“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 

Saying Goodbye to Elder Strunk

Elder Webb and I catching up - He is the new Assistant to the President :)

 

Elder Kruger and I

A blurry picture of my new companion - Elder Bailey!

“West Virginia Wilderness”

Well this transfer went by faster then... well, faster then a lot of things. Too many to name. But Elder Strunk is going to be leaving, so that's pretty lame. We've had a great time this last transfer, but he's really excited because he's going to Blacksburg VA, which is where he wanted to go! So that's pretty cool I guess! Elder Bailey is my new companion as of tomorrow! Never heard of him, so that's fun:) OH and Elder Webb is the new assistant replacing Elder Curtis!! Haha that makes me happy:)

Last Monday we went out to Spencer and we played Frisbee Golf and it was legit. Last time I played it was at Cooley Middle School which has a much... clearer course, haha. I thought there would be an open course but nope, it was right through the middle of the West Virginia wilderness, so it was pretty fun!!! 10/10 would recommend. Also super pretty waterfall, as pictured below.

Random highlights:

We had exchanges with the Spencer Elders! I went with Elder Scott to Spencer. It was a good time. I like Elder Scott a lot. We did a lot of walking in Spencer (walking is awesome!) and we got to talk to this one guy who has a really sad story, but he didn't want any help:( That's always sad. 

Elder Strunk and I were walking around Ravenswood the other day and got stopped by this guy playing basketball named Nathan! He just asked why we walked everywhere and what we were doing? So we got to teach him about the Book of Mormon and families and gave him a Book of Mormon! We haven't got to see him again yet, but he drove by us Saturday and said he's been reading the Book of Mormon! So that's exciting!

We've still not been able to see the “M” family but they've had the worst time lately. They all got sick one after another and Sister M got so sick she lost her job!! That’s pretty terrible, but she's got another job already luckily and we're getting to see them on Friday!! Please keep praying for them!

Something I really liked as I studied this last week comes from Jacob 5 in the Book of Mormon! I especially liked the part when the servant questions the Lord of the vineyard about the good branches in the "bad area". The Lord responds that He knows His vineyard and He has done everything for a specific reason. Christ really does know each of us and where we are in our lives, and He has a plan for our best interest, but the variable is our following what He asks! I pray that each of us can always seek God's will in our lives and then try and follow it!

Hope you all have a great week and stay safe!!!

Take Luck!!

Elder Goold

Frisbee Golf through the Woods!

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

“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!