A quick update on our all-out-war against the Cucarachas. We brought out heavy artillery with a new bottle of raid last Monday. During our last Weekly Planning Session, the Cucs launched an ambush on our Area Book, and a piles of blank sheets of reports. In our counter-attack, we found their nest in the corner behind a bunch of cardboard boxes. We spent the next hour or so going bezerk, causing not much less than genocide among the insect population of apartment 2C. Our planning session was shot, but the good news is, the Cucs are only visable in the morning just after we turn on all the lights and open the front door. Every now and then we have a skirmish, but I think we´ve turned the tide, and they´re permanently on the retreat... that is as long as we have Raid left. I´ll give you more of an update next week if Elder Adamson and I are not charged for war crimes. ;)
I´ve got to say, I think I made Elder Zollinger´s day with that one. (He´s the Elder from West-Point Military Academy.)
Yesterday while on the Subway, Elder Adamson started talking to an obviously American tourist from Massachusettes who was going urban backpacking. When he realized that he was from Idaho, he got so excited and took a picture with us. Oh man his Spanish was so hilarious. Pretty good, but mixed with all kinds of American slang: ¨¿Entonces, cuanto tiempo llevan acá, dudes?¨ He sounded exactly like the Sea Turtles from Finding Nemo. *Thick Surfer´s accent*: ¨¿So, where did you a-pren-der your e-spa-ñol?¨ I don´t know if he´ll put up the picture on his website or not, and I can´t really read their handwriting, but look up something about ¨Vipassana en Damma Sukadha (Brandsen)¨ I think that´s what they wrote down for us. So we talked a little bit about what we do as missionaries, and gave them some pass along cards, and they left all excited. Haha, I know that it´s ironic for me to say, but American tourists are hilarious.
So this week was pretty interesting. In the past few days, it seems like something just clicked, and we started talking with everyone. We were pretty amazed at the fluidity we could speak with people, and how we could turn even the most random side comments from people on the streets into sharing a message about the Restoration. We were really blessed this week with a lot of new investigators. We have a few families who are progressing well, and I´ve grown so much love for them. I get so excited when they tell me about how they´re rapidly giving up coffee, and love to hear their stories about eating 2 kilos of bread to keep their minds off cigarettes (whatever works :) ).
It seems that really the only thing keeping the majority of our investigators from making the covenant of baptism is marriage. That´s the issue for 99% of the people we´ve met. I´m shocked by the perception of a family that Satan has engrained in people´s minds and saddened by some of the awful things that happens to the families here. But some of the most spiritual lessons that we´ve had have been when we testify about the divine establishment of the family, and the possibility of Eternal Families. I want to testify again of the incredible blessing that families are. The family is central to everything we do in the Gospel, and even the entire purpose of the Creation, just as 1 Nephi 17:36 and Doctrine and Covenants 49:16 declare.
Even in the midst of all trials and problems, thank you for making our family the greatest priority. I know that as we do all that we can to come closer to Heavenly Father, and use Christ´s Atonement to rid ourselves of all evil and sin, not only ourselves, but our whole family, will be richly blessed and strengthened, and we will be able to live together forever in the perfect happiness provided by the presence of our Heavenly Father. I love you all so much. Thank you for your support. See you Sunday, and Happy Mother´s Day! :)
¡Hurrah por Israel!
-Élder Goff
P.S. Pictures! I´ve been taking a lot more lately. You should be proud of me.
1. Elder Adamson mocking Elder Critchlow´s classic picture position. They were companion´s in the MTC so he can do it. :)
2. Our biggest ally, Raid. ¨Las mata bien muertas¨ means ¨It kills ´em real dead.¨ That´s right. ´Merica.
3. This is a scene of the carnage that fateful Thursday.
4. I found this comic in the pension of another Elder. Frankenstein´s bride is saying ¨But we already have a marriage beyond the grave.¨ :)
5. (Alma 29:8) All the Book of Mormons that I´ve found in our pension. Except the Chinese one that we actually gave away before I took this picture. There´s Spanish, English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, and Japanese.
6. A view of part of the Villa from the roof of a member.
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