Finally on a Bike!

     We had a good week this week. We have been finding a lot of new investigators, and this week we were able to teach the most lessons that we've taught since I've been here, which was good. And it payed off, because we had 4 investigators at sacrament meeting. David Ackley came, we're still just waiting for him to be able to quit smoking so he can be baptized, Jeff Peak was there, then Chris and Jessica Ruiz came to church as well. They've really been getting back on track. It's taken a long time, but I'm glad they are finally getting there. We decided to go visit Lela Ruiz, Chris's mom (who is a less active member) and had a really good lesson with her. She said she is going to be at church every week from now on for all 3 hours and I think she's going to do it. She was there this week, and that really helped to get Chris there. So we're relying on her a lot to help Chris and Jessica get to church and get back on track towards getting baptized. They have a lot of changes that need to be made still, but they are heading in the right direction now. We've had a lot of success working with Part-Member families as well. It was funny at church we were going over our progress record as well as just talking to various members about how the work is going and there were so many times that people were just like "you visited with who? How did you get in?" Apparently just the fact that we were able to get in the door with several of these families we've started working with is HUGE progress and a lot more then has ever happened in the past. So we've really been blessed a lot this week, the work here is going great. One thing that I think is going to help the work too is that we are going to be in a car share starting this week. That means that we won't have the car full time any more. Geographically we have a really small area, the smallest I've ever served in. Honestly the only reason we have a car is the fact that we are Zone Leaders. Zone Leaders always have cars full time because of all the traveling we do. But we were on exchanges with Centerton on Friday and I was talking to Elder Schofield, who I'm really good friends with, and decided that they really need a car. Their area is a lot bigger then ours, the work there is on fire, and they are on bikes full time. So I asked him if having a car would help them out at all, of course he said yes, and so I just called President right there and asked how he would feel if we shared the car. Of course he was fine with it, since it would help the work out and it was us volunteering to give up our car (he always likes that) and so starting immediately we only have the car every other week. It's kind of funny because I haven't ever been in a bike area at all the entire 23 and a half months I've been out, and now 2 out of my last 3 weeks will be on a bike. I'm excited to do more biking. :) And honestly I think it will be good for our area too, we'll get to talk to a lot more people and find a lot of people to teach. Things are going great though. I love you all!

10/18 E-Mail: Finding, Miracles, and Cheese

     Hey everybody! We had a really great week this week. There were a lot of ups and downs and disappointments too, but over all it was a great week. We have been focusing a lot on finding lately and really been blessed with a lot of success. We had quite a few new investigators this week. I have to tell you about one miracle in particular. On Thursday we went to go see an investigator named Doug. He wasn't home for our appointment at 2, so we decided to work in his area a little bit. While we were tracting the first door we knocked on the man let us right in and we were able to teach him, he was awesome, then outside we talked to another really great lady named Janet who told us that though she was raised Catholic she really had no idea what that even means and wanted to just learn more about Christ and His teachings. She also was interested in being baptized. We set up an appointment for the next day (which went really well, she's awesome) then had to leave for our next appointment. Well around 5 we felt prompted to go back to Doug's and see if he was home. When we got there he was sitting outside with his friend Justin. He invited us in, then right then a phone call came and he stepped out to answer it, leaving us inside with his friend for about the next 15 minutes. As we started to talk to Justin we found out that he had actually had a good friend in high school (Justin is now 20) that he had gone to church with a few times and had gone to seminary with every morning for several months. He really enjoyed the church and the people there and the way he felt there, more then any other church he had ever been too, but he had a lot of doctrinal concerns and questions, and he didn't feel like anyone there took the time to answer his questions. So he stopped going. He told us what questions he had, just little things he had heard and things he didn't understand, and we were able to answer them and then transition into teaching the Restoration. He was just eating it all up! Literally he was on the edge of his seat the whole time, very excited about what he was hearing. Near the end of the lesson, before we even had the chance to ask, he asked us, "Can you guys take down my address and everything so you can come back and teach me more?" Of course, we were happy to! So we got his information then asked when we could come back. "Can you come tomorrow?"
     We told him that unfortunately we were extremely busy the next day (we really did have appointments all day) so then immediately he asked "well what about the next day?" We set up an appointment for noon on Saturday. On Saturday we went over there with BJ, a member of the singles branch, for our appointment and Justin couldn't wait to tell us what had just happened. He said that when he got up in the morning he had completely forgotten about our appointment, and a friend of his called at about 11:30 asking if he wanted to come over and play XBOX with him. So he said he got on his bike and started heading over there, and he didn't get half way down the street before he had the biggest shiver down his spine. He said he's never felt anything like it, he just knew that for some reason he wasn't supposed to go to his friends. Then all of a sudden it hit him - our appointment! So he called his friend and told him he couldn't come, and we had an awesome lesson. Unfortunately he had to work Sunday so he couldn't come to church, but we called him on Sunday and he said that he talked to his boss and asked for Sundays off so he could go to church, and his boss said from now on he'll do his best to not work him on Sundays again! So he's doing great. He'll be baptized within the next month. That will probably be my last person I get to see baptized before I go home... Things are going great though. I love you all! Have a great week!
     P.S. Your comment, Dad, about melted cheese in your letter a couple of weeks ago was way funny. If you could see me now... I'll eat anything! Actually I would say that my two absolute favorite foods now are Enchiladas and Lasagna. But I love all food. I can't believe I was missing out on so much all my life! I am trying to eat healthy though (hard to do when every night we're at the mercy of whatever the members feed us) but for breakfast and lunch I'm trying really hard to be healthy and exercising a lot too. Lots of ab stuff and push ups and stuff (getting ready for military) and on my morning runs I'm up to 4 miles. I would be doing more but we don't really have time. But I've gotten rid of most of the weight that I had gained on my mission, so I look great, and honestly I feel better (health wise) then I have at any other time.

Not Ready to Go Home

Hey! How's everybody's week going? We had a pretty good week, of course Elder Bustamante was transferred and so now I'm with Elder Kowalk again! He's grown a lot, I'm really excited to serve with him for the next 6 weeks. So Dardanian was baptized this week, and it went really well. David is getting married on Saturday, so the first big obstacle is finally out of the way, now he just needs to quit smoking and he'll be all ready for baptism. We set a baptismal date this week with Chris, our one investigator we have in the singles branch (pretty much all of our work is in Bentonville 1st ward, though we cover both wards) but then he didn't show up for church yesterday so we'll have to figure out what's going on there. He's awesome though. This week was crazy because Monday and Tuesday we were in Tulsa for ZLC and then Thursday was transfers, so we were very busy. Unfortunately lost a lot of proselyting time, but that's life in leadership... Elder Kowalk and I have had a lot of success already though both in the lessons we've had and especially with tracting, we've found some really great people the last few days. Again, I'm very excited for this transfer. It's kind of scary though, I've got so much I would like to accomplish here and so many plans for this area and what we're going to do, but I'm starting to realize how little time I have to accomplish those goals! I don't feel like I have enough time left to do the things I need to do. It's a very sad feeling... I'll just have to tell President I'm not going home next month. :) Sorry everyone.

With Elder Kowalk

Baptism of Dardanian "Pwordes" Alex Hadley on 9 Oct 2010 with parents,
sister Destiny and brother Dan ("Newie")

10/4 e-mail: General Conference / Last Transfer

Following is Elder Goodale's e-mail from October 4th; sorry I'm so late in posting again!

We had a great week. General Conference was amazing! As usual. I've never been disappointed by a General Conference yet... scary though that that was my last one (as a full-time missionary). My last transfer starts next week! So transfer calls came and Elder Bustamante is leaving, which we expected but it's still sad. He's a really great missionary. The cool thing though is that my new companion is Elder Kowalk! If you remember I served with him for one transfer way back in Miami. It's crazy we are getting to serve together again, I'm excited. It'll be fun because last time we served together I had been out 6 months and he had been out 3 months, so we were both brand new and had no idea what we were doing. We just went out and worked! So it'll be fun serving together again, this time as Zone Leaders, at the end of our missions, with all the extra knowledge we've gained. I haven't seen him since then, so it'll be cool to see how much he's grown. It's going to be a great transfer too, we've got a lot going on. Pwordes is going to be baptized on Saturday, and this week we set another baptismal date for a man named Doug for November 13. We've only taught him once, but he's really cool. He recently moved up here from Mississippi. David (investigator) and one of the church members are going to be married on October 16. Then this one family came to a session of conference, they are doing awesome! They are the part member family I told you about. We were able to get Austin to cub scouts on Tuesday, and he's planning on going back every week. My main goal before I leave is to help that whole family to be baptized. I'm excited for them. What else happened this week... We went and did service Friday morning at a place called Helping Hands, we're going to be going there every week now. It'll be good. The only service we've been able to find thus far has been at the Library, and this Helping Hands thing will be a lot better. How has the weather been there? It's been COLD here! Yesterday it didn't get above 60 all day, and this morning when we left to go work out at 5:45, we had to scrape the ice off our windows! It's way to early to have to use an ice scraper! Especially in Arkansas! I think it's supposed to warm up a little this week though. I was surprised to have lows in the 30s this early in the season. So for exercise here there is a member family, the Fife's, who have their own personal gym right on their property that is really nice. And it's a totally private place. So 3 days a week we get up at 5:45 and go work out there, then 3 days a week we go running, I've been doing a minimum of 3 miles, sometimes more. I feel great, the best I've felt on my mission. I love you all! Have a great week!

9/27 e-mail: Beautiful NW Arkansas

I'm sorry I'm two weeks late in posting e-mails from Elder Goodale. This one here is from his e-mail of September 29th. In the first paragraph, he's extolling the virtues of NW Arkansas, telling me I should look for a job there. Maybe I should!

Northwest Arkansas is a really great place. It's cheap, it's beautiful (I'm sure you've never dated a girl like that...), and the church is really, really strong here. The city of Centerton, which borders Bentonville, is called "little Provo."

The work is going awesome here too, at least in Bentonville 1st Ward. We've got a bunch of great investigators right now that I talked about in my email to mom. And it was cool we went on splits with the bishopric on Wednesday, I went with the Bishop and Elder Bustamante went with one of his counselors. Bishop Chandler and I went to go visit those 2 part member families, and we had really great lessons with both of them. Bishop was way excited because those are two families that aren't on the records, that we found through our own efforts, that are going to lead to several baptisms. He was very excited to go to both of them and then when we had such awesome, spiritual lessons with both of them it was obvious that the Bishop really trusts Elder Bustamante and I now. That's not to brag or anything, It's just awesome that we really have such strong trust and support now from him. That will help alot, and increase on the already great things that are going on here. I'm very excited.

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This next one is from an e-mail he sent to Michelle that day, as well:

Things are going well here, we have another baptism set for October 9, his name is Portes. He's Pompeiian (spelling?), basically he's from the Micronesian Islands. Remember way back in Miami I was saying there were a lot of Chuukese people? Well Pompeii is another island very close by. Both are part of Micronesia. He's pretty cool. We've got a bunch of others that are close too. There is a part member family that I may have mentioned to you before. There are a couple of other part member families, as well, that are also making a lot of progress. I anticipate Hannah, who is 16, and Nathan, who is 12, both having baptismal dates this week and we're hoping also that another family (mom Andrea, 10 year old Alicia and 9 year old Austin) will have dates soon as well. I would like to see a total of 10 baptisms in this area, which is very very possible with those 7 I just talked about plus the baptism we had last week. That would make 8 that I am very confident will happen, and we have a very large teaching pool right now, and still finding more, with several others that very well could be baptized before I leave in November. I'm really excited for the work that is going on right now.