Week 71

Thanks you for the email!(: 
I love reading your emails because they are always really informing and it's exciting to know what you guys do and to be able to share with everybody what you guys are doing! That's so cool that you guys are going to see the Tijuana temple! I want to go see that when I get home! This week was truly great being able to share it with the missionaries in my district and yesterday especially to be able to talk with and listen to Elder Oaks! The responsibility of an apostle
is so great! He and his wife spoke together most of the time just asking each other questions and responding with the spirit to answer our own personal questions as missionaries! We were also given the opportunity to personally shake his hand and talk with him for a second.  To me he just said "Hello Elder Cook, I mean Elder Goode.  These glasses are getting old!" Then he looked me in the eyes and said  "Nice to meet you, Elder Goode".   I pretty much didn't say anything, I was too busy fumbling over my tongue, but I did say, "It's nice to see you."
He spoke about some really cool topics, the ones that stood out the most were the ones about actually being a missionary and not just doing missionary things, like going through the motions.  Then he also said we have to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Like a pen, we need to be filled with ink or knowledge. We also need to be clicked out and ready to go and third we can't write or
share our own message, we need to share the gospel of Jesus Christ the
message that He needs to write and share. So overall it went great. I'm so
grateful to be able to serve in this place at this time, even if it is hard and I don't see immediate results.
Love you a lot!  Hope you have a great week!
Love, Anziano Goode

Zone Conference with Elder Oaks

Week 70

Hey! 

I just wanted to say you are the best! Every ward needs a Relief Society president like you. It's gonna be really cool to Skype you guys to see how everything is going! I'm most excited for that and for spending time with the members and our district! So this week we are doing a white elephant gift exchange and I bought some nunchucks from a Chinese store! Hopefully one of the sisters ends up with those! If not someone will get hurt hahahaha(:

I'm really grateful for this period of the year where everyone is trying to think about others! Today I had the chance to help this biker pick up something that fell from his stuff and he was really grateful! It's good to see people appreciate small things that we do!
By small and simple things are great things come to pass, so it's been good to remember that throughout my mission!  I'm excited to see you guys this week! Have a great week!

Love, Anziano Goode

We went caroling with some people in the ward. 

Week 69

Hi,
Everything is going really well, my last comp was Anz Berger and my current comp is Anziano Anderson. 
Well this week was really good. We have been working a lot through our members.  We have been trying to grow our English course and to get
to know people in the city! I'm enjoying my time here. It's really flying by compared to my first half in missione. We have been working extremely hard with a family here who is part active and its been really interesting because some don't want to go to church and the other half is just pushing so hard to get them to come to church. It's kind of tough because we want peace in their house and we also want everyone to come to church and participate in the gospel. I feel so blessed to be in a family where everything seems to just be working out well and there is stability.  When we were younger I imagine it was a lot harder and maybe seemed like we would wander but i just don't understand how everything worked out! I suggested to this family to say family prayers to increase their unity and I think they have started committing themselves much more!
The Christmas pictures we took were really fun, we were just making fun of ourselves! I watched a bit of the Christmas Conference, it was great.  Are you guys doing a Christmas card!? I'm definitely going to take a lot of fotos with the families I'm with.  To bring the Christmas spirit, we went caroling with some of our ward members and we sang and had the guitar in front of the city streets that are real busy! It was great, the little kids loved it a lot!

Love,
Anziano Goode

Week 68

Hi!
So sorry I couldn't email last week! I started writing your email on the
train but then I started talking to this Italian family from Venice
that wanted to know about who I was and why I was speaking Italian so
well as a foreigner so I just got distracted doing missionary things! I
am so excited for our Skype call in the next couple of weeks! It will be great
to see you guys! 
This week was really good. We went caroling with our district! We had a couple of exchanges. And we broke and fixed our sinks all by ourselves this week! I had been shaving carrots in the sink and I didn't realize but it had been clogging the drain and so the water just completely stopped flowing one night. The next morning we had to rip the sink out of the wall and all this nasty water spills all over the ground. So we mopped it up and tried to pour this liquid down the
drain to unclog this jam but that didnt work. So we plunged the sink and it just shot all this gross stuff everywhere so we mopped again and it still wouldn't work. So we call the plumber and he came over with the SNAKE. The big metal cord thing that you have to shove down the drain . He said he didn't have time to fix it but that we could try our luck with it so we got down there behind the sink with the worst smell ever and were able to unclog it after a couple tries!
So that was pretty fun, I guess. 
We also got invited to a lunch at our Stake Presidents which reminded me of your work lunches!  We were able to get 3 new investigators this week, all 18 yr olds! So we are real excited! This week we are going to the bishops house with a less active member to teach a lesson and it should go really well!
I'm so grateful for the Ward I grew up in, it really was awesome and was filled with many great examples! I think often about what kind of person I want to become and I see the examples of those in my home Ward often in my mind.
I have been reading lots of talks and in the Doctrine and Covenants quite a bit recently for studies.  It's cool to read about the first missionaries and the direction they received from the Lord to preach with boldness of repentance and
baptism! I love sharing my testimony! I do it every first Sunday of the month at fast and testimony meeting!
I'm excited to see you guys for our Christmas call! I hope you guys can share the gospel with everyone through word and deed! I love you! Have a good week!
Love, Anziano Goode

Merry Christmas!

Reminds me of "Bad Family Photos!"  Hahaha!

Week 67

Hey, I'm pretty sad we didn't have time to email today, things have been going really well. We have been seeing many miracles and I have grown to bear my testimony so much and to love sharing what I know! It's not really that hard and I honestly hope to do it when I come home too. I'm excited to share my testimony for the rest of my mission but also for the rest of the time the Lord gives me. Thanks Dad, for the great things you have done for me! I'm excited to see you guys on Skype for Christmas!   By the way we went to the movie 
theater to see "Meet the Mormons" with a bunch of government officials. Really cool experience!

Love you guys!

Anziano Goode

Rome West Zone Conference

Week 66

Hey, how are you guys? I'm doing great! My new companion and I have been doing a good job of planning and setting things up for the next couple of weeks and we have already been seeing results. Last night there were these two mosquitoes flying around my ears all night so when I woke up in the morning I smashed them and they were filled with blood, of course. Those are the worst things ever! I'm surprised they are living still because it has just gotten so cold and its pretty horrible to have cold and mosquitoes! Well anyway, tomorrow for
Thanksgiving we will have a big party at the church with all the other missionaries to have a big lunch.  I'm not sure if the mission president will be there, probably not. They are always gone! We just had our zone conference, that was really needed! It's like a boost of spiritual strength I need in the perfect moments and it's so great to see how the Lord works with his servants!  These last couple of weeks I have been able to get to know the senior couple in the office better. The aunt of Sister Wright! They are returning home in just a
couple of weeks so they were able to bear testimony and it was quite amazing. He talked about the missionaries he has met and all the miracles he has seen, also the difficulties and the joy. I hadn't really thought about my homecoming talk until he bore his "dying testimony" (the testimony we give as our last on the mission), so that was weird to have running through my head. 
We have been given instruction to stay away from centro and from any crowded areas! As long as we are obedient we have been promised safety!
I miss the Thanksgiving trip up north and the cold water surfing but being here in Rome is something incredible! Everything is so historic and pretty
beautiful! We went to this way cool place today in the middle of
nowhere! Somewhere in the mountains!  This week went really well
for us because have had many lessons with our members and were able to
bear testimony a lot even if they were already baptized members of the
church.  I know it helped them and us which is good! Hope you have a
great week! Happy turkey day!
I miss you guys a lot and i hope you guys have a great week and a good time for the holidays! 

Love Anziano Goode

Week 65

Hey so this week was a little bit crazy! We had transfers and I got a new
companion! He's a pretty cool guy from Idaho.  This week as soon as my comp arrived, he looked at the house and decided to reorganize and deep clean everything. I figured it was a good use of our time and I thought about when we give service to others it's a bit hard if we ourselves aren't even cleaned up. So I took that as a personal and spiritual lesson as well, and have been trying not to be a hypocrite with anything I do.
We have been working incredibly hard with our members, they are super cool.
So, in December we will do a talent show with all of our members! It should be pretty fun. I think this lady in our ward is going to play the piano and she wants us to sing a song.  I think a lot about the mission and how at the end of the mission I don't want to have any regrets! So, I've been putting in my best work now so that doesn't happen! 
Today, for our prep day we went to the Vatican. The artwork was pretty cool inside!  
Well anyway i hope everything is going well for you guys! I hope you travel safe and that you have lots of fun for the holidays! 

Love, Anziano Goode

Inside the Vatican