Week 12 Lake Placid

This week was once again the most productive weeks of my mission but it was also one of the hardest. It's like I was faced with several trials and set backs but then God through in a whole bunch of miracles to replace them. It's cool how he works like that. The weather was great this week. It's starting to feel like summer again here...well Florida summer because it always feels like summer here. The humidity was pretty bad this week. I hunk I'm actually starting to like I though. Well I've got a lot of good news for this week and bad news. But before I get into that, I'll tell a funny story.

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)

Week 11 Lake Placid

Another week has yet again flown by! The time change made this one seem a little bit slower. It was still probably one of the most productive weeks of my mission. We taught 30 lessons this week which is quite a bit for this area. It's cool to see the progress of the area and the people here. The weather has finally cooled down a bit too. At the 1st of the week is was about 92 everyday, but the past 3 days it's cooled down to the 70's which makes this place feel like paradise.

This week we were able to set 2 more baptism dates. One with Tanya who is Troy and Sadasia's mom (a couple of the kids who are getting baptized on April 9th). Tanya is super prepared! She understands everything and has been reading every day. We had to set hers for April 16 because we wouldn't be able to teach all of the lessons in time for April 9th with the rest of the family. But she said she is fine with that. The other baptism date is with someone we found named Teilia. It's funny how it works because we were looking for a guy named Charlie. Turns out he doesn't live there anymore so we started talking to this guy named CJ. He is really interested too but unfortunately he is moving. Anyways, we came back to teach CJ and his sister Teilia. We taught her and now she wants to be baptized! We set her date for May 14 because she has a few things to take care of before the baptism. It was awesome because we had a member with us when we set the date, and she was in tears because the spirit was so strong! It was what we call a spiritual slam dunk. We also committed one other person to be baptized but haven't set a date yet. Her name is Dreama. We have seen her several times because she lives with her brother who is a less active we work with, but we haven't ever talked with her. She is Jehovah Witness so she seemed a little hesitant at first until we started to talk about the Book of Mormon. That's about the time that she said she was going to do whatever possible to get baptized. She said she wants to change her life completely. So to say the least, this week had a lot of miracles. Right now we have 8 people on date for baptism:  Tasha, Quay, TJ, Ashanti, Troy and Sadasia on April 9th, then on April 16th we have Tanya, then on May 14th is Teilia. We hope to set a date with Dreama soon too.

I also had a couple of funny experiences this week. On Friday I was on exchanges in Sebring and we had a dinner appointment with this old couple who are in their 90's. Earlier that day we had some super hot pizza and I burnt my mouth. When we went ton the dinner, the lady had us sit down and eat some chips and salsa. My mouth was already sore and the chips we probably 10 years old and stale so they hurt to eat. She would go prepare something for dinner then come in. If we didn't eat any chips she would get mad so finally when she turned her back I grabbed most of the chips and shoved them into my bag! She didn't even notice but it made her happy to see that we ate the chips! The next day in lake placid, Elder Rowley and I had 2 dinners. We ate with a member which stuffed me. Then from there we went straight to a less actives house. They said that we were going to eat a grilled cheese sandwich so I wasn't too worried. When we got there and looked at the
table it was a HUGE philly cheese steak sandwich! Like a 5 lbs sandwich and not even joking! About that time I said a prayer asking for help. In D&C 84:88 it says that God will be on our right and on our left and that his angels will be round about us. Well I can testify that that is true because somehow I finished that beast of a sandwich!!! I thought I was going to die! When I got home I weighed myself and I had gained about 6-7 lbs that day! The best part is that we were fasting he next day so it was a good meal to start my fast on :)

So today for p-day we went to a place called Gatorama. It's a tourist attraction loaded with alligators and crocodiles. It was pretty sweet because we got to hold a couple gators. They had hundreds of them all over. The biggest was a 14½ foot alligator named Goliath. We also got to watch them feed the alligators and crocodiles. I'll attach some pictures so y'all can see them.

This past week we have been focusing a lot on he atonement. I've never paid too much attention to Easter before because I mostly thought it was just all about Easter eggs and candy. Really it's about that great and last sacrifice that made it possible for us to return to heaven. How grateful should we be!? Those few days were the most important days in all of our eternities. Without it we would all be lose. There's a new video that the church just came out with that y'all can watch at FollowHim.mormon.org called hallelujah. It talks about how we will see our family again because of Christ. Really that's why I'm on a mission. To share that message to the world. To show how grateful we should be because of our savior. To show how true the Book of Mormon is and how true this church is. People out here have a hard time recognizing the truth of this church. It helps me to be humble and recognize how much I took for granted.

Love you all! Happy Easter!

Elder Goff

A member took is on a ride in his fancy old car

Week 10 Lake Placid

This week was pretty normal. Nothing too crazy happened. It flew by just like normal too. The end of the transfer is already coming up in a couple weeks and it seems like it just started. It's starting to heat up here. It was in the low 90's this week. I'm really dreading summer though. It gets way hot here.

So we had a cool experience this week. We were heading to an appointment going down the highway when we looked over and saw a dead bobcat on the side of the road! After the lesson we stopped by to see how old it was and unfortunately it had been dead for a while so it didn't smell good. We just left it there. About 5 minutes after that on our way to our next appointment we were going through a neighborhood and out of the corner of my eye I saw something running towards the front of our car so I hit the brakes thinking that it was somebody's dog. It was another bobcat! If I knew it was a bobcat I might have been tempted to actually hit it. They must have a lot of them around here or maybe we are just lucky. They also really do have panthers around her too. At least that’s what everybody says. I haven't seen one of those yet. They have a lot of hogs and also black bears that get into everyone's garbage so nobody likes them.

On Thursday we had zone conference which was a 2 hour drive away and we had to be there at 7 am. We ended up getting up around 4 to get there. And then yesterday we had daylight savings so right now I'm feeling like I'm sleep walking or something. Anyways, zone conference was really good. A lot of it was focused on how we can better study. We study in the mornings until 10 am. Elder Holland said that between 6:30 and 10:00 am, we are God's investigators. That is the time that we have to improve our knowledge and testimony. I value scripture study so much more now that I am on a mission. The scriptures are so valuable and I see way too many people taking them for granted. There were hundreds of lives devoted to this single book. How lucky are we? At zone conference they also talked about the importance of setting goals. Goals help us reach our full potential. In the life before this who were we? Were we captains, leaders, or rulers? Why does that change? I always love zone conferences. I especially loved this one because we got to swap out our old run down car for a new one! They gave us a 2016 Ford Fusion that only had a few hundred miles on it so it's super nice.

Yesterday was a great day. We had 5 people come with us to church. Tasha was able to come too! She is suppose to get baptized on the 9^th of April but work has been getting in the way so she hasn't been able to come. And now she finally was able to! Her sister Tanya (she is also going to get baptized in April sometime. We just haven't set a date for that yet. We plan to do that tonight.) also came! They brought a few of their kids. They all loved it, especially Tanya and Tasha. I love being able to see people change their lives and come closer to Christ. It's such a great blessing that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Elder Rowley and I taught the Sunday school class with all of the investigators. We taught the Plan of Salvation and one of them asked, "what happens to all of the people who die without knowing Christ and weren't baptized?" It lead perfectly into talking about the temple with them. They want to go to the temple really bad now. Both Tasha's and Tanya's families are on fire! It's great.

Later yesterday we went to a members home where I cooked him some pork chops. They were so good! I mixed up some BBQ sauce with home grown honey, and a few seasonings and spread it all over them. I don't mean to brag but it tasted like heaven! Also yesterday as you guys might know, the church came out with their new Easter initiative which is a video about the atonement. It's such a great video and I hope you all share it with your friends. It's at FollowHim.mormon.org also you can use #hallelujah for the social media sights.

Something that's been on my mind this week is how we are faced with opposition a lot. There must be opposition in all things as it says in 2 Nephi 2:11. Without the bad, how would we know what good is? That's why Adam and Eve had to partake of the fruit. And that's why Christ had to come to earth. Christ is here for when the opposition seems to be too tough. That's when he picks us up. Opposition is just an opportunity to grow.

Well I love you all. Remember to share that video.

Elder Goff

One of the cars that's headed to a race

that's in our area (Sebring Raceway)

The mascara are coming in a

few weeks to it.

 

Week 9 Lake Placid

Another Week come and gone. It's honestly getting a little out of hand with how fast time is flying by. I lose track of days so easy. Sometimes I will be talking to someone about something thinking that it happened yesterday when it was really over a week ago! I heard that about half way through your mission the months begin to feel like weeks, weeks feel like days, and days feel like hours. I'm not even half way through my mission and it already feels like that!! We had another good week this week. It was really eventful.

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

Week 8 Lake Placid

 

I survived yet again another tornado Warning! Apparently the only warning in the whole country from the storm happened to land right on lake placid and Sebring. It made me a little nervous but The Lord always provides. People say that the tornados here don't even get that bad anyways. It did rain a lot this week and cooled off to about 65. It feels like paradise here. So this week was a pretty slow week compared to the past weeks. I guess if you are going to really enjoy the good weeks then you have to have a few bad weeks also... I wish it didn't work that way though. We did however get a lot of people to church again. The family that we have been working (Waltons) with came for the 3rd week in a row. We also had a few less actives come who usually don't attend. That was a definite plus of the week!

Yesterday I had a really unique and awkward opportunity. We had a nonmember lady invite us over for dinner. She is Iranian but has lived in the US for a really long time. She's also been several other places throughout the world. Anyways, they are of the Bahi faith and I guess it's a holiday for them she had a lot of friends from her religion over to celebrate it. They were all trying to convert us to their religion and it was just super awkward. I guess they don't know the purpose of missionaries. The unique part of it was that I got to eat Persian/Arabic food. It was really, really weird! Some of the stuff was okay but the rest was... Well you get the point. There was this one thing that was a stuffed cabbage leaf with this yellow and white puss looking stuff mixed with rice rolled up inside of it. When I poked it with a fork it popped like a nasty zit! (It probably tasted like one too) uhh I ate it anyways though and somehow managed to keep a straight face! Miracles are real!!! She was a super nice lady though with a kind heart.

This week was Brother Shorts birthday who we are really close too. It was also the week of his wife's funeral so we did something really special for him. He is a huge BYU fan so my hero (my mom) sent me out a BYU hat that we signed and gave to him. We also took our pictures of us wearing it and signed it then gave that to him too. The funniest part about the whole thing is that elder Rowley hates BYU because he's a Boise state fan but he put on a BYU shirt and hat for the picture and then signed it. I guess that goes to show how good of a friend brother short is haha.

On Friday we went to a funeral for brother shorts wife and we got to ride in a sock car. It's an 88 cougar. Everytime we would pass by someone on the road, they would turn their heads and stare at it. The cool part about being in lake placid is that it's a retirement town and everyone has a lot of money. We see brand new corvettes on a daily basis. Yesterday we passed by a Ferrari sitting at a stop light. We also see a lot of Porsches all over. There is a race track here also so all of the cars that go to race in the Daytona 500 come over here for a race also. The race is suppose to be held the 2nd week of March so we plan to go over and watch some practice races on a pday sometime. People also race Porsches, Corvettes, Ferraris, and even bugattis I hear. I haven't seen any bugattis yet though haha. We have a member who owns a brand new corvette that he uses to race. It's pretty sweet.

Yesterday in church one of the speakers talked about how we are all on a hike back to our father in heaven. The top of the mountain is the place we want to end up. Before we hike we plan out a route just as God has given us a set plan on how we can make it back to live with him. We pick which mountain we want to climbs then start our journey. It's not always easy but when you get to the top of the highest mountain, it is all worth it. God wants us to pick the highest mountain and shoot for the top. As we continue to progress through his plan of happiness especially in this life, we will receive the blessings that come as we reach our destination. I can't wait for that day when I get to the top of the mountain and get to have that feeling of accomplishment. I will be with my Heavenly Father in his kingdom with my family. That's going to be a great day. The best part about my job is that I get to share this plan with others. I get to help guide them up the mountain so they can receive those blessings for themselves.


Keep working hard and keep on climbing up that mountain! Love you all

Elder Goff

Brother Short

Lunch with some members

 

Week 7 Lake Placid

The weeks just keep getting better and better here in the promised land. It is so amazing to see the progression of both this area and also the people in it. I love being a part of a change. This week we were able to see a lot of miracles.

Our investigators are doing great...well for the most part. We had to drop a few people this week and unfortunately, one of them was Nate who was scheduled for baptism next month. He moved back in with his wife and kids which is great, but he said that he doesn't feel like he should meet with us anymore. It's really, really tough because I know that he felt the spirit so strong. He knew how great this gospel is but the adversary influenced him  in the wrong direction. This is probably the hardest part about missionary work. :/ On the bright side, we committed 2 more people to a baptism date! - Troy and Sadasia. They are our investigator Tasha's nieces. That whole family is on fire! We now have Tasha (mom), her 3 kids (Quay, Ashanti, and TJ), and her 2 nieces (Troy and Sadasia) committed to be baptized April 9th! I love those guys. They are such a tight family. Quay has improved the most. She is marking up her scriptures, studying everything we ask her to and even more, and she loves church.  Yesterday we had Quay, Ashanti, and TJ come to church. They all loved it again.

So I had a pretty funny experience this week. We were stopping by Tasha and the family when we saw a bunch of little kids out playing some ball on a small basket. I talked Elder Rowley into playing with me so we played for a few minutes. Not sure how but I got the nickname of "Slim Jesus" haha. Probably because every time these little kids would go up for a shot, I would swat them!…and my name tag says Jesus Christ on it. We played a little 3 on 4 with elder Rowley, me, and one of the kids against 4 other little kids. I showed no mercy on them because they kept trash talking so I had to show them how it was done. 

After the game they wouldn't let us leave because they loved us so much. Little kids like that are the best.


Something they talked about in church this week was how we are building our mansions above.  Every time we make an eternal step, we add a room into our house. When we were baptized, we added a room on. When we received the Holy Ghost we added a room on. Every time we receive a calling we add a room on. This helped me see the perspective that it really isn't about this life. Too often are we focused on what task lies in front of us rather than on how great the journey along the way is. If I have learned one thing in my mission, it is to not take for granted all the privileges we have of serving our God in this church. D&C 98:18 - "Let not your hearts be troubled; for in my Father’s house are many mansions, and I have prepared a place for you; and where my Father and I am, there ye shall be also."

That's about it for this week. Love you all

Elder Goff

Golden Corral - Yum!

Member's are the best in Florida!!!

Week 6 Lake Placid

What a week! It was so fun that I blinked and now it's gone! It's amazing how fast time goes by when you having fun. So along the weather being sunny and 75 all week we taught 24 lessons which is a high for here in a long time. Most of them were with less actives but we still met with a lot of investigators. We also set 4 more baptism dates with the family we have been teaching. They are super cool people. The only hard part is that Tasha's job requires that she works every Sunday for this month and most of next. We set the date for April. I have faith that it will work. 2 of the 3 kids came to church yesterday also. The time that you feel the spirit the most on your mission is when you are in lessons. So at least we got to feel the spirit a lot this week.

Our investigators are Nate - baptism March 26 -- Family (Tasha, Uquoysia (U-quay-z-a) "Coy", Trevian, and Ashantay - Baptism April 9 -- Troy and Sadasia (Tasha's nieces who we hope to set a date with for baptism tonight -- Ann investigator who says she wants to come to church next week before we talk about baptism -- Carl.

This week the youth had a service project where they cut down a couple trees then had a Bon fire with them. We had the privilege to help out with this. It was so much fun! All the youth here had the opportunity to learn how to use a chainsaw (not sure if that was a good idea or not because they were all in shorts and didn't have gloves) but luckily nobody got hurt. The trees were in the neighbors to a members yard. The nonmember neighbor came out and loved us! We had a great gospel discussion with him and hopefully we get to meet with him sometime. There was also a less active youth and a nonmember youth that came to it. The fire was right on the lake with the sunset in the background. It really doesn't get too much better than that. It reminds me of all the great youth activities we had back home. Anyways so that's the fun highlight of the week.

An embarrassing highlight of the week happened yesterday after church. Elder Rowley and I we driving to check up on some people and decided to try a shortcut. Well this shortcut is not a paved road...and we have a little Ford Fusion car. If you don't know, Florida is all sand. Any rocks you see here are hauled in from somewhere else. Driving in the sand is a lot like driving in the snow, and cars and snow don't get along well. Anyways so we were going down this Sandy road and we came to this point in the road where you could tell is was SUPER soft sand. I had a split second to make a decision. I either had to stop and risk losing my momentum which would make me get stuck, or try to get off to the side of the road in the grass. I went with the second option and tried to make it to the edge of the sandy road. I got to the side but couldn't quite make it onto the grass. I hurried and tried to go back and rock the car a bit to get it moving but it was no use. I was stuck! The front bumper was high centered and if we tried to drive out anymore we would just dig the wheels deeper. We got out of the car just as these 2 girls pulled up on a 4 wheeler. They laughed at us because they saw a shiny car and 2 kids in nice shirt and ties. They called us "Yankee's" because we don't know what country life is like. I wanted to try to explain my background but I figured that I got myself into this mess so I would just take the consequences. Long story short, it took a jeep and a 4 wheeler to pull us out. I guess that whats you get when you put a couple of country boys in a car with a dirt road haha.

In church they have been focusing a lot on the Plan of Salvation. It's amazing how such a simple plan can bring us such great happiness. The funny part is that people simple just don't want to do the simple things because they think it's too hard. It reminds me of something President Harris said from one of our youth stake activities. He asked us if it is hard to live the gospel. Most of us nodded our heads yes. He answered and said that its not because if you look at those who don't live the gospel they have such a harder life than us. Sometimes it may seem that we have trials that we don't understand, but they are for our benefit. Mosiah 23:21 says, "21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith." One thing that I have been doing this week is thanking God for the trials I have been given. Once we take a step back and see the full picture, everything makes so much more sense. Well I love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Goff



Notice the Street Name?

 

Week 5 Lake Placid

Well another week come and gone already. So we got some news on transfers and both Elder Rowley and I are both staying which I kind of figured because we are both new to the area. So something  different about this coming transfer is that it will be 6 weeks instead of 7. They are now having missionaries stay an extra week in the MTC so it effects us a bit. I'm excited about it because I love this area. The weather has been way nice too. It's been cold....well cold for here. I must be adapting to Florida because I think it's freezing here and it's only 45 degrees! There's the humidity too but still. It's still not as cold as Utah but it feels cold to me.

So we really got things moving this week. Probably the highlight of the week was with our investigator Nate. We have been working with him for a couple of weeks. We saw him Friday and asked him how he has been. He said that ever since we have been visiting him, things just fall into place. (Go figure) something cool that we promised him on his first visit was that his family situation, which has been a struggle, would get worked out. Now 2 weeks later, everything is going great! He got a raise in his job and his family is doing awesome. Anyways, so we were in a lesson with him and started talking about the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was so strong! We all had teary eyes throughout the whole lesson. At the end we invited him to be baptized on March 26 and without hesitation he said yes. We asked if he would like to pray about it with us right now and he said no because he already knows that he needs to. He has changed so much! About 2 years ago he wasn't doing things he should and was in a bad position in his life. Now he has turned it completely around and has a wife and kids and now wants to get baptized. This is the great part of a mission: because of a decision I made several years ago to serve a mission, people's lives and eternal salvation are changed. Such a great feeling!

Some other things that happened this week. Wednesday we went to a steak house called the watering hole. I had an amazing steak and finally got to eat some gator! It's really good. It actually does taste a lot like chicken too. Anyways so I stuffed myself there for lunch, then about 2 hours later we went with another member to a Mexican restaurant where I stuffed myself again! To top the lunch off I had some fried ice cream. After those 2 huge meals we went to a less actives house. When we sat down he placed a huge piece of pie in front of me and said, "you better eat that Goff!" So i did. I'm not sure how, but I did. I literally thought I was going to die! When I got home I weighed myself and I gained 5 lbs that day! Something else crazy that happened this week was when Elder Rowley and I were in our apartment planning. We were in our living room when all of a sudden we heard this crash then it sounded like a bomb went off! It lit up all of our windows with a big flash! My first reaction was to dive on the floor!  After some investigation we think it was a big firework that went off just outside our apartment. It scared the crap out of me but luckily nobody was trying to kill us haha and we are alive.

Overall it was a good week though. We found a family that we plan to set a baptism date with tonight so I will let you know how that goes next week. So something that's been on my mind a lot this week is to have hope. There is a scripture in Either 12:4 that talks about having hope and faith. When we have hope, we become optimistic and have an even greater desire to leave all we have an follow our savior. I hope you all strive to have a perfect brightness of hope!

Love you all, Elder Goff

Florida sunsets are the best. I took these this week

Never would have thought I would see fields like this in Florida.
I thought the whole state was just trees

 

Week 4 Lake Placid

Man time flies! It seems like I just got here. I'm pretty sure both Elder Rowley and I are going to stay here in Lake Placid this coming transfer. The weather here this week it been great. it rained a little bit but it was warm. It's been in the high 60's to low 70's.

So something funny that happened this week. We were checking up on an investigator and this guy came to the door with the pitbull between his legs. He went back inside to get his wife and accidentally left the door cracked open. The pitbull saw it and jumped out at me. My first reaction was to kick. So I kick our investigators dog in the face! Hahaha The only thing I could think to say was sorry to the family . Luckily the dog didn't try to do that anymore. Turns out he was just trying to run away and not attack me. They really didn't care much though so it's all good. So this family, the Walton's, is awesome though.

Things have been changing a lot here. The main people we are now working with is Nate, bubba, and the family whose pitbull I kicked in the face. (They are a really cool family and didn't really even care that I kicked their dog so it's all good). Unfortunately we didn't have the opportunity to meet with Nate this week who is a really awesome investigator who wants to get baptized. We plan to set a date with him this coming week. But we did find a new investigator named Bubba this week. He is the boyfriend to a less active daughter in our ward. So it's a win-win situation. Hopefully we can reactivate the daughter and baptize the boyfriend. We also found another family of investigators. Ironically enough it is the family with the pitbull that I kicked. We came back and were having our first lesson with them which at the time was the restoration. Halfway through the lesson they brought up baptism and ask how they can be baptized. The mom had been baptized but only by sprinkling water on her head. We covered that pretty well by explaining how Jesus Christ came straight way out of the water of the river Jordan. We are super excited about them and plan to talk more about baptism and maybe a date this coming week.

On Thursday I had the opportunity to do something that I haven't done my whole mission. Elder Rowley and I went on splits with the couple members in our branch. Because there's so many Spanish-speaking people here Elder Rowley went with a Spanish-speaking member to visit all the Spanish numbers and I went with member to visit all the English members. In 2 hours we taught 4 lessons! To say the least we've been seeing a lot of improvement in our area finally. We saw a lot of tender mercies this week also. On Saturday we were teaching one of our investigators and this random guy pulled up, stopped, got out of the car, walked over to us, and handed us $20. He said go get you guys some lunch. Turns out this guy is a fishing guide also. He gave us his card and said we could come back and visit next week. So hopefully we can teach them a little bit about the gospel.

So I was reading through a talk from last conference by Elder Schwitzer. He talked about what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ. He said, "True disciples of Christ are not looking to make excuses for the doctrine when it doesn’t fit the world’s current concepts." A lot of times people just do things to fit in rather than do things because it's the right thing. I remember something that my dad would always tell me. He would say, "what is right will always be right no matter who isnt doing it and what is wrong will always be wrong no matter who is doing it."

Well I love you all! Hope you had a great week! (It sounds like it's been snowing pretty good there in Utah. I still can't decide if I'm jealous or not because the weather here is so nice yet I miss the snow.)

Elder Goff

 

We have a clown school in our town here in lake placid 



Happy Birthday Elder Rowley

Week 3 Lake Placid

This week was one of the fasted of my life! I swear it was just barely Monday and now here it is again. It got pretty cold this week. Saturday night it got about 32 degrees. I was in heaven but everybody else was freaking out. It is so much better in the winter here. We have a screened in patio in our backyard so Thursday night Elder Rowley and I took our beds out there and slept outside! I still can't figure out why we did it but it was fun. That night it got about 45 degrees was all.

We have met many people this week. One of which is named Nate. He is super prepared to hear the gospel. We went to his house looking for someone else and found him. He has had a rough past life but has a strong desire to change. He said that he had been praying that day to God asking Him what he should do because he feels like there is so much more and then that night we showed up (crazy how that works right?). Elder Rowley and I had a lesson with him last night. We taught the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. After baring our testimony to him, we were all in tears. He said that he wants to be baptized so hopefully we can set a date for that next time we go over. I feel like God is finally starting to bless Elder Rowley and I for all the work we've been doing. We taught a lot more lessons this week than we expected. I also met a cool member who is a less active we are working with, who said he would take us hunting hogs for free when I come back to visit. He has a bunch of property and shoots probably 3 hogs a week because they are such a pain.

We also had another crazy experience this week. We have another less active we have been working with. She said that she feels like there is something bothering her a lot. She can't focus on anything and is in a really bad situation financially. What she described to us was that she remembered a few months ago something entered into her body and since then she's been really depressed and gets all these negative thoughts. I'll be honest, at first I thought she was crazy. She asked me to give her a blessing and in the blessing I commanded whatever was in her to leave. As I said that it was like everything changed and was 10X more peaceful. After the blessing this lady was speechless. She acted like a whole new person! It's crazy how real and powerful Satan can be. It's also even more crazy how real and powerful the priesthood is! So I guess you could say that I cast out a devil this week.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to watch a worldwide missionary training. They talked a lot about the importance of members, teaching repentance, and the importance of the Holy Ghost when teaching. Elder Bednar talked about how we have to be a vessel in which the spirit can work through. It is amazing to see this. A lot of times I get out of a lesson and look back wondering how I ever came up with the things I said. It's pretty cool. Elder Bednar said, "Be a worthy and obedient conduit in which the Holy Ghost can be a teacher." This is the key to missionary work. Whitewashing has been tough. The key to building up this Lake Placid branch is to be more obedient and diligent than ever. It is so cool and sometimes even frustrating how the Lord waits to bless us until we learn to simply obey.

This week was a big step in this area. Elder Rowley and I are finally starting to see some success after 3 weeks of coming into this area. We have become great friends with several of the members and are now
teaching a whole list of investigators!

I love you all! Elder Goff



Our District: elders Davis, Rowley, Amos, Olson, Harrison, and me

Week 2 Lake Placid

I can't believe another week has already come and gone! Time flies. It  was a great week! I had a lot of spiritual experiences. On Wednesday  we had a member of the seventy, Elder Maynes, come and give a zone conference. He gave a great talk last General Conference. Anyways, it  was awesome! He talked about how we need to "have more faith than  fear." Looking back on my life I see a lot of times where I let my  fear overtake my faith. When we put our faith first we see miracles.  Elder Maynes also talked a lot on goals. There's a quote from an old  philosopher that says, "The greater danger for most of us lies not in  setting our goals to high and missing our mark, but in setting our  goals too low and lacking the work."

Yesterday on Sunday I also had the opportunity to watch an area  conference which was broadcasted to our chapel. They talked a lot on  what we need to do to endure to e end. Elder Clayton from the 70 said,  "Don't be tape measure Mormons (those who measure how wide the  straight and narrow path to see how far out they can go). Rather we  need to walk in the center of the path." Between these 2 conferences I  learned a lot!

Haha I had a really funny experience this week also. Elder Rowley and  I were doing some service for an elder lady. I was pulling vines out  of her trees. There was one vine that was stuck in there pretty good,  so I turned my head to prevent stuff from getting in my eyes and
yanked on it. It finally came but it wasn't alone. Something hairy nailed me right in my gut and knocked the wind out of me! When I  looked down to see what it was I saw a raccoon! A stupid raccoon  jumped out of the tree at me and knocked the wind out of me! Before I  could get my breath back and react, he was gone into the bushes! Haha  it was hilarious!

Well the weather this week was alright up until Sunday morning. At  about 3 in the morning a storm that had a bunch of tornado warnings  rolled in (I slept through most of it) but it was a freak wind/rain  storm. At 5:30am The wind started to pick up. Elder Rowley woke me up
and we looked outside to see branches flying everywhere and down  poring rain. It was the worst storm I have ever been in! The wind was  clocked to be over 70 mph! We called a member to make sure there  wasn't any tornados headed our way. Thankfully there wasn't. It was pretty cool though haha. I hear that the tornadoes here are pretty  week anyways so there's not a lot to worry about.

The best part of this week was the people we met. We finally got area book Wednesday which is the records the past missionaries have kept.  We have been working blind for about 1 1/2 weeks. So when we got this  we were able to pick up a few investigators. We met 3 different  families that are pretty interested. One's named John. He almost played football for the Washington Huskies but decided that family was more important. He is so prepared! Can't wait to see how it goes this week with him. I finally feel like we are starting to make some progress with this whitewashing.

Well I love you all! Something that I have been studying a lot of this week is hope. If we don't have hope then what do we have? I hope you all continue to hope for the best, then act on it and achieve the best.

Elder Goff


Christ Murals they found