¡FAMILIA!
First and foremost, I´d like to recognize the most sacred
birthday of all, that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, exactly 2015 years
ago. (D&C 20:1, D&C 21:3, Jesus The Christ chapter 3).
I´m so grateful for everything that He´s done, and though normally during this
time, we acknowledge His unmatchably remarkable Resurrection from the dead, I
too want to recognize His birth on the actual day that it happened. Also, the
Church turned 185 years old today. :)
What a week, huh? I wish I could tell you everything that
has happened, but not even a World Wide Web has enough space to describe how
happy I feel on the mission.
First of all, you all know how incredible General Conference
was. As for my favorite talks, I couldn´t choose just one. I received precious
revelation from my Father in Heaven everytime a prophet, apostle, or one of the
inspired general authorities opened their mouth. But let´s be honest, everyone
back home is probably talking about Elder Holland´s talk. I´ve never sweat so
hard while listening to a Conference talk. How grateful I am for both my
younger brother who would save me from certain death (international shoutout,
bro), and for my Older Brother who really did, in a much more miraculous and
sacred way. I thank my God for prophets and apostles in these latter-days.
A highlight from the proselyting week was the Pereira
family. The oldest daughter has been incredibly receptive, and hasn´t taken off
her young woman´s necklace since the day they gave it to her on her first
Mutual activity. She´s attended seminary more faithfully than Utah high school
students, and was practically dressed in white for her baptism since the day we
met her. The mother was progressing well also, until she received some private,
tragic news about her son that made her want to close off all commitment with
the world. We tried to show as much love as possible to shake her out of her
depression, but we finally decided to give her her space.
Then one night, we felt impressed that we should stop by our
recent convert Alisia to see how she was doing. When we arrived, we saw this
mother in pain, clinging her back. She was sweating heavily, and complained
about her waist. We called the ambulance just as the pain made her pass out. I
don´t need to explain again about the atrociously slow ambulances here, but
let´s just say that this is the second time that it took it 45 minutes to arrive
when we had an investigator blacking out and having convulsions. She´s in the
hospital now, recovering well, and I´m recovering steadily from my frustration
with the local emergency services. She sent us a few humble texts expressing
her gratitude, and we expressed more love and offered our literal or spiritual
help whenever it was needed. Pray for the Pereiras.
You are incredible each one of you. Thanks for all that
you´re doing and your spiritual experiences. I pray for all of you, that your
trials will be lightened, and that you will come out of them better people. May
we all remember what our Dear Redeemer did for us last week, nearly 2000 years
ago. Because of that great sacrificial affliction, we can overcome all of
our much smaller ones. I testify that Jesus Christ lives, and that He will come
again to commence His next great mission of resurrecting each one of us so that
the faithful can share of His and His Father´s glory, in His sacred name, Amen.
¡Hurra por Israel!
-Élder Goff
P.S.
Speaking of Resurrection, my blasted camera finally was
resurrected. Here´s a few pictures of our lame April Fool´s prank on Elder
Bonilla and Elder Roberts. Later I told Elder Rios that we had to begin a fast,
but because of the heat, we weren´t allowed to fast the normal way without food
and water, so we would be giving up sleep. He was so sad, poor little guy. At
10:28 I told him it was a joke and that he had 2 minutes to get into bed.
Hahaha! Luckily he´s a good sport. Maybe I couldn´t get you guys this year, but
I got the three that I´m living with down here. :)
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