Week 11 Daytona Beach

This week was another good one here in the Promised Land of Florida!  Especially because it was Thanksgiving week! Oh man I have been dieting ever since Thanksgiving. I gained about 5 lbs so I've been working hard to get back to normal haha. We get fed pretty well here.

So Thanksgiving. First we went over to Elder and Sister Corders (Senior couple missionaries) house for lunch at 12:00. It was a blast! Then at 3:00 we had lunch with an investigator and our good friend Grandpa. I was feeling pretty sick by that time! Well that wasn't the end of it. We went to another member in the Ward, Brother Ahrens, for a couple more pieces of pie and icecream. We had a competition in the zone to see who could gain the most weight. I thought I was doing pretty well until I found out that another Elder gained 17lbs! Not sure if that is 100% true or not but either way, that's a lot of food!

Our investigator Tekeam is doing really well! He unfortunately was not able to come to church yesterday so we are now going to have to push his date back until Dec. 11. If you could all pray for him to make that date it would be great! He is still a boss though. Because he is only 17 we had to get permission from his parents. Well that all worked out well so we are good to go! Unfortunately Elder Reeves will not be here for it. He goes home the week of the baptism! Oh well I guess.

I also had the opportunity to do a service project in the International Speedway this week! We were helping out with a fundraiser by selling hot dogs. The event that was going on there is called the Turkey Rod Run. It's the biggest car show in the US with over 7,000 cars! They are mostly antiques. It was a good time!

I was studying some scriptures this week and found a cool verse in Jacob 4:10. "Seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand." We must submit our will to the Lord and take his counsel rather than counseling the Lord. I have found that on my mission it is impossible to get anything done and accomplish any goals if you don't take counsel from the Lord first.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! There is a cool Christmas video that came out just barely called Light the World. If you go to Mormon.org you can't miss it. Share it also! #Lighttheworld

Elder Goff

Week 10 Daytona Beach

This week was crazy! So much happened. I'll try to keep it brief though.

So first thing, I got a new companion! Surprise! We still have 2 weeks left in the transfer too. It's a really long story but to keep it short, there was a situation that went down with another companionship so Elder Dummer and I are on exchanges until the end of the transfer. My new companion is Elder Reeves! He is a stud. We really get along great too.

We had a big change with all the investigators we are teaching also. Our most solid investigator at the moment is named Tekeam. He is a referral we got from a recent convert a couple weeks ago. Well Tuesday
night we set a baptism date with him for December 4th which is actually the Sunday right before Elder Reeves goes home. He is progressing well towards it too.

On Tuesday, when Elder Dummer was still here, we had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators named Shirley. We actually had the lesson at the church. She was sooo excited too. Man the spirit was
powerful too. We explained the sacrament to her and them opened the doors to the chapel. When she walked in she just broke down in tears because the spirit was testifying to her so powerfully. What a
miracle. Honestly times like these are the life changing moments.

It was just a powerful week because we also had Elder Schwitzer of the 70 come give a tour of our mission. We went to a leadership meeting on Thursday for most of the day. Then when we got back to Daytona Elder
Dummer and I got back together and had to give a training to some of the auxiliary leaders in the stake about referrals. Then first thing Friday, we headed back toward Orlando for another conference with
Elder Schwitzer. This time it was with all the missionaries. I learned so much! He said, "We are just here to serve a mission, we are here to become missionaries."

Well I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Goff



Elder Reeves, Deaunate, Tekea, and Me

Week 9 Daytona Beach

This week was an awesome week teaching wise! We were able to see a lot of miracles. The main way we have been doing finding is actually because of the hurricane that His about a month ago. Members of the ward have been referring us to people they helped clean up from. It's been a goldmine!

We had a pretty funny experience Saturday night. We had stopped to teach a recent convert of ours named Paul. We had a great lesson with him for about 30 minutes and walked back out to get in our car and it was gone!!! We had some run ins with a few kids in that complex the previous times we stopped by so immediately I assumed they had stolen our car. We called 911 and explained. Well, it turns out the car actually wasn't stolen. It had been towed! Apparently we are not aloud to back into parking places in that specific complex. We called a few members and finally got someone to help us out and go get our car. We didn't get back until super late that night.

Our investigators are all super flakey here in Daytona. They all are willing to set a baptism date but none are willing to follow through with it! It's super frustrating! We're working on finding some ways to fix this problem. We had a lesson with a lady this week named Shirley. It was super cool. We knocked and she came outside already almost in tears because we had stopped by. She said she already knows this is true even though we had barely taught her anything. We shared the story of Joseph Smith and then testified of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so true! She broke down in tears as we explained it. She was so excited! I don't feel like I even did anything that lesson. It just goes to show how this truly is the Lord's work. We are just his tools he uses to work with. 

I hope you guys all have a great week!

Elder Goff

The Indonesian crew (investigators) and Elder Dummer

Exchanges with Elder Amiott

Week 8 Daytona Beach

We had a lot of ups and downs this week. We had to drop a lot of people who were on date for baptism. However we also picked up a lot of new people who are solid. We were able to find 15 new investigators
this week which is more than I have ever found on my whole mission! It was awesome!

Tuesday marked the day that I have been alive for 2 decades! Man I feel old haha. For my birthday I went to lunch with Grandpa and his favorite place in Daytona called Steves famous diner. He literally takes us to eat there about 3 times a week! Anyways I at a ton of food there and was full clear until the next morning.

Thursday we had a meeting where I gave a training. I talked about how we can become a Sacred missionary. It was a lot of fun! I am getting to the point where I love to talk in front of people which I never thought would happen.

We had a ton of referrals that we contacted. A couple of which are Elly and Joshua who are from Indonesia. We went over to teach them and they just smiled the whole entire lesson! I don't think they could  understand much but they sure were happy to have us there. They are awesome! We also have an investigator named Warren that came to church. We also set a baptism date with him. It was pretty cool! This coming week is looking like it will be a good week!

Sorry for the boring email this week! I love you all.

Elder Goff

Happy Birthday!!!

Spending my Bday with Grandpa at Steves

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