Week 6 Orlando - Conway East

So this last week we saw a ton of tender mercies! The Lord really cares about each and everyone of us! Elder Hilton and I are really getting the work rolling here in Conway! We've focused a lot on the members and getting there help in our efforts to find new people to teach. Because of this effort we've picked up 3 new investigators. I'm pretty confident in the work we are doing! Ben changed his baptism date to September. He has improved more this week than the rest.

I finally got to play a guitar. It was so relaxing and made my whole mission better. It was great! Also our p days are great! We get to play basketball every week so I guess that life here isn't too much different than what it was before. One thing that was way awesome that happened this week was that we had a huge storm! The road looked just like a river! It was the coolest thing and the water was at least a foot deep! The Lightning here is also amazing! It stays up in the clouds most of the time and looks like a firework show! I love it haha. 

So yesterday in church we had a great meeting. A member in elders quorums talked about how we should hunger for the gospel. You don't realize how good it really tastes until everything you do is about the gospel. Talking about Lehi's vision of the tree of life and how we can make it to the end.  Elder Kevin W. Pearson said, "Unless we are “continually holding fast” to the word of God and living it, we will become spiritually blinded rather than spiritually minded. Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every day, every day, every day! It’s the key to spiritual survival and avoiding deception. Without it, we are spiritually lost." I feel like I have been taking my knowledge of the gospel for granted all of my life. Until I fully learned to love living the gospel all of the time, I did not realize the feast I was missing out on. "Don't miss out on your spiritual feast." 

Well this mission is great! Love you all.

Week 5 Orlando - Conway East

This week was a pretty good week! It was bike week so we had to ride
bikes all week. Also the weather didn't cooperate as well as we would
have liked. Haha we got rained on once again except this time we
really got drenched! I think we could have walked into the bathroom
and got in the shower with our clothes on and it wouldn't have made a
difference :)

Well Elder Hilton was a little sick again this week. It's a funny story. We went to dinner with a member, Brother Camacho, and Elder Hilton got the bright idea to take on the spicy wing challenge. The challenge was to eat a spicy wing that had been marinating in Ghost Pepper extract! He ate it and immediately looked like death. This lead to him puking all night and the following couple days so we had to take some time off but the time that we used was great! We found a new investigator. Unfortunately she lives out of our area. We have been teaching her with her boyfriend who is a less active. She committed to meeting with the missionaries where she lives so now we just have to contact them. Our other 2 investigators are doing really well. It is so rewarding to see that light of Christ in their eyes and to be able to know that they are heading toward the path that leads to eternal life. There's not a feeling like it in the world!

This week I had the opportunity to focus a lot of my studies on charity. I have made a goal to work on one of the attributes of Christ every week. I hope to one day have that same character that Christ had. Charity really is the pure love of Christ. If we forget ourselves
and focus on loving others, that attribute of charity will take place in our hearts. Moroni 7:4-48 have charity!!!

Elder Goff

Elder Davis (Payson, UT) traded for a set of antlers, I'm Jealous



District P-Day last week which we cooked hotdogs over a fire

Week 4 Orlando - Conway East

Well another week here in the promised land! I'm really starting to love this place. Everyone is super nice. We have a man in our ward, Brother Conner, who reminds me a lot of Si from Duck Dynasty. He is a way funny guy with one of those southern accents, but is probably the best member in our ward that I know. He had a rough past life but has changed a lot. This week he called us up asking for us to let him help us in any way possible, this was a huge blessing because we have been struggling to get the members help in our teaching. He jumped right in and worked with us. He is just one of the many great members here so I feel like I'm right at home. There are also a lot of crazy religious people here. I feel like 2 Nephi 29: 2-4 is the story of my life right now.

We saw a lot of miracles happen but probably the biggest one we saw happened yesterday when the woman we have been teaching, Terry, COMMITTED TO BAPTISM!!!!! Her date is September 5th! It was so intense! That was the first baptismal commitment that I have given! The spirit was so strong! The best part about it though was that we were able to take Tino, a future missionary, with us. He has been debating whether or not to go on a mission but after we walked out of there he said that he's going without a doubt! This work is so great!  Another investigator Ben is improving slowly. We're not sure if he will make his baptism date on the 28th but we are sure going to try.

So I would have to say that this was one of my best weeks so far. My testimony has grown so much. I haven't ever felt the spirit so strong in my life as what I feel now on my mission. I honestly can say that I am glad I still have almost 2 years of this left because There's nowhere in the world or any other time that you can feel the feelings you get on a mission. Love you all!

Elder Goff


A member posted this on a Facebook Blog - It was great to see!

I made Crepes

Week 3 Orlando - Conway East

This weeks update from Cayson . . .

Well life here in Florida is great! The weathers kind of crazy! People weren't joking when they said that you can't out run the rain! It was bike week so we didn't have the car, and we got rained on 3 times! If you see the clouds, you're already too late! But I guess you can look at things 2 ways, good or bad. So the good thing about the rain is that it was honestly king of fun! It reminded me of when I used to ride my bike in the rain!

The people here are super nice! Our investigator, Ben, is improving! He told us last week that he is going to obey all of the commandments from now on so that he can get baptized! His date is the 29th of this month so we are working with him almost everyday so that he can make that date. Also one of our other investigators,Terry, is looking like she has a lot of potential. We gave her a pamphlet on the Restoration to read and she read the whole thing! She called us later that night telling us that she knows what it says is true! We plan on meeting with her Wednesday at a members house where we want to set her on a baptism date! Other
than those 2 investigators, we don't really have anyone to teach so we are doing a lot of finding and working with the less actives.

The highlight of the week was our temple trip! We only get to go to the temple 2 times a year so it was a pretty special occasion. The temple is the most amazing place on this earth! I love going there and feeling of the spirit of God! So that's about what my week was. Life
here in Zion is great! Love you all!

Elder Goff

Week 2 Orlando - Conway East

This week's update from Cayson...

This week was really good! The humidity is still a killer but I think that I am slowly but surely getting used to it. We bike about every day but I guess that's a good thing because we are able to talk to a lot more people. My companion is pretty cool. He's from St. George and he's 23! He only has 5 months of his mission left so he knows a lot of the secrets. We get along pretty well.

The people here are a lot different than Utah, but they are really good. Most of the people here are nondenominational which means they are Christian but don't have a specific religion. That doesn't make much sense to me because they say that they are saved no matter what they do just because they say that they believe in Christ. The biggest part of faith and believing is the acting part. Faith without works is dead. We work a lot with less active members because we have struggled to find new investigators. Fortunately this week we got a referral for a non member lady. She is a strong Christian who is nondenominational, but she is looking for a change in her life. She said that she feels like there is so much more that she is missing out on. We had a solid lesson with her and I am pretty confident that she knows what we say is true. Lesson's with her are a little bit weird because of her past religion, but we still invite the spirit. Last lesson with her we talked about the Godhead and how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and 2 separate beings. She said that she believes what we say is true. I'm pretty excited for her. Another investigator we are working with is still struggling to keep some commandments. He says that he wants more than anything to stop and change but he just can't do it. We are working hard with him to help him quit his problems. I have faith that everything will work out.

Well that about sums up my week! I love doing this work. It is tough but it is by far the best decision I have ever made in my life! One of the best motivators I had was Jesus Christ. He knows all of our pains and weaknesses because He has been there. Once we recognize Him in our lives, we then are able to progress and grow closer to Him. Remember Him always! Love you all

Elder Goff

Elders in our ward.  Mid Left Elder Rowley, ID, Mid Right Elder Davis, Payson. UT

Week 1 Orlando - Conway East

Blog update from Cayson for this week...

Well a lot has happened these last two weeks! The MTC was amazing! I met a ton of great friends and I learned a ton! The spirit was way strong there. I have no doubt in my mind that this church is true. Probably the biggest thing that I learned in the MTC was that we need to apply the atonement not only to ourselves but others. When we focus on helping others, we begin to help ourselves without even knowing it, and when we focus on the atonement our faith and all of those around us is strengthened. Probably the main reason that I am on a mission is because Jesus Christ gave everything for us, so I figured that I could devote 2 years to him by bringing souls unto him.

Monday morning we woke up at 3:00 to get ready to leave, we had to leave the MTC at 4:30, but we didn't fly out until 9:30. So Monday was a super long day for me and the rest of us, but now that I'm in Orlando I can say that it's all worth it! The humidity and the heat aren't the hard part to Florida. It's all of the sweating that you have to get used to. We ride bikes nonstop everyday. I've got rained on almost everyday. The rain storms here are like nothing that I have ever seen before! Its so crazy! I am serving the Conway East area which is on the eastern side of Orlando. Unfortunately alligators tend to be pretty rare and most missionaries only see one or two their whole mission but I still have hope! And the oranges here are pretty hard to come by. I haven't had the chance to try one yet. Funny enough, most of the oranges they sell at walmart are shipped in from California! Also, it's not very likely that I'll get to see the ocean because that's mostly where the sisters serve. Although it's not quite what I expected, it's pretty amazing here! everything is super green and wet.

My companion's name is Elder Hilton. He lives in St. George and has been here for 18 months! He is a way cool guy and a great trainer! We do some great work together. Most of what we have done so far is finding because we are a little short on investigators, but the people we do teach are doing great. We have a man named Ben set for a baptism on August 28 if he can overcome some of the commandments that he is struggling with. Also there is another kid who is really close to committing to baptism that we are going to see tonight. His name is Charlie and he's 10, but he's already gone through a lot. Their family is in a tight situation financially. If you guys could remember these 2 guys in your prayers it would mean a lot to me. The work here is great and I'm loving every second of it!

Love you all!

Elder, Goff

We also received an update from a member in the Ward Cayson is serving in.  She says "Last Tuesday Evening we had such a fun night!!! It was Elder Goff's first day in the "field" and just had to make him a "Green Dinner" so his "first day" would be memorable!!!!! So, green chicken and rice, green cream corn and of course green beans!!!! For dessert, green jello and lime green sherbert!!!!! It took Elder Goff a few minutes to figure-out why everything was green!!!!! He didn't know you could buy green jello in Florida!!!! He thought that was just a "Utah Thing"!!!!! Too fun!!!!! Elder Hilton was in on the plans of course!!! Then there was the green bag of goodies!!!!! Everyone at Publix's wanted to know what I was doing!! From green Hawaiian Punch to every pack of goodies I could find in green wrappers!!!!!! Thanks "mom's" for sharing your son's with us!!!! They are a joy!!!!!"

Here are the pictures she sent.  It is such a comfort to know that my boy is being taken care of by such wonderful people!

Arrived in Florida!

I received a text from someone who fed my son tonight.  They said "We love having him in our ward and are grateful to have his spirit in our home.  We live in Orlando and he is serving in the Conway Ward of the Orlando Florida Stake.  He was such a gentleman, took off his shoes to not dirty my carpets and cleaned our dishes off the table for us!"  

She also sent PICTURES!!!