Week 7 Daytona Beach

Just another week in Paradise! What a great week. A lot has changed this week. First, Elder Dummer arrived! He is such a stud! We get along great too. Elder Dummer is from Layton Utah and has been out the same amount of time as so we'll go home the same time. Pretty crazy right? It's going to be a great transfer.
Monday night was my last night with Elder Acevedo. I'm going to miss that guy. We went to Texas Roadhouse with Grandpa (a cool member of the ward). Then Tuesday he left for Melbourne and Elder Dummer came in.

We had a lot of interesting things happen this week. We found out that our top investigator, Henery, is on probation and won't be able to be baptized for 2 years :( we had a couple lessons with him. The last one we had we walked in and he wheeled his wheelchair over to us. After sitting down, he started to choke up a little bit. He said, "It's true! Mormon is the truth!" The spirit filled the room. I thought for a bit as he was talking about my mission experiences. This instance was one of the highlights of the mission! I also don't think I have ever had a more bitter sweet lesson in my life. Right after this he began to explain about his probation. My heart sunk! We explained about repentance then gave him the news about how he would have to wait 2 years to be baptized. He had no problem with it at all. He almost seemed happy about it because he was so confident that this church is true. Anyways, that was an interesting lesson.

We also set a baptism date with this guy named Errol. We were teaching him about a month ago then out of the blue he called us and dropped us. Well after a few weeks he called us back and said he has felt terrible since he dropped us and wants to start meeting again. We were pretty bold with him. The lesson we had was incredible! He had changed his attitude toward the church completely. He is now back on baptism date for December 18th!

Random thing that happened this week: in church yesterday, we had a less active come who is deaf. He reads lips. For some reason he decided to have me translate for him. I sat facing him with my back to
the speaker the whole sacrament meeting. I felt like I was playing charades! He was super happy though ha.

Elder Carter of the 70 spoke to us in a meeting this week. It was super powerful! He talked about how their are 3 different types of missionaries: mediocre missionaries, good missionaries, and sacred
missionaries. He talked about how a sacred missionary is a disciple of Christ who gives up his life to serving the lord. It was incredible!

Hope you all have a great week and a happy Halloween!!!

Elder Goff

Last night of the transfer spent with Grandpa and Sandi

Week 6 Daytona Beach

Our Invstigator Antero (we call him Papi)

Hey everyone! Well not a whole lot happened this week. Daytona is just about recovered from he hurricane. They do fast work here! There's still a few stop lights down and trees fallen over here and there but nothing real serious.

We got transfer news this week. Elder Acevedo is getting transferred :/ he will be going to Melbourne which is about an hour and a half down the coast line from here. The past 6 weeks went by so fast! I feel like we were only companions for like a week. I learned a ton from him! It's sad to see him go.

My new companion will be Elder Dummer. (Doomer) I don't know him real well but I have talked to him at a few meetings here and there. He seems like a super cool Elder. Also he speaks Spanish so that's going
to be way nice!

I came across a really cool scripture this week. It's Genesis 31:16. It says, "now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do." When God gives you a commandment, do it period! There is no, "maybe in the future" or "someday." We do it immediately and God blesses us.

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

Elder Goff

Week 5 Daytona Beach

Not a whole lot happened this week. It was mostly just recovering from the hurricane. Surprisingly we haven't done a whole lot of service. Our mission president asked us to do more teaching than service so that's what we've done. 

Daytona has 2 weeks out of the year they dedicate to "Bike week." One was this passed week and one is in February. There were literally thousands of motor bikes here over the weekend. All day from Thursday to Sunday it was nonstop revving their engines. We counted about 500 bikes on 2 hours then we finally gave up. 

The work here is going great! Our top investigators right now are Henry, Marlo, and Lamish, Brother Valesquez "Papi", and Hannah. We found Henry after he requested a bible. He is an awesome man who is in a wheel chair. He lives with Marlo and Lamisha who are awesome too! We've been meeting with them just about every day this passed week. They're  all super pumped for their baptism which is November 13th! 

Brother Velasquez is getting baptized on November 20th! He an old fellow from puerta rico which is why he got he name Papi. He loves it too! We showed up to his house the other day and were like, "Papi! Let's go check out the church and we'll give you a tour." So we hopped in our cars and gave him a tour of the church. The spirit was so powerful! We set the baptism date with him. He also came to church Sunday as well. 

Brett is waiting to get off probation which was suppose to be last week but was delayed by the hurricane so hopefully he gets off this week. He plans on getting baptized right after he gets off. 

The last investigator who is progressing really well this week is Hannah. She is a single mom and about 20 years old. She knows the Book of Mormon is true but her family is completely against the church. She is in the middle of making her decision whether or not to basically be against her family and join the church. We met at the church for a lesson with her this week and she told us how she carries her Book of Mormon everywhere she goes. She said anytime she is angry, scared, or not happy she just pulls the Book of Mormon out of her bag and holds onto it and it makes her happy and peaceful!

The gospel is so true! I have never been happier in my life as I am now because I get to see the eternal blessings this gospel brings to people right before my eyes. There was a talk in conference that was about how we too often take the gospel for granted rather than counting our blessings that it brings.

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

We took some trips to see one of our investigators in the hospital. Brother Carlson is the member with us.





Exchanges with Elder Reyes and a member of our ward in the back seat.



An awesome member of the ward has a pet tagew (Huge lizard) and alligator 

Week 4 Daytona Beach

This week was the craziest week of my mission! Not a who lot happened other than a category 4 hurricane hit us. Not a big deal. To be serious though the hurricane was wild!

We found out the hurricane was headed for us on Monday but didn't make it too big of a deal. We made some preparations just in case. We knew for sure it was going to hit us dead on Tuesday. Wednesday we had a Zone meeting which was actually my first one as a zone leader. It was super good! I gave a training on how we can strengthen our relationship with Heavenly Father through our study and prayer. If there is anything I've learned this transfer, it is that we need to have a daily accounting session with God by setting daily goals in the morning, then accounting with God at night. 

During the meeting our phone was being blown up by our mission president. I finally left the meeting and answered. He asked us to evacuate all of the missionaries in our zone from the coast inland. We went to Deland which is about 30 miles off the coast and stayed with some elders there for 2 days.

We got back to Daytona Saturday morning and it was a disaster! Trees were down everywhere! Not a whole lot of homes were damaged though. Saturday night we helped unload 2 20 foot trucks and a semi. They were all packed with supplies for service. The church is so organized! They shipped a ton of stuff to us Saturday. On Sunday, over 1300 people met up at our chapel. They all came in service clothes. I had to park them all too. That was a pain but it was a lot of fun. They did 4 quick sacrament meetings for everyone then they all separated into teams and started putting Daytona back together. It was so cool to see! I got to see a lot of my good friends from my past areas. It was almost like a family reunion! We worked our butts off all day Saturday. I was exhausted by about 10:00 am but kept working until 6:00. We finally got home and ate for the first time that day. I'm still feeling it haha. Also about half of Daytona is still out of power. It's pretty crazy over here! 

On a good note, the night before we evacuated we were able to set a date with 4 of our investigators. They are all super solid too. The people we have on date right now are Brett, Henery, Marlo, Misha, Antero, and Shawn. Shawns a little flakey but the rest are solid.

Well I hope you all had as good of a week as me!

Love ya!  Elder Goff

Our A. Is the one left of the 2 smashed ones. #lucky



Cool pic of Daytona



Tree in background used to be where the road was



one of the trucks we loaded

 

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