Week 13 Orlando - Conway East

Another transfer down! Time is flying by! I can't believe that it's already almost time for the deer hunt back home! I feel like Peter, James, and John who gave up hunting deer to be hunters of men :) at least it goes something like that (fishing - hunting = same thing) haha

So there are a lot of things that changed his week! The biggest is ELDER GALE!!!!  He is so awesome! The best part is that he is a Spanish missionary which is going to be an enormous help because there are so many Puerto Ricans here who only speak Spanish! I can't tell you how many times I haven't been able to share the gospel with them because I haven't been able to speak Spanish! It's super frustrating. So I guess now I have to learn Spanish... At least enough to teach a lesson. That's going to be fun. I feel like I can already understand a basic conversation in Spanish. But my goal is to be able to have a basic  conversation in Spanish with someone by the end of this transfer. I'm pretty nervous about that. I think that Elder Gale's going to have to do most of the talking.

So other than trying to learn Spanish, our first week together was amazing! We found 5 new  investigators! I'm so excited for these people to have a desire to put Christ first in their life. I remember one talk given by Richard J. Maynes about living a Christ centered life. He talked about his experience with a potters wheel. When the clay is not completely centered on the wheel, it begins to wobble and it cannot be molded. In order for us to allow God to mold us, Christ must be at the center of our lives. I am finding every day that this is why I am on a mission, to not only center Christ in my life but to help others see how Christ must be the center of their lives.

So this week we had a cool experience. We were able to have a huge stake service project at primrose school for special needs. It was in bad shape and really needed a lot of work done. It was amazing to see the light in these special individual's eyes as they saw us fixing up their school. We really don't recognize what true happiness is until we decide to forget about ourselves and get lost in the service of our God. It was one of the highlights of my mission!

Also while doing this project I found this pineapple growing! I always thought they grew off of trees, but I guess not. It was a cool surprise. Well I love you all and hope the best!
Elder Goff

Picture is of Elder Gubler! We were on the same basketball team in 6th grade! He moved to hurricane just before high school. It's nice to see someone who knows people that I know. :)

We also got to go to the temple again this week. We went with the youth in our ward so we just stayed on the outside of the temple.

Elder Gubler

Week 12 Orlando - Conway East

Well this week was great! It's Elder Hiltons last here in the Conway Ward because he is being transferred tomorrow! It's been a few great months with him and I have learned so much. It will be nice to be done training though! Elder Hilton only has 2 transfers left so he leaves at the end of December.

So we had one of the funniest hints happen to us this week! We were checking up on a member In our ward and it was at night so she told her kid to go get undressed and she would be in to help him get ready for bed in a minute. We continued to talk to the member for about 5 more minutes when her kid came running out in the living room butt naked screaming! It was super funny haha! Our members in our ward are so great! Haha

General Conference was great! There were a lot on keeping the Sabbath day holy, families and becoming Christlike. One of my favorite talks was given by Elder Holland on Mothers. He compared the love of a mother to the love of Christ. He said that there are 2 people who are willing to bare you up, Jesus Christ and our mothers. I am so blessed to have such a great mother! She has been here for me every step of the way, and without her help, who knows where I would be. Elder Holland quoted Moroni 7:45-47 but substituted the word "charity" for "a mothers love". My mother has a love similar to the pure love of Christ.  (Yep I'm crying now. He is such an amazing son, I am so very blessed!)

I also had a cool experience while doing some service. There was a snake hanging out in the bushes that I caught! It was all black so I'm pretty sure it was a Black Mamba ;) haha jk it's a gartner snake. But that's what the picture is. Life here is great!

Another Great talk was given right after on fathers by Bradley D. Foster. He told the fathers out there to teach here children not only to hear but to understand. He said speaking to the fathers, "Don't miss out on teaching truths to your children." I'm glad that I have a dad that taught me truths and set an example for me to follow. It is because of him that I am here serving a mission. He has taught me not only to hear, but to listen also and I am so very grateful for that.

Man this Conference was intense! 3 brand new apostles! Ronald A Rasband, Gary E Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund. I loved their testimonies also.



Service Project - Fixing a Pipe with Elder Hilton

Elder Hilton, Ralph, Jason, and Me

My District

Week 11 Orlando - Conway East

Time is flying by so fast!  I can't believe that I have already been out 3 months! It's super crazy. I am loving every second of it though. This week we had a lot of success! It was bike week but crazy enough, we didn't even get rained on! Pretty great :) It is definitely starting to cool off! The morning runs are super nice! I hear that the winter here is like paradise! I can't wait for that because the summer here was probably the complete opposite of paradise haha.

So we had a great lesson in our gospel principles class. It was about how we can know if God is really there. Someone in the lesson brought up an old saying, "for those who know, no explanation is needed; for those who don't know, no explanation will suffice." We don't come to know that God is really there through an explanation. We come to know that he is there through a witness of the Holy Ghost. I have found out for myself, and, if there is one thing that I have learned on my mission, it would be that. God is really there and he watches over each and everyone of us. We just have to look for Him.

Jason is doing great! He came to church Sunday and he also brought his friend! It was great. He understands everything and is looking forward to his baptism! I am super excited for Him because he is about as good of a kid as you can find! We also have a referral that we got from a member. It is his son-in-law. We are yet to teach him any lessons but the member says that he is very interested so that will be good.

Transfers are coming up next week. I'm pretty sure that this is my last week with Elder Hilton :( He has been such a good trainer and example for me. I think that I will probably stay here in the Conway ward for at least one more transfer before I leave. Elder Hilton is ready to go though. He has been here for 6 transfers (almost 9 months)!!! He goes home at the end of December so he is old in the mission, haha.

So I found a scripture that describes my life here on the mission. It's 2 Nephi 29:3. It talks about how people are going to reject the word of God in the last days because they already have a bible. People here in the South are that exact way! Nobody wants to hear more of God's word which doesn't make any sense at all to me. But I guess that's how it is.

Well I love all you guys and hope the best!

Elder Goff




FHE with a family in our ward; played this awesome game
where you build up train tracks to win.

The object lesson of the Restoration we used to teach Von

I look like I'm sad but I'm really happy haha

Some dude's hulk Halloween costume that he is making.
We were riding past and had to take a picture.
I hope to see him on Halloween in it!

us waiting out a rainstorm in our apt

Week 10 Orlando - Conway East

Elder Hilton has been battling a cold for half the week :( but I guess that doesn't stop the work from progressing. My testimony grew so much stronger this week. The Lord gives us trials such as this to strengthen us. In Ether 12:6, it tells us that a witness does not come after a trial of your faith. I feel that this trial of my faith has given me a witness of the truthfulness of his gospel! I know without a doubt that it is true and it is for this reason that I am out here.

So besides Elder Hilton getting sick, I had a lot of cool and new experiences this week. On Tuesday, I went on an exchange with Elder Creer. He is an awesome Elder from Spanish fork Utah, but the cool part about it was that I have been out on a mission longer than he has. This was the first time that I have been the senior companion! I felt a lot of pressure, but I also was super excited! We did great!

So unfortunately Anna is not going to make her date for baptism this week. Because we had the trial of being sick, we weren't able to visit as many people as we would have liked. She also has family over so we haven't met with her for about a week. :(  I still have faith that she will get baptized someday. Jason and Von are doing great though! I look forward to seeing them progress even more! Another person that we have been working with is an in active named Melissa. She is actually our neighbor and we had a great lesson with her Saturday! We hope to get her to church this coming Sunday :)

Overall I feel like this week was a big step for me. I was able to take the lead in a lot of things and I know that I am where I am suppose to be! Thank You for all of your prayers and support! Love you all!

Elder Goff

Some food that our Tongan ward mission leader made us! The chicken and roll was good but the other stuff was...... yeah haha. Kind of weird stuff. I think it is a mixture of tuna, spinach, and some other random stuff.

Caught some pictures of lightning this week. It's so much cooler in person though!

Week 9 Orlando - Conway East

I had a great week here in the promised land of Orlando Florida! We didn't teach as many lessons as we would have liked, but we still made a lot of progress! The weather has been so nice this week! We only got rained on once while riding our bikes! The rest of the days it has been sunny. Today is super nice! It's probably 78 degrees and sunny so its going to be a good day :) 

This week I had the opportunity to attend my first zone conference. Zone conference is where 3 zones get together and have an inspired meeting. We had a lot of amazing talks, but I think that the main theme of the conference was based off of a question President Berry asked us, "Do you want to be a good missionary or an exceptional one?" This question really struck me deep. He continued by saying, "We are not here to serve a 2 year mission; we are here to become missionaries. A mission lasts 2 years; a missionary lasts a lifetime." I am not on a mission to just be here, I am on a mission to change my life and become a missionary. I feel that I am doing just that.

Unfortunately we are not teaching Ben anymore :( but our other investigators are doing well. So our investigators that we are teaching now are Anna (found her while biking 2 weeks ago and committed her to baptism on Sept. 26th that same week), Neil (one of the members brother in laws who is on baptism date for Oct. 10 - may have to change that), Von (is excited to be baptized, but does not fully understand the concept of baptism), and Jason. Jason was the miracle of the week last week! His story is pretty cool. So Elder Hilton and I were biking along and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a man standing by his garage looking at us and it was like something pulled me over to him without a choice. We talked, gave him a Book of Mormon, and set up a return appointment not thinking too much of it. When we returned, Jason explained how he had been studying the Book of Mormon and knew it was true! We committed him to baptism on Oct. 17, but we may do it even sooner than that! I loved his response after inviting him to be baptized. He said, "What do I need to do to be ready?"!!!!!! I am so excited for him! Anyways so our investigators are doing great! We are also teaching a few less actives and recent converts.

This week I really worked on patience. I was able to study patience everyday and I now find myself more christ-like because of it. I am able to stop and think about the consequence/benefits of a decision. A cool scripture that I found is D&C 101:38. It made me think of what the blessings are of being patient. Well I love you all and hope the best! Remember to be patient in all things!

Love, Elder Goff

Week 8 Orlando - Conway East

So the tropical rain storm that I was so excited about wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It was just like another rainstorm. But those are even pretty big themselves. Everyone here says that it has been raining a lot more than normal and there are puddles all over the place so I guess it only goes uphill from here! :)

Last week was so great! We picked up 5 new investigators and 2 new people who want to be baptized! It was a great week! Ben is still struggling. We are starting over with him and plan to set another date in a few weeks. Keep praying for him please! The other investigator,  Anna, is doing great! She is pretty solid still! We plan on meeting with her tonight so we will see how that goes. The other 2 that are new on baptism date are Von and Neil. We aren't too sure about them. We also have another investigator we plan on inviting to baptism this week. His name is Jason and we are super confidant about him.

We also got a third elder in our group! His name is Elder Stickers! He is actually from here and he is a huge tree frog! We read the Book of Mormon together and studied together! We even prayed together. Unfortunately, we had to depart our separate ways as he leapt from our third story balcony. Elder Stickers was a great companion for the short time we were together. Here is a picture of Elder Stickers. Other than that, our week was pretty normal. Well I love you all and hope you all are doing great!

Elder Goff

Attempted to make Grandmas cookies. They look like them but don't taste anything like them! It must be the Grandma magic!

Received the Glorious Package!!! (I love the ingredients of the honey)

Week 7 Orlando - Conway East

Another week in paradise! So the weather this week was pretty crazy! We got rained on almost every day while biking. I love it! So I hear that there is a tropical storm headed our way. It's suppose to hit us tonight! Pretty excited about it :) 
Anyways we saw a lot of miracles this week. Probably the biggest miracle we saw was while we were finding. We ran into a lady named Anna. She said that she was waiting for us and that she knows God sent us to her. She called us "angels sent from God to help her find Christ again." It made me feel so good to know that I was doing what God wanted me to do. So anyways, Anna committed to a baptism date of September 26th and came to church on Sunday. This all happened in one week!!! It was such a blessing. Ben is improving a lot! He plans to be baptized in September so that is going to be great! I am super excited for both of these investigators!

I really enjoyed sacrament today. It was about being able to overcome your trials and prepare for the future. There was a quote that they used which said "doubt your doubts and not your faith." No matter how tough life seems, we should never doubt our faith in Christ. Also one of the talks they talked about how we will have angels round about us to bare us up. This is so true! A mission is not easy, but I have been able to feel those angels around me all of the time. I feel protected and at peace even in the hardest times. Always look to the future with faith and never doubt your faith! In Moroni 7:40-41 we learn that we must have hope in order to have faith. Always hope for the best and faith will follow. 

Well hope y'all are doing great! I'm already starting to talk with a southern accent ;) haha but love you all!

District