April 25, 2016 Our Investigator CAME to Church!!!!

4.25.16

Howdy, From Sister Goudy:

Dear Everyone:

  

I have found a good way to get everyone on the email list. Sorry if I
haven't sent you my emails in a while. I think I've worked out the bugs.  I am loving my mission and learning so much. It has been hard though this week went differently then I was expecting but I have still seen so many blessings. I wanted to share with you some of the awesome blessing from his week.

1) My allergies have almost completely gone away. There are so many awesome people that have helped me get better so quickly. Almost every member helped me find something to take to help me get better.

2) We got to visit a member we had been trying to see for a long time. The entire time I have been here we have really felt like we needed to visit this family. Well, this week we got to see them! They are so awesome they are really involved with all sorts of activities and so they have been really busy but the time we did get to visit with them we saw how caring they are. At the start of the week I had this crazy voice from my allergies. My voice would go from normal volume to really quiet and this sister was so nice she said lets go get you some really good medicine to help you get better. It was so sweet of her and it has helped so much. Now we are hoping to be able to go back and help her with some things around her house. It really showed me how the Lord knows us all and finds ways to open doors for us. The way the visit worked out, really made it so we could get to know them and I am so grateful for that and can't wait to go back and visit them again.

3) I get so stay with Sister Jones. This week was transfers. I was
really nervous about guiding a new companion around the area. Sister Jones knows it so well. She has been here for almost 7 months now and so I wasn't sure if she would stay or go even though I am in training and in most cases your trainer stays. I am so glad I will have another transfer to learn from her and get more familiar with the area. Our ward covers a really big area. It would be like having the people from Taylorsville to maybe Bluffdale all in one ward.

4) I am so grateful for all the resources that have been put together
for us. There are so many things that Heavenly Father has inspired to help make the adjustment to mission life as well as to get more
comfortable with teaching. I didn't really look at Preach My Gospel
before I came out on my mission and now there isn't a day I don't look at it. Preach My Gospel is such a great resource for anyone in the church. It definitely is inspired!  All of the things they have taken the time to put together are so incredible. We have a book called adjusting to missionary life and it helps me so much as well. If there is ever a time I am missing home or having a hard time talking to people I can go to that book and find a way to overcome these things.

5) This is the big one! 😆 OUR INVESTIGATOR CAME TO CHURCH!  We were so excited yesterday to see our investigator at church. This is her first time in almost 10 years. Her grandma was a member and so she would go with her. We are so proud of her. It has been really hard for her to come and so we could not be more happy that she came. She is also on date for baptism for May 14th.  She is making so many great changes in her life and we are so excited for her.

I know at we have been blessed. Sometimes the blessings we receive aren't what we are expecting but I know they do come. At the start of the week we were really hoping to work with some awesome new investigators and so I was thinking we would see so much progress with them but the Lord knows better than we do. He knew exactly who we needed to focus on and how we can better help them. The blessing of our efforts wasn't what I was expecting but the blessings were there. I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for all of us. He has given us so many resources to reach our full potential.

I wanted to invite you all to look at the things this week that have
been a blessing you wouldn't have thought of for yourself. I know that Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need and a lot of times it isn't what we are expecting but it is what we needed. Sometimes at first we don't even realize it to be a blessing.

I liked hearing about everyone's trips to the temple and so I am
going to try and think of some challenges to give out every once and awhile.  If you have gone to the temple recently, I would love to see your pictures! I miss getting to go to the temple but I know that this is the work I need to be doing right now.  I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Sister Goudy

April 18, 2016 Zone Service Project: On a Farm!

Hi everyone! 

This week has been great! We have come in contact with

some awesome people! Mostly everyone we have talked to is religious and even if they don't have the same beliefs as we do they will tell us we are doing s great thing and to keep up the good work. It is so cool to hear that, even though they don't want to learn more they still respect what we are doing.

It has officially been a one transfer since I have been out on my

mission! We had what they call "Return and Report" where all of the new missionaries come back together and meet with President and his wife.  They are such incredible people!   I would love to spend an entire day just learning from them. They love their missionaries almost as much as they love their own kids. President showed us some objects like a rock, a bag of sand, some oil and a pine cone and he asked us if they were any type of special object. We all agreed that they were just any ordinary object. Then he told us the story of each object and about how they had found the little ordinary rock at the top of the highest mountain in the United States. That the sand was from the pyramids in Egypt, that the pine cone was from one of the tallest trees in the world and that the oil had come from an olive tree in Gethsemane. It wasn't until we knew all of these things that we understood how extraordinary these things are. He then told us to look at each person we meet with the same extraordinary perspective. He told us that our

Heavenly Father knows all that we can become and we should look at each person we meet with that same potential. By seeing people's

potential I have felt so much greater love for them. It was such a great experience and it helped me to get to talk with the other sisters I came out with and see that we are all going through similar things.

On Saturday Sister Jones got to go to the temple with a recent convert that was baptized in her last area. It was  her first time to the temple and it was such a good experience for them. We did an exchange and I got to go with a really sweet sister. I was only with her for a little bit but I learned so much from her.

  

On Sunday we had dinner with the Prices. They are so awesome! They love the missionaries and are always willing to help us with anything. I haven't been feeling very well.  I think it's allergies. The trees are getting really pretty and so it is making everyone have really crazy allergies. Well, when we were at the Prices, Sister Price says, " Sister are you feeling all right?" I told her about how I hadn't been feeling well and so her and Brother Price started looking through their cabinets for any kind of medicine to help me. They are so awesome!

So a couple of weeks ago we did a service project on a farm. It is a

member's farm that they are going to open to teach kids about farm

work. It was our Zone Service Project and so she wasn't from our ward but what it sounds like is the missionaries have been helping out on the farm for quite a long time. We took care of some baby goats and helped clean out the chicken coop. It was a lot of fun!

I think it is so cool that our home ward has sister missionaries now.

I don't think there has ever been sister missionaries in any of the

wards I have been in. As I have thought about it, I have really seen it as a great blessing that my family will get to talk to them and know more of what I am doing. I know that they are there right now for a reason.

I am getting a lot more confident with talking to people and I am so

excited to continue to get better at it.

  

Love, Sister Goudy

April 11, 2016 Advice to Future Missionaries

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Cousin James sent her an e-mail

James & Uncle Norman Saying Hello at the Sund Dunes

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From part  of an e-mail to James:
"I think my advice to a future missionary would be to take    advantage of opportunities you have to talk to people. I think the things I am using the most are from when I was in Young Woman's presidencies and had to talk to less active girls. It can be really awkward talking to people but if you get used to asking them questions it will help you a ton.  I would also work on studying the gospel wheather that be Preach My Gospel or General Conference talks. We are promised that Heavenly Father will bring to our remberance the things we already know so we need to know it and then he will bring it back!"   

Love, Sister Harline

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Sister Goudy sent Mom a short note that said they were well, 

but too busy doing a Service Project at a local farm to write a letter to everyone this week!

Mom: "It's good that she is busy!!!

April 4, 2016 Conference Weekend

Hi everyone! 

This week has been so crazy! Sister Jones says that on your mission people say;  a day is a week and a week is a day. That is so true. By conference I was like wow we just had p day but then when I thought back about what all we did this week I felt like what wasn't that the week before?  This week we did a ton and I truly saw how keeping yourself busy really leaves no time to have satan creep his way in. That's not to say there weren't some things hat were hard but I knew that we had accomplished so much. 

So this week we moved back to Bealton in our ward boundaries. Before we had been living out of our boundaries while out apartment in one of he members homes was being fixed.  There was a problem with the pump in the basement when the sisters weren't living there and so the walls and floor got ruined from the water. It is all cleaned up now and we have a beautiful new place to live! It took us 2 full days to get everything moved in and put away. We were so busy that the time we had to go out and teach was so successful! We got a bunch of lessons with less active members and went through our area book to see all the possible investigators we could in the time we had.  It was so fun to get all the family letters this week it was my first day in our now apartment and I had got some letters and packages from home. Thank you so much for all of your letters it was so funny to hear everyone's point of view for the party hahaha. I wanted to thank you all so much I am so greatful for your support. 

General Conference was so great! We had a lot of chances to connect with the members as well as invite as many people as we could to watch. I pray that at least one person who wouldn't have been watching conference had the chance to watch it. In conference, I noticed a big focus on temples!   Many of the talks were centered on how temples can bless our lives. I am so grateful for the temples. I have felt such a love and connection to them since the first time I went and I know that is because it is truly heaven on earth!  It is were we can be close to our Heavenly Father and make sacred covenants with Him. I am so very greatful for the covenants I have made and like Elder Holland reminded us we can feel the spirit we had in conference or in the temple all the time if we strive to do our best. I want to invite each of your to go to the temple this week  And carry that spirit you felt with you all week.  Then after you do that send me a picture of you in front of the temple with whoever you went with.

I know that the temple is the house of the Lord and that if we prepare ourselves to enter it we can keep that spirit with us. I can't wait to see all your fun temple pictures I hope you have a great week!

I love you all,

Sister Goudy

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Dear Grandma & Grandpa:

I love the analogy or parable of the battery.   I have noticed that so much being on my mission. Before I came out I tried to study my scriptures but I would either read half heartedly or skip some days because I am so tired. Now that I am on my mission and have seen the joy scripture study brings, I wish I wouldn't have wasted all those years. I could have known so much more by now. I am so grateful for this time I have to get into this extremely important habit. 

They do broadcast conference at the church house but most members watch it at home through their app on the tv or through 

lds.org. We did go to the church for the Saturday afternoon session and there was only one family there but it was probably one of the sessions I focused the most on.

I love the cactus picture because a lot of times we don't have to make things hard on ourselves.

Love you! ️

Sister Goudy 

Ps I am so honored to be your favorite missionary 

March 28, 2016 P-Day at the Capitol

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Letter March 28,2016


Hi everyone I hope you had a Happy Easter! All of the trees are
blooming and it makes me so happy to see the new life. It is so
symbolic of the Saviors resurrection so we too, can have new life.  We read through Mathew Mark and John about the day of Christ's
resurrection.  It was so cool to see how each focused on different
details of the day. Then at dinner we did the easter Eggs that went
through the scriptures of his death and resurrection. I learned so
many new things like casting lots means gambling.

Our stake helped put on a production for Easter at the temple visitors center in DC it was called the "Savior of the World."  We invited a lot of people and I hope they really felt the great importance of Our Savior and all he has done for us. We had such a great experience with the production and you would think that would mean we went but we didn't.

 All week we had been inviting people to come. We invited
members, non- members investigators, less actives pretty much everyone we saw.  In order to be able to go to it we needed a member to take us and we needed an investigator or less active member to come with us. We found someone to give us a ride and so we were calling back a lot of the people we had invited to see if they wanted to come. There was a really sweet less active member we had invited and she didn't have a ride so the morning of we tried to let her know we had someone who could give her a ride. It took us awhile but we were able to get ahold of her and she wasn't available to go. It was then that we realized that it was more important to stay in our area then it was to go to the production. 

We realized  that was where we needed to be as went tracting. It was right before Easter, so it was perfect for talking to people about Christ. It was so cool because I am super scared of tracting but that day it seemed like everyone was really nice. We talked to a couple of people who were really interested and it was so awesome because it showed me why we needed to stay in the area. The guy we meet said that it was just what he needed to hear and him and his wife would love to learn more and then we talked to a young girl and she said that her and her Mom would try to come to
church. We weren't able to get ahold of them on the numbers they gave us and we didn't see them at church but I know if anything I learned that day how to talk to people better.

 I feel a lot more confident talking to people. President Eyring, in his Woman's Conference talk, shared the scripture in D&C 84:88 it talks about how the Lord will be with us and his angels will be around us. I know that, that he will protect us and that I need to be confident in what I say.

Last p day we got to go to the temple it was my first time to the DC temple and it was beautiful! It stands out even when you are up close.

It is so powerful to go to the temple when all the world around you is hurrying to get to where they are going. I am so graetful that at home,we have so many temples so close. 

To get to the DC temple it took us about an hour but it was so worth it! We get to go to the temple every
6 months and so it was really nice to have the chance to go thereright at the beginning so I can go as many times as possible.

Today for p day we got to go to DC we saw the cherry blossoms and theyare so beautiful. They go right around the Potomac. There were peopleout in cute little pedal boats and it's so cool how a lot  of the monuments are right around it. 

We got to go to the national history
museum we saw some of the things from the night at the museum movie but most of it looked different then in the movie. We walked up to the capital it has been under construction for quite a long time but President Huntsmen says they want to have it done by January. 

Most of DC is out of our mission so we park our car and then take the metro. It's a lot like Trax but tons of people use it and some of it is underground. Most of DC is out of our mission but they let us go once a transfer so I'm super excited to be able to see everything there.

 I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Sister Goudy

  

  At the Museum

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Note from Mom:  "This morning we got an email saying "we're going to DC so I'll email you later."  That same day I heard on the radio about a shooting in DC.  I think,  "Isn't  that where the Sisters where going?  -- No DC is huge, what are the chances?  Then I get the email from Shelby:"

From Shelby:  "Were safe.  There was a shooting at the Cipatol but Sister Jones and I made it home before it happined.  It was at the Cipatol and we were there maby an hour and a half before it happined.  The Lord watcvhes out for his missionaries.
 
This morning we got an email saying "we're going to DC so I'll email you later." That same day I heard on the radio about a shooting in DC, I think, "Isn't  that where the Sisters where going?
No DC is huge,what are the chances? Then I get the email.

From Shelby: "Were safe.  There was a shooting at the capitol but Sister Jones and I made it home before it happened. It was at the capitol and we were there maybea n hour and a half before it happened the Lord watches out for his missionaries.  

Mom:  "I knew in my heart they where fine, but it's always nice to get confirmation.  She later says that she didn't feel good about going into DC that morning but didn't say anything.  They only get to go in about once every six weeks (a transfer) and alot of times they don't get to go then because they live too far away.  When the group of missionaries met, they walked around for a bit and then they all agreed that they had bad feelings about being there.  They had only been there about 30 minutes and cut their visit short.  The spirit spoke and they listened!

March 2, 2016 - Arrived at Washington D.C. South Mission

We've arrived!

My Mission President David Huntsman and Sister Michelle Huntsman.  They have eight children!

At the Lincoln Memorial

Our flight was perfect and we are happy to be here!

I worried a lot because I was the Flight Coordinator

Hello everyone!  

We made it safely here and I love it already!  When we flew in we were greeted by our Mission President and his wife.  They are so nice. They treat us like their own children  and I can already tell they love us so much!  They took us over to D.C. and we got some great pictures there. Sister Huntsman, our presidents wife, was so nice to make sure our family knew we made it safe and so they sent those pictures home.  We then went to the mission home and got to relax.  We had to get up at 130 a.m. the day before so, it was really nice to just rest.  We had Cafe Rio there!!! I love Cafe Rio!  That really helped me feel more at home.  The sisters I came in with were talking about how much trust we have on a mission.  We started thinking about it and wow we have done a lot of things that if we didnt know this was the Lords work and he was right here with us, I dont think we would have even tried it.  For example, the night we arrived the President took us to our hotel and the 4 of us sisters not really knowing where we were trusted that when he said " We will be back here at 815 to get you"  We did it.  We weren't even worried.  We didnt even think about all the trusting things we had done until later the next day and we were all so suprised.  It really is a testiment to me that the Lord is watching over us and that we can always trust our President and his wife.  

So the next morning we got ready and had breakfast at the hotel.  Then we went out and the President and his wife came to get us.  We went to a stake center and went through a couple meetings and met our new companions and we were off.  

Sister Jones is my companion/ trainer and she is so nice she is really great at compromising.  I sent our pictures earlier. We are in the Warrenton 2nd ward and Warrenton is a beautiful area.  We live in the country side and I love all of the homes out here.  Everyone is so nice and always waves when we drive by.

So, we had the most increadable experance as we were going to meet some of the people in our area.  Sister Jones has been doing so good at sharing a Mormon Message with the people we go ti visit and I love Mormon Messages so when we went to one of the less active members homes she asked me what one we could have ready to share.  So I thought of the one by President Uchdorf about the man who boards the ship it is called "Your Potental Your Priviliges".  Then we thought of one more we could have ready just in case.  We said a prayer and we went in.  The coolest thing happened as soon as Sister Jones said "We have a message we want to share with you" the sister started telling us how she had been looking for this one talk by president ........  She couldn't remember his name so then she said it is the one about the man boarding the ship!!!  I looked at Sister Jones and I said, "No way!!!!"  and Sister Jones said that is the one we wanted to share with you!  It was so increadible to see this example of the Lord working in our lives.  Turns out the sister had been looking and praying for it for a really long time!

I know the Lord loves us and looks out for us!  He knows us all!

Love Sister Goudy

Have a Great Week.  

Mr first companion in the field:  Sister Jones