Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Elder Goss---W51 (Aug 25, 2020)

 WELL. Another week, another email! We have good news and bad news. This week has been disappointing with the fact that our friends of the church have lost much interest in us, but the good news is it still has been a good week. Seem contradictory? It know! 


I think that's something I'm beginning to learn (finally) on the mission. Life will rob each of us. At one point or another, it will find a way to disappoint you. Elder Doman and I don't deserve to be ghosted by those we teach, or by the members. And yet it happens. And soooo... what do we do? I'll tell you what happens when we don't do ANYTHING: we become bitter. Hardened. Miserable. If we don't decide how to respond, we will naturally act poorly. That's part of the Natural Man. If we do NOTHING, nature takes its course. 

I'm not going to lie, the mission has rocked my boat. And there were times that because I didn't take the initiative and decide how to respond, I (naturally) became angry, defeated, and ungrateful. I didn't choose anger; it just came. And as a missionary, that happened too much. But I think each setback, each unfair trial, has thickened my skin. I am now not quite as upset when yelled at. Or when transfers come. I recover a little faster. 

If we want to be happy, we really got to search beyond trials. Heartaches. You can't stop them from happening. And if you let yourself react NATURALLY, you'll never be happy. We have to choose to react humbly, positively, roll with the punches, smile, get back on our feet and come back for more. 

2nd Nephi 2:26 men are to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. 

¡Hasta el próxima semana!

Sister Goss---W53: ONE WHOLE YEAR (Aug 24 2020)

 t's unbelievable. Absolutely incredible. Ladies and gentlemen, buckle your seatbelts because Sister Goss has officially been out ONE WHOLE YEAR! *insert applause and cheering here woooooo* No one thought she'd actually make it (that's 95% a joke), but due to the grace of God and His constant preserving and delivering hand, she has. It's a miracle.


There's one activity in Preach My Gospel that has us write a newspaper article about the Book of Mormon so I've been practicing my "news flash" articles. They could probably use some work.... ;) But YES! I'm now in the repeating days of being a missionary which is CRAZY. Absolutely crazy!! I wrote a short snippet of some lessons I've learned since being out on Facebook so if you're interested, go give that a look. Honestly I've pretty much learned a lesson a day, so that list would be in the hundreds. Rather than actually create that list on paper, I'm trying to reflect that list in who I am. I'm definitely not the same person I was when I left on my mission. :) It's so amazing. In addition to the 6 lessons I wrote about on Facebook, I'd like to share one with you I learned on Saturday. I learned how dependent I am on the Spirit for literally EVERYTHING I do; I cannot do it without Him. On Saturday I wasn't paying attention as I should've in a mission Zoom meeting and I felt awful. Because of that, I wasn't able to have the Spirit as I normally do and that day was really rough. I struggled in a lot of ways and fell asleep frustrated that night. I woke up the next morning grateful for a new start and for His forgiveness, and I realized that the previous day was so hard because I didn't have the Spirit to help me overcome temptation: overcome the temptation of getting annoyed with others, temptation of being prideful, temptation of being lazy, etc. I quite literally depend on the Spirit 24/7 to give me strength to overcome temptation and I don't even realize it! I learned 1) to give more credit to Heavenly Father and His Spirit for who I am because I am nothing without Them, 2) to strive to always have the Spirit with me or I cannot be strong enough to make the right decisions. 3 Nephi 18:15, 18-20 from the Book of Mormon has new meaning for me. :)

That (see above) is how my mission has changed me every single day. ISN'T THAT AWESOME?!?! :D It's so awesome. My mission is awesome. God is awesome.

Quick summary of the week: we served at the bishop's storehouse and it's so fun!! The service missionaries there are awesome, it's peaceful with soft hymnal music playing, and it just feels good to serve. It rained on Tuesday!! I haven't seen rain in a little while so we went out and stood in it. ;) Within 10 minutes the sidewalks were completely dry again and it looked like nothing had changed, but it was lovely while it lasted! Haha. We had dinner in a member's home again WOOWOO!! We're only allowed store-prepared foods still, and it was hilarious how embarrassed the members were. "Oh this makes me cringe so hard. I'm so so so sorry it's just frozen ravioli warmed up. Oh this breaks my heart. I'm so embarrassed. Oh my." You know, I thought it was good and I'm just thrilled to be in members' homes for dinner, I could care less what I'm eating. :) It was really sweet of them. We also made a super quality post with a quality camera a member lent us. So I'm learning the workings of fancy cameras! Hooray! The rest of the week was finding, teaching, cleaning the church buildings, having AMAZING missionary meetings we do like district council, eating breakfast as a zone with the stake president in his mansion (woahhh), etc. It's been a great week. It's been a great year. The best year of my life, actually. ;)

Thanks for reading my long email! I miss you all SO MUCH and hope you're doing well. Thanks for the little emails/letters you send me! I appreciate it so much!! You are all amazing. Have a FANTASTIC week. <3

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) PPT fort adventures
2) sometimes it's just too sunny for a picture here. Enjoy this very flattering photo of us
3) an example of the jokes President Watson makes on the daily. He is SO FUNNY 😂
4) service at a bargain market whaaaat






Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Elder Goss---W:50 Friends gone (Aug 18, 2020)

 This week has been very eventful. We have been teaching English to Ivan almost every day. Ivan is super cool. He has a rudimentary knowledge of English, but we are practicing. We had a small lesson with Marco, and he tambien speaks already pretty good English. We'll see just where this goes. 


On Friday, the Elders that live 15 feet from us invited us to help with a Snowcone service, where we hand out free snow cones in 120 weather. Literally no joke. The Sisters also came by. After the service was over, we had some shaved ice left. So... we had an all-out snowball fight in Calexico California. I can't imagine how many people got to claim that.

But probably the biggest event happened yesterday. We got a call from the Assistants at 10AM telling us to pack your bags, you're trading areas with the Sisters way north. Jaw-open. Ummm, okay. So we immediately pack our things. But then, a few moments later, the other Elders (the ones that live right next to us) were the ones asked to go. So now we have all of our stuff to unpack. And we go over to help clean the Elders' apartment. Ugh, gross. I had to hand scrub the floor everywhere. Everything was nasty. The bathroom floor was one of the grossest places I've been in. 

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't very happy with the change. As companionships, we used to chill with eachother when available, sometimes play games, etc. But now we can't. And they took our car. So if we want to go to the 1/2 ACed Church, we get to bike. Also, did I mention that 2 nights ago our AC broke? Mmmmm. Nice n toasty!

So now our friends are gone. There's a chance that this will be a temporary change, which I'm crossing my fingers for. But who knows? ¿Quién sabe?

Oh, also, we made burgers. 

Pics
1-3) making, setting up, and throwing snow cones.
4) burgers 





Sister Goss---W52: Lord of the Rings (Aug 17, 2020)

 What is that? Week 52? Huh?? How did THAT happen?


Hello from Murrieta!! It's great down here! Sister Weston is awesome and in our spare time she's been telling me the entire story of The Lord of the Rings because I've only seen the 1978 cartoon version hahaha... ;) During the non-spare time, we've been super busy. Super super busy! President asked me to give a training on STLs for our MLC training, social media work for trainer/trainee meeting, and then zone training meeting for the Temecula zone. So lots of training prep. But I've been meeting the missionaries here and getting to know the members as well. They are AWESOME. They are so nice and supportive! Our ward actually covers 4 ZONES: Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee, and Lake Elsinore. :) So we get to drive around a lot and it's the best. YSA is super fun.

We are teaching some pretty great people here! Lots of miracles are still happening on Facebook, including this one: we started messaging random people and one of the friends we reached out to said she used to be a member! She said "It’s really funny how things happen. Iv been talking little to god again not how I used to but just wondering why things happen they way they do. These sudden speed bumps in my life. But they I felt fine just gotta true. Have faith . And I have been wanting to go back but I get something’s missing. And you out of the blue you message me." God truly leads us to His children who are ready, whether they haven't found the church yet or have strayed away for some time! We are so lucky to be the ones guiding His sheep back home!! :)) Facebook miracles are REAL.

It'll be short this week! We had lots of trainings, Facebook work, getting to know your companion, etc. The work moves forward! I love being a missionary and I can't wait to see blessings blossom here. :)) Miss you all so much! Have a GREAT WEEK!

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) Bishop's Storehouse with the service missionaries
2) Sushi with the sisters! Sister Weston convinced me to try RAW FISH for the first time and I actually didn't hate it... I might try her real, full $18 sushi next time ;))
3) Celebrating a sister in Temecula's birthday 
4) Celebrating the end of the first training I was stressed about hehe





Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Elder Goss---W:49 Summer Sun on Mexico's Boarder (Aug 11, 2020)

 This week's been pretty great! We've had a surprising quantity of work this week. We had a few more people contact us, and we've been calling others peoples. 


We are teaching a man named Ivan some English and that is kinda crazy. I am not super great at Spanish, you see. But trying to teach English in Spanish is a bit confusing. Because in my brain I have to translate what I would say in English into Spanish then BACK into English otra vez. Y confundí. 

Well, I feel a bit sad. Our ward's members are all very quiet. I don't know what they did or how acted before the quarantine, but now, it seems that they are all inactive. At least, that's how they act. And it really got me thinking. As members, do we rely too much on our church meetings and youth classes to be active? We might be good people, and do our various callings when expected to, but do we stop participating in the Gospel, just because chapel doors are closed? Are we still active Ministering brothers and sisters? Do we still take care of each other? DO WE EVEN CONTACT THE MISSIONARIES?!? For me, I  see it as a principle of discipleship. Are you a member of the church, or a disciple of God? Disciples don't let problems pause their progress. 

I hope you are hearken the call to discipleship. There is no better joy! This is my testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

See you all later!

Sister Goss---W51: Left a dream 💔 (Aug 10, 2020)

 Hey guys!!!! We've had some BIG changes happen recently that totally threw us for a loop!! So buckle tight; it'll be a fun ride. :) Speaking of which, President created a new zone! Now we have 11 in our mission! Riverside zone was split in half and the new zone is called the Mission zone. :) Canyon Crest, my old area, is still in the OG Riverside zone. Crazy, right? 


Here's the news that directly impacts me: I'm being transfered and leaving Corona. I am SO SO SAD. :'( Sister Copling and I were worried that they might split us up because we were getting along TOO well... But we figured that she would leave this transfer and I would leave next transfer. She's now served in Corona for 5 transfers! And I just got there, so why would I leave? Hahaha well... I still don't know. I guess God has some pretty cool plans for me elsewhere. That being said, Corona was literally like a dream and I loved every second of it. ❤️ I will be back someday, that's for sure! 

So where am I going?? Drumroll please.... Murrieta, California!! In the YSA ward down there! YES. Thank you thank you thank you! ;) I'm still an STL (and a social media specialist) and my companion's name is Sister Weston. She is a lot like me and I already know we're going to be fantastic friends. :) Also fun fact: she worked at the framing center at the BYU bookstore the same semester I worked at the cashier so we've probably definitely seen each other, maybe even talked to each other before. Isn't that wild?! So cool!!! I'm excited for this transfer. I know it's going to be great. My heart hurts from leaving Corona but that doesn't mean this transfer can't be just as WONDERFUL. :)

This past week we set up this free car wash service for the community and it was so successful! We probably washed over 40 cars and I'm still peeling car wax off my hands haha! It was an absolute BLAST and it hasn't felt so much like summer. ;) Ahh it was the greatest. I'd do it again in a heart beat! The whole zone was there and we just washed cars for hours in the nice sun. Wooowooo! We had another fantastic MLC and district council this week as well. :)

And guess what.... In Corona we were actually driving the old Corolla I drove in Lake Elsinore before it got swapped for a RAV. Well Saturday morning the office elders called and said "we're dropping off your new RAV today!" ;)) Yipee!!! I've gotten a new car three times in the mission now haha! It was a super great surprise. And I'm not too sad to leave it because my area here in Murrieta also has a RAV. Don't worry. ;) Haha

I'm going to miss those we were teaching in Corona. We got in contact with Bryant and he set a date for the end of August to be baptized. The others we are teaching are continuing to do well! They are awesome! I saw Sister Clyde today and she said Ortega area in Lake Elsinore is doing SO good; they have three people getting ready to be baptized!! Two of those I've taught many times and the other one was someone I called right before I left. I love them and I'm so grateful to hear that my old area is not slow anymore. What a HUGE blessing. <3

So that's the update here for Sister Goss! Things are going well and although they are super super sad, they will be super great. :)) God is so good. I'm so happy to be here. The church is true! Love you all lots! Keep on keepin' on!

Love, Sister Mary Goss


Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Elder Goss---W:48 I'm in The Valley (Aug 4, 2020)

Bum Bum Buuuuum. Well, we all knew it was going to happen someday. Imperial Valley, here I come! The Valley is a part of the mission at geographically covers half the mission due to nothing living there. And I will be serving at the very bottom on the border of California and Mexico. My new companion, Elder Doman, (who I have not yet met) with be both the senior companion and district leader. But for those who remember Elder Diether, he's also going to the Valley. 

This past week we had more opportunities than normal. Diego is doing great. Please continue to pray for him.

Well, I don't have a ton of time, but I love you all! Expect some pictures next week!

Elder Goss

Sister Goss---W50: I won chair soccer (Aug 3, 2020)

Hello everybodddddy!

It has been another full and wonderful week AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S AUGUST. That's crazy!!!! Wowwy wowwy wow!! Because this week's been so crazy, I'm going to break it up by day for this email! :)

Monday: pday! We played chair soccer as a zone and you'll never believe this, I know, but I actually won. Almost twice. But the second time I let the other sister win. ;) My Jr. High soccer skills are comin' back my friends - watch out! Haha..

Tuesday: we looked at the rest of the week and realized we had zero time to make our quality post due the next Monday, so we filmed it today! It's a classic, so make sure to go take a look at Disciples of Jesus Christ in Corona. ;) "son, you should kill the fat....               Cow."

Wednesday: we had housing inspections in the morning, several meetings, and service opportunities! We met with Megan (Salt Lake social media rep) for an hour to plan our multi-zone training for tomorrow, had our typical social media meeting that night, and went to United Way for service. It was actually the lady's birthday at United Way and her co-workers threw a surprise party for her! They bought us hotdogs too and we listened to Disney music and had a little party. How cute is that?! :)

Thursday: multi-zone conference!! It was SO GOOD. The north half of the mission met via Zoom and we had 5 or so trainings, 3 musical numbers, and announcements. Sister Copling and I got to give another training and it went great. :) I felt the Spirit so strongly and was especially drawn to the talk President Watson shared with us. He talked about Zion's Camp from a devotional Elder Bednar gave and I HIGHLY recommend you give it a listen or read!! It's relatively short but incredibly powerful. <3


Friday: I had exchanges with Sister Griffith! It was so fun and kind of sad because she goes home next transfer (next week). So this was her last exchange, and we had a blast. Sister Griffith is the last sister that saw me my very first day in the field, back when we were assigned our trainers. So she's the last tie I have to my original set of missionary friends! Crazy stuff. I finally got my first official California burrito with her and it was super good. ;) A Cali burrito is a normal burrito with steak fries and steak inside of it. So if you're a burrito fan, it's a must-try kind of experience. :) 

Saturday: I had exchanges AGAIN with Sister Horton! She is one of the sisters we live with and is reassigned from an Argentina mission. She was only there for three weeks, so she's still in training here (even though she just hit 6 months). We had a great day, especially during service in the morning with our RS event! The stake RS did a drive-through, masks-on, drop-off service and we mostly just guided traffic. A sweet YSA-age girl was there named Christina who isn't a member so we exchanged numbers and told her we'd text her about future service opportunities! ;) Hip hip hooray! Also it was a great reminder how when 1) you're an awkward missionary in person to begin with and 2) you spend 5 months not talking to people in person = fill in the blank here. ;) Hahahaha it was a rough start at first... 😂 Lol

Sunday: we were blessed to have the sacrament as usual with the Franks, studied, had our mission devotional (Zoom), met with the YSA ward (Zoom), had another mission meeting with our families (Zoom), and led zone accountability/goal setting that night (in person blessed day!!)! It was a great Sabbath!! Our friend from Africa couldn't make it to church because of the time difference, so we sent him a session of General Conference and he watched that instead. :))

So that's my week in a nutshell! I'm really starting to see how the mission is helping me use all my talents and energy to the work: everything from trainings, exchanges, tech-work, goal setting, etc. You know you've done well if you are exhausted at the end of the week. ;) I hope this week has been as fulfilling for you as it was for me! I love this gospel and I LOVE being a missionary!! Love y'all; keep on keepin' on!

Love, Sister Mary Goss