2.6.17 Fast from Use of our Car!

  

Hey everyone!                                                        2.6.17     

        It's only been a few days since I last emailed but it feels like so much has happened. We are at the end of one incredible transfer. From day one we had so many amazing miracles. I am so grateful for all of the many blessings we have received.  I can't remember if I told you all about this one but it's one of my many favorites so I'll tell you anyway.

        A couple, of weeks ago we had stopped for the night to get gas. We have to keep the copy of the receipt but this time the pump wasn't printing it so we had to run in. When we went in, there was a worker sitting behind the counter who helped us and then as we were leaving we felt we should give him a pass along card. We had done this so many times before so we thought nothing of it until we got a call from a random number two hours later. It was Joe!! Our friend from the gas station! He was calling because he wouldn't be able to meet for church on Sunday but he wanted to meet another day. We started meeting with him and he is incredible!!!

        We were meeting with him one day and he said I want to be just like you two, meaning he wants to leave everything behind and go on a mission. The cool thing is that he isn't quite passed the age limit so when he gets baptized he can definitely go. Because he is younger though we passed him to the YSA sisters and they will take good care of him. I know it was by no coincidence we were there at that time so we could meet Joe. 

        Our mission has started this thing where the first of every month we all fast from using our cars. We go an entire 24 hours without our cars. This gave us a lot of time to talk to people on the side of the roads. We met this guy who didn't have a home he was very kind and we got a good conversation going. Afterwards it was so incredible, Sister Willes pulled out her bag and gave him a gift card so he could get himself dinner. It was so amazing to see all of the incredible things that we had happen as we were walking into the area so close to where we live. 

It's been such a great week! 

2.1.17 Attended a World-Wide Missionary Broadcast

Hey Everyone!

We had another great week in the books. We had a World-Wide Missionary Broadcast that went to all the missionaries around the world. In the broadcast they talked about some great things and as you've probably heard, they adjusted our missionary schedule. I will send a picture because it might get complicated to explain. The really nice thing about it is we will have more time to get things ready and be prepared for our days. It will give us a lot more flexibility. At the same time it is definitely an adjustment. President Huntsman told us the other day to definitely allow time to get used to it because over half of our mission, we have been doing it the other way. I know it is truly inspired and came at the perfect time. Also with the change they have given us more time in our p-day. It used to start at 10 but now it begins at 8. They have shortened some things to make it all fit.

            Today was our first day with the new p-day schedule, it's definitely different but I think after we adjust to it, it will be really good.  Our p-day will still be on Monday's, we just moved today so we could go to the temple. It was such a great experience. We got to go with a sister who goes quite often and had really cool things to show us and teach us about the temple. One of the coolest things I thought of while I was there, was getting our families to the temple.

 This weekend our Friend J.R. Johnson got baptized and it was so cool!   Even before the baptism, he was so excited to talk about getting to the temple. He bore a powerful testimony on how the gospel truly changed his life and how he is so grateful for his friend who invited him to church.

          I know that this gospel is filled with so much hope and happiness. It is incredible to see how it truly changes hearts. I was reading in Alma 5 the other day and it really stuck out to me how the people felt the spirit and were changed. I know that is the power of the gospel. It truly changes lives. We saw that a couple times this week as we met new people and we worked with our other friends.

          We had such an incredible lesson with our friend Pam who had a night-to-day change since the last time we saw her. I know as we put the gospel first it truly changes lives.

          Last night we had a really great lesson with our friend Joe. We found him when we gave him a pass along card at the gas station and he called us a couple of days later. He really desires to embrace the atonement in his life and wants to do anything possible to make that happen. It has been incredible! 

          Another cool thing that happened this week was when we got to go to D.C. for a lesson with our friend Rob. He was a referral from a member and we asked him about meeting and he said yes! So our mission president gave us permission to go and meet with him. Funny story about being in a singles ward, the member we brought with us had totally gone on a date with him before. It was pretty funny. The lesson went well and he said we could meet with him again! 

          I know that the Lord is preparing people all around us. They are waiting to receive this gospel. I know that this is the Lord’s work and he will help us every step of the way. I hope you all have a great week and know that I Love you! 

Love, Sister Goudy 

1.23.17 Our Mission Picture

Here we are!  50 Sisters  118 Elders and 22 Seniors

Pres & Sis. Huntsman and 3 children

AND SIX GENERAL AUTHORITIES

1-16-17 Six General Authorities!

Hi Everyone!

This week has been incredible. I can't believe I completely forgot to even mention the greatest event that happened this weekend. Just so I don't forget it I will put it right here at the beginning. As a mission we were visited by six general authorities!!! Elder Ballard, Elder Rasband, Elder Gong, Elder Perkins and Elder Muers all came to the area for several important events the best one of course was to come and see us!

 It was so incredible to be able to learn from the most incredible missionaries in the world. I was impressed by how much Elder Ballard focused on the Savior. I want to follow his amazing example. Elder Ballard said, "When I get tired I think of Gethsemane." What an amazing example! He truly spoke by the spirit as he met with us, yet it seems like he did not have to wonder what to say. Elder Ballard talked to us about how important he thinks goals are. He told us that if we start a day without setting a goal we are a lot less likely to accomplish as much as we would have if we set a goal. So after the meeting we gathered as a mission and set some new goals. One of the things Elder Ballard encouraged us to do was to talk to 10 people out side of anything we have planned in the day. He promised us so many blessings if we would do that.

Elder Rasband impressed me with how much he respects Elder Ballard. He said I am most definitely the junior companion in this companionship. He talked about the very first "how to" book for missionary work in this dispensation. In D&C section 14-16 the Whitmer Brothers are told by the Lord the most important things they can teach people. The Lord tells them they are to teach repentance. What was really cool is that Elder Rasband had us place our own name in the verse. He reminded us that the most important thing we can do is invite people to repent. I didn't think about it until just now but those two talks powerfully flow together. First we repent and then we set a goal to become better. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from these six servants of the Lord.

Before it all started we got to sit for a mission picture. We all lined up and then they came in and sat on the front row for the picture. Then as we left the gym we were able to shake their hands!!

Also this week we went on our first set of exchanges. I went with Hermana Kump. She taught me so much! She is so loving and excited to serve. I told her they are going to have to put her into the English program so we can be companions. We had so many amazing events that happened as we were together. One of my favorites was when we went to one of our lessons. We couldn't get hold of our friend but just as we were about to leave she looked out the door. She had been asleep. As we started to talk to her, her sister came over and we started to teach her as well. Another cool thing, we met this guy in the parking lot and he really wanted to learn more. He lives in another mission so we sent his information to the other missionaries. He was awesome!

Sister Willes and I spoke in church yesterday. They wanted to test our companionship so they had us speak at the same time. It went so well! We spoke on agency. I talked about how many times at the beginning of my mission I wished we could just make people come to church but I have realized how opposite of our Heavenly Fathers plan that is.

Things are going really well! I sure love the mission almost as much as I love you all. I hope you have a great week! I know that this gospel is true and that it brings amazing happiness to our lives. One of my companions said at the meeting on Saturday that this Gospel is an everyday gospel. Because of that, we need to do things every day to strengthen our testimony. It was so amazing we met this guy named Steven the other day. He hasn't gone to church in a long time but since the last time we saw him he has started praying. He said he truly has felt a difference in his life as he has done that. We taught him the plan of salvation and he said it made lots of sense to him . He said he knows it's true. I know that the Lord is preparing people all around us to receive this incredible message.

Love, 
Sister Goudy

01.09.17 January is Off and Running!

Hey everyone!                                                                         1/9/17

This week has been awesome! I'm still learning the new area but its gong really well. It snowed this week, not as much as back at home but it's probably just as cold as back at home. At least it feels super cold. The cold hits through everything so you really have to wear lots of layers.

The snow this week was just a kick off to an awesome blessing filled weekend. We had some really great times. It didn't start out that way though.   In the beginning, we thought it was going to be a crazy weekend because a lot of people were cancelling their appointments. I really wanted to be sad and worried about what we were going to do but we just decided to laugh about it and find joy in the little things. Man did that change it all around!   The weekend went awesome!

We put our awesome friend JR on date for baptism and he picked his own day. He wants to be ready by January 28th so put it on your calendar! He has been coming to church for weeks and he really loves it.

Then we met a lady named Pam who loves the church so much! We taught her and she said we could come back. She is also excited to get baptized on February 4th.  Lots of blessing so hopefully it all goes well.

Some other cool things that happened this week:  we got to teach people in not your typical places. We taught a guy working at the gas station. Usually the receipt prints out at the pump but it didn't and so as we were walking in we said, maybe there is someone who wants to learn more in here. As we left the guy with our card he said Mormons! What do Mormons believe?  It was amazing!

We taught another lady as we were walking across the street to get to our appointment. My favorite one was when we were going to a member’s house to drop off a copy of the Book of Mormon. We were dropping it off at the front desk and as we were about to leave, I felt like we should talk to the front desk lady more and leave her with something to read. We talked to her for a bit and left her with a copy of the Book of Mormon. She agreed to meet with us again tomorrow.

I know the Lord is preparing people all around us and all we need to do is share what we know. There are so many blessings from it. I hope you all have a great week! I love the mission and I love you all! 

Sister Goudy 

FYI: New Address

I've just been transferred:



New Address:
Sister Shelby Goudy
3537 S. George Mason Dr. Apt. 112
Alexandria, VA 22302

All Packages must be sent to the mission office at:

Sister Shelby Goudy
5242 Lyngate Court
Burke, VA 22015-1631

01.02.17 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

This New Year has come with a lot of changes. We had transfers on Thursday. I got transferred to the mid-singles ward in the mission. I've never served in a singles ward so that's pretty different for me.

Sunday we had meetings and it was so quiet. They had me get up for a minute and share my testimony. I thought the Bishop was joking at first, then it was really fun, we got to teach gospel principles. We taught about agency. It was so amazing to see how the spirit guided the discussion.

Our church building is a converted office building in Arlington. This is the closest to D.C. I've ever lived, it's pretty awesome. Very city but it's great. I'm serving with a sister named sister Willes. She is actually friends with someone I worked with so that's pretty cool. We will be serving together as sister training leaders. Which means we will get to work with six awesome sisters. We will do exchanges with them and then we get to go to leadership training with our mission president. I'm really excited it should be a lot of fun.

We've already seen some amazing miracle in just the short amount of time we've been together. The very first night we went to go check on this referral but we couldn't find the apartment complex so we went up this hill, we got to the top and it wasn't there, as we turned around there was a lady so we stopped to talk to her. Turns out no one is usually ever walking on that path when she comes home. She said it was so prophetic that we ran into her because her New Years resolution is to increase her faith. It was so awesome!!! We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and she was so excited. Then as we got to our referral we met our friend Daniel. He has such a strong faith and he loved what we had to share. We are going to meet with him again this next week. Many miracles have happened and I'm so excited to see what else the Lord has in store for us.

Transfers are always kind of hard so I've been thinking about why we have to do them. As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this morning, I read Mosiah 18 and verse 26 which really stuck out to me. It says, "And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support; but for their labor they were to receive the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God." Many times we go through hard things so we can more fully rely on the Lord. I'm so grateful for the blessing I've being forced out of my comfort zone to become who the Lord needs us to be. With New Year’s coming up we will all have the chance to set some great goals to help us do just that.

I want to invite you all to think of something you can do to help yourself stretch and get out of your comfort zone. I promise that Heavenly Father will be there every step of the way with you.  As I was trying to adjust to being in this new area, we had the chance last night to go work at the temple Visitors Center for the last night of the year. As I was going around I kept running into people from my last area. I was so happy to see them and I know it was Heavenly Father telling me that I'm in good hands and that everything will be great. I know it will be the same for you!

I love you all so much, have a great week! 

Love, 
Sister Goudy