"Epic Everything"

My email title is inspired by some random brand of bread in Walmart. This last week was pretty awesome! Lot's of fun things happened:

Last Monday we got to meet with the Greenings, one of the families in the Branch here and help them share the gospel via social media. They're a cool family, so that was good! He makes a lot of his own furniture, so we got to sit on a homemade couch!

Tuesday was pretty bland, so I'll skip to Wednesday. We had Zone Conference in Charleston for most of the day and that was awesome! It was our second to last Zone Conference with President and Sister Salisbury. Kind of sad, but it was really good. We read through 1 Nephi 17-18, so much great stuff in just two chapters! I really like 1 Nephi 17:13 because of the amazing promise Christ gives to those who keep the commandments! I'll talk more about it later!

After Zone Conference we rushed home for our Family History class, but sadly no one made it :( But it actually wasn't terrible because we learned by experience that it takes a few centuries to get onto our library's wifi, so it wasn't too bad after all. Now we are better prepared! Then we were on exchanges with the elders from Spencer, both here in Ripley. Elder Webb (the older, not my old comp) and I were together and we got to teach the “M” family!!! It was awesome!!! It was a great lesson and they both committed to baptism! So we are pretty pumped for that:) And the craziest part was what I realized right as I left.

So, we were talking about how long they've lived here and such and they told us how Sis. M & their baby had been in Huntington for 2 months earlier this year because of her baby being born premature. Then I mentioned how I had been serving in Huntington before I came here. Anyways she said how while in Cabel Hospital, she had asked her cousin (a member of the church in Southern WV) to send church people to give her baby a blessing. Then it hit me; Elder Webb and I had been asked to give a premature baby a blessing while we were there in Huntington and it turned out to be the M’s baby!!!!! (included on post from 2/27/17) I couldn't believe it. I felt an overwhelming influence of the Spirit testifying to me about how Heavenly Father's hand is in every detail of what we do. Literally, after all of the areas I could've been sent to after Huntington, I was sent here to the place this family lived...totally incredible. I didn't even know what to say. Crazy awesome though!!!!!

Then we ran around Thursday and Friday doing some catch-up after meetings all day Wednesday, but we got to swing by the Evans again! Sadly, they're both sick and their brother-in-law is going in for surgery soon, so pray for them all!

We didn't get to teach Nathan this week, but we set something up with him for tonight, so we're pretty excited. He had a rough last week, some issues with his girlfriend, and so he broke up with her. But he got the Gospel library app on his phone last night and said he'd go through as much as he could on there before tonight, so that should be fun!

Lot's of funny things happened this week! Yesterday we were having lunch with the Walters and randomly a blue bird flew into the house through their fireplace so Elder Bailey and I were running around trying to catch it and get it out side haha! That was pretty funny! Also, our refrigerator here is really dumb. Right now, it is keeping the freezer really way too cold and isn't doing anything to the actual fridge part, so we've had to start ice-bucketing all of our normal fridge things. Fun!! It should be getting fixed sometime this week though.

Something I really liked from our discussion of the chapters in 1 Nephi was verse 51 of chapter 17. It reads: 

And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?

I love this scripture because of it's simplicity in self-application. Think about something that is hard for you that you've been asked by God to do and replace "build a ship" with whatever you've been asked to do! Nephi was such a great example of unwavering faith, and how to act on the faith we have. Verses 7-11 are also really good to study and take apart, but I'll leave my comment at that:)

Hope y'all had a good week! Stay safe and keep up the good work!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

This is from the top of the hill in the hollow where Earl & Justine live.

Covered Bridge at Cedar Lakes

Notes about the “Casto Hole” noted on the sign near Elder Goold:

The Casto Hole is a cave hidden by the woods, located near Limber’s Ridge on the waters of Straight Run, a branch of the Tug Fork of Mill Creek in Jackson County. It was a Unionist refuge during the Civil War and achieved notoriety in the scurrilous contemporary ballad, ‘‘The Casto Hole,’’ by Elihugh Powers. It has since become a part of local historical lore.

Jackson and adjacent counties were mostly loyal to the Union, and a Tug Fork Home Guard militia was established to protect the local citizens and their homes from Confederate scouts and raiding parties. The Home Guard held meetings in the Casto Hole. At times of threat Unionists would go there for safety, and it has been said that runaway slaves could find refuge there. Nicholas Casto was elected captain of the local Home Guards.

Elihugh Powers, a prominent resident, was a Southern sympathizer. This prompted Nicholas Casto to write a poem, now lost to time, critical of the rebellious Southern states and censuring Powers for his belief in their cause. Powers responded with enthusiasm when he penned ‘‘The Casto Hole.’’ Originally 27 verses, over time it was reduced to 19. It ridiculed the people and activities at the Casto Hole and stirred strong emotions in the county. High-tempered Casto youths wanted to tar and feather Powers, but calmer counsel prevailed. As time passed, the song came to be taken with more humor than hostility and some members of the Casto family were even said to laughingly recite some of the verses.

Inside the Bridge

Elder Bailey