Sister Goss---W57: In-person church!! (Sep 21, 2020)

 I found out a cool fact today! Every English-speaking sister's 13 month mark falls on a transfer pday. As mine does today! :O Woowoo!

It's been a great last week of the transfer! I'm staying here in Murrieta with Sister Weston, which is awesome! Besides our zone leaders doubling out, only 5 other missionaries are leaving in our zone. Our zone isn't changing too much and I'm very happy about it; Murrieta is great! <3 :)

This week was very typical (which means it was incredible)! We served at the bishop's storehouse, Western Eagle, taught several lessons, had many home visits, attended meetings, etc. A highlight of my week was yesterday because for the first time since March, I got to meet with many members of the church and have sacrament as a ward outside!! The sisters we live with invited us to their ward's sacrament meeting because our ward doesn't start for another week. It was SO AWESOME to be there with the saints. Even though we all wore masks, sat in lawn chairs, were six feet apart, and didn't know anyone, the Spirit was there. I felt so much peace. :)

Facebook work is booming! If you haven't liked the missionary Facebook page in your area, please do! Salt Lake City is consistently checking in with us to see how it's going and what we can do better. I am SO PROUD of the Facebook pages here in our mission. Most missions don't have 18 Facebook pages, and most of their pages don't have thousands of followers. But the California Riverside Mission is doing awesome!! So far, we've had 2.2 million views, 20k followers, adn 234k engagements on our posts. WOOHOO!! Facebook missionary work is real and effective! :))

That'll be it for today! I'm STOKED for this next transfer; it's going to be so so so fun!! Love you all lots and I hope you have a wonderful week! :))

Love, Sister Goss

Scripture I loved this week: "And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of men, to declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them. And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; and also holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming" (Mosiah 3:13, 15). 

1) When the sisters' car was dead 

2) All the sisters learning what transfers would bring

3) My face when I found out nothing was changing for me (silently shocked and relieved hahaha!!) 😂

Elder Goss---W:54 Bye Elder Doman Hello Elder Lopez!! (Sep 15, 2020)

 Today was transfers. And Elder Doman se fue a Ramona! (he went to Ramona [a different area in San Diego]). Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand... aqui viene el elder Lopez. He's a bit quiet, but espero que todo sea genial. 

We were able to make contact with Perla again, and give her a blessing in her home. It was great. Their whole family is apparently interested in learning about "all the great Mormons," so there's some great opportunities there. However, the husband has the hardest spanish dialect I have ever encountered. Normally I understand a conversation through context clues. But I got nothing from this guy. It was wack. 

Ivan has gone on vacation, so we haven't been able to visit with him. But we did have a great service project where we made a bunch of fliers to help teach people how to use Zoom. There are a lot of members in the ward that don't join the meetings or lessons because they don't know how to use zoom. And so, we got all of the youth together (5 kids) and we ran different routes to drop off these fliers. So hopefully, there will be a better turnout for Come Follow Me, Sunday Meetings, etc. 

Here are a few pics. Enjoy!

Sister Goss---W56: Fires and silverfish (Sep 14, 2020)

 Hello friends! :) Question: do you know what a silverfish looks like? Because besides the minecraft version, I didn't until this week. But anyway, I'll get to that.

It's been a great week!! I say that almost every week, but it's true. ;) It's hard not to have a great week when you're doing the Lord's work. The other sisters were going to lend some elders their car for a last-minute baptism, but when they went out to swap, their car was completely dead. So we lent the elders our car instead and spent the next couple hours calling our mission vehicle coordinator and roadside service to come jump the sisters' car. It was super weird; the sisters had triple-checked they locked it last time they drove, but all the doors were unlocked except for the driver's seat. There was a strange buzzing noise and nothing was working. We thought it was possible someone broke in, but nothing was stolen. Hmm. Still a mystery.

Sister Weston and I also witnessed a pretty scary thing coming home from a home visit! We were driving up over a hill and saw TONS of gray smoke. Super black smoke. As we went over the bend, we saw this huge house in flames. No fire trucks were there yet, but the house was engulfed. We went to this park right above the house where you could watch the fire and there was pretty much no one there. Within 10 minutes over 15 fire trucks/police cars (and an accompanying crowd) showed up and started putting out the fire. We heard loud explosions and it started raining a little ash. We only stayed for 15-20 minutes before we left, but it was chaotic leaving. The park parking lot went from 1 car to 5 too many and the police woman started coordinating traffic. She asked us to hold the other cars back until she got the main road cleared, so it was another couple minutes before we could actually leave. It was crazy. I hope everyone was safe. :/

Oh guess what. On Saturday some members fed us salmon (I'm talking a massive fillet as big as my hand each) and as I started eating it, I quickly became a little concerned. It was super mushy and pink. The further I got into it, the more undercooked it got. Sister Weston's was fine, but mine wasn't cooked at all. I ate about 5 inches of it before I couldn't bring myself to eat the other 3. I asked for a bag so I could take it to go haha. :P GROSS. I hope I don't die anytime soon because that was a lot of undercooked fish that was the kind of fish that should definitely be cooked. :{ Woohoo!

Back to the silverfish, we found one in our apartment and named him Scot with one t. :) He was a great pet haha! Besides that random note, our week has been wonderfully full of lessons/homevisits/finding time. Sarah is doing absolutely amazing! We had an incredible lesson with her this past week and I am so excited to meet with her more. I just love being a missionary. 

Hope your upcoming week is a fantastic one!! Love you all so so much!! :)

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) Zone conference!!!

2) The house fire. Yikes 

Elder Goss---W:53 ZOOMBA (Sep 8, 2020)

Yeah, you heard that right. Today, we did a bit of ZOOMBA (I can't write that word without feeling like I have to capitalize everything). It was crazy!!! Elder Doman did not adequately prepare me for what it was. 

For anyone who doesn't know what ZOOMBA is, did you ever watch The Best Two Years? It's like Elder Vanpelt when he does his goofy exercises in the morning, except for there was practically the entire zone in the gym, and there was an actual instructor who would dance/work out and you'd just do your best to copy. So, imagine you're playing Simon Says, except for you can never get 'out' and you're eternally bouncing in place. Absolute madness. 

Anyhow, Ivan has been finding a lot of odd jobs, so he's been too tired to have English lessons. We were able to talk a little bit about the Plan of Salvation, specifically the afterlife, and he enjoyed it. I don't know if he was touched or just thought it was interesting, but I enjoyed it. 

We have one more week of the transfer. And if all the 'rumors' are true, I'll likely have a new companion. Stay tuned!

Elder Goss

Sister Goss---W55: Moving in the HEAT (Sep 7, 2020)

What's up everyone!!! How's your week been?? Have you been staying busy? Having fun? Studying? Staying cool?

I certainly have been doing all those things (except staying cool) this past week. It has been HOT. Like super super super HOT. You walk outside and you can literally feel your skin burning. I'm not kidding. Hahaha it's been an adventure! Apparently we're hitting record heat waves here for SoCal, which makes sense. The other day, when our car said 122 degrees, we tried frying an egg on the asphalt and it didn't work. ?? Hmmm. Well, if the egg didn't get fried, at least we did!

We also moved this week! AGAIN. Man, I'm so tempted to live out of my suitcase (I'm not, don't worry) because I've moved so much!! The first half of my mission I moved once to Riverside. The second half of my mission I moved 5 times: Lake Elsinore, switch apartments in Lake Elsinore, Corona, Murrieta, switch apartments in Murrieta. ;) Woohoo! But the new apartment we moved into is literally the biggest apartment I've ever seen in my life. It's HUGE! We're obviously a 4-man (which I love), and there's still room for more people. We could even fit 8 here if we really wanted to. No joke. In fact, we planned it out so that our entire zone could live here if needed! Haha it's super nice. At the same time, it's really taught me this important lesson: expensive things don't equal happiness. I am just as happy here as I was in any other apartment, including the more dingy one in Riverside. You could give me the nicest apartment in the mission or you could give me the smallest and I can be just as happy in either one. 

This week we had MLC (mission leadership council), more social media meetings and training, and lots of lessons/member visits! Yay!! We're teaching some really wonderful people, especially Sarah and Marina. They are both very interested in learning more and starting their "spiritual journey" to God. It's so fun to teach them and to invite the Spirit into our meetings and into their life. Keep them in your prayers! :) Oh also MIRACLE: this woman named Ann in Lake Elsinore was baptized this weekend! I never got to teach her, but I was actually the missionary that called her for the first time. It was a wrong number but before I could apologize she asked more about ourselves and our church and we set up a time to teach her. I left Lake Elsinore a couple days later and she just got baptized on Saturday. I'm SO HAPPY for her and for my wonderful companion/friends that have taught her since!!

That's it for my week; looking forward to the next one! It's going to be great! I love and miss you all so much. Keep on keepin' on!! :))

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) secret service from the lovely sisters 

2) okay okay back story: we're in a social media council meeting and President was talking about page merges and how it might be impacted by future transfer stuff. He kept trying to half-explain it and finally just said "you know what?", got up, turned the camera around, and showed us the transfer board with what's going to happen. Hahaha believe me: that's a real treat!! I've got some other nice screenshots of some shocked faces. ;)

3) there she be. 122.

 

Elder Goss--W:52 Sonecones and English (Sep 1, 2020)

 This week we were able to get back in constant contact with Ivan, and we've begun meeting with him in person. He's so great! And his family is too. He's learning English really fast. Tonight, we're going to talk a little about the Gospel. Knowing Ivan, it's going to be great, if not fantastic. 

We had another Snowcone service, and there were so many cars that came by! It was great. We even might have actually find someone to teach; we're still looking into that. And unfortunately, we didn't have a second snowball fight.

Elder Doman and I have a lot of deep conversations (which sometimes gets exhausting every night but whatever), and we've talked a bit about correction. In Come Follow Me, Nephi (of 3rd Nephi) talks to an audience, and essentially rebukes them for their sins. Naturally, they got offended. They didn't like it. They felt attacked. 

Does this sometimes happens to us? Do we get mad and defensive when someone tries to correct us? Sometimes the delivery of correction is harsh, or unfair. But does that make it any less true? 

Even if we think the messenger is being a jerk, it is our duty to respond positively and happily. Responding negatively to correction is natural. That's our knee-jerk response. It's also a bit immature. 

So I encourage everyone to watch themselves. Notice when you start to get offended or angry. And search for a bit of humility. You'll leave happier, and your prosecutor will leave satisfied, and no relationship is damaged. No matter HOW you're corrected, your response is yours to control. 

See you next week!

Sister Goss---W54: Wedding reception whaaat (Aug 31, 2020)

 Hey y'all!! What a fun week! :) It totally FLEW by; I feel like pday was only the day before yesterday or something. You know the drill: time flies when you're having fun!! ;)

Not gonna lie, this week had more awkward moments in one week than I've had in a long time. It's been a pretty awkwardly fantastic time. We had a home visit with this cute newlywed couple only a week after their wedding and it was pretty awkward. Plus they weren't technically in our ward anymore. BUT they were super sweet and actually fit in perfectly with someone we're trying to have fellowship with! Wow! God works in mysterious ways! ;) Also Sister Weston hit a Home Depot bucket head-on while we were going 55 mph the other day. I thought she would go around it, but she said there were cars on both sides of us and she couldn't move so... Bam. That was fun. Luckily it just got stuck in the front and we dragged it a good hundred feet before pulling over, pulling it out, and continuing on our way. Oh and that night, we were on a missionary zoom meeting while we were driving to the church building and Sister Weston thought we were on mute. She said as we pulled in (without needing GoogleMaps) "I made it all by myself!!" and the meeting got super quiet. Hahaha! Oh fun times with Sister Weston... :)

OH and guess where yours truly got to go?? *cue in email title* :O Back in Corona, I saw on Facebook that one of our friends (he was a missionary in our ward a couple years ago) was having his reception in Temecula at the end of August. I thought, "wouldn't that be funny if I got transferred down there? hahaha." Well... ;) I asked President Watson and explained the scenario and he said "absolutely! Thanks for checking!" So Sister Weston (who worked with him in the MTC) and I went to his wedding reception and it was SO FUNNY! A missionary?? At a wedding reception?! Besides getting some pretty funny looks, it was SUPER fun and so great to see them again!! Our bishop in the YSA ward is best friends with their family so he was there too. It's a small world, y'all. And how many missionaries can say they got permission to go to their friend's wedding reception on their mission? Hahaha! It was awesome!! (Also if you ever see missionaries at a wedding reception go say hi. Believe me. They feel awkward.) ;)

We had interviews with our mission president this week! Woohoo! His son Chris talked to us about Star Wars while we waited. I learned a lot about Star Wars characters I had no idea about. Thanks Chris! :) We had more training from SLC about social media work too! Every other week now we meet with Church HQ and missions from Alaska-California and talk about social media practices and trainings. It's awesome stuff. This is all definitely guided by the Lord's hand. This is His work! :) We started teaching this girl our age named Sarah and she is so excited to learn more! :) She told her neighbor who's a member and they invited us over on the spot. It was such a miracle!! I'm so excited for her! 

Love you all lots! I know that God is aware of you and He is patient with your struggles and mistakes. :) It's okay. Have a wonderful week!! :))

Love, Sister Mary Goss

1) Jeremy and Anna Duvall!! CONGRATS

2) Selfies at the wedding reception...

3) Donuts with the district <3