Another great week!!

Hey ya'll! We had a great week, very eventful! And I forgot to mention something that happened 2 weeks ago in my last email that I'll include here as well. So the night before transfers, President Gerber got a call that the New York Rochester Mission Missionaries were stranded at the Detroit Metro Airport and that they would need to stay a couple nights here in Michigan before their flight to New York would leave. So we ended up working with a set of Elders that weren't even a part of our mission for the day, it was pretty fun! We were both training again for a day. Then at transfer meeting the next day, we met the Sisters that were going to the Rochester Mission as well! All of them introduced themselves and where their home was, one Sister said, "I'm Sister Fuhriman, from Nampa Idaho!" I was like awhhh yeahh! Idaho represent! I said I was from Meridian and she asked if my sister was Courtney Goff? I said Yes?? How do you know her? And Sister Fuhriman said that she was in Courtney's BYS (Boise Youth Spectacular) group, so that was a pretty cool connection that we had there.

We witnessed a pretty sweet miracle this week! Actually just yesterday! We had a referral that came from Church Headquarters, she wanted a Bible. She included her name and address so we dropped by right after Church on Sunday to give her a Bible and to teach her about The Book of Mormon. She let us right in to her apartment and her husband was home as well. We had a really good discussion with them, he was raised with the Bible being read in his home very frequently, he has read it himself multiple times cover to cover! She on the other hand was just getting into things, and has a really strong desire to come closer to God in her life. As we taught and testified of the divinity of The Book of Mormon, they were intrigued! The husband literally said, "I'm so intrigued!" He had never considered that God may have spoken to his children in the Americas as well as His sheep in Jerusalem. They invited us to come back for dinner and a lesson on Wednesday evening this week, they are such an awesome couple!! Super excited to teach them.

Rao Olibiri is progressing well! We taught him the Law of Chastity last night and he was already living it! The moral standards in India are very high and he has kept to them, it was good to find out he was free of those terrible addictions that damage so many in the world today. He came to Church as well, his Baptism is scheduled for January 23rd, we're so excited for him!

Neto, Nze's 9 year old daughter should be getting Baptized this Sunday! That will be great as well.

Our Recent Convert William Lomas is doing very well, we're helping him get some ancestors' names prepared so he can take them to the temple soon!

We had a great Ward Conference this week with additional instruction on Sabbath Day Observance. This is obviously at the forefront of The Lord's mind, we would be wise to analyze our Sabbath Day worship and determine if The Sabbath is truly a delight for us! If it's not, we've got some things to change! For myself, I will not be doing homework on Sundays ever again! I did that allllllll throughout High School, and I know I didn't receive the great blessings that are promised to those who keep The Sabbath Day Holy.

One insight I had this week while reading Preach My Gospel. In the section entitled, "Repentance" it says-- "Bringing our lives in line with God’s will through repentance is a central purpose of our lives. We can return to live with God the Father only through Christ’s mercy, and we receive Christ’s mercy only on condition of repentance." It hit me really hard that if repentance is not the central purpose of our lives, then we limit ourselves in our progression and how much grace and mercy we can receive from Jesus Christ. It must be consistent, conscientious repentance. At the forefront of our minds should be how we are improving that day or that week. Our spiritual goals should be present in our minds all the time. This way although we are living in the world, we will not become part OF the world. We will be focused on our own improvement, and will seek to help others do the same along the way.

I love you all, I hope you enjoy all the pictures this week!!

Elder Goff

Graffiti pics: lots of them :)