Week 24 Daytona Beach

Hope everyone had a good week. We had a pretty good one here in the Promised Land. The weather has been perfect as always. I guess it's why they call it the sunshine state. 

 

The highlight of the week is once again Hunter. He was confirmed Sunday and he received the priesthood right after. He is going to baptize his younger brother in a couple weeks. It's super cool to see his testimony grow so much. Here in Daytona we cover a family Ward but we also cover a Young Single Adult branch here. In the YSA there isn't very many people so sacrament meeting is always a struggle. Usually they have to call a few people up to bare their testimonies. Well they called Hunter up. He told us in the past that he would never do it because he hates talking in front of people. He bore such a powerful testimony. I know this church is true!

 

So transfers are tomorrow. We got the transfer document Saturday afternoon and it said that Elder Hawkins and I were both being transferred to Deland 1st Ward but were going to stay companions. Probably one of my favorite parts about transfers is making the transfer calls to the rest of the zone. We get some pretty funny responses. Sunday afternoon right after we said goodbye to everyone here what do you know, we get a call from President Clark saying to unpack our bags because we are staying once again here in Daytona! I guess he changed his mind. Elder Hawkins is such a good guy and I'm super excited to stay here with him. This is going to be 7 1/2 months of Daytona Beach for me.

 

Well that's about it for the week. I hope you all have a great week!

 

Elder Goff

 

Exchanges with Elder Roper

Drove by Speedway during Daytona 500





Hunter

Unexpected Visitors, Burgess Family from Clermont!



Ice Skating with one of the Districts - PDay





Week 23 Daytona Beach

This week was a pretty solid week. I got to tour our zone a little bit. In Tuesday and went on exchanges with my former companion. We had a sweet experience. Elder White and I had about 30 minutes before our next appointment and decided to do some finding. We both had an impression to knock on a specific house. We did so and they let us right in! Turns out this Lady's brother and Father are members. Her Father had actually just passed away. Her heart was softened and we were able to deliver a Book of Mormon with some powerful testimonies. What an amazing experience! The spirit is the best. 

Tuesday night I then went on exchanges to a different area with Elder Garcia. We exchanged back Thursday morning then Friday night I went on another exchange. We had another super spiritual experience. It was Elder Hardman and I. We were trying to find a Less Active member. All we had was a building number to an apartment complex. There was about 12 apartments to choose from. We decided we would just knock the whole thing. Well what do you know, the very first door we knock a little boy comes to the door and his face lights up. He yelled, "Mom it's the missionaries!" It was the Less Active family we were looking for. Again we were led by he Spirit. 

Unfortunately Hunter wasn't able to make it to church yesterday so he will be confirmed in church next week. We plan to take him teaching with us right after that.

I have been studying a lot is week about sanctification. Sanctification is the process of becoming pure in heart. "8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8 I feel like one of the main purposes of serving a mission is this, to Sanctify our hearts through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the reception of the Holy Ghost, and our faith and repentance. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

Elder Garcia

Elder Hardman

Week 22 Daytona Beach

It was a pretty good week this week as always. Florida has been living up to its name as the sunshine state. It's been sunny and 75 all week. So I've got some good news and some bad news from this week.

Last Monday I lost one of my best friends out here. Grandpa Vic passed away. He had been sick for quite a while and now has moved on. I spoke at his memorial service on Thursday about the Plan of Salvation. We are so lucky to have a knowledge of what will happen to us after this life! Alma40:12 "And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow." So that's the bad news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Good news, Hunter was baptized!! He is such a stud! I have seen him change so much from the time we found him to now. He was struggling a bit with life when we found him. Now he says he gets good grades and is a whole lot happier. We had the coolest lesson with him Thursday night. We were going to teach him about missionary work. We met at Wendy's to have dinner with him and we're planning to teach him there but there was a creepy guy watching us so we left. As we were walking out this guy followed us and asked us about our beliefs. Hunter jumped right up and bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the church. We got to a park after that and sat down for a lesson and about half way through the lesson, a random lady walked up to us and started asking us questions. I reeled out a card with our phone number on it and was going to give it to her when hunter reached out and asked if he could give it to her. I was like, "Of Course!" He walked up and gave it to her then taught and testified of the Book of Mormon. He is a stud! We've been talking to him about serving a mission even.

That's about the highlights of the week. We set a baptism date with a lady named Kim this week. We also have Hannah and Brandie on date so keep them in your prayers. Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

Week 21 Daytona Beach

This week is going to be short because I don't have a lot of time today. It's been a read good week with ups and downs. The biggest miracle of the week is that Hunter passed his interview! He's going to be baptized next Sunday after church. He was already talking a bit this week about serving a mission.

I had a super cool experience this week. So we had someone call and ask us to go to the hospital to give an old lady a blessing. We got there and she was in NICU. The nurses told us that she didn't know what was going on at all and that she might say some crazy stuff to us. We put a gown, gloves and a face mask on so there was no way she could tell who we were. The nurse was right...at first at least. As we laid our hands on her head she smiled and closed her eyes. After he blessing she kept smiling and with a tear rolling down her face she said, "You guys are the missionaries. Thank you."  There was no way she could tell that we were missionaries but she just knew. The power of the priesthood is real.

I hope you all have a great week! The gospel is true and if you are debating in whether or not you should serve a mission, do it. The experiences you have and the person you become is priceless.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Goff

Week 20 Daytona Beach

Wow it's hard to even remember what happened this week. Time just cruises on by. I guess I can't complain because I am pretty blest. 

So this week we had some pretty big changes. I'm sure a lot of you already know but there was a change in the missionary schedule and he way we track our lessons. We now do not have nightly planning because it was moved to part of our morning schedule. We also had companionship study get moved to later in the day. The whole reason this happened is so that we can get more sleep I'm sure looking forward to that! The other thing, we do not track the number of lessons we teach any more. Really he only thing we keep track of is how many New Investigators, the number of people who came to church, people on date to be baptized, and people baptized. It's pretty crazy! I feel like my whole attitude changed. Now it's seems like it's down to the basics: find, teach, then baptize.

Speaking of baptism, we had an unexpected surprise. We got a call from Hunter (an investigator who originally said he wanted to get baptized in March) call us and tell us that his little brother is getting baptized March 4th... and Hunters brother wants Hunter to baptize him. Hunter then said he will do whatever it takes which means he will be getting baptized real soon. We called the Branch President of the YSA branch we cover because Hunter will be in his stewardship once he is baptized and asked for his permission to go through with this. He said yes! Hunter is now going to get baptized on February 12th, get confirmed February 19th, receive the priesthood February 26th, then baptize his little brother on February 4th. His little brother Gavin will be getting baptized in another ward though. Keep Hunter in your prayers so that he can make his date!

Other than that not a whole lot has happened. Brandie and Diente are not looking like they will make their date for February 19th. We have had a hard time meeting with both of them. We picked up a new investigator who I used to teach a few months ago. Her name is Hannah. She was on baptism date but then her family gave her a lot of problems for it. As we were driving around, we got the prompting to stop by her house so we did. She says she wants to try again for baptism!

We continue to see miracles each day here. I was doing some pondering his week on the many tender mercies the Lord gives to us. I take them for granted too often. It's amazing to see his love for us because he is in every inch of our lives helping us along the way. 

Joshua 1:9

"9 ​Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the ​​​​​Lord​​​ thy God ​is​ with thee whithersoever thou goest."

Have a great week!  Elder Goff

Elder Hawkins and Grandpa (holding my basketball I have everyone sign)

Week 19 Daytona Beach

 

I know I say it a lot but I still cannot believe how fast time is flying by. I still feel like I just got out of the MTC! I guess it's true when people say time flies when your having fun. Especially here in the Promised land of Florida.

My new companion, Elder Hawkins is a stud! We are a lot alike. He came out on a mission 6 weeks after I did. He's from Orem Utah and comes from a family of 8. He also loves basketball so of course you know what that means. Since he just came from my last area we have had plenty to talk about. Good old Clermont seems to be holding up pretty well. I sure miss that place. 

Unfortunately Jimbo dropped us this week. We talked to him about some requirements  for baptism namely the word of wisdom and I guess he couldn't handle it. Agency is so hard to deal with sometimes. It breaks my heart. However, Brandie is still doing well. We haven't been able to get her to come to church yet. So if you guys would like to pray for that, it would sure help. Diente is doing well also. Unfortunately he didn't come to church either. It's a struggle! We did have a super cool with Diente though. We taught him about how to repent and then at the end he said a kneeling prayer pleading for God to help him change so that he could get baptized. The spirit was so strong. At the end he said he feels like he is already a member of our church and he hasn't even been to church yet! His date to be baptized is the 19th of February.

The other investigator who we have been teaching a lot is a kid named Hunter. He is a lot like me. His mom is a member and his cousin was just baptized in another ward. He is a lot like me so it's super cool. He said he wants to get baptized in march.

Alma 13:21-23

"21...Now is the time to repent, for the day of salvation draweth nigh;

22 Yea, and the voice of the Lord, by the mouth of angels, doth declare it unto all nations; yea, doth declare it, that they may have glad tidings of great joy...

23 ...and this because of our being wanderers in a strange land; therefore, we are thus highly favored, for we have these glad tidings declared unto us in all parts of our vineyard."

What a privilege it is to be declaring repentance to these people being a wanderer in this strange land of Daytona. And what a privilege it is to have had these glad tidings declared unto me! I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Goff

 

 

 

Week 18 Daytona Beach

 

This week was pretty normal. We picked up a lot of cool people to teach also. All of our investigators are doing well. Jim was a little sick so we didn't meet with him much but we ha had a lot of great lessons with everyone else. 

Some big news is that transfers are this week. Elder Dummer is leaving to go whitewash a Spanish area. :/ I'm pretty bummed that he is leaving. We got along pretty well. However I'm excited for ,y new companion. My new companion will be Elder Hawkins. He is actually coming from my last area so we will have a lot to talk about. I hear he is a great missionary.

Our days have been packed recently. We went on splits twice this week where Elder Dummer went with a member and I went with another because we had too many scheduled lessons. The work here is great! I hope I never leave! I would say the biggest miracle this week came Wednesday. We have been teaching a kid who is the only member in his family. He has been praying real hard that his family would listen to us. Well we finally got it worked out so we could do so. It was the coolest experience because we got to witness this kid teach his parents about the restored gospel. He bore his testimony to them and they couldn't deny it! As we explained how he Book of Mormon came from ancient American prophets the fathers eyes lit up. He said he has been searching for hat his whole life. The fathers wife only speaks Spanish so as soon as he learned this he started speaking to her in Spanish with a sense of urgency! Walking out of that house and seeing the excitement on this kids face because his family has started to accept the restored gospel witnessed to me again that there is no other place I would be than here in Daytona Beach serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Well I love you all. Hope you have a great week this week!

Elder Goff

GRANDPA - Vic