Elder Daniel Goold: “Bad email title!”

I think coming up with email titles are one of the biggest struggles of missionary life.

Well since last Wednesday a lot has happened! Thursday was Transfers! Elder Strunk headed down to Blacksburg and I probably won't get to see him before he heads out, so that's too bad. I got to see Elder Webb, Elder Hill, Elder Burgerner, and Elder Perkins (and a lot of others too) so that was quite the party! Then Elder Bailey and Elder Webb (the older, not my previous companion) arrived and we headed back. Good day!

So Elder Bailey is my new companion and he's great! He's from a lot of places, since he's moved a lot, but right now his family lives in AZ, near Phoenix. He actually went to BYU before his mission so that's pretty sweet! (He was roommates with my friends from home Trevor and Carlos - small world!) He came on his mission in the same group as Elder Baggett, so he's been out about 11 months. He's really cool and we get a long great so far!

Um, nothing terribly exciting happened regarding missionary work sadly! We had an appointment with the “M” family on Saturday but they had to go to the hospital again, so things just aren't working out very well, sadly :( We did get to see the “S” family though! They are a family that lives in Ravenswood, Bro. S is a less active member and his wife isn't a member of the Church. We just got to know them and talked about studying the Book of Mormon as a family! Bro. S is pretty solid in his study, but he works as a manager at McDonald's and he has to work on Sundays :( But they are awesome!

We did have a pretty funny story in Ravenswood on Saturday, we knocked on the door of this lady and she came pretty quickly. She wasn't interested, but she was super happy to tell us she had family that are members of our church out in Idaho somewhere, so she felt inclined to help us! She asked us if we wanted any Pistachios, to which we both said no thank you. Then she just said “Okay! I'll be right back!!” Haha, we looked at each other very confused and she brought us the nuts just like she said she would, as well as some very strange lemonade. It was just really awkward, because we knew she heard us, but after that we just went with it. So then we looked very strange walking back to the car with a few bags of nuts and lemonade, but it was pretty funny over all. Yep, good random story for the week!

We also had a really cool broadcast for church on Sunday in which Elder Oaks and some other leaders of the Church gave talks to the whole North American North East Area, which was pretty sweet. One of the talks given was a story of Elder Perry back a long while ago. He went with some young kids to go feed chickens at night and when walking behind them, couldn't see the ground with just the small light they had and stepped into a creek! So later he told one of the kids, that he needed his own light! He couldn't see with their’s only. I really liked the story though because it's true, each of us needs our own light. We each need our own personal testimony and direction from God to guide our lives! Without it, we may step into trouble or problems. Luckily, it's simple to get a light of our own; pray, and ponder the teachings of Christ found in the scriptures! I know the Gospel is a light for me in my life and without it I'm not sure where I would be!

Hope y'all have a great next week, stay safe and have fun! 👐

Take Luck,

Elder Goold