"Very unexpected, considering I'm in some random tiny Kentuckian town"

Hello everyone! This last week has been nuts. I’ve barely even been in Martin is seems like! I had 2 exchanges this week, one to Pikeville and the other to Paintsville. I am really bad at remembering to take pictures on exchanges, or pictures in general, so I am making a goal to do better at that!

We have been meeting with Jonathan still and he is doing really well. He has been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon and has been praying about baptism a lot, so we are pumped for him. He did get sick though this last week, so we hope he gets feeling better!

Wednesday I went to Pikeville with Elder Hill (yes, there are 2 Elder Hills in this district). He is an older missionary in both mission and real life. He is really smart as well. Even though Pikeville is a pretty small town, they have a college campus there actually. It's a small Christian based school. We got to have a really good lesson with one of their returning less active sisters in the ward, so that was sweet. And funny story about Brother Speth, who came with us to the lesson. The first thing he said to me was "Do you know a Cameron Goold?" That was very unexpected, considering I'm in some random tiny Kentuckian town, but apparently he is from Utah and was in the same mission as my cousin Cameron and they served around each other. That was cool and totally random.

Thursday we just did a lot of planning and then went and walked around Prestonsburg a lot to the places we've never been before. We talked to some cool people and we are really excited for some places to work closer to our apartment. Then we got to meet with Terry at the Job Corp again.  He was originally a media referral and Job Corp is this place where people who have had trouble with traditional school can come and live and get job training.  He brought people with him to meet with us and funny enough, he never was really that interested, but all of his friends have been more open than he has. So it's pretty awesome. Anyway, this week he brought even more friends from his Bible study class to talk with us, so we are grateful for all of the people basically coming to us to learn. We actually went back to see them again last night and even MORE new people showed up, so it's a party basically.

Friday, we had a conference call with our district for district meeting because we are so spread out and driving that far shreds our miles overall (we get a certain number of miles we can drive per month). Then we exchanged with Paintville Elders. I went to Paintsville with Elder Kovac, who is from Switzerland. That's pretty nifty, the only out-of-country Elder I have met in our mission so far. he's really cool and both of us get along well because we are super nerdy. We had a good lesson with a husband and wife they are teaching. We got to read 2 Nephi 31 with them all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is just so amazing to think about the fulness of the Gospel and how it can really apply to everything in our life, especially if we are humble enough to let it.

Saturday was pretty unexciting to be honest, which happens occasionally. The most exciting thing was Charlie. He is a cooky older man. He is just super enthusiastic about absolutely EVERYTHING! It's honestly super funny. He is very interested and is a great investigator actually. The one hurdle we have with him right now is that he plays the piano for some other church and he can't just leave them, so we are still thinking about that one.

Sunday we had church like normal. Thomas is someone else we had seen a lot this week, I forgot! He is doing awesome. We are going to have to hold off his baptism for his issues with law enforcement in the past, but he is good with it and is progressing a lot! We had an awesome lesson with him after church and talked a lot about his family. His family has had some hard times in the past and so we helped him commit to try and mend those relationships, at least the best that he can. We talked a lot about forgiveness. Forgiveness really is one of the most amazing feelings we can receive in this life and we are definitely hoping it will help his family!

So my spiritual thought comes from a quote by Pres. Monson that is in Preach My Gospel. It says "Regarding one’s testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses." I really like this quote because it is so true. Our testimonies aren't something meant to be kept secret, but shared. I have seen how as we share our heartfelt beliefs and faith in the gospel, it grows our own faith in the mean time. I think that is why we have testimony meeting so often in the church. President Salisbury always tells us to bear "pure" testimony. Not to just say whatever sounds good, but really to feel the Spirit and say what you know, what you really hold close to your heart. So I would encourage all of you to think about the beliefs and testimony you do have, regardless of what that testimony is about. And then share it!! Whether that is by just telling someone or writing it down or putting it on Facebook, whatever, it all works. I really hope you will all take the time to do this, because it really helps you feel the Spirit.

So I also made a sweet tie recently and we were just given a ton of free fabric from some older lady at a fabric store, so I'll be trying to bust out some ties, haha! I'll have to include a picture of my most recent one. Hope you are all doing well, stay safe!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

                                      

Weird Scissor Headbands

Fog makes me happy

Swag Homemade Puppy Tie
Don't worry, I don't actually wear it - I just really wanted to make this fabric into a tie!

"I have been doing this craziness for a whole year now"

This week was full of so much craziness. I feel like I say that a lot, but this was legit CRAZY. Everything from dying to spying and everything in between. I don't really want to accept it, but I guess first of all, I have been doing this craziness for a whole year now. So I think I'll just start sending pictures from exactly a year ago instead of any new ones (not really).

So last week (like mentioned, Elder Bagget and I went running the morning after basketball. Then later Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Paintsville Elders, Elder Perkins and Elder Kovac (who is from Switzerland, but is actually Croatian). I went to Paintsville with Elder Perkins and it was pretty sweet. Found some sweet husband and wife to teach who are related to a less active member here, so that was a good time! All the while, I was really tired from basketball and especially running... this is an important detail.

Wednesday morning I was tired, but Elder Perkins and I had a good study and then we exchanged back later that morning. Then we went and worked doing some service working at this park. It was really hot and tiring!! Well we went out and were able to work for a while and found this old guy named Lee, who is just a real funny old man. We actually found him on accident looking for someone else, but he is open to meeting and reading, so we were pretty pumped. But, by this point as you can guess, I was exhausted. Well, I guess I got a little too tired, because my body decided to die on me. Remember when I was sick a few weeks ago? Well I guess it decided to come back and get revenge when I was tired, so I ended up sleeping the rest of the day with a 102.3 fever... yeah that sucked. Literally I ran myself into trouble (hence the title) haha. Oh well, I am better now!

Thursday was a fun day. (WARNING: MOTHERS, PLEASE SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH)

We got a referral for a bible at this one house in Prestonsburg. We were talking with Bro. King (he is a policeman and he lived right down the street) and he said he knew which house we were talking about. He said he had busted it a few times for all sorts of drugs!!! But clearly if they are doing drugs, they need Jesus especially, so we went anyways. Sadly, they had moved, but we did get a sweet picture of their door notice before we left.

Friday we had Zone Meeting, my first one in Huntington Zone. It was awesome. Elder Kropushek and Elder Curtis are the Zone Leaders and we went on exchanges afterwards. I got to be with Elder Kropushek again which was sweet and Elder Curtis was reunited with Elder Baggett. I had a fun time in Huntington, we got to teach some awesome people there. Then Saturday on the way back, we got held up in traffic due to a parade. That was pretty annoying, but oh well. It was a good exchange. On the flip-side, Martin was going crazy. So we found out earlier in the week that Thomas, our investigator, has had some problems before with the law. So we asked Bro. King, the recent convert, to check if he was on probation or parole, because if someone is, they have to go through an interview with President Salisbury. Well, he ended up finding some sort of warrant for his arrest.... So, before the appointment they had with Thomas on Friday, he was arrested. Yeah, that sucks.

Then, we also found out another one of our investgators, Sister Kidd was in the hospital, unresponsive after a seizure. So that was really sad to hear. Saturday was a good day though, we got to teach the “L” again! We did what is called the 'stop smoking workshop' with Sister L. It is pretty intense, but really awesome at the same time. So now she is officially done smoking! It's that quick and we are so excited for them. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and it went really well. They are still on date for baptism and we are so excited for them! We also organized with some of the other Elders to visit Sister Kidd in the hospital and give her a blessing.

Sunday was where everything comes together. After church we were able to teach Jonathan, and he has been reading a lot of the Book of Mormon, so he is doing awesome. Then we decided to swing by Thomas' house to see if he was home. We were pretty sure he wasn't, but to our surprise he was! And he told us what happened without us asking, which saved a great deal of awko-taco time. The warrant, as far as I understood, was accidentally issued a month early for some fine he had, so he was only actually arrested for like 2 hours and then came home! So that was an awesome surprise I guess! And, he has totally quit his word of wisdom habits, which is awesome!!! He is reading and doing super well. And even better, he had a good friend move in with him who is from Virginia, who was interested and is now an investigator! We got to read Alma 32 all about with Faith with them, and overall it was just a strange/awesome/funny meeting. Then later after dinner, we heard news that Sister Kidd was given a blessing and was responsive!!!! That was good news. Plus, Elder Baggett made brownies, so that's always a plus.

Spiritual something: So Sunday, I gave a talk. That was a wild ride for me if I do say so myself. I had just been asked to speak a week ago, which was fine. I wrote an entire talk about scriptures and something else to do with that. I thought it was pretty good, but apparently the Spirit thought differently. As I was sitting on the stand during the sacrament, I just felt an overwhelming feeling that I needed to speak on something else (luckily I didn't have an assigned topic). I really felt like I needed to just talk about how Christ is both our Savior and Redeemer, and why those names are so significant, which was something I just studied for like 10 mins a few days before. So that is exactly what I followed. I left my talk on the seat and just spoke about whatever the Spirit helped me speak. It was absolutely terrifying, but I managed to take a whole 20 mins and didn't make a fool of myself. And I really couldn't even tell you anything specific I said, it was really all the Spirit saying something that was way more important than whatever I had planned. It was a very spiritual experience for me personally and I just hope I don't have to do that again. So I just wanted to encourage and invite all of you to PAY ATTENTION! Listen to all of the spiritual promptings you receive, especially during the sacrament, and follow them! The Spirit will always guide you right, I promise.

Anyways, it was a jam-packed week and other than being sick, it was awesome. Plenty of pictures to send, so I'll get that going! Hope you all have a great week! Stay safe and don't visit meth houses!!

Take Luck

Elder Goold



 

12 mumfs ago I done left california

METH

"shout-out to AP Language"

Well I can't come up with anything else other than "awesome" to describe the week. I'll try to talk about some of the people we have to teach here, because surprisingly it is a lot! And a bunch of stuff happened, so if I forget anything I apologize!

So first, we have a recent convert Austin, who I mentioned last week. He is doing really awesome. He is going to an event with some other YSA at SVU to meet Elder Rasband in a few weeks and he is going to the temple soon, all on his own, so yeah. He's the best. His brother, Jonathan, is doing well too. He is actually reading the Book of Mormon really well for a 12 year old, so that is awesome. Austin also got to bless the sacrament for the first time this last Sunday!!!

Thomas is another person we are teaching. He has actually met with missionaries before, about 3 or 4 years ago. He has since been in the military and does fireman stuff currently. He didn't really progress too far in the past because of major Word of Wisdom problems, but just about a month ago, he was in bad shape from being an alcoholic, so he quit (drinking and smoking actually) after a medical detox and has been sober since!!! We have been meeting with him pretty frequently and he is on date for baptism on Oct. 8th!! He is progressing well and came to church this week, so we are really excited for him! He still remembers a lot of what he was taught before so its great to help him grow his testimony of the things he already "knows" in a secular way. He is awesome!

One family we were just able to see just last night is the "L" family. They are really amazing people and are very open to the Gospel. They have some challenges, but are amazing people. He has had problems with cancer and is having surgery here in a few weeks. We are praying for them for sure! We reviewed things that they remembered since it had been a while since missionaries got to teach them, and it went really well. They were able to understand how their prayers will be answered and earnestly committed to praying and seeking for the fruits of the Spirit in response! They are on date to be baptized the week after General Conference, same day as Thomas! They were brought to meet with missionaries because of the members here and it is a testimony to me of how the members really are so influential in this work.

Last Tuesday was an adventure. So we had dinner with Sister Taylor and Brother Slone, both members, and Cathy, an investigator. We taught Cathy before dinner and it went pretty good. She has a speech problem and she also got a part of her lip bit off by a dog a while ago, so understanding her is very difficult, but she is really sincere and can understand us much better. So we taught her and then had dinner. Then the adventure began. We proceeded to go and talk to some people Sister Taylor knew would be open, but it just turned into group tracting. Sis Taylor would literally just walk up to any door or person sitting on the porch and would just say "Have you ever read the Book of Mormon????" Then she would proceed to explain everything about the Book of Mormon. It was crazy at first, but then Elder Baggett and I were starting to help out talking and it went much better from there. It was really funny to be honest. I took a picture of us, but I forgot my camera, so next week!

I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Hill from Hazard on Friday-Saturday. That was awesome, Elder Hill is the man. He's from Provo and went to BYU a little before coming on his mission. He actually was being trained in White Sulfur Springs when I came into the mission, so we already knew each other. It was a really good exchange.

So this thought I wanted to share is kind of a shout-out to AP Language from Junior year! A lot of the things I learned in that class for analyzing writing totally applies to the scriptures! This morning I was studying about charity and I read 1 Nephi 19:9 about how Christ showed charity towards people. And what really stuck out to me was how the phrase "he suffereth it" was repeated over and over. It really hit me just how Jesus Christ had to willingly let these things happen, because He had the power to stop any of it from happening. He chose to do these things because He loves us that much! I know with all my heart that it is true, He did suffer for us and He wants us to use the Atonement constantly and that if we use it, we will be blessed with peace and forgiveness.

I hope all of you have an awesome week and stay safe! See ya next week! Oh and Friday is 1 year for me. What the stuff??

Take Luck,

Elder Goold

"My new area of Martin, Kentucky"

Well hello everyone! So sorry I wasn't able to respond to a lot of you all last week, short on time for packing and what-not. I'll try to get back to that today. As you are aware I was just sent to my new area of Martin Kentucky and let me tell you, this place is awesome. It's way different than either Covington or Morgantown, but I love it.

So Thursday was transfers, which was very uneventful and rather bad from being sick. I had a slight fever and bad head-ache and cough, but it was short lived (I was better yesterday). So it was just a lot of driving and feeling bad. But I saw Elders Higgins, Vai, McRae, Kropushek and other missionaries at transfers, so that was awesome! Then, I finally arrived in Martin Kentucky with Elder Baggett! He is awesome. I'll tell you about him: only been out one transfer, he is from Rexburg Idaho, he loves being active, loves Bruce (his shark-pillow), and is really funny. He is a great missionary and once he feels better (I may or may not have gotten him sick) we're going to be running a lot! #soexcited  Elder Curtis was his first half trainer and now Elder Curtis is a Zone Leader here in Huntington (our zone) with Elder Kropushek, so he will get to come on exchanges back to Martin.

Anyways, so more about Martin: We actually live in Prestonsburg, hence the address. It's an area of lots of groups of towns spread out, but there are a good amount of people here. It seems to be much more than Covington in terms of activity. The ward here is also bigger than either Covington or the Student Ward, so that is nice!  We have awesome members and a  good amount of people to teach, which is sweet! I really like it here so far. It is way hotter here than Morgantown, which is weird and driving everywhere is really strange. But it's okay, I'll get used to it! We also get fed a good amount which is REALLY strange to me. We've had like 5 meals since I've been here, it's nuts.

So a few weeks ago, the elders here had an awesome baptism for Austin. He literally came up to the missionaries and talked to them and almost taught himself everything. He is so solid and received the priesthood yesterday! We are actually teaching his little brother who will hopefully be getting baptized next month!

I'm not sure really what else to include so if you want to ask any questions, go for it. I'll also include some pictures from the last few days!

Take Luck,

Elder Goold!