Week 97: Last full week in Italy!

Hey mom, I love you so much! This will be my last email from the mission!

I just wanted to tell you guys everything we have going on this week! We have two baptisms scheduled for this Friday and it will be soo awesome!   

Saturday morning I will be taking the train up to Rome in the morning! Then Sunday I will attend a ward where I served in Ladispoli! I'm super excited! Then Monday I will be in Rome for my last Prep-day and will try to see all the cool stuff there is to see before I head home Tuesday morning.  I will see you all Tuesday night!

For my last Monday in Catania, we will have a BBQ with the bishop's family for lunch, then we will go to the best family's house ever, for dinner and family

home evening! It will be so awesome! I'm super excited for this week! And
for coming home! It's finally starting to hit me that my mission is
over!

I love you guys so much! I just want to share my testimony that the Book of
Mormon has changed my life and that the mission was an inspired calling
from a Prophet of God! I have loved serving in the Rome, Italy mission. Even more, I love the Lord that I have been a servant of! I leave you with this final missionary testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen!

Anziano Goode

Letter from Elder Edgel

Dear Brother & Sister Goode,

We are a senior missionary couple serving with your son.  I am a retired Army Major and my wife is a retired supervisory nurse.  I am a lifelong member and my wife is a convert.  I served a mission, and was associated with the missionary work for many years as a Seventy.  I have worked with dozens of missionaries and supervised 170 of them at the conclusion of my mission.  During those years I have seen few missionaries that have impressed me like your son has.  Your son is an example to all of the missionaries.  He is dedicated and humble.  He has what we call in the military, great bearing.  One can see that he is confident but never cocky.  He is polite and congenial.  He will go far in life!  Thank you for sending a lad like him to join the great missionary fraternity.

We have grown to love and admire your son.  Now, as we will shortly send him home, know that he returns with honor.  We shall miss him but we certainly will keep track of him.  The boy that you sent out to serve, two years ago, comes home a man.  Great job, Mom & Dad.

Faithfully your companions,   

Elder & Sister Edgel

Sigonella Naval Air Station, Italy

Week 96

Heyy mom! How are you?

The Lord is blessing me and you guys so much!
We are seeing absolute miracles! We will have 2 baptisms the day
before I leave! It will be so awesome! I am so excited for our
investigators who are preparing to get baptized! It will be so
rewarding!
I'm not super good at doing nothing! I'm most productive when I have a project or something that I like doing! I'm really hoping my enthusiasm will carry over after the mission! I think it will!

I love you guys! Have a great week!

Love, Anziano Goode

Week 95

Hey,

I'm doing okay. I'm feeling a little strange, I've never felt the way I do
now! I feel like Satan is trying so hard just to make me feel like I have
wasted my time and that I should've done my mission in a different way,
but I'm just glad I know where those thoughts come from and how to
protect myself from them! I have gained such a strong testimony of the
scriptures, having to rely on them and study them everyday! I know God
speaks to us individually through the Holy Ghost but they are the
words of Heavenly Father! I'm happy I know all this stuff! 

I am super excited for these coming weeks, they will be filled with miracles! Yesterday was Anziano Berger's birthday so we had a big celebration with a cake and everything, it was great! We also had to say goodbye to President and Sorella Waddoups and it was super sad to see the president and his
wife leave! I hope you have a great week.  Only a couple more weeks of
emailing ya! I'm soo bad at emailing! Sending lots of love!
Anziano Goode

Week 94

Hey, 

I love you! This week was great and next week will be even better! 

The church is true!
I love you(:

Anziano Goode

Week 93

Hey mom! How are you? 
This week was way busy with transfers and stuff.
I am assigned to work with Anziano Berger again, which is awesome! We are already killing it! I'm really excited to see what will happen this transfer with
everything going on and the new mission president coming on the 28 of June! I'm reading the Book of Mormon everyday for studies and i'm in
Alma 15 which talks about the mission of  Alma and Amulek and it is
really inspiring! We will have a training for our Zone on the 15th, we
will give a thirty minute lesson to everyone! Its gonna be great!
I love you, have a great week!
Anziano Goode

Week 92

Hey mom! This week continues to be one of the most exciting weeks
of my mission! We had zone conference and it went super well! Then right after zone conference we had two baptisms, it was soo cool! It was in the church this time! Ill send pics of everything, no worries! I didnt baptize either of the kids, I
let the Assistant to the President perform the ordinances because he had served here in Catania! Anyway, we had a couple of cool things go on this week. On
Saturday, we got transfer calls and I am staying here and Elder Stanley
is going to a place called Cosenza! My new companion will be Anziano Berger! He is a missionary I already served with when I was in Ladispoli! So
he will be my comp again and I'm way excited! 
Anyway, at zone conference, the Mission President told us that we will be doing an exchange in the country of Malta on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so we took a flight this morning and are here in the country of Malta for right now! It's owned by Britain so the people speak a mix of languages and the people also drive on the wrong side of the road, which is super weird! Its a beautiful place and we are really excited to help out these elders here! I'll sent more pics next week of the beautiful island and stuff! 
Today we saw a lady get run over by a bus and it was probably the worst thing I've ever seen, it is hard to believe that tragic stuff happens like this everyday around the world. But on the bright side, it's good to know that there are also great things happening everyday as well! Well at least it's a comforting thought! Well I am planning to work hard to finish out the mission over these last six weeks. I'm really excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this next transfer!

I love you!

Anziano Goode