So yesterday after church we went to this investigators house and he fed us some good southern hospitality bbq and smoked ribs and pulled pork. Of course I stuffed myself there because southern bbq is a delicacy. Then about 30 minutes later we had another dinner with a Mexican member in our ward. Once again I'm practicing my food eating skills. Not sure how I manage to eat so much haha. Anyways we get there and she has a big smile on her face and you can just tell that something is up. When we sit down for dinner it looked like soup. I made the horrible mistake of asking what it was. It was Menuda. It's a mean dish they make out of cow stomach. It still had the little hairy things on the inside of the stomach. In all honest the taste was bearable but e texture was horrible!! I am already stuffed and now I am faced with the challenge of eating this cow stomach! Bleh... I took a few bites and then I thought I might try to just swallow it without chewing to get it over with. Well that made me gag and about throw up! Thankfully someone was watching out for me and I didn't. Fortunately she knew that we wouldn't like it and brought out some bread to eat instead. I tried but I just couldn't finish it.
Alright so I have some good news and some bad news:
Good news: Quay, TJ, and Ashanti get there baptism interview tomorrow night and will be baptized on the 9th still. They are super excited about it and are way ready!
Bad News: We found out this week that Tasha is not married to her 'husband' so that means she can't get baptized. We talked to her about it and she said that she isn't sure if she wants to get married to him or not yet because she can see herself changing a lot and she doesn't see him doing the same. We'll see what we can do to fix that and get him involved.
Good News: This week was the most productive week of my mission. We taught 32 lessons and got 5 people to church today (Tasha and Tanya, and their family besides Sadasia and Ashanti). We also had a cool experience with our investigator Dreama. She used to be Jehovah witness and we were over there teaching her Saturday morning which is when the Jehovah witnesses go out proselyting. So we were talking with her on her front porch and I looked around and saw 3 separate Jehovah witnesses just standing there staring at us. It was super awkward so we decided to go sit down inside. When we got inside she said that she had to do something before we got any further. She walked into her kitchen and grabbed her tea and gave it to us because she said that she was done not living the word of wisdom!! She also said that she believes the Book of Mormon 100% and that she doesn't believe the Jehovah witnesses anymore. It was a really neat experience.
Bad/Good News: I'm being transferred......... That means that I'm going to miss the 6 baptisms we have planned for April. I'm going to Clermont to be with Elder Breeden and I leave tomorrow morning. Saturday we got a call and Elder Rowley and I were told that we were both staying. We were way pumped because we would both be here for the baptism. We texted everyone the good news. Well later that night at about 10 we get a call from the assistants saying that they made some changes and that I am actually being transferred. They said that Clermont has a lot of potential but that it's not living up to that potential right now and they need me to go and help them out up there. I guess I'm up for the challenge. I'm excited to be transferred but I don't want to leave because the people here are some of the best in the world! There's a scripture in Mosiah 23:21 that says,
"Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith." Sometimes things are meant to be challenging but there is always a purpose for that. I'll admit, I'm having a hard time being transferred out of this area because it's grown so much. When I first got here, they had about 25 people attending church on a regular basis and no baptisms in over a year. Now we have averaged in the past few weeks about 50 people at sacrament and hit our highest yesterday with about 65 people! We also have 7 people on date for baptism. There was a purpose for me coming here and there's a purpose for me leaving. But hey, like I said, I'm up for the challenge.
Good News: It's Easter! Happy Easter yesterday everybody. It's been awesome to be able to look at Easter from a different perspective while on a mission. The true meaning of Easter is not to just celebrate the sacrifice of Christ, it is to celebrate how Christ rose again. Because he lives again, we will all live again! What a gift!
Love y'all!
Elder Goff
Sister Roscheck gave us
these hats (that's sister Roscheck in he middle)
