Week 10 Clermont

This week was awesome as always. The heat and humidity got pretty bad this week. It was over 100 degrees a few times this week with humidity. Thankfully we have a car we drive around! Yesterday wasn't as bad though. It finally rained and now it won't stop raining. Apparently there is a tropical storm coming in tonight and going throughout tomorrow. Should be fun!! I've been told a few times that it's predicted to have a few hurricanes this year. Normally they don't see any storms like the one coming in tonight until later in the year. But hey I guess that means I get to do more service!

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with my old time friend Elder Satchwell. It was so cool to be back teaching with him again! We were companions in the MTC. We did a lot of good work that day too. Last week they had ran into a lady named Ruth. We went back to teach her a lesson. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had in a long time! We taught her the Restoration and her eyes just lit up because she knew it was true. We also had a perfect member there to be her friend. During the lesson she asked me if I had met her before. I said I didn't think so. She said that she felt like she knew me from somewhere. The chances of me meeting her before were very slim so I'm pretty sure we had to know each other in the life before this. After a great lesson and testifying I felt like I needed to ask her how she felt so I did. She hesitated and then just broke down in tears because she said she knew this was right and that it is what she needs to do.  We set a baptism date with her! Ruth is such a sweet lady. We were in Elder Satchwell's are so he'll take good care of her. Anyways, to say the least, Elder Satchwell is a stud and a great friend!

Another miracle we saw was NATALIE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!! Brother Burgess, a member in the ward, baptized her and I confirmed her the next day. She was so prepared and so happy. We had a lesson before the baptism and asked her what it means to get baptized. She said that it means to take upon herself the name of Christ and strive to become like him. How often do we remember the covenant we have made to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and act as he would? This baptism was one of the most spiritual I have ever been to. Now the whole family has been baptized. It started back in November when some other missionaries baptized someone named Jennifer. Jennifer's sister Jessica got baptized the week before I got to this area in March. A few weeks later we met Jessica's dad, Nelson, and baptized him. Now we have baptized Jessica's daughter Natalie. They are planning to go to the temple to do baptisms for Nelson's wife! Unfortunately they are moving to Kentucky at the end of this month :/ It sure has been an honor to help out such a great family though.

Sunday we saw the coolest thing! We were driving to go make sure a recent convert was coming to church when up ahead of us we saw this big thing crossing the road. When we got up closer to it we saw it was a big turtle. I'll attach the pictures. This thing was crazy! He looked like he was made to scare people. Of course we had to get out and take some pictures and help it across the road. After taking some pictures, he wouldn't move so I tried to push this little sucker with my foot and the crazy thing jumped up and scratched in the air with its practically 2 in claws and snapped its mouth. I've never seen anything like it before! He reminds me of Bowser off of mario cart haha. If you look real close at its eyes he almost looks like a dragon with a shell. Some other random guy stopped and said he thinks it was an alligator turtle. I thought it was just a devilish snapping turtle!

The things you see in Florida....

 
Well that's basically all for the week. It was cool because everyone in our district had a baptism this week. In fast and testimony meeting it seemed like the main focus of everyone's testimonies was the covenant of baptism. It is the biggest decision most of us have ever made and also the biggest blessing any of us have. There is a scripture in Moroni 7:41 that talks about how we have to have hope through the atonement of Jesus Christ. When all else fails, we have the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ to fall back on. Along side our baptism covenant, we can have hope no matter what situation we may be in because no matter happens we will be okay because of what our savior did for us.

I hope you all have a great week! Love ya! Elder Goff