Hello Family and Friends,

So Elder Godfrey and I got to transfers and we pulled into our parking spot and I saw that I was going to be transferred to Clarkston West in the Grand Blanc Zone, and my companion would be Elder Chandler!! I trained him to be a Zone Leader 9 months ago in Ypsilanti. Doesn't happen very often in the mission that missionaries are paired up with previous companions but I must've missed something when I was with him the first time and I've gotta learn it now! :) He's a great Elder, I'm happy to be serving with him again. 

   HUGE culture shock this first week. This is NOT the hood hahaha about 50% of the people here in this area live on or right next to lakes, most everyone is pretty well off. So just that in itself is way different, and with that comes a completely different culture that I'm not used to anymore! I call it, "white people culture" hahaha no I'm kidding but for real, teaching people in Detroit and then people out here is way different. 

Detroit=People who have been compelled to be humble, not very committal 

Clarkston=People who are getting by just fine, very content. But if you find someone who has been searching for truth, they are much more committed than the average person I've found in Detroit.

So there's the lowdown of our area. Our Zone is really big, it's about half of the mission (in land mass) or a little more if that helps put it into perspective. Lots of hardworking missionaries here, 14 companionships and we got 13 different missionaries transferred here at the same time as me so we've got a lot of new missionaries to work with. I'm excited for the work that lies ahead.

   The Lord blessed us as we went to work this week. The 1st week in an area is always a little funny since you're adjusting to all the new things and the people there, so there was that and a lot of miracles this week! On Wednesday we had a great one: This young man named Carson from a ward in our stake spent the whole day with us today. He's going to Brazil on his mission this next Tuesday and he wanted to get a taste of the missionary life so we gave it to him! Rather the Lord gave it to him. Being guided by the Spirit He picked a place for us to go knock some doors. We got to this place and there were just HUGE houses on this big hilly street. We got rejected a couple of times but we pressed forward! Then we got to this one house and it was the biggest one we had seen yet, and I felt that we should knock it! As we walked up to the house we saw through a garage door that was cracked open that someone was working in there. So we called out to him and he came out! He had paint splatters all over his shirt, obviously not the homeowner but just a worker. We started talking with him though and he was a super sincere guy! Just divorced about a year ago and had struggled a lot in a lot of aspects of his life with that. But He learned about Jesus Christ in that time of trial and found strength through Him and from studying the Bible. We taught him The Restoration of The Savior's Gospel and His Church to the Earth today and this guy was ecstatic!! He prayed at the end and received a quiet confirmation that we had taught was true. The bad news of this story, he doesn't live in our area!! Haha he lives in one of my old areas though, in Ypsi South in the city of Belleville. So we sent his info on over to those Elders and they should start teaching him shortly. Such a neat experience that shows you that you NEVER KNOW who The Lord might be leading you to or where they may be. If we talk with everyone we can and don't judge for ourselves who we should try to help, The Lord will be able to work through us at ALL TIMES, and His work will be unhindered by us. 

   I love this work!! This week will be a busy one, next week should be a good email! Have a wonderful week ya'll, I love ya!

Elder Goff

Bad picture but it'll have to do! This is of Elder Chandler, Carson and I.

Elder Goff and Elder Godfrey sporting their "Detroit Wear"

(above)

Pics of The Detroit Foliage

Pics of the new apartment, kitchen

Living Room

We sleep on the couches because it is a 3rd floor apartment and it is very hot!!  The fans work better in the Living Area.

Elder Goff's Detroit Hat Collection

Bedroom

The Elder before left his guitar!  Elder Goff is enjoying playing it as it is much like his back home.

No Time-Short Email today-Transfers Tomorrow

Won't be long today, I was trying to figure out college stuff most of the time on the computer! Quick update:

Shout out to my Dad for being an amazing Father for me to look up to. I love you Dad! Father's Day is an interesting holiday here in Detroit since not many of them are present in their families, but everyone recognizes the need for a relationship with Heavenly Father, so we were able to use that to start talking with people on Sunday.

I am getting transferred! I'll still be a Zone Leader, I don't know where I'm going yet though. My guess is Sterling Heights! We'll see tomorrow morning. 

Deja came to Church again this last week even though she had to come alone and she loved it! She is progressing really well, we taught her the first part of the Doctrine of Christ yesterday, being Faith and Repentance. She really grasped it and knew what she needed to repent of!! Hopefully I'll be able to come back for her Baptism in July!

We had a miracle this week while tracting. We prayed about where we should go and we felt prompted to go to a street about 3 miles away from us, that's kind of far just to go tracting but when we got there we prayed again and went out to work! The second person we talked with was Tamika. She actually had met with missionaries about a year ago but her husband didn't really want anything to do with it, but she said his heart has changed now, and he even picked up the Book of Mormon that they had in their home and read some of it! Taught her the Restoration, she understood it well and recognizes the effects of the Great Apostasy in the world today, really good lesson with her. Excited for Elder Godfrey to continue the work here in Roseville South!

I hope you all enjoy your week! :)

Elder Goff

Great Week!

Elder Godfrey and I had a lot of great experiences this week! Tuesday was Zone Conference, the last time I'll see President Gerber unless one of us gets transferred in a week and a half. So that was bittersweet, I love the Gerbers so much!! So grateful that I had the chance to serve closely with them for the time that I did. 

   We've found a few investigators this week while knocking doors who are really sincere and desire to know God's will for them and their families, I have high hopes for them! Hopefully this week they'll start progressing and gaining a sure testimony for themselves. 

   Deja is progressing well, it's so amazing to see the contrast between a Gospel centered life and the culture of most the people in the city, she recognizes it! And so it's so easy for her to recognize the blessings that have come to her and do come every time she keeps the commandments! She's come to young women's 2 weeks in a row now, and we set up another ride for her for Church on Sunday, but as we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting we never saw them walk in! Her ride came up to us and told us that her sister answered the door or something and said that they were going to drive themselves! But they never came :/ It's always so rough when you're expecting people to be there but they don't show! Especially when you have such an awesome experience at Church that day. We followed up with her later that evening and she said that the family member she was going to come with ended up not wanting to go and Deja didn't want to come alone because she was nervous! So lame excuse, I'm sure she'll be there this Sunday though :) 

   We had a really neat miracle on Saturday evening. We were driving to an investigator's house whom we hadn't been able to contact recently, and a few seconds after we got onto his street, as we're driving down the road, we hear a thud against the rear-right side of our car. We look behind us and see that this lady was backing up out of her driveway and didn't see us so she clipped us a bit. We got out, assessed the damage, nothing really serious, there really wasn't even a dent on our car, we just got some of her car's paint scraped onto ours! But anyways we start talking with her as she was filling out the accident report, and we find out that she and her family of a husband and two sons were actually homeless 2 years ago, in Salt Lake City, Utah! She said that the members of the Church down there took care of their family and actually helped them even financially to get them back home to Michigan! She said this felt really weird like some sort of omen that she backed into us, of course we know the reason why! The Lord will lead us to those He has prepared or He will send them in reverse down their driveway to hit our car so we have to talk with them! Either way, His work rolls forward! We'll contact her again sometime this next week.

   I love the Lord and His work! I'm not perfect, very far from it. Yet He still allows me to be an instrument in His hands as long as I remain humble, and teachable, showing love towards all whom I serve. May we all be filled with the pure love of Christ this week and reach out to those who are in need of our helping hands.

Elder Goff 

Pics of President & Sister Gerber and I, Elder Ferguson & Elder Bennett the current AP's and then your average Detroit house! :) 

Great Week in the "D"

Hello!!  I don't have much time to email today but I'll give ya the highlights of the week:

   There's a Senior Couple serving here in the Roseville Ward named the Coats, they're from Eastern Idaho! They took us out to lunch to Panera Bread, it was super good, definitely a highlight for us since we were low on funds this last week, it was a blessing to go out to eat with them. It's a big blessing to have them in the Ward, I love them so much!! Such great people, consecrated members of the Lord's Church. There's nothing more refreshing than being around people with such firm testimonies of The Gospel, and who are converted unto The Lord. 

   On Sunday our investigator Deja came to Church again! This was her second time, she's 13 years old, lives in Detroit, but she has seen how much better her family's lives could be if they all lived the Gospel. She's had a big change of heart! Used to hangout with the wrong crowd at school, not get very good grades, but as soon as she started meeting with the missionaries and living the Gospel more in her life she's started making better decisions that have changed the trajectory of her life dramatically! She is even planning on coming to girls camp this summer!! We're teaching her Mother as well but she is super busy so we don't see her as often as we see Deja. Hopefully by the end of this week she'll be looking forward to a date for baptism!

   On Sunday afternoon some of our appointments fell through so we went tracting down the street that our apartment complex is off of. We saw this lady sitting outside on her porch step, playing on her phone or something. Her name is Karen. So we walk up to her and start talking about how she's doing in life and how the Gospel could help her with her current challenges and concerns. She mentioned how her friends have told her she needs to be baptized but she realizes that Baptism isn't just something you do, and then you go off after that going back to your old sinful life! She actually felt bad about feeling that way because all her friends were pressuring her to be baptized and she knew it was a good thing to do! But something in the back of her mind was telling her that she shouldn't be baptized unless she was really going to commit to living right in God's eyes. We were able to help her see that the subtle feeling she had about Baptism being a commitment was right! We discussed the Doctrine of Christ, that of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We explained that Baptism isn't just something you jump into one day, but its prerequisites are Faith in Jesus Christ and true repentance of all sins. She understood and felt the Holy Ghost bear witness to her that we were servants of The Lord and that she should prepare to be Baptized! She said near the end of our visit, "I don't know what just happened! I'm shy! I don't jsut open up to people like that, especially to people I don't even know! I feel something I haven't felt before, but I can't really explain it." We helped her understand that she was feeling the Holy Ghost as we read from Galatians 5:22-23 with her. She's on date for July 23rd now and we're planning on seeing her again soon.

   I know that The Lord blesses us as we serve Him faithfully and diligently! I'm grateful for the many prayers that Heavenly Father has answered for me, I know that He lives and loves us dearly. He will lead us to people He has prepared to receive the Gospel, or He will lead them to us. Our responsibility is to not get in the way of His plans, and open our mouths to everyone that we meet. We never know who the Lord is preparing, they may be your neighbor down the street who's having a rough time, out sitting on their porch!! May we all follow President Hinckley's exhortation to all of us to "share the Gospel with all those in our on spheres of responsibility." I love you all!! Hope you have a blessed week.

Elder Goff

Here are some pics from today, President & Sister Gerber took us to Greenfield Village, it's this little town place that Henry Ford built for himself and eventually opened up to the public, Edison's Laboratory is in there, the Wright Brother's bicycle shop is there, and tons of other historical places as well. Henry Ford had buildings shipped by train and he put them all together in this one place. Pretty neat! The pics are of Thomas Edison's Laboratory, the oldest Windmill in America (don't mind the little girl that ran in the picture haha), then a picture of the 15 millionth Model T and it's engine.