On Tuesday we took a quick break to spend some time with Brother Short who just had his wife pass away. We are probably the closest people in the branch to him so we have been trying to keep his spirit up. Anyways, he took us to a cool historical place where we found a trail that we explored. It kept going on forever but we stopped a little ways into it. It was a pretty cool hike. That same night we were visiting with a less active member who we had just met. He offered to take us deep sea fishing because he owns a boat and knows where all the fish are. I wish so bad that I could go with him. :/ I guess I'll have to when I come back after my mission.
Probably the highlight of the week started Thursday night. We traveled 2 ½ hours
up to Orlando to stay the night because we had our semiannual temple session at
7 am on Friday. We stayed the night with
a few of our other missionary friends, which was a blast. Going back into
Orlando was almost like I was going back home haha. Not sure why because it's a
big nasty city but I guess after 6 months I kind of got
attached to it. Anyways, the temple was awesome! It was so great being able to
forget about all of the stress that you have as a missionary and just relax. I
love the temple. It was pretty cool because I went
with a few questions that I wanted answers to but every time I asked, the
answer I kept getting was not to worry about it and to relax because everything
will work out if it is meant to be. (Which they did) I think it's too often
that we get worried about not meeting the standards of others or not being good
enough because we don't know everything. If we just relax and put our faith in
the Lord, things
will work out. The spirit was so strong in the temple as always. It was really
refreshing.That same day at the temple on Friday, we headed back to lake placid. We had been praying a lot on how we can best help 2 of our investigators (Troy and Sadasia) stay active. They are getting baptized on the same day as their cousins (Tasha and her family). So we have been praying a lot about them and we got to the lesson that night with them and Troy and Sadasia brought Tanya, their mom! We taught her about the Restoration and now she wants to get baptized! That just solved the problem of how we would keep them active. Like I said before, when we put our trust in the Lord, it all works out. I guess the answer I got while in the temple was right. At that lesson we had a total of 11 people! Elder Rowley and I, brother short, and the 8 investigators. This investigator family is on fire! So as of right now we have 7 baptisms on April 9th!! Tanya (the mom), Troy, and Sadasia, then their cousins TJ, Quay, Ashanti, and their mom Tasha! I'm so excited for them. The only sad part is that transfers are the last week in March so most likely either elder Rowley or I will not be here for their baptism.
Church was good today but a little awkward. One of our investigators brought her friend who was 12 years old. When we were teaching class with our investigators, this 12 year old friend kept flirting with me and throughout all of church she wanted to sit by me the whole time. It was suuupppperrr awkward haha. But hey, on the bright side at least she came to church... And I don't blame her for flirting with me either ;) just kidding.
Recently I have been reading about Ammon and how he converted King Lamoni. Ammon was a nephite who went to the wicked Lamanites and began to be the Kings servant. After a while King Lamoni was impressed with Ammon and his service because Ammon had defended King Lamoni's sheep and thought God. Ammon was then able to teach and convert King Lamoni which lead to thousands of other Lamanites being converted. The whole reason that he was converted was because Ammon was willing to be an example and serve his fellow men. People really do recognize the example we set especially when we are willing to give them service. The big guys at the head of our church have came out saying that they want us to be doing more service in our community. Hopefully it ends up the same as Ammon with thousands of baptisms.
Well I hope ya'll had as good of a week as I did. Love ya,
Elder Goff
