Dear Family and Friends,
Great week, such a great week! So many good experiences to share with such little time! It's been brought to my attention that you don't know anything about President & Sister Cleveland! That makes sense because I neglected to tell you about them. Sorry about that! Here's a little bit about the Cleveland's: They met each other in high school and Sister Cleveland wasn't a member of the Church! She attended high school seminary a full year before was baptized. Then when President Cleveland got back from his mission, they got married and raised their family in Fresno California. He was the Stake President there for 9.5 years before this call to Detroit! He's a CPA by trade and Sister Cleveland is a stay at home Mom and an AMAZING baker (I testify, she's good!). If you have any other questions about them let me know, I'll see what I can do haha!
On Wednesday morning we had Zone Meeting, and it was all about finding people to teach. Especially the principle of talking with and inviting everyone we meet to learn more about the Gospel. We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people we've had to teach and that our Zone is teaching since the meeting and we know it will continue to as we exercise our faith.
On Thursday morning we prayed that we would be able to find someone to teach as we went to a store to contact people. We walked into this store and we wandered over to a certain aisle where there was a worker stacking and organizing things and we just struck up a conversation with her. We taught the Restoration right there in the store and she ended up being really interested! I had never really done that in my mission before, it was a big testimony to me that God hears and answers our prayers, and that if we pray in faith, go and act in
trust that The Lord will bless you with what you asked for, He always answers our prayers. Sometimes we pray for miracles, but forget that we can be the miracle! We can do miracles according to our faith, and if it's within the Lord's will for us at this given time. If we would've just prayed for someone to teach and walked around the store but not talked with anyone, would we have found this worker who is really interested? No, we would not! But because we acted in faith and trust, The Lord provided. I love that principle!
On Saturday afternoon we walked across our apartment complex to go try this lady whom we had taught a little bit ago but had lost contact with for a week. On the way we saw this man working on the taillights of his Jeep, and we started talking with him. Turns out he just retired earlier this year, and he has had a super huge turnaround in his life! Used to party a lot, struggled with addictions to cigarettes and alcohol, but he was guided to Church, where he learned to really pray and rely on the Savior to help him. As we taught him the Restoration the Spirit bore witness to Him that we were The Lord's servants and that he needed to hear more of what we had to teach. We set up an appointment with him for
Sunday afternoon to bring him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We saw him
on Sunday and had another great lesson with him! He is sincerely seeking the truth, and I know he will find it. He already has a pretty firm understanding of the Bible and what the doctrines therein really mean, rather than just man's own private interpretations of the scriptures. He's excited to study the Book of Mormon and knows what it means if it is true! Such a prepared man. His wife has cancer and they've been struggling with that the past few years, they are just the nicest people though, I love them!
I am grateful for my testimony of the Book of Mormon, being another testament of Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer, and I love Him! I'm so happy I have the opportunity every single day to invite others to come to know of these same glorious truths, and that Christ has restored His Church to the Earth today, giving us His Gospel anew. I love all of you and hope you have a fantastic week! Let me know of your own missionary experiences you are having in your lives.
Elder Goff
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