video up right now!!! It is so great. I love it because it clearly shows how great Christ's accomplishments were in comparison to the world! And the videos that go along with it are great too, showing how Christ's sacrifice and Resurrection has helped many people in different ways. Then, once you check it out, share it!!!!!!! Send the video or website or a picture from it to someone you think of that needs it. I promise this will bless your life and those you share it with! This is probably my favorite initiative so far!

General Conference: THE BEST!!!! I have no clue which ones stuck out because so many of them did! But I was really, really touched by Elder Rasband’s talk Sunday morning. 10/10 would recommend. I loved the idea of responding to our first spiritual promptings, because they are pure and will yield immediate blessings and we will be right 9/10 times (quoting Joseph Smith). This I feel like went perfectly with our Zone Conference we had last Thursday about relying on the Spirit. I hope each of you got to listen to or watch conference and if you didn't, DO IT!!! It is such a spiritual feast. I know the leaders of this church hold the same power as the ancient prophets and apostles and with such authority, they share with us exactly what we need to hear!!!! 

So last week apparently Elder Webb and Elder Moyle got jumped in Huntington...yeah, sketchy. They had some drunk guy come and talk to them and then punched them both in the face a few times and Bro. Sebastiani in the car called 911. Yeah, crazy!! 

Hope all of you are having a great week so far and I hope the rest goes just as great! Peace out!!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

Elder Burgerner, Elder Scoot and I

Getting ready to watch General Conference

This is Matt Rhodes, he served his mission in Roseville back in 2008 and he is moving down to Charleston.