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.
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