Hello family!

Happy almost Halloween!
And happy birthday to Kayla today! And Lily later this week!
This week has been a bit rough for me with appointments falling through and people not being home to contact! And it has been pretty cold this week! It's warming up now, but I decided that I like the cold weather better when I am not in a skirt 24/7! Oh well, life goes on :)

The highlight for the week is that we have a new investigator! Her name is M-----, and she has a drinking problem. The Spanish-speaking sisters met her and she wants to turn her life around so we are teaching her now! M----- was given a word of wisdom pamphlet to read and she just thought it was the most enlightening thing she has ever read. When we went by to visit her she has underlined the parts she liked in the pamphlet and had questions. So we went through Doctrine and Covenants 89 on the word of wisdom, what we should and should not take into our bodies. Also when we met with her she had been sober for a week! I think she is ready to learn and accept the gospel. She is also excited to have us as her "new friends" and I think that helping her get to know people in the ward with be a great benefit to her.

 P-Day Hike

 Great Jump Lori! Lori with other missionaries on their hike

 Lori and her companion. Aren't they cute?

Made it to the waterfall

A struggle this week was meeting with a lady who was once a member but isn't anymore, she joined the church because she was in a small town where the population was mostly LDS. And I felt so sad for her, to see that she was not truly converted to the gospel and has now turned away. She doesn't believe that there should be only one church. Even though we talked about Ephesians 4:5 where it tells us there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." God is a God of order- which means that He only teaches one doctrine and we should all be united under His teachings. When Christ came to the earth He established ONE church, through the power and authority of God, our Heavenly Father. That is why it makes sense that there is only one church with the authority of God on the earth today, with the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that does not mean that we condemn all the other churches, no, they are filled with good people who want to come closer to Christ just as we do. They are just lacking the fullness of the gospel and the complete knowledge that God wants us to have so that we are prepared to be judged once our time on earth is finished. I know that this is true. I cannot deny it. And it breaks my heart to see people who are not open to this idea, the plan that God has for us. But, we all have our agency, we can choose what we want to believe. That is why I invite others to learn about this gospel. I cannot force it upon anyone, I can only tell them what I know and hope that they will have an open heart so that the Holy Ghost will witness to them of the truth.
Thank you for all your support and prayers for me! I love this work. I love Nevada. As crazy as the people are here :)

Have a great week everyone!
Love ya,

Sister Goodwin