October 23, 2017: First E-Mail from Nic from Washington

First E-Mail from Nic from Washington:

"First off I want to start off by saying this area that I'm in, is apparently where the show "cops" originally started so that should tell you something. I'm in the straight ghetto, but like my trainer Elder M said, "Gangsters love Jesus" I actually have two trainers, Elders M and B. I also have Elder S who was in my district in the MTC.

We have a car, so that's nice to have, especially with all this rain. When we first got here, we were met by President and Sister Leishman and they're very nice, they took us back to a church where we met our trainers and we instantly went out and started knockin doors. We knock A LOT in this mission, according to our trainers it's the most effective way of finding people. Some dude our first night screamed at us to never come to his house saying "y'all are called Mormon because you eat more men" and I didn't think cannibalism was a part of our church, but this man proved me wrong lol. On Sat, our trainers dropped Elder S and I off to do a "9 to 9" aka we were knocking from 9 am to 9 pm. We had a small break to eat sandwiches we made. Our first house that day we got bible bashed pretty hard and we had no idea what to say since we are so new lol.

I have one story to tell. Elder B and I were knocking in a trailer park and one man opened his door, he's a little scary lookin because he has a tumor in his head and he's missing some of his skull, but when we told him we were Mormon missionaries he said "No way I was just talking about you guys earlier today! I'm Mormon too!" Turns out he was born in Utah so he just considers himself Mormon and he hasn't been baptized and knows nothing about the church because he moved from Utah when he was 2. We were having a great discussion and then his friend walks in swearing and holding alcohol so we were like "oh no there goes our lesson." This guy looks at us and says "Hey Elders!" I was so lost, turns out that he was baptized in 2014 and is just very inactive but he ended up helping a lot with the lesson. William and his daughter Jayda seem very eager to be baptized, but they missed church Sunday so that made me kinda sad. That just shows that the Lord really does prepare people and William seems excited to be baptized, it's sad though because he told us he doesn't have much time because of his health issues. All in all I love it here!"

October 17, 2017

A random stranger and kind soul texted us this picture from the Salt Lake City airport. Their plane leaves for Seattle in 20 minutes. See you in one year, 11 months and 1 week, dear Elder Goldsberry. And always look both ways when riding your bike.

October 10, 2017

The girl on the picture is one of Nic's instructors at the MTC and coincidentally a former Italy Rome former missionary who served with Rob. Small world! Here's week number 2. Apparently Sunday is not a day of rest at the MTC when you're a zone leader. Who knew? 😉 He's still loving it, except not the food so much. It's always about the food with this kid. He is his mother's son. He can email back today Tuesday all day if you e-mail him.

"Every week here at the MTC feels so long yet so short, I think about the last P day and it felt like two days ago. Then again, I think about all my classes and all the people I talk to and I think I've been here at least a month, it's weird.

We had our first normal Sunday a couple days ago and I gotta say it's definitely not a day of rest, especially as a Zone Leader. First off, we have to plan the entire Sunday which consists of the whole sacrament meeting and both priesthood meetings, so since we have so many elders in our zone, we have to plan who's going where and who's teaching those classes. First thing Sunday morning we have a meeting with just the zone leaders, branch presidency, and sister training leaders, and our branch president (President Judd), is super intimidating and never hesitates to correct us if we use and word besides "Elder or Sister." Especially it being fast Sunday, things went so much slower. They had us doing a bunch of busy work because we didn't have a mission conference as we usually do so it made things hard. There was no better feeling than sitting down to dinner that Sunday evening.

I gave two blessings this week and they were the first blessings I have ever personally given. It's insane how I didn't even think of what to say but the spirit just opened my mouth for me.

We got a new district last Wednesday and we're already getting along great, I actually have handshakes with most of them at this point. I have handshakes with all the Elders, including my teachers.

All in all I'm still loving it here, besides the food that's a whole other story.

Love y'all (got that from Elder Benton)

-Elder Goldsberry"

First e-mail: October 4, 2017

Here's Nic's first e-mail. He's a Zone Leader along with his companion, who apparently is a "good lookin dude" He still fell asleep during Conference, but it wasn't as comfortable, and it's the conference he's paid the most attention to. Hey, at least he's honest, lol. His e-mail address is nicolas.goldsberry@myldsmail.net for whoever wants to write to him, he'd love to hear from you. Here's his first e-mail:

Hello everyone! So I don't have the list of emails, so mom if you could forward it that'd be great. I do have an iPad just for the MTC and I am allowed to receive emails on any day but can't respond until p day. First off I'm loving it here. From day one I was able to be my goofy self and everyone caught on to it quickly. My companion, Elder Benton, is a good lookin dude from South Carolina and I knew as soon as I heard his southern drawl that this was gonna be awesome!

GET THIS, on only the second day we met our branch presidency
and had interviews and soon after they announced that Elder Benton and I would be ZONE LEADERS. We both looked at each other in fright, it's a lot of responsibility and it's weird to be leaders of people who have been in the MTC longer than us. It was cool because the branch presidency told us they feel such a strong spirit when they spoke with us. We get to carry a cell phone but it only calls the front desk. I really like everyone in my district, it hasn't even been a week and I already feel like family with them.

There's Elder Mickelson who is a quiet farm boy from Wyoming but as I often do, I broke him so he's not so quiet anymore we had our moments and now he's just a talkative dude it's great.

When we first got to our residency we had a crazy mood
shift it went from an amazing spirit to essentially a frat house. We
had to all meet up and if we talked when others were talking we'd get shot with a nerf gun (I got one of the nerf guns along with Elder Laughlin aka Elder Dad, it's a tradition to name an Elder Dad. We're known as the Law and Orders). We had to stand and announce where we are going and from, if we had a girlfriend and if we were emailing multiple girls we have to give one email to Elder Dad.

Conference was awesome and the best part was when the congregation would sing there was such a huge power of the spirit. I still fell asleep in conference just not as comfortably but it was the conference I paid most attention to. I absolutely loved priesthood session. My teachers are way cool guys and they're helping me out a lot! I've already created handshakes with both of them and a lot of guys in my zone. We all share snacks and it was great to have the snacks from mama to share everyone loved it. I've had Krispy Kreme quite a few times so that keeps me sane.

We had a testimony meeting for our departing missionaries in our zone just in the residency and its funny we just stacked the night stands in the living room to make a pulpit. It was a really strong meeting and it's great to see these guys who were literally just racing the halls in their garments say such powerful things. My favorite quote was from one of the old zone leaders named Elder Carpenter he said, "Make the adversary fear your
name." That's so strong to me and it's exactly what we're doing as
missionaries.

The food isn't great and it's kinda been messing with
all of us but it's all good at least we're not going hungry. We had
Chick-fil-A sandwiches last night and it was weird to have food from the outside! I've learned so much and it's been awesome to study so hard. I did my crying baby voice for my district and they love it but they probably won't for long haha. Well that's all for now, you will get a personal email from me if you email me first :) I love all of you!

-Zone Leader/Elder Goldsberry