4th of July was a lot of fun. We played some dunk ball on a couple 8 foot hoops in the afternoon and then in the evening we went and had dinner with our Bishop and his family. We got to watch them set off some fireworks too so that was fun. After we went down to water front lake park in downtown Clermont where basically the entire city was gathered together! We had to walk about a mile just because there was no parking! I brought like 50 pass a long cards and handed out almost all of them. We also found a basketball court with a bunch of kids playing ball so I talked all the missionaries into playing them in a game. They all looked like some kids from the hood so I was pretty excited. At first they were laughing at us because we wanted to play them. Then they figured out we were serious. People started circling around the court to watch some kids in white shirts and ties take on a bunch of hood kids. The best part is that we kicked their butts! It was pretty awesome! Right after the game we got them to circle around is so we could tell them what we really do as missionaries. We picked up the kid I was guarding as a potential investigator and handed out a whole bunch of cards to the people who were watching.
I have some sad news this week also. Kasonn dropped us :( He got offended because we couldn't pick him up to drive him to his aunts house because as missionaries we can't drive nonmembers around. It was super hard for me to hear! We were like best friends and then all at once he dropped us. He said he talked to his pastor that he had in New Jersey so he probably got antied. It honestly broke my heart. During church yesterday we were talking about finding the lost sheep. The way I felt when Kasonn got "lost" must be how our Heavenly Father feels about his children when they get lost except even greater. I can't imagine the love he has for us.
Some good news this week is that the Milton's daughter who had been spending some time up in Georgia came home and now she is on baptism date with them. They are doing super good. We are just having a hard time getting them to come to church. I really hope that changes.
We also picked up a former investigator named Phil this week. Phil has been around for a very very long time and knows more about the gospel than most members do. He just won't get baptized for some reason. Well we changed that this week. We brought a member with us who knows him pretty well and told him why he needed to be baptized and what would happen if he didn't. It was a pretty hard throw down lesson but is was definitely what he needed. The spirit was there testifying as well. At the end of the lesson, we got Phil to commit to being baptized in September. We didn't set an exact date because of his work schedule and his wife is having a baby in August so September was the only option.
A couple weeks ago we were looking around for formers and saw that there was a lady named Sister Porter. We knocked on the door and nobody answered so we left a card for sister Porter. After knocking a door around it someone said she passed away so we went back and crossed out sister on the card and put brother Porter not knowing if there even was such a person. Well there was and it turns out he is actually a member. He called Us up the next day and now he has come to church 3 weeks in a row! We had a pretty serious lesson with him. He has set a goal to go to the temple and be sealed to his wife! It has been a super spiritual experience.
Well if you can't tell, I have been doing super good! I hope you all have a great week this week! Oh yeah, I forgot to add, we are getting a new apartment this week and also a member of the ward is giving us a bench press so I'm pretty excited.
Love ya!
Elder Goff
