I wish I could have prepared for Humidity in Mission Prep (Sent November 25, 2013)

Familia,

It´s freaking hot down here. And insanely humid. Man, I can´t believe this. But it´s okay, because it´s only spring, so the worst is yet to come. :P I can´t really translate Celsius into Fahrenheit perfectly yet, but I think when it all comes down to it, the thermometers are reading 1,000 degrees. I miss the snow.

Whew, now that all of the murmuring is over with... ¡Buenas tardes! What a week. I wish I could talk more about my investigators, but sadly it was just a bit slow on the proselyting side of things despite our efforts. We had some great lessons, but there weren´t very many of them.

BUT! There is hope for the people of Argentina! At the beginning of the week, my companion and I went into a grocery store to buy some things for our Emergency Box which was old and damaged. Guess what was playing on the radio? ¨On Top of the World¨ by Imagine Dragons. That´s right. The last song that I listened to before I got set-apart. Can you believe that? Finally something other than rap, heavy metal, OneDirection or any of the other misrepresentations of American music slipped through the cultural barrier. :)

My zone had interviews with the Mission President this week, which was incredible. This man blows my mind. He could almost be my father. Obviously he´s not, but he shows his Christlike love in such a way that it almost feels like that. He and his wife never criticize a missionary. They compliment and encourage us so effectively that we feel compelled to live up to their expectations. I´ve never felt so good about myself while being inwardly chastized. If we could hear Christ´s voice when He rebukes us, I think it would sound a little bit like that. When we are humble, and spoken to with that divine charity, our familiar love we have for Him as our Older Brother and Redeemer of our souls causes us to be driven to change, and to shun sin from our hearts.

Also, our power went out. I´m not sure why, because I couldn´t understand the repairman (all the talk about understanding last week was mostly meant for the gospel discussions. Not technical engineering terms.) But we were without power for three days. I´m not going to lie, it was actually kinda fun, except for at night when Elder Mason would mention Slenderman. But the experience caused me to notice something interesting about myself. Satan seems to be trying to get me distracted by annoyances. But I´m not really bothered by the bigger things. Strangely enough, I enjoy the cold showers, power outages, and surviving dangerous streets all as part of the ¨missionary adventure¨. But sometimes the little things slowly overrun my attention.

Like the scriptures say, ¨by small and simple things, are great things brought to pass.¨ I think that many times that goes for the way both God and the devil do things. Like I said, the bigger things are obvious assaults that, when faced head-on with a lot of faith, can be overcome. But the smaller things that slowly chip away at you, like a companion singing in a chimpmunk voice, are dangerous for a different reason. If you don´t practice patience at all times, and always keep an attitude of seeking the best in people, the little annoyances will distract you until you lose sight of the vision.

Just incase that happens, like it unfortunately does to me occasionally, let me remind you what that vision is. It´s that everyone, no matter how faulted they appear, is a child of the most omnipotent, most loving, and most awesome being in the universe. A Heavenly Father whose entire existance is set upon the perfecting of this person- and all His children- and who daily begs our cooperation in this most noble of all works. By seeking to find and encourage this good in ourselves, and in others in a loving manner, we will find ourselves in the happiest state that we can be. Because we will be worthy to be, and through the Holy Spirit, actually be in the presence of that very God.

I pray that we can all remember this perspective of long-suffering, en el nombre de nuestro Santo Salvador, Jesucristo, Amén.

Hasta la próxima semana. ¡Feliz cumple, mamá! ¡Te amo muchísimo!

Élder Goff