Week 24 Daytona Beach

Hope everyone had a good week. We had a pretty good one here in the Promised Land. The weather has been perfect as always. I guess it's why they call it the sunshine state. 

 

The highlight of the week is once again Hunter. He was confirmed Sunday and he received the priesthood right after. He is going to baptize his younger brother in a couple weeks. It's super cool to see his testimony grow so much. Here in Daytona we cover a family Ward but we also cover a Young Single Adult branch here. In the YSA there isn't very many people so sacrament meeting is always a struggle. Usually they have to call a few people up to bare their testimonies. Well they called Hunter up. He told us in the past that he would never do it because he hates talking in front of people. He bore such a powerful testimony. I know this church is true!

 

So transfers are tomorrow. We got the transfer document Saturday afternoon and it said that Elder Hawkins and I were both being transferred to Deland 1st Ward but were going to stay companions. Probably one of my favorite parts about transfers is making the transfer calls to the rest of the zone. We get some pretty funny responses. Sunday afternoon right after we said goodbye to everyone here what do you know, we get a call from President Clark saying to unpack our bags because we are staying once again here in Daytona! I guess he changed his mind. Elder Hawkins is such a good guy and I'm super excited to stay here with him. This is going to be 7 1/2 months of Daytona Beach for me.

 

Well that's about it for the week. I hope you all have a great week!

 

Elder Goff

 

Exchanges with Elder Roper

Drove by Speedway during Daytona 500





Hunter

Unexpected Visitors, Burgess Family from Clermont!



Ice Skating with one of the Districts - PDay





Week 23 Daytona Beach

This week was a pretty solid week. I got to tour our zone a little bit. In Tuesday and went on exchanges with my former companion. We had a sweet experience. Elder White and I had about 30 minutes before our next appointment and decided to do some finding. We both had an impression to knock on a specific house. We did so and they let us right in! Turns out this Lady's brother and Father are members. Her Father had actually just passed away. Her heart was softened and we were able to deliver a Book of Mormon with some powerful testimonies. What an amazing experience! The spirit is the best. 

Tuesday night I then went on exchanges to a different area with Elder Garcia. We exchanged back Thursday morning then Friday night I went on another exchange. We had another super spiritual experience. It was Elder Hardman and I. We were trying to find a Less Active member. All we had was a building number to an apartment complex. There was about 12 apartments to choose from. We decided we would just knock the whole thing. Well what do you know, the very first door we knock a little boy comes to the door and his face lights up. He yelled, "Mom it's the missionaries!" It was the Less Active family we were looking for. Again we were led by he Spirit. 

Unfortunately Hunter wasn't able to make it to church yesterday so he will be confirmed in church next week. We plan to take him teaching with us right after that.

I have been studying a lot is week about sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming pure in heart. "8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8 I feel like one of the main purposes of serving a mission is this, to Sanctify our hearts through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the reception of the Holy Ghost, and our faith and repentance. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

Elder Garcia

Elder Hardman

Week 22 Daytona Beach

It was a pretty good week this week as always. Florida has been living up to its name as the sunshine state. It's been sunny and 75 all week. So I've got some good news and some bad news from this week.

Last Monday I lost one of my best friends out here. Grandpa Vic passed away. He had been sick for quite a while and now has moved on. I spoke at his memorial service on Thursday about the Plan of Salvation. We are so lucky to have a knowledge of what will happen to us after this life! Alma40:12 "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow." So that's the bad news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Good news, Hunter was baptized!! He is such a stud! I have seen him change so much from the time we found him to now. He was struggling a bit with life when we found him. Now he says he gets good grades and is a whole lot happier. We had the coolest lesson with him Thursday night. We were going to teach him about missionary work. We met at Wendy's to have dinner with him and we're planning to teach him there but there was a creepy guy watching us so we left. As we were walking out this guy followed us and asked us about our beliefs. Hunter jumped right up and bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the church. We got to a park after that and sat down for a lesson and about half way through the lesson, a random lady walked up to us and started asking us questions. I reeled out a card with our phone number on it and was going to give it to her when hunter reached out and asked if he could give it to her. I was like, "Of Course!" He walked up and gave it to her then taught and testified of the Book of Mormon. He is a stud! We've been talking to him about serving a mission even.

That's about the highlights of the week. We set a baptism date with a lady named Kim this week. We also have Hannah and Brandie on date so keep them in your prayers. Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

Week 21 Daytona Beach

This week is going to be short because I don't have a lot of time today. It's been a read good week with ups and downs. The biggest miracle of the week is that Hunter passed his interview! He's going to be baptized next Sunday after church. He was already talking a bit this week about serving a mission.

I had a super cool experience this week. So we had someone call and ask us to go to the hospital to give an old lady a blessing. We got there and she was in NICU. The nurses told us that she didn't know what was going on at all and that she might say some crazy stuff to us. We put a gown, gloves and a face mask on so there was no way she could tell who we were. The nurse was right...at first at least. As we laid our hands on her head she smiled and closed her eyes. After he blessing she kept smiling and with a tear rolling down her face she said, "You guys are the missionaries. Thank you."  There was no way she could tell that we were missionaries but she just knew. The power of the priesthood is real.

I hope you all have a great week! The gospel is true and if you are debating in whether or not you should serve a mission, do it. The experiences you have and the person you become is priceless.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff