Elder Goss---W-34 Morning Devotionals (Apr 28, 2020)

Well, we continue to push on here in San Diego. The work's been a little slow this week. The last few past weeks, we literally called every number in our phone, setting member, less-actives, and interested people all combined. So we kinda scavenging around looking for people to teach. 

Yesterday, we got a interesting notification from our zone leaders (those ahead of us). Every morning at 9, aside from P-day and Sunday, there will be a mission-wide 15 minute devotional, non-optional. Every missionary is required to be in full Sunday-dress. This deserves an emoji: 😲 This is a really sneaky and ruthless way to prevent missionaries from sleeping in.  I have no idea how it's going to go, or for how long. But wow. Low-key exciting, but wow. 

Well. Yup. That's about it. Here are some pictures. I apologize, I am not very good at remembering to send them. 

I love you all!

1) My awesome district 

2-3) some puzzles

4) fixing the other Elder's car

Sister Goss---W36: COVID testing and lost tooth! (Apr 27, 2020)

"Hello. Everyone. How are you doing I'm going great thanks!"

Above is one example of how some missionaries write posts we get to edit! Everyday! Hooray! ;) 

Anyway... Hello!! I miss you all! :) I hope you're doing well! Let's see what I can fill my email with this week. We'll.... Hmmm... 

Okay I made a list! It's a good thing I'm not too boring of a person so I can find things to write about hahaha! Here we go. 

I've been doing a lot of family history this week, which consists mostly of reading stories. It's been super super awesome!! I have several family members that were bodyguards to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo and other family members that came across the plains in the Willie handcart company. Reading their stories and about the incredible MIRACLES they witnessed gives me lots of hope for my life. I'm so blessed to have incredible history to look back on! I love reading the conversion stories of my family members, whether that was in Isle of Man in 1800s or in New York in late 1900s. They all inspire me to continue my conversion process. 

A few awesome people emailed me back about my COVID testing experience and so I'm glad to share the story! Haha! ;) Sister Clyde and I drive to the place where the testing center is held and they said it was a drive-thru testing site. I have absolutely no idea what this means, but I had my mask and my ID cards, so we're good! When we drive up, the guy there asks to see my ID but to leave the window rolled up. So I hold up my license to the window and he just looks through the glass. He waves us to keep following the cones until we get to these temporary tents. It looks like the place is set up for tens of vehicles but only a few were there, so it was weird. As we pull up, the lady asked me a few more questions with the window still rolled up and I'm still wondering how on earth they're going to test me. A shot? A mouth swab? What?? Finally she has me roll down the window and take off my mask. She said, "now I want you to lean your head back and the less you move the faster it will be and the less it will hurt." Uuuuuhhhhh okay.... I lean my head back and she pulls out this 9 inch thin-swab thing and I'm like "oh no what is that." She slowly brings it closer to my face and then sticks a small part of it in my nose. I thought, "oh okay. Well this is nice." As she pushed it forward a couple of inches, I thought "okay that's as far as it goes!" And then BAM the whole thin-swab thing went straight to the back and completely disappeared! OOOOW! What in the world!!?! I didn't even know my nasal cavity WENT that far!!!! It felt like it shot past my tear duct on my eye and went to my brain, but my family clarified that it actually went down (which makes sense), but I don't know. Wherever it went, it was NOT comfortable. I'm sitting there with only my right eye crying and trying to remain composure when Sister Clyde starts laughing so I start laughing and then the nurse started laughing so we're all there laughing as this thing is stuck in my nose. Finally she pulls it out and says, "okay you're good to go!" My nose hurt the rest of the day. It's like when you get salt water up your nose and it just kind of stings. Woohoooo. Love that. But here's the good news--the test was negative! So yay! No COVID for me. That experience was not worth it but hey -at least now I have a story to tell. ;) Thanks for listening folks. 

We've decided, as STLs, to do something fun for the sisters in Lake Elsinore and Menifee. Because we can't actually go anywhere, we thought outside the box and are now making short little jingle songs about each companionship while we sing and I play the ukelele. They're super fun and the sisters love them! I would love to get a cute little song about my companion and I! :) Exchanges are still a major struggle, but at least we're trying to make the best of it. 

We had a lesson with Isaac, a 9 year old boy who was recently baptized, earlier this week via video call. Its an adventure to ignore all the filters that are non-stop and the games that pop up as we're in the middle of trying to teach about prophets. This past lesson we are reading a scripture when all of a sudden he screams in exaggeration and runs over to the sink because he was eating candy. I have no idea what's going on but then he comes back and uses the video chat as a mirror to look at his bloody tooth and yells for his mom. The pieces of conversation that came through were "mom where is it??" "moooooom it's gone!!!" "what are you talking about?" "I think it's still in the candy..." Hahahaha his tooth came out and was stuck in the Laffy Taffy in the middle of our lesson. Good times. 

Annnnnnnd last but not least, you know you're bored when the thing you look forward to everyday are showers. Yep. Overall this week has blended in with the last four weeks pretty well and I don't remember much except what I write in my journal! So thank goodness for that! Within the last 50 years, I wonder what the record is for the longest isolated-missionary is.... But anyway, I love you all soo much!! Thanks for your emails and prayers! I know powerfully that God answers prayers. 2 Nephi 32:9 says "But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." When we pray about our efforts, God will consecrate them for our benefit! They will become powerful building blocks for our lives. Don't ever forget to pray - it makes things a million times better. Love you all!

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) Our beautiful RAV4

2) Accidental picture I took during our zone activity last pday

3) Shopping this morning in our beautiful RAV4

4) hikes!

5) Hey look! I know that name... ;) 

Elder Goss---W-33 YOLO (Apr 21, 2020)

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing great. And not dying. Or fightin'. 'Cuse that's bad. And we need as little 'bad' right now as possible. So keep calm, steady on, and stay strong! Hm. That was kinda catchy. 

Elder Larrabee just received a bunch of late birthday presents, including more puzzles and snacks. Lots of snacks. We also made a cake with some cake mix his Mom sent. And I continue to burn milk everytime I make hot chocolate that I still have from Christmas. It's the life. 

Sooooooo... yup. Hm. Well, I guess I could mention that we've been having a lot more lessons than normal. We've been going down a list of members we have and just calling them. And although sometimes it's awkward, and sometimes they laugh at our Spanish and tell us to study harder, we've already found out that we've been the answer to some people's prayers. And that's a good feeling. 

The central message that we've been sharing is this: you only live once. Only once. YOLO. You only go to high-school once. You are only a child once. A lot of people use this phrase to justify making irrational or reckless decisions. But after that time is past, you can't go back. You can't rewind wasted time. You can't undo arguements or choices. SO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. Don't do all the stupid stuff that you know you shouldn't do. Don't let yourself regret your past. And this applies in quarantine as well. You only have this time once. Don't waste a minute of it. Every time you have an opportunity to be better, take advantage of it. 

I love you! YOLO! See you soon!

Elder Goss

Sister Goss---W35: Wait- that's for us?? (Apr 20, 2020)

What's up everyone?? It's your girl here in SoCal! :)

This week has been BUSYYYY. Way way way busy. We had two exchanges this week (which the technology was not the most supportive...). :/ We also had our mission training on Tuesday and all the posting on the FB pages everyday! Sister Clyde and I are in charge of posting about 10 posts a day on 5 pages in addition to our studies, having exchanges, phone calls for STL stuff, and teaching in our area! Whew!! So much on our plate!!! Earlier this week, it was pretty hard to stay enthusiastic because all I wanted to do was sleep haha. But spirits are high again and we are getting the hang of it! :) It's like juggling. Might drops the balls a few times at first, but you'll get it. ;) And then it becomes fun. So the next couple weeks are gonna be great. 😁 Wooohooo!

This week we had a little bit of a scare. So one night, we hadn't left our apartment for a single second all day because we were so busy. We decided before our brains exploded to go for a walk and closed the door behind us (but didn't lock it). We walk around in the dusk and then come back. As we turn the corner, we saw our door was wide open. We froze. Immediately my mind starting asking itself what to do, and I went into "calm-panic-y" mode. We quietly and slowly looked inside, and there was nothing but our lights on like we left them. Still unsure, I thought "let's pray." Not wanting to close our eyes and pray with our door wide open, I grab the doorknob and quietly pull it closed. I tried pushing it open to see if the door maybe opened by itself or the wind, but it didn't move. The handle had to have been turned. As I held the door closed, Sister Clyde said a prayer asking for help in knowing what to do and safety. After saying amen, we look up and just kind of look at each other. We still weren't sure of anything specific, so we walked to our patio fence and looked through our sliding doors. Nothing. We walked back and opened the door a crack. I, as boldly and authoritatively as I could, yelled into our apartment and didn't hear anything. We noticed her keys and wallet were still just sitting on the table. So we decided to just confidently walk in and go through all the rooms. Counting down from three (because yes we're that extra), we go inside and I slam the wall as we go through our apartment. It scared Sister Clyde out of her mind! Haha. But good news--our apartment was fine! No one was there, nothing was missing, nada. #blessings!!!! We're still not sure how the door was opened, maybe it was lose and our neighbors slammed their door, but who knows? I'm just so grateful to know that when moments of fear happen like that, God is there and will guide us. Prayer will never fail us. :) And don't worry--we lock our doors now. Always. ;) Should've been doing that anyway but... God protects us until we learn from our mistakes. So grateful!

Exchanges have been difficult because they're all virtual and there's been a lot of tech issues but we're working through them! Maybe by the end of the transfer we'll have it down. ;) LOL. There's still no word how long we'll be in isolation for. I think we're on day 35? 34? Can't remember. But over a month which is CRAZY.

GUESS WHAT??? BEST PRESENT EVER!!! Elder Aird, the vehicle coordinator, stopped by one night and said he had something for us. :))) Well, out of the RAV4 he was driving, he pulled out our Chromebook!! YAY!!! Now we can do social media work so much easier!!! 😁 It's brand new and we're super pumped!! And then he said, "but there's one more thing!" He asked, "do you have your car key?" We did and gave it to him, and he handed his key in return saying "welcome to your new car! Here's your RAV4!" 😮 STOP. No way. WE GOT A NEW CAR!!! And I'm talking so new, there are still stickers we have to take off all the features. Haha man I felt fancy driving that thing to buy our groceries today. ;) Never again will someone plop the keys into my hand of a brand spankin' new car and drive away! I'm so excited!! 😊 New computer AND a new car- can't get much better than that! 

OH and guess who got tested for COVID-19. Yours truly. It was a very uncomfortable experience. 😂 I will include it in the next email if you email and ask for it; it's a bit of a long story and those who actually read this paragraph obviously don't mind reading a lot hahaha! Lemme know... ;) 

Again, PLEASE let me know if you want an invite to our FB pages! :) It would help a bunch! Miss you all; have a fantastic week! Love you! :) 

Sister Mary Goss

1) Only good picture of us we have

2) What happens when isolated missionaries finally get to go outside and go shopping and get distracted trying new things on...

3) I tried. 

4) Picture accompanying story I might include later. You know if you know. ;)

 

 

Elder Goss---W-32 Easter! Companion's Birthday! (Apr 14, 2020)

Well, another week. Another week of practice. Practice of patience, and enthusiasm, and hard work when you're doing nothing. 😒 But! Today, the trio Lao Elders in our district called us, and told us to help them jump their car. So we went out and spent over 45 minutes trying to get their car started. Eventually, (maybe 2 hours later), a tow truck shows up, and with the aid of a giant battery, started up their car. Hurrah! It was a blast to talk to each other for more than just 10 minutes via phone. So that was a blessing in disguise. 

Also, and far more importantly, this past Sunday was not only Easter, but also my companion's Birthday! Happy Birthday Elder Larrabee. And happy Easter! I woke up a bit extra early and made toilet paper streamers (no, we're not going to waste the toilet paper). He thought that was pretty funny. I then gave him a new toothbrush for a present. How generous of me, I know. Actually it's super lame. But it's hard to find a gift when you already share everything and can't really get anything as a surprise. Still lame. But he was still happy and grateful, so points for that. Nope, still lame. 

We had an amazing Easter service as we watched the Bible Videos of Christ's last week. We were both touched. It's good to watch them, but there is definitely something special about watching a bunch in order. I learned a lot about Christ's character, and what he must've been thinking. And that's my invitation. Watch and study Christ's last week. Easter is already over, I know. But that doesn't mean we stop studying! I promise if you do, you'll learn something new. 

See you all later!

Elder Goss

Sister Goss---W34: Happy Easter!! 🐰 (Apr 13, 2020)

Hellllllllo everyone!! Happy Easter!!!

Easter yesterday was a huge highlight for me. :) And not because of anything crazy wonderful that happened - though we did have an amazing devotional via Webex from President Hammon and a member brought us a delicious dinner. Easter was wonderful just because it was Easter! I felt so joyful and full of light all day long. Every now and then I would reflect and ask myself, "why do I feel so happy?! Nothing amazing happened!" And then the Spirit would remind me and answer, "just because you know His is risen! That is enough to bring joy and peace to last beyond any earthly experience." Yesterday was truly a day of light for me. Easter morning the Savior rose from the grave and was Resurrected. As a result, joy will come in the morning. Life will come after death. Light will permeate the darkness. No good thing ever has to say goodbye forever. ALL will be made right in the end!! How could I not be so joyful? 😊

Update on the Social Media Specialist assignment: it's going great and moving fast!! Elder Vance, Elder Campbell, Hermana Linton, Hermana Webb, Sister Clyde, and I have been creating FB pages for each zone in our mission and have been preparing a training for the mission tomorrow! It will be a long day- 3 hour training for the North half in the morning and the same 3 hour training for the South half in the afternoon. But boy I'm excited. We are going to basically be working on social media through those pages, so if you're willing to help move the work forward here in the CRM, there's something you can do!! :D Let me know you want to help and I will invite you to like and/or follow as many pages as you'd be willing!!! The more likes and followers a page has, the more traction it will get. Thus, more people will see it and we will be able to teach more people. So PLEASE email me if you're willing and how many pages you're willing to like or follow! (CRM has around 21 pages!) :))

Sister Clyde's mom sent us Easter eggs so we decided to have a little fun this week. I took the front half of the apartment, and she took the back half, and we each hid 12 eggs for each other. Let's just say that quarantine has made us think we're smarter than we actually are and neither of us could find each other's eggs very well. Whoops. Well, even though we had to basically just re-find our own eggs that we hid, it was a good time. ;)

We wanted to go for a hike this week because we'd been stuck inside for so long, but it was raining and it's mandated that we wear masks outside at all times. Did that stop us? No. 😂 So we went on a hike, with our masks on, carrying umbrellas, and trying to talk to each other through the fabric and rain. #missionaccomplished

This week we participated in the worldwide fast on April 10th! I was so grateful for that opportunity and how cool it was to see so many participate!! If you haven't seen it, go find the Facebook group Worldwide Fast April 10th!! It was made by a missionary in the San Diego mission (Hyrum might know him!) and now has over 537K members! It's so cool because thousands of people are actively sharing their stories and miracles from many different religions and lives. It's just a huge melting pot of people who love God and want to help the world. I've been so inspired by this group! And if you didn't get the chance to fast on the 10th, thousands of people are fasting every first Sunday of the month. We pray for world peace and comfort! Email me if you haven't heart of fasting before and have any questions!! :) It's so awesome!!

Well, it's been another great week of social isolation here in Lake Elsinore, California. Sister Clyde is awesome. We are doing well! The work is moving forward at an accelerated pace and I'm so excited for what the future holds! I love and pray for you all frequently. 😊 Keep up the cheerful spirits and Christlike service!! You are AMAZING!!! <3

Love, 

Sister Mary Goss

Just a bunch of selfies because we never go anywhere. ;)

1) Happy Easter! 

2) Easter lunch from the Fifes

3) Our hike ;P

4) Easter egg hunt lol

5) We went walking around our complex (the same thing multiple times everyday) and we saw that the poor garbage truck had exploded and it went EVERYWHERE. Big oof. 😂 Those poor guys did NOT have the best day at work. :0

 

 

Elder Goss---W-31 General Conference (Apr 7, 2020)

This Conference was really incredible. There were so many incredible things that happened, and personally, it was truly unforgettable. I have never received direct help from Conference before. It was fantastic. If you were unable to watch any of the Sessions, you should take this time to do so, and accept the various invitations. They are designed to bless your life. 

Måņ, ďįđ ýöù ķňôw țhāţ bý přəśšîňğ đówñ òń ļęťťėřś, ýõů čāň mãķě ā būňćh ôf řèāļļý wěîŕđ wøřđš? But that takes a long time. So I won't be doing that. Probably never again. Ever. 

Elder Larrabee and I are doing great! We are keeping on top of things as best we can, aside from the additional area we're now over, because Area Book (our missionary app) won't sync. It's Elder Larrabee's birthday this Sunday, so we're excited about that. If anyone has any ideas how I could do something fun for his birthday, avísame (let me know). It's going to be tricky, during quarantine and all, but yeah. 

Very few investigators are maintaining contact with us. It remains hard to get video calls with them. Hopefully God will soften their hearts during this trial, but God's will be done. 

Give a fast phone call to your local missionaries, and tell them hi. It will make their day. 

Love you all! See you soon!

Elder Goss

--
Aaron Hyrum Goss

Sister Goss---W33: Social Media WHAT? (Apr 6, 2020)

Wowwwy! What a week! Especially this weekend!!

This week we had car inspections and I got to see multiple missionaries at once for a brief moment and BOY I MISS IT. I didn't realize how much!! It was so nice to see other missionaries!! 😂 I also got to say goodbye to the Shirley's, the senior office couple. That was a really hard goodbye. I remember when Brother Shirley called me on the phone before I even got to the MTC and we talked about my bike! Haha! I was so blessed to serve in Riverside and see them at the office every week, have them attend our meetings/activities, spend Christmas with them, etc. I am going to miss them so much and you better believe I'm going to visit them when I get home!! The Shirleys are such an example to me! ❤️

Funny story!! So we the trio were walking to our car to go to the church, and we saw a man with the walker coming the other way. We said hi, to which he said hi back. As we were about to pass him, Sister Clyde totally biffed it, landing straight on her face because she tripped on a mini tequila bottle. If that's not the most SoCal reason, I don't know what is. The man walked by trying not to laugh and I myself had to do everything in my power to not bust out laughing. Oh my gosh it was soo funny!! Sister Clyde was so embarrassed... She said "funny how the guy with the walker can walk better than I can." Hahahahaha!!! Moral of the story: don't litter your tequila bottles. ;)

Okay soooo transfers are this week. Yes, this was definitely the craziest transfers of the history of ever. First off it was on Conference Saturday!! That is in-and-of itself wild!!! Second, around 40 missionaries went/are going home and we got 1 missionary from the MTC. Uno. So that's 9 districts and around 16 areas that needed to be dissolved. So of course, none of us have any idea whatsoever what is going to happen. The entire mission is completely changing! We were trying to do some transfer predictions, and I realized that by the end of the transfer starting today, I will be the only STL left. All the other 9 STLs will either be home or finished as STLs. So that's 9 new STLs by next transfer!! Ahhhhh!! I went straight from being the youngest STL by 6 months to being the oldest surviving STL in two transfers. Y'all. That's crazy. 😱

What did transfers bring? Quite literally the most wild transfer predictions we could've possibly come up with and more. No joke. We said "you know what would be crazy?? It won't actually happen because it's too wild, but... Sister Clyde becomes STL and Sister Fransen becomes an Hermana. Haha that would be insane." Well. It happened. Sister Clyde just hit her 6 months so she's where I was last transfer! The good news is that we're staying companions, so that will make it so much easier. And Sister Fransen got her language switched!! She knows a decent amount of Spanish and she is THRILLED!!! We are SO excited for her and are proud to be her only English companions now. ;) WOW!! She's staying here in Lake Elsinore with Hermana Giles. :)

Of course, we find all this out when President called at 7:02am on Saturday. And THEN Sister Clyde hands the phone to me!! What?!? I'm already STL and there's no reason President should have anything to tell me!! I got really scared and said, "Hi President! What can I do for you?" He said, "Well Sister Goss, I have a special assignment for you from Salt Lake City. The Mission Department is asking me to choose a few missionaries from each mission (Northwest area) to become the Social Media specialists. Will you and Sister Clyde accept this new assignment?" My jaw dropped. What in the... Of course I say yes, and he says" thank you! There will be 4 other missionaries in our mission with the same assignment and the 6 of you will receive training from SLC on Tuesday. You'll be expected to be the administrators for FB pages of the mission, work with the Mission Department weekly in providing statistics and metrics, managing FB advertisements, and training the other missionaries." OH my gosh this is one of the most exciting things ever!!! The more I think about it, the more pumped I get and I can't WAIT to start!!!! This is going to be so AWESOME!!! There's so much more I want to say about it so I will talk more about it next week. 😊 THIS IS CRAZY EXCITING!!!

To end, wasn't General Conference INCREDIBLE??!? Oh my goodness gracious I've never loved a session more in my entire life than the first session on Saturday morning. Every single talk answered a question in my heart and I was hanging on every word spoken. Conference is such a blessing!! God knows what we need to hear and it will change our life!!! Quite honestly this was a life-changing conference for me. 😊❤️ And a temple in DUBAI AND CHINA??? WOW!!!! Do you know how long we've been waiting for that??? 🎉💕🙌

As you can tell this has been a transformative week for me! I'm super excited for this next transfer and all the new things I'll be doing. I hope this week has changed you as well and I continue to pray for your safety! I love you all!! Keep on keepin' on!! 😁

Love, Sister Mary Goss

Mask time (Riverside mayor mandated masks if you leave the house now) 

Different kind of mask time 

Watching General Conference!!

THE historical trio

My frienddddds! 

The amazing Shirley's and I 💔

 

 

Elder Goss---W-30 A little bit of crazy and a lot of non-crazy (Mar 31, 2020)

Well, it never knew it was possible to have the crazy-ist and boring-ist week at the same time. But here we are. Corona virus seems all anyone can talk about. 

Today was Transfers! Both Elder Larrabee and I are staying here in Bonita, but the tide has turned because now, WE'RE DISTRICT LEADERS!! Mua ha ha ha! *Maniacal laugh*. It's pretty weird, because neither of us have never been anything above 'senior companion' (with each other), and so we get to train each other how to be District Leaders. So hopefully we do good. I wonder if we'll still be on bikes...

Well, although Elder Larrabee and I got the cold (or so we think...) a little while back, we're both feeling much better. I hear a lot of missionaries are getting sick. Although no missionary has tested positive to the COVID-19, something's sure going around. But no need to worry. If I get sick, guess what? I get sick. We can't be afraid of pain. If we live a life of "avoiding as little pain in life as possible," where as long as we have minimal pain, we are doing good, we miss Soooo much. This is a lifestyle of fear. Cowardice. Don't fall for that. If you have pain in your life, accept it and move on. Rather than run from pain, let the pain change you. Make you stronger. Wiser. More compassionate. More humble. THIS IS OUR PURPOSE. To become better. To grow and progress. So don't fear! Turn to God! He's got this ALL under control. He's crossed every 't' and dotted every 'i'. Every jot and tittle. Don't worry. 

I love you so much! ¡Hasta luego!

See you soon! 

Elder Goss

--
Aaron Hyrum Goss

Sister Goss--- W32: Day 11 of Isolation (Mar 30, 2020)

elcome to the insider's journal of missionary isolation! It looks like this:

.....🦗🦗🦗.....

Yep, pretty much. But we've made it to day 11 and haven't gone crazy yet! We're still alive!! 

If you've wondered what a missionary does in social isolation, we have too! Haha I'm only half kidding. ;) Everyday without fail, we do: personal study, companion study, language study, outside time, meal time, journaling, and calling/texting/Facebook posts. In addition, we: write letters, clean the apartment, work on gospel art projects, do additional companion study, weekly plan, plan service ideas, etc. If you have any ideas that you want to run by me please do! Especially when it comes to finding people to teach! :)

So that's what my week has basically looked like. All week. I became pretty sick this week (starting around Wednesday), but I'm starting to recover now. I mostly just have a cough left! :) Yay!! Finding and teaching people has become much more challenging, which can be super hard. I really miss going out and teaching and testifying. I can do so here at home via technology, but it is more limited in who we can talk to and dependent on whether they respond back.

HOWEVER that all being said... I am still called to the work!! I am still a witness to testify of Christ and His Restored Gospel! I still find just as much JOY in His church and sharing that with others. :) I know that "the standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth BOLDLY, NOBLY, AND INDEPENDENT till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done" (Joseph Smith, 1842). This will pass and the work will move forward! God is in complete control and knows everything. Though this time may not have been part of my mission plan, it was always part of His. I really do know it will be okay!! We can find joy in serving others and doing the little things. 😊 What an opportunity we have here!! All of us!! HOW EXCITING!!!

Can I ask you all a favor?? As missionaries, we can only do so much, especially on Facebook. The same few people see our posts and we want the circle to widen. If I, or another missionary, posts something that is particularly touching, can I invite you to share that post? Or write one of your own and comment in the missionary's post that you posted because you were inspired by theirs? That will not only boost the missionary's enthusiasm, but it will spread God's love a little wider around the world. :) We can do much good at our fingertips. Give a little help to us missionaries and we can bless lives together. 💙

I know ya'll are also probably under some sort of stay-at-home policy or whatever, and I hope you are doing well! I miss you lots and I think about you often! :) Keep being an example to those you are around! Be the rock in this time. You're awesome. ;) AND WATCH GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS WEEKEND!!! I'm so excited!!!! 😆❤️ It's going to be SOOOOO fantastic!!!!! Highlight of my month, transfer, and even year! Yay!!!!! Watch it at: churchofjesuschrist.org! Love you all lots! Stay safe! Like my FB posts! ;)

Love, Sister Mary Goss

Pics: Ortega waterfall!!! Hiked it Wednesday before I got super sick. Super fun to get out and enjoy. :))

And the one source of peace: our Savior Jesus Christ. Probably my favorite picture of Him that I have. 💛