Week 3 Daytona Beach

It was another great week in Daytona! We're still seeing a lot of success! We didn't have as much time this week to teach though because we had a ton of meetings. I'm not complaining because they were all great! 

In Wednesday we went to a district meeting and Elder Acevedo and I got invited to give a quick training on whatever we felt prompted to on the spot! We referenced a scripture in the Bible about how Jesus Christ would be "rejected by men." We then had an elder come up and go around the room inviting all the missionaries to learn the gospel. We told each of the missionaries to give this elder the hardest rejection of his life. It was awesome and got everyone excited. After everyone rejected him we read a scripture in D&C that talked about how we need to continue going strong even tough we may get rejected. We also read 2 Nephi 2:25 which talks about how we are here on his earth to have joy. It was definitely memorable!

It was pretty ironic because after we gave that training, we got to experience it for ourselves. We knocked on a door and had a pretty odd turn away. The lady was like, "you guys are handsome, but no." Then she shut the door. Haha it was bitter sweet. As we were walking back down the driveway to our car, a random drunk guy started staggering over to us hollering random things. I leaned over to Elder Acevedo and was like, "this is about to get wild!" It was too! He tried Bible bashing with us but it made no sense. We need up just getting in our car and driving off. Some people are crazy. It was a humbling experience as well because it reminded me of how lucky I am to be involved in this gospel.

Conference was AMAZING! I don't think I have ever received so much revelation at one time. I had a question I went into conference with: How can I strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father. Elder Uceda talked about the importance of praying sincerely from the heart rather than just going through the motions with your lips. Elder Bednar talked about how we come to know the Father by knowing His Son. He gave us 4 ways to increase our relationship with the Savior. I loved this conference!

All of our investigators are doing great; therefore, I am doing great :) I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

 

Week 2 Daytona Beach

Another crazy week in Daytona Beach. The weather is getting to be really nice! It stays right around 80 degrees all the time with a little bit of a breeze. We drive around with our windows down most of the time. Except when we get into the hood part of town ha.

We have a lot of investigators doing well. Brett is amazing! He's getting baptized on October 23^rd. He has been studying with missionaries for 6 months and now is finally able to get baptized. He has read the Book of Mormon 3 times already. He is such a stud! Another guy we have been working with is a guy named Errol. He's also on date for the 23 of October. We weren't able to meet with him this past week though L. 

We plan to set a few more baptism dates this week. One of which is named Hannah. The story of how we found her is super cool! We have specific amounts of miles we are allowed to drive each month and we've been running a little low so we decided to walk a bit. Our plan was to walk 1.5 miles from an appointment we had at 5 and our next at 7. Anyways, we start walking and get about a block away and run into this guy and share a super spiritual lesson with him. (He's also on our radar for a baptism date) Well we walk about 300 yards farther down the road and run into Hannah. She basically came up to us and introduced herself. Long story short we taught a powerful Restoration lesson and she wants to get baptized. She's only 20 and has a kid but she is looking for a change in her life. She's super cool!

I had the opportunity this week to go in an exchange with my good ol' comp from Clermont Elder White! It was a great day. We biked through this crazy town called Cassadaga. Apparently it's the spiritualist capital of the world. Pretty crazy right! We didn't have a whole lot of success there. It was exhausting. I haven't had to bike in such a long time! My legs are still sore from it. Oh also, we saw a wild black bear too. It was too quick to get any pictures but apparently they get to be a real nuisance here in Florida. 

Today we had an awesome P-day! We got up at like 6:00 and headed for the beach for a zone beach pday. It was awesome because we got to see the sun rise over the ocean. I honestly stood in awe at God's creations. It really humbled me. We are so fortunate to have such a kind and loving Father! Anyways, we played some ultimate frisbee and took some cool pictures (don't quite do it justice), then headed over to the church. Elder Acevedo and I cooked breakfast for the whole zone. I cooked a ton of pancakes and Elder Acevedo cooked all the eggs. It's been a great P-Day!!!

I sure do love being a missionary. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It's such a privilege. Well I hope you all have a great week! Love ya

Elder Goff

 

Week 1 Daytona Beach

This week was crazy! So much is going on here in Daytona! I love it I don't think I have had 5 minutes to even sit down and think. I feel like I am running from place to place taking every second possible to help further the work of salvation. What a great feeling and what a great blessing!

Daytona is awesome! It's probably not what any of you would expect it to be like. Most of it is just ghetto and the hood if you know what I mean. The people here are the best though. The members are amazing and the people who aren't members are so prepared. The Daytona Speedway's in our area. We get to drive by it once in a while. The Beach is pretty hard to get to so believe it or not I still have yet to see the beach and I have been in Florida for over a year! Here in Daytona, the closer you get to the beach, the more ghetto the neighborhoods get. It's a change but I am excited about it!

We have an investigator named Brett working towards baptism on October 9th. He is such a great guy! I can tell even from this being just the first week I've known him that he is definitely converted to the Lord. He has come from a crazy wild lifestyle and has changed to be a man of God looking forward to baptism and the temple. I'm so pumped for him!

My new companion is Elder Acevedo. He's from Logan Utah and actually came out at the same time. He is such a good Elder. He's a lot like me so we get along super well. 

I got here on Tuesday, then we had exchanges to Deland on Tuesday night through Thursday morning. I spent Friday here in Daytona, then I went on another to exchange to Bunnell (farthest North part of our mission) Friday night through Saturday night. So in all, I have slept in my own bed 3 times since last Tuesday. It's been quite an adventure haha. 

Here in Daytona we cover a family Ward and also a YSA branch. After church yesterday the YSA brought a bunch of food to have a lunch. They gave us all the extra pizza which was pretty stale so we didn't really want it. We had a ton of it too so we were a little confused at what to do with it. Finally we came to the conclusion that we would go to the ghetto and do some pizza contacting. That's right, we handed out all of this pizza to the people there who were a little less fortunate. It was so cool and funny. We got some pretty crazy looks! One guy we handed it to hand a blank stare for almost a minute then he finally said, can I get a to-go bag? We were like, "umm... sure" so we had a random newspaper in our back seat and asked if that would work. He said ya so we wrapped his pizza in newspaper. He was so happy!

Anyways, to say the least, I am having the time of my life! The time I have to share the Lord here on my mission is more precious than any gold or silver. I grow so much daily and have really come to recognize how the atonement of our savior does so much more than just save us from our sins. It helps us improve each day. It helps us to be a little better today than we were yesterday, and a little better tomorrow than we are today. In church yesterday, they talked a lot about families. I have the greatest family here on earth! How lucky are we to have families. Without them, the great Plan of Salvation would not work. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Goff

Elder Acevedo and I

 

Week 24 Clermont

Wow this week was crazy! At least these last few days. So I'll start off with the transfer doctrine. I got a call Saturday morning from President Clark about a new assignment he has for me. I'm going to Daytona Beach and I'm going to be the zone leader for that zone. I'm really excited for it! In the whole 14 months I have been here in Florida I have never seen the beach. Before my mission I think I've only seen the beach once or twice so now I get to go serve right off the beach. It's going to be great. The only bad part is that Elder White is getting transferred to so they will be whitewashing (when both missionary's leave and 2 new ones replace them) this area! It must be a new thing our mission president is doing because he has done it to a few different areas around the mission. It's stressful because now we have to write out a bunch of specific notes for each person we see.

The worst part of transfers is saying goodbye to everyone and knowing you probably won't see a lot of them again. I have made some lifetime friends here in Clermont for the 6 months I've been here. I was reflecting back on some things that have happened here in Clermont since I've been here and I know that the Lord had a specific plan for me by coming here.

So some exciting news! Leon, the guy we met 2 weeks ago, committed to be baptized on October 22! He is talking to his boss about getting Sundays off so he can come to church. Leon said that he should be able to come in a couple weeks. Other than that he already lives all of the commandments and seems to already know the Book of Mormon is true! I'm so excited for him! It was pretty ironic because he hadn't been reading but then he went over to his friends house who just happened to be someone I had taught a few months ago and saw a Book of Mormon sitting in the table. Neither had read it so hey decided to sit down and read it together. So not only did he read it, but he got one of our formers to read it too! That was a smart move by the Lord ;)

I got an opportunity last night to go stop by the Miltons. They seemed to be doing a lot better! Sister Milton talked he whole time about how she still wants to get baptized. However, she said she wants to wait until I come back to visit after my mission to get baptized because she wants me to baptize her. Haha I was like, "Woah! Hold on! How about you get baptized ASAP and I will come back for when you and your husband go through the temple!" I hope that's the case. I think they will get baptized for sure within the next year.

Anyways, I hope you all have an amazing week. In church yesterday they talked about having holy habits. I can't even tell you how much a simple study of the scriptures every day has changed me. So make daily scripture study a holy habit. Love you all and I'll keep you posted next week on how Daytona is!

Elder Goff

 

Week 23 Clermont

We had a lot of ups and downs this week. It was probably the hardest week of my mission yet one of the best. A lot changed this week. It's been pretty cool this week which is a blessing!

So I guess I'll start with the bad news. Monday night we got a call from our mission president saying that we will have to postpone the Miltons baptism due to some issues with the interview. My heart sunk when I heard that. Now Elder White and I were placed in a pretty sticky situation. Thursday we went over to let them know the news and they didn't take it very well at all. They called the entire baptism off! :( I literally couldn't function anymore after that. It was terrible. I have come to love those guys so much and now they don't want to be baptized anymore! It's so hard to get over! It tore my heart apart when they told me. Thursday was definitely the worst day of my mission. So if you could include the Miltons in your prayers that would be great!

Thursday night we had Hurricane Hermine come through. It was a hurricane only for a few hours until it turned back to a tropical storm. We just got the outskirts of it so it was mostly just rain. But everything is soaked and semi flooded now. The hurricane was suppose to get here Thursday night and stay until Friday night. Well Friday morning we had our semiannual temples trip. We woke up at 5am to a crap ton of rain but that didn't stop us! We got to the temple and inside you literally couldn't tell there was even a storm outside. I was in the storm but not of the storm. So now I can say that I've been to the temple in a hurricane!

I had exchanged with the Minneola elders this week. I went with Elder Satchwell again. He is the elder who was my MTC comp. Their car was in the shop getting fixed that day and if you know anything about Minneola and Clermont, they are literally one of the only places in Florida with hills. I know it's hard to believe but the hills are pretty wickedly steep too! They seemed a lot steeper on bikes too. I enjoyed it though. It was the first time I had to ride a bike in 9 months.

I also went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week. It was pretty funny because we had to help this lady out with cleaning all of her chicken coops. The Zone Leaders had a Chinese had in their apartment so I wore that to go clean the chicken coops. After cleaning one I decided to chase down a chicken and catch it so I could let it. I was sitting there petting it and it dawned on my of how stupid I must have looked. I was wearing a Chinese straw hat, holding a chicken, petting it, and an old lady's house. Wish I could have got a picture, LOL.

Something I learned this week is that life isn't always going to be easy. It's not always going to be smooth sailing to the end. God has different plans for each of us that We don't always understand. No matter what it is, we must endure through it and make the most of it. Larry Bird one said, "Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds."

Love you all and hope you a have a great week!
Elder Goff

Biking while on exchanges. We beat the storm back home by about 30 seconds!

Week 22 Clermont

Another great week here in the promised land. It was another hot one too as always. Apparently, there is a big storm brewing off the gulf coast somewhere. We have a pretty crazy less active we teach who is guaranteeing that it will become a hurricane and come over and hit us. But I highly doubt that although there is a small portion of me that hopes it does just so that I can say that I was in a hurricane.

So an update on the Miltons, they are set for there date! Sister Milton is doing great at living the word of wisdom! She has completely quit smoking and is she is so excited about it! We had a BBQ at their house on Saturday with a lot of members of the ward. It was so cool! So something about the Miltons is that they absolutely love giving service so this was an opportunity for 1. Them to give service 2. Them to get to know the ward and 3. Us to get free food ;) We played some corn hole (bean bag toss as we know it). A member of the ward named brother burgess (We call him uncle John because he is like 65 and still plays basketball with us every p day. Kind of like Uncle drew if you know who that is) is super competitive at it so there was a lot of trash talking that went on. Anyways, it was a great experience for them and a great motivation. They texted us that night after and said that they had been reading the Book of Mormon for 2 hours straight as a family! They are dead set for their date on the 10th of September. Ray, the Miltons family friend who hasn't showed much progress towards his date at all, called us and asked what he needs to do to get baptized on the 10th with the rest of the Miltons because he feels like they are family. He said is willing to give up anything to get baptized. We told him the requirements which consist of quitting smoking and coffee and he said he would do anything necessary! I
honestly would be willing to sacrifice anything in the world to be able to be a part of such an amazing change in someone else's life. It's such a humbling experience to know that the lord is working through me even though I am just a small and simple person. I love this work!

On Tuesday night we went to one of our less actives named Armando. Armando isn't just any typical guy. He is he funniest most tender hearted being in the planet. He's a little mentally handicapped also. Anyways, Elder White and I felt like Armando needed a little bit of a pep talk. We read about the prophet Abinadi in the Book of Mormon and asked him if he had a desire to be like Abinadi. He said yes so we then asked him, "Armando, in order for you to be like Abinadi, you have to teach with power and authority just like Abinadi! Do you want to do that!?" He quietly said, "yeah" so we were like, that doesn't really sound like it. He then yelled, "YEAH!!!!" It was awesome! #LetsGo! Haha it would probably be funnier if you knew him but I thought it was exciting

Yesterday was a great day too. Bishop asked me to give a talk so I used that as a tool to get a lot of our investigators to church. We had 8 investigators and 3 less actives come who I have never seen at church in all the 6 months I've been in this area. It was great! They all loved it too so hopefully we can get them to come back. The Miltons also came. They were still super pumped up from the BBQ we had at their place so the came 30 minutes early! Church went really well. I talked for about 15 minutes on How enduring to the end and missionary work are the same thing. It turned out pretty well.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Always remember how blessed you are to be where you are today. Make the most of it because you can't take back the opportunities you miss. Love ya!

Elder Goff

 

Week 21 Clermont

I'm getting to the point in my mission where I feel like every week in my weekly I say the same thing. It's almost like déjà vu. First off as always, the weather has been normal. Which means it's been crazy. It rains every afternoon which is pretty nice because it cools it off a bit but then it makes the humidity stink.

So we were suppose to have a baptism coming up this Saturday with Ray and the Miltons but we got to their house to do the interviews and one of them had drank coffee that morning, another was smoking as we pulled up, and one of the, was at a friends house so we were only 1 for 4 and he wasn't going to get baptized without the rest of his family so we moved the date to September 10th. It was pretty frustrating but I mean they have come a long ways! Sister Milton used to smoke 3 packs a day when I first met her and now she hasn't smoked in 2 weeks! Coffee is a little harder for her though. She's almost there. They are still enthusiastic and determined to get baptized! Unfortunately they didn't come to church yesterday either. We went over right after church and Ray was sitting there but the rest of them were gone. Ray has had a lot of concerns and questions that we haven't been able to answer because we've always met with them all at the same time. Well yesterday we finally got to sit down and answer them. He said he is torn between our church and another church. After some discussion we figured out the problem was that he hasn't been praying. We taught him how to say a prayer. The spirit was so strong! After the prayer, Ray looked up with tears in his eyes and said, I feel something. I know he is here with us! Experiences like these make going on a mission worth every second of it!

I'm not sure if you guys remember Aveon or not but he is a 17 year old kids who is really good friends with a priest in our ward. We were teaching him before school got out and even had a baptism date set with him but then he had to leave to his mothers for the summer. I didn't think I would be able to see him again because I didn't think I would be in Clermont this long. Well I got word that he is back! We talked to his friend and they are planning to come play basketball with is today! I'm so excited!

Well we got some bad news last night. I had a pair of pants on my floor next to my bed so I picked them up to go put them away and I noticed something suspicious on it. It was.... man this is terrible!... A Bedbug!!! :( Last transfer we spent 2 weeks out of our house trying to get those suckers cleaned out! We even moved to a new apartment! It was so stressful. And now we are about to do it again!!!! Uhh one thing I have learned on my mission is that bed bugs are literally of the devil. They slow down the work and stress you out like mad. I deep cleaned all my clothes and our apartment this morning. Not sure what's going to happen yet because we haven't told anyone about them yet. Thankfully I have only been able to find one bedbug even though I searched out entire bedroom cleaning and looking for them. So if you could include in your prayers that bedbugs go extinct that would be fantastic.

Yesterday in church they talked a lot about the importance of families and how they are eternal. It made me reflect on my family. I have been so blessed to grow up in the family that I have. I've seen so many torn up families here in Florida and it breaks my heart. We really take for granted being able to have a roof over our heads with parents and siblings there for us. It truly is a blessing.

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

Elder Goff

The Miltons gave us some banana's from their tree. Not what you would expect them to look like.