Week 20 Clermont

Another week has come and gone. It's crazy how time flies. Honestly not a whole lot happened this week. It was just a smooth sailing week. The weather was nice too. It cooled off to about 75 which is about jacket weather to me! It felt so nice!

On Thursday we had to make a trip into Orlando to the mission office. On the way there you have to drive on a road called OBT (Orange Blossom Trail) which is the craziest road in Florida I'm pretty sure. I know people who purposely avoid OBT and won't even get near it. Anyways, so I was driving down OBT and got in the left turning lane to turn. After the light turned green, this crazy guy driving a big dump truck decided he needed to get into the turning lane also. The only problem was that I was in it and he didn't know that. He started to drift into the turning lane right into me! I swerved into he oncoming traffic lane (there weren't any cars coming because the oncoming light was red) and laid in the horn! It didn't even faze him! It was crazy! Anyways, so I get by this guy and make the turn and for some reason this oh her crazy guy decides to walk across the road right in front of me. I honked and hit my brakes. I felt like I was driving in New York! We made it safely though. Some Florida drivers just don't know how to drive.

Most of our investigators are doing pretty well. The Miltons have their interview coming up this week and are still set for their baptism on the 27th. We had a few really good lessons with them this week! Sister Milton also referred us to her mother-in-law. Unfortunately she lives outside of our boundaries. Still really cool! We have been working a lot with referrals recently.

Yesterday was stake conference and Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer came and spoke! He gave a talk in October conference of last year about how we need to let the Clerion Trumpet sound. He is a great speaker. This time her talked to us about how the Book of Mormon is true. He explained how here is no possible way that it isn't. Joseph Smith translated it in 90 days with a 4th grade education, and the Book of Mormon holds the secret to everything in life. It teaches us how to be better families. It teaches us how to feel the spirit more. It teaches us how we can have eternal life. Another thing he said that was really cool was, "Members of his church believe more in the bible than any other religion because the bible testifies of Christ and we have the Book of Mormon to solidify our testimonies in Christ. Therefore we should have a stronger faith in the Bible than any other religion." I have come to appreciate the Book of Mormon so much on my mission. I know without a doubt that it is true because there is no way it is not true! I just finished reading the Book of Mormon again and now these past couple weeks they have really focused on another challenge to us... Read the Book of Mormon again. It never gets old and you learn so much from it each time you read it.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Goff

Week 19 Clermont

Honestly not a whole lot of new things happened this week. It was a pretty normal week. The weather is its usual, hot sunny and then about an hour of down pour rain, then sunny again. However, this week seemed to be a lot more humid than normal. The other night I was outside and looked up at the moon on a clear night and the moon was all blurry because there was so much humidity. It takes a while to get used to it but I'm to the point where I love it.

I'll start off with a funny story. So yesterday was fast and testimony meeting which always is nerve racking as a missionary especially when you have your investigators there. There is this old guy who comes to our ward but isn't really in our ward. Every time he sees us he yells, "It's the mission mormonaries!!" Pretty crazy. So this guy hobbled up to the pulpit with some help from a few people in the congregation. It took him about 5 minutes to get up there. I was sweating because we had the Milton family with us. Anyways so this guy gets up there and in a deep voice starts to throw down on the congregation! He said, if you turn your back on Jesus, he will never love you and you'll go somewhere. Wait I know where you'll go. You'll go to He**!!!" He was yelling at us. Right as he said that here was a few gasps in the crowd and everyone went dead silent. Our investigators had some pretty crazy looks on their face but we reassured them that this guy was a little bit out there so don't listen. He bishop had a pretty worried look on his face also. After this old guy finished, he smiled and sat down on the stand as happy as could be. I'll admit, I was scared! It was intense!

An update on our investigators, the Miltons are doing amazing! All 3 of them are on fire! Sister Milton has quit smoking and drinking coffee. They even fasted yesterday. It's so cool. The deal is that they have to live the word of wisdom completely by this week if they are to be baptized on the 27th, and it's looking like they are going to make it. Ray, the guy who lives with the Miltons, came to church yesterday also. He is committed to being baptized with them but he is having a little bit of a harder time with the word of wisdom. So we have those 4 people set for the 27th and we have Efrain set for September 10th but that is looking like it may have to be moved. We weren't able to meet with him last week. And he was suppose to come to church but didn't show. I guess we'll see what happens.

We had a cool experience on Thursday. We went to one of our Recent Converts homes to visit and they had a friend over. Our Recent Convert is named Rhonda Buzzelli and her friends name is Rhonda so it is a little confusing. Well Rhonda is going through some hard times right now so she came to visit sister Buzzelli. And it just so happened that we showed up at the same time. We taught her the Restoration and she said she wants to be baptized. The only thing is that she lives in Melborne. However, she mentioned that she may be moving here to Clermont in about a month or so. It was a tender mercy of the Lord that we contacted her.

Well that's about it for the week. Not a whole lot happened this week. Elder White and I are seeing a lot of great work happen here in the Promised Land. I found a cool scripture if you want to look it up. It's Moroni 8:16. The last sentence of the verse is really cool! Anyways, I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff
We found some cool Marvel backpacks for cheap at Walmart so we took some pictures. 

(Christian Dewberry - Priest in the ward)

Week 18 Clermont

Not too much has changed this week. This week was transfers but me and the rest of our district are all staying. Good thing too because we have a lot coming up this transfer! It's looking to be a pretty good transfer here in Clermont with Elder White.

We saw a lot of miracles this week! On Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Goddard from another area in our district. We were working in my area. We had planned to stop by a less active member but when she wasn't home we decided to knock a few doors around her. After knocking on this one door, a man came around the side of the house and asked if he could help us. I wanted to say, yeah you could be baptized in our church! But I didn't haha. We told him we were going around saying prayers with people. He seemed a little surprised. It turns out he had just been diagnosed with cancer a few days before and was a little depressed. It's amazing how we can be an answer to someone's prayers when we listen to the spirit. The only issue he has about meeting with us is his wife may not want to so I guess we will see this week.

That same day we stopped by someone named Efrain. We found his cousin last week and then while on exchanges, Elder White met Efrain so I had never met him. Efrain moved here from New York a couple weeks ago. He quit drinking and smoking about a month ago (hallelujah) and is looking to start a new life. After hearing this I felt prompted to ask him if he had ever been baptized. I loved his responses! "A long time ago but I'm looking to get baptized again."  That's the best thing you can ever hear as a missionary. Long story short, we set a date to get baptized in September 10th.

We also met with the Wiltons again. They are doing awesome as normal. Sister Wilton has quit smoking and is working on quitting coffee. There are 3 of them but there are also a few other people living with them. One of which is named Ray. When we first met Ray, he thought he was going to bible bash with us but couldn't respond to our testimonies. This was the 3rd time we met with him. The Wiltons are being baptized August 27th and we felt like Ray would be able to make that date as well so we asked and he accepted! We have 4 baptisms planned for the 27th! It was so cool too because they all have a super hard time with coffee, but they all committed that they will do whatever they have to to get baptized.

A family that I came to know really well from exchanges and stuff got baptized this week. The Penedo's live in the Minneola ward which shares the same building as Clermont. It was so cool to see them get baptized! Brother Penedo asked me to confirm him so I did yesterday. It was such a powerful experience!

This week was also Elder White's Birthday. I've literally been telling every member we see that it was his birthday so now we have a crap ton of cake! His birthday was Thursday so we all got together early in the morning and I cooked up a bunch of crepes for everybody. It's kind of become a tradition to do it. It was a pretty fun day.

So I dont know if this happens a whole lot in any other missions but people always try to bible bash (prove our religion wrong) with us here in Florida. I usually just leave it alone because nothing good comes from it but Saturday I had had enough. A guy we ran into was telling us that his church was the only true church and that ours was false. He said that his church had been going on since Christ left the earth. It was hilarious because I put him in his place a little bit. He said that Peter had become the next prophet after Jesus Christ and referenced Matt. 16:18-19 which basically says that the authority was passed to Peter from Jesus Christ to be the prophet. Well we all know that Peter and the rest of the 12 disciples we rejected and killed. So I brought that up to him and he agreed. I then asked him, "if everyone rejected the prophets and killed them, who did Peter pass the authority to be the next prophet to?" After he couldn't answer that, I testified of the restoration. It was hilarious! Probably not good though because the spirit is never there when you bible bash.

In church yesterday they talked about how we need to not judge others. The story was told of a man who was walking down the sidewalk and saw a dandelion in someone's yard and was just disgusted by it. He couldn't believe that man would let a dandelion grow in his yard. When he got home he walked right passed his own yard which was filled with dandelions. I find myself doing this more than I would like. We must first correct our own problems before we try to correct others.

Anyways, I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Goff



My Desk

(L-R) Elder's Satchwell, Goddard, me, White, Lawson, and Isaacson





Week 17 Clermont

I honestly feel like I am living a dream right now. I never thought I would love my mission as much as I do now. Time flies when your having fun and it's definitely flying! So this was a pretty normal week which basically means it was crazy because every week here in he promised land of Florida is crazy!

On Tuesday I had to go give a few baptismal interviews. It was super cool because the family being baptized this week is on fire! They are the ones who came bowling with us last week. They will be in the Minneola Ward which is in the same building our ward goes to. While there we got to put our hand on the wall of missionaries. It was pretty cool, I'll attach the picture. Also on Tuesday we went back to that crazy German Lady I had a run in with last transfer. She is the one who chewed us out the first time but the second time after taking her cookies she was friendly. This time she was friendly and actually had a lot of questions. I don't know if we'll ever really start teaching her officially but it's a pretty cool experience.

Wednesday we went and taught the Milton family! They are still on fire! I love seeing those guys! Sister Milton who had a smoking problem hasn't had a cigarette in 3 days! She used to smoke 2 packs a day. The 3 of them are preparing for baptism on the 27 of next month.
We also are teaching a guy named Ray who lives there also. We plan to set a date with him this week as well as another guy named Brandon who lives there. It's such a cool experience! Unfortunately they didn't come to church Sunday though :(

On Thursday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Crismon came here. We had a solid day! We had an investigator call us asking if we could bless houses because one of her friends houses has an evil spirit in it. We went over and they showed us a video of a random curtain moving even when the fan was off and all the doors and windows were closed. So I got to cast an evil spirit out of someone's home this week! It was super cool!

Not too much happened Friday but Saturday was eventful! We had a ward party in the morning to celebrate Pioneer Day. They had a bunch of pancakes so I stuffed myself. Then right after they talked me into doing a donut eating contest! After winning that I felt like I was going to pop! They then talked me into doing a jello eating contest. The worst part is that a 12 year old girl won! I lost!! I'm pretty sure I still have whip cream up my nose! Later that day Elder Bone, an Elder I used to play basketball with in Orlando who is super good, was in exchanges with some Elders in our district. We happened to be in the club house of our apartment complex at the same time while there was some kids playing basketball. So Elder Bone and I teamed up against them and kicked their butts! It was pretty sweet.

 














Anyways, not much else happened this week. I'm short on time so sorry for the boring email. A question someone asked me this week is "what miracles are you working for?" We need to constantly be working for miracles because when we work with the Lord on our side, anything is possible. Love all you guys!

Elder Goff 

Week 16 Clermont

This was a crazy Week! the weather was pretty crazy as normal. It was a pretty stressful week with a great finish. We had some wicked lightning this week. I haven't ever seen lightning like that before. There was one that started above the cloud went straight down through the cloud and hit the ground. Coolest thing ever! Also there has been a lot of what they call heat lightning which is just a bunch of humidity basically with lightning all over in the sky. I love it!

On Monday we had to clean up our house and pack everything in it because we had to move out of our house this week into an apartment. We spent all morning and most of the day packing. Wednesday was crazy. We moved everything out that day. It took from about 7am to 2 pm and then on top of that we were trying to make District meeting work which we had in the afternoon. It was insane! We have 3 different companionships in our district: Clermont, Clermont Spanish, and Minneola. We were living with Clermont Spanish until we moved out. We took Minneola's apartment and they got a new one so we were moving stuff all over the place! To say the least I was exhausted. To add onto that, Minneola was living in there new place for a couple days when they came home to a flooded apartment. Their washer broke so they are waiting to see if they can still live there or not. Crazy stuff lol.

Saturday and Sunday were a great end to the week. Saturday afternoon we were about to head into a referral that was a family so I got the feeling that I needed to put a bunch of restoration pamphlets in my bag so I did. Well nobody answered and I forgot about all the pamphlets I stick in my bad. That evening we went to our investigators house, the Wiltons, to teach them. We brought 2 members with us and when we got there expecting only 3 people, there were actually 8! Plus us and the 2 members so in total there were 12 people! It was practically like we were teaching a class. He Wiltons took in a bunch of their friends who were living on the street. One of them thought he was going to prove us wrong. As we were sitting down he was like, "this is going to be fun." In a sarcastic way. We taught them all the Restoration with us, the members, and the Wiltons testifying of how it is true. Between all of this, the guy who was going to bash with us couldn't say anything. The spirit was directing the lesson and I know it did because for some reason I stuck the perfect amount of Restoration pamphlets in my bag! Such an amazing experience! Sunday came around and we were waiting for people to greet as they came into church Miltons and the whole crew showed up! We had 8 total investigators at church. Along with that we had a few members bring some of their nonmember family and friends that we can hopeful start teaching soon. It was definitely an end to a great week.

This week in church they talked about finding the lost sheep and how we need to leave the ninety and nine to go find that one which is lost. It was a great meeting. It made me reflect on what I can do more to reach out to the lost sheep even if sometimes that requires us to
leave our comfort zone (the ninety and nine) to reach out to someone who needs saving (less active).

Well I hope you all had an amazing week! Love you all!

Elder Goff

Sister Wilton and Brother Hernandez (awesome member of the ward)

Cayson was Peter Pan, I think he played with Bumpers!

Week 15 Clermont

Another week come and gone here in the Promised Land. This week went by pretty quick. I couldn't believe how hot it was! It got about 103 degrees or so but with humidity it said it feels like 110! And that went on all week! It's a blessing that I don't have to bike this summer like I did last summer.

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

Week 14 Clermont

This week was pretty eventful. First off, HAPPY 4th of July! Our freedom and our liberty is often something that goes unnoticed or taken for granted. Without men and women fighting for our freedom, we would not have the ability to share the gospel with everyone we meet. We would not be able to bring others unto Christ.

So last Monday we were getting ready for bed when I saw something on our wall, you'll never guess what it was... A bed bug D: so yep, we now have bed bugs. We left everything there and drove to a different missionaries apartment where we slept the night on the floor. On top of all this, we have to be moved out of that house by the 13th because the lease is ending. It's pretty crazy! Today we went and basically tore the whole place up so that when they spray on Wednesday, all the bugs will die. It is miserable but hey, the work still goes forward.

Wednesday we went over to the Wilton's to take them food because sister Wilton was suppose to have surgery but I guess it's been moved to next week. They are still doing super well! Their house got struck by lighting.

Kasonn got really sick on Sunday so he wasn't able to come to church but he is still doing good. Really need some prayers that he will still be able to make his baptism date!

On Wednesday we also met our new mission President, President Clark. He seems to be really cool! I'm way excited to have him. I'm sure going to miss President Berry though. He was a huge help to me. President Clark is from cottonwood Utah which is right by Salt Lake. He just got back from a mission in New Zeland about a month before he came here.

On Saturday I went on exchanges with an Elder in our district. They have been working super hard to find someone prepared for baptism. As we were riding to an appointment, we got a text from a former investigator in their area saying that they are coming to church Sunday and want to meet tonight. We went over to see them that night and they basically told us they already know this church is true and set their own baptism date for July 30th!! It was crazy! I love seeing miracles. Everything about a mission is a miracle!



1 Year Mark!

Something else crazy happened this week...I hit my year mark! I never would have thought that time could go by so fast. It has been such a privilege to serve with the Lord. I have learned so many things out here. I honestly feel like I could serve a mission for the rest of my life. The experiences you have on a mission are unlike any others you will ever experience in the world. I've been reflecting a bit on this past year and the miracles I have seen. I know that it is only by the hand of the Lord that the things I've seen are possible! I love this work and I am looking forward to this next year! For my year mark we cooked some steaks for lunch and we burned a shirt at the end of the day. It was an awesome time!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Goff