First week with Elder Chandler

Hello Family and Friends,

First of all,shoutout to my brothers Shan Rodgers and Mason Rankin both serving
missions, one in Mississippi and the other in Budapest Hungary, both
of their birthdays were pretty recent! I love all of my friends who
are sacrificing their time, talents, and energy to serve The Lord for
18 months to 2 years.
   This week was pretty darn good I'm not gonna lie! We had a lot of
appointments and they all went really well.
   We're teaching Dee & Pierre Pirault right now, and the Sisters are
teaching their kids. Dee and Pierre are on date for baptism for the
13th of September!!  That will be really awesome, it's been a while
since someone I have taught has made that step to Baptism!
   We taught Pierre the Word of Wisdom this week and the only thing he
has any problem with is Coffee. He is willing to give it up though! He
brought his family to this devotional that the mission and stake put
on together where recent converts share their conversion stories. A
speaker there talked about the power of Priesthood Blessings in
overcoming addictions! So Pierre asked us for a blessing the next day
and it has offered him the strength he has needed to resist the
temptations that have beset him in the past. I know that I am called
to Teach those who will receive The Gospel. Pierre is definitely one
of those people who The lord has prepared to receive the truth. He is
always ready and willing to change, to submit to God's will, I love
it! I can't wait for his baptism.
   Here's an excerpt from my letter to President Gerber this week- "An
insight: The importance of diligence. Diligence is a lot of things:
Being effective, efficient, persistent, careful, loving, and many
more. Diligence is really Works with Faith. We could just go out and
work as much as we possibly can but without faith, it's not diligence.
I really like that, diligence is working hard for the right reasons,
with a goal in mind, working as hard as we can to achieve it. A
miracle we saw this week: The night before the I'm a Mormon devotional
Bishop Caudill asked us if he could drive us and one of our
investigators to the devotional the next day, we asked her if she
would come and even on short notice she said yes! So we went and she
had a great experience, she felt the Spirit there and knows this is
what she should be doing in her life right now. We briefly mentioned
the devotional to another one of our investigators named Pierre,
didn't even give him the address or anything because he said he
probably wouldn't be able to make it. But he showed up with his wife
and 2 of their kids a little bit late, they loved it as well. Another
Miracle: Pierre was able to resist the temptations to drink coffee
because he asked us for a Priesthood Blessing and we gave him one! He
recognized that and is very grateful."
    I know God lives and is engaged in our everyday lives! We are
loving it here in Ypsi. Have a great week everybody.

-Elder Goff

Elder Goff and Elder Chandler

I'm a Mormon Fireside

First day as companions

Continuing on in the work in Ypsalanti

We got transfer calls Saturday! I'll be staying here in the
Ypsilanti North area and will be getting a new companion who will  be
a Zone Leader as well! Elder Cooper is going to be in Ypsilanti South
with Elder Ferguson so he will still be in my District. Our opening
hymns in companionship study have been good this transfer because
Elder Cooper sang in choir back home, hopefully my next companion is
decent at singing too! Haha

This week was pretty great! There was a festival at a park down by a
river here in Ypsilanti Fridayy-Sunday and the Ypsi Ward had a booth
there, missionaries "manned" the booth at all hours of the day! We
rotated shifts and we were able to share the Gospel with a lot of
people, it was great!

Unfortunately we've stopped working with Cortney Goff, hopefully some
missionaries in the future will be able to start working with her! I
know The Gospel will bless her so much, she just has to exercise her
agency correctly.

We found an investigator this week named Alex, he's a Realtor and he
looks pretty similar to Dad, it's great! Haha I just imagine Dad as a
younger guy into doing Real Estate work and it's Alex. His main
concern right now is giving up time on Sunday to come to Church
because Sundays are prime time for open houses I guess. So we're
trying to help him build his faith so he can overcome that fear.

Dee and Pierre are our most solid investigators right now, they should
be baptized in September! They made it to Church this week too, it was
great to see them there. They are wonderful people, I look forward to
seeing them active in the Gospel and Church after having made
covenants with God.

An insight this week: I was preparing a talk this week for Church with
the topic of 'Sabbath Day Observance' and 'Elevating The Power of The
Sabbath Day.' In D&C 59 it talks about how we will be "more fully
unspotted from the world" if we Observe the Sabbath Day at Church and
at home. Unspotted is an interesting word, it gave me an imagery in my
head of how in the world as we go throughout our weeks and days there
is evil all around is. It splatters us like paint, leaving spots all
over our clothing. However if we hallow the Sabbath Day, we are given
a 'spiritual poncho' to wear, so when we get home at the end of a long
day, we can take the paint-splattered poncho off, to reveal the
unspotted clothing underneath. Evidence that we have been "in the
world" but have not become part "of the world."

This last week flew by, it's been super busy. I struggle with the
stress of everything sometimes, my leadership responsibilities,
training responsibilities, as well as taking care of my area and
putting in as much time as possible, and a lot of other things. I have
relied on God for help and strength and as I have gone forth and given
my best effort, everything has turned out okay. I know God will not
give us things that we can't handle! With the Gospel, we can attack
any challenge head on. Have a great week everybody! I love hearing
from you in email and letter.

-Elder Goff

Training, Finding and a Funeral

Hello everyone! I hope you've had a great week because I did! We
received answers to our prayers as we acted in faith. We found 5 New
Investigators and 1 solid guy who wanted to learn more, he is a
Realtor and he looked a lot like my Dad when he was younger! So that was
kinda cool.

We attended a funeral service for a man named Bob Moorer and it was
the most amazing service... The Spirit was so strong! I loved it. We
sang 'How Great Thou Art' at the end and it was incredible! I want my
funeral service to be just like this one, I'll tell ya, it was good!
Kind of weird that it got me looking forward to my funeral, it was
THAT GOOD.

Here are a few cool experiences we had this week that I included in my
letter to President Gerber: "Hey President! This week was SO GOOD! We
had Zone Meeting of course and that went well, I felt good about it.
Then we went out and applied the things we learned such as being more
focused during finding and continually having a prayer in our hearts
to know what to say and where to go. We did that as much as we could
and we saw many tender mercies and mighty miracles. I know the Lord
participates in His work as much as we let Him! If we go out with our
own agenda then we're by ourselves! The Ypsilanti Ward is doing well
and the area is flourishing! We've been disappointed with some people
who have been on date but then have digressed but we have been finding
more and more people to teach so that has been great. An insight: I
received a lot of insights from my Patriarchal Blessing this week. I
looked for patterns, and certain words it used more than once. I was
able to highlight some of the many gifts that God has given me and
make plans to hone those skills. One of the miracles we saw this week:
We had about 2.5 hours to go out Finding on Sunday afternoon so we
went out and worked. We went to contact a referral we had been given
and she is so ready to be baptized!! We tried her the day before but
she wasn't home. She is on date now though and have an appointment set
up to go back. Then after that we prayed about where we should go to
work. We had already been Finding in the area during exchanges but we felt 
that we should stay so we decided to do that.
We found a super solid potential who will be meeting with us at the
Church building on Wednesday to get a Church tour and stuff . Then later that 
evening we were in a different place we had felt we should go and we met a lady
sitting out on her porch, she was very receptive and desired to learn more. I love 
God's work! I know that we received these blessings only because we were 
trying hard to thrust in our sickles with our might."

I know that there are people all around us who are ready to accept the
invitation to be baptized and confirmed members of Christ's Church on
the Earth, however, if we do not open our mouths and speak with them,
they will never receive that opportunity. Let us open our mouths and
declare the truthfulness of The Restoration of The Gospel of Jesus
Christ on the Earth today! There is no shame in declaring truth,
especially after having received a witness from the Holy Ghost that
these things are true. Time is going to fast, I love being a
missionary! Have a great week :)

-Elder Goff

We found a weight set in the closet, so we set it up and are ready to get ripped!

Elder Goff with Elder Hartzfield

Love these smiling faces!!

Short and Sweet-busy week!!

 Hello Friends and Family,

I have almost no time this week, this one will be short and sweet.

We were busy this week! We taught our investigators Dee & Pierre,
Cortney Goff, and Depolo who are all on date for Baptism! They are all
progressing pretty well, we have been so blessed as we have put forth
our diligent effort and prayed in faith that we would receive!
   I did my first baptismal interview this week with a 19 year old
young woman who the Singles Ward Sister Missionaries are teaching, she
passed! So that was a cool first experience.
   We went on a few exchanges this week, Elder Hidie and I, I mean
because we had to plan for Zone Meeting on Wednesday, we are looking
forward to that it should be great.
  Wednesday we had Specialized Training and I learned a lot!
President Gerber instructed us on how to study more effectively. The
scriptures are an amazing tool, but if we don't know what is in them
or how to study them, we won't be able to use them effectively! He
shared with us that every time they have had a General Authority come
to the mission, every one of them has expressed that they study by
topic, and the Brethren study the same way. My studies will continue
to improve as I apply the counsel I received from President Gerber!
   I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve The Lord. I
know that as I lose myself in the work I will find myself. I love you
all!

-Elder Goff

Teaching with a Seventy!!

Dear Family and Friends,

The weather has been pretty hot this week, almost every day in the
90's and almost 100% humidity every day! We've been doing alright
though despite the heat.
   This week was full of surprises!  Thursday was a pretty stacked day,
we had a Mission Leadership Council Meeting from 9:30-4:00 PM and
directly after that, an Area Seventy named Elder Dunnigan picked us up
to go out teaching with us! He had asked President Gerber a few days
prior if he could go out working with some missionaries and President
suggested that he go out with us! So that's a pretty high compliment!
It was really good, we had 2 great lessons with him and he testified
powerfully of the divinity of Jesus Christ.
   We picked up 2 investigators Thursday named Dee and Pierre, they
were being taught (mainly Dee though) back in Kentucky. Dee was going
to be baptized but she ended up moving up here to Michigan before that
could happen! So she has really good desires and we are working with
her and her husband now! We also met with Cortney Goff and her fiance,
it was a great lesson with Elder Dunnigan there with us. Cortney was
able to receive an answer to her prayer when she asked if Joseph Smith
was a prophet. She told us about the experience she had and how she
knows he was called of God.
 Friday we went on exchanges with the Assistants, that was really
great! I went with Elder Andersen, he's a stud. We worked hard
together and talked about how the mission is doing. It was nice to be
comps with him for a day!
   Elder Cooper and I have been receiving a lot of Referrals lately, 2
of whom wanted Bibles. So we delivered those and talked with them
about the Restored Gospel. One of them is an older black lady named
Venus, and the other is a 12 year old boy named Nicholas! They are
somewhat interested, we're looking forward to teaching them more.
   The highlight of our week was going out with Elder Dunnigan for
sure, it was so great! We are working hard here in Ypsilanti, praying
for God to lead us to the elect! We have faith and hope that it will
happen as we go out and be obedient and diligent.
   God bless us as we move forward the work of The Lord as members and
missionaries!

-Elder Goff