June 1, 2015- Children of God are amazing.

¡FAMILIA!

This week was humbling. We had some good success, but I was amazed by the kind of people we met. The other day we met the deaf brother of the first counselor in the Bishopric, Matias. He´s a humble guy, and hilarious. He was patient with our pathetic attempts at communicating with our uncoordinated hand movements, and helped us say in Spanish Sign Language ¨We are from the Church of Jesus Christ. Will you come to Church with us?¨ He doesn´t live in our area, but he was pumped about the pamphlet we gave him. He might be one of the few people who won´t take it for granted.

We have another incredible investigator named Maxi. We met him infront of the house of his member-friend while they were writing a song for their favorite soccer team, Boca Juniors. Maxi was playing on the guitar-- blind. This kid has the most positive attitude that I´ve ever met, and immediately won us over with his countless and hilarious bad jokes. (My favorite one only works in Spanish, so this is for you Cole and Ry-Guy: ¨¿Qué se pone Superman desques de que se bañe? Superfume.¨) He´s teaching me how to read and write Braille, and so far I can read both the lower case AND upper case of the letters A, B, C, and D. Impressive, eh? Four whole letters. Hahaha it´s a work in progress. But it´s so fun to watch him read. (We looked into the Book of Mormon in Braille. It´s gigantic. Like six feet high in eight boxes. For now, an audio disc seems to make more sense.) Yet the most incredible thing about Maxi is his love for learning the Gospel. He remembers key points of the lesson that lots of people have trouble comprehending, he remembers the names of missionaries and members who present themselves to him just by hearing their voices, and he´s the most focused person in Sacrament Meeting. He told his friend the other day that after saying the closing prayer to our lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he felt warm, peaceful, and secure. He told him that he wants to get baptized more than anything. Please pray with us that his family will continue supporting him.

The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most magnificent teaching, healing, and unifying force that I´ve ever seen. I´m so grateful to be directly involved in the preaching of it to ¨every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.¨ What a sacred calling it is to be a full-time participant of this uncomparably noble work.

What a blessing you all are, family. I love you so much and for your great examples, and service in your own ways. Despite the struggles and trials, I love you all each so much. I pray for charity and understanding, but I know that everything will work out if each of us just does our part. Glory to God, and ¡Hurra por Israel! Los amo con toda mi vida.

-Élder Goff

P.S. No news on the camera. I don´t have any money to fix it. :P

May 26, 2015- La Gran Misión Buenos Aires Norte

¡FAMILIA!

Really quick Bike update: I got a new chain, but now the seat comes off entirely. Pfffft! At least I can get around. And the kids get a good laugh when I make it look like it´s talking by moving the seat up and down. Note to self: you can use anything around you to make a good contact- including rusty, muddy, broken down mission bikes.

I don´t know what it is about this area, but there´s a bad reputation for people not getting confirmed after they get baptized, even if they still come to Church. There´s a ton of ´em in Derqui 1, and we´ve asked President Ayre for direction in what actions we should take. Most of the problems come from poor coordination and inexperienced leaders. But this Sunday three were confirmed, and we´re working on the others. I wish every member could understand the importance of the confirmation. That Priesthood Ordinance is not just a formality; as I learned in my Personal Study, every other Gospel principle or ordinance is in preparation for, maitenance of, or has the purpose of increasing the power of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. There is absolutely no way to have a personal relationship with God without the active involvement of our incredible Spirit Brother, the Holy Ghost- who voluntairily gave up, atleast for now, the oportunity to obtain a body so that we could get to know our Heavenly Father even when not in His phyiscal presence. His constant companionship is essential to our salvation, and one of the first steps we make towards our Exhaltation. Elders, I like to baptize too, but stop drawing baptism signs all over the apartment furniture, and confirm your investigators. (Sorry for the indirect ¨dropping of the cane¨. I don´t really talk like that, I just had to rant for a sec.) :)

This Monday, we had an awesome mission activity for the 25th of May (a major Argentine Holiday). We played a mission-wide soccer tournament, zone against zone. (15 zones, but a particularly big zone split in two to make it work.) Our zone has some great soccer players, but due to a lucky shot and short amount of time, we lost in the first round. Dang it. So we played Ultimate the rest of the time. Thank you Mom for sending me those frisbees!!! Elder Ortega´s zone ended up taking first. I taught him everything he knows. :P Then we saw Meet The Mormons in Spanish. Lemme just say that the Candy Bomber is my hero. But my favorite part of the whole activity was when we as a whole mission stood up and sang the cheezy Mission Hymn together. President Ayre came up and put his arm around me, and I got a really sentimental feeling. The mission means everything to me. How dare time go by so fast. I´m going to put so much more effort into my Missionary Work, and instead of getting annoyed everytime someone makes a joke about how close I am to finishing, I´ll just smile, brush it off, and talk to the guy standing next to me about the Restored Gospel.  La Gran Misión Buenos Aires Norte, te extrañaréeee-eee. 

Hasta la próxima semana. Los amo a todos ustedes. ¡Hurra por Israel!

-Élder Goff

P.S. Camera´s still dead. I´m trying to find time to fix it. :P

May 18, 2015- 146 Temples and Counting

¡FAMILIA!

You gotta love Internet Cafe´s in Provincia. But it´s one of those
¨tough-love¨ kinda things. Tobacco smoke in the air, sounds police
sirens from video games like Grand Theft Auto and Need for Speed,
terrible Reggaeton music, and stray dogs stroking your legs and
barking at you. Five stars!

Anyways, Derqui´s still the bomb. Except the bikes. The bike seat
twists backwards to a 120 degree angle, the handlebars come loose
sometimes, and the bike chain comes off every five blocks. Oh how I
wish that was an exaggeration. It´s so bad that when the older Elders
of the area left it unattended, a theif stole the helmet and the
chain, but didn´t even bother with that old piece of rusted aluminum.
I´ll have to send you a picture once I get my camera fixed (that´s
right. It´s back in a coma.).

But Tita is doing awesome. She´s really opened up to us, and still
accepts everything we teach her. She´s excited to be baptized and
confirmed a member of the Church. She came to the Córdoba Temple
Dedication Cultural Event with her friend. Thanks for praying for her.
:)

The Córdoba Temple Dedication was so incredible. I admit that I wanted
to cry so hard watching the excitement and rejoicing of those faithful
saints of my second favorite country in the world, but I manned up and
held those tears back. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and I prayed
intensely that my Heavenly Father would forgive me of my faults so
that I could live worthily to participate in this glorious work for
all of eternity. One of my favorite parts was when President Uctdorf
called for the children to come forward and help seal the cornerstone.
Two little boys ran through the gardens, ducked underneath the
guiderail, and popped up right next to President Uctdorf, while all
the others took the long way around on the sidewalk. President Uctdorf
laughed and sayed ¨Well it looks like these two found a shortcut!¨ I
hope I´m always that eager to follow the call of all my Priesthood
Leaders. It doesn´t matter how simple our calling, it´s all part of
the Lord´s work. What a couple of little studs.

I love you all so much. A lot of you asked me to pray for various
reasons. Believe me that I will. I have faith that all will be well.
Please continue to pray for me, that the work of Salvation will
increase and the success will be more rapid. Time´s running out, and
our brothers and sisters need our help. May our Heavenly Father bless
you all.

¡Hurra por Israel!

-Élder Goff

P.S. No pictures. Sorry. Stupid cameras. :P #NeverBuyIndustriaArgentina

May 11, 2015- Derqui is the bomb

¡FAMILIA!

Derqui is the bomb. Elder Cunningham is the bomb. The Gospel is the bomb. I wish I had more time to tell you guys why, but I don´t. :( But here are a few reasons.

Reason number one: We have bikes. Well we had bikes. Mine fell apart from underneath me several times this week, and right now is in the shop until tomorrow. Two: The members are awesome. I´ve already made a ton of new friends, and they bring their friends to Church without us asking. Three: There is mud everywhere. It´s a five year-old me´s dream. But the bad thing is we have white shirts. I guess that´s what P-day´s for.

We have an awesome investigator named Tita. She has been prepared to a degree that I can´t believe to accept the Gospel. She´s very kind, actively does missionary work, accepts, and keeps her commitments, and really wants to change. We got nervous when she offered coffee to us, but when we taught her the Word of Wisdom, she described how about a year ago she felt guilty for some reason drinking so much coffee, and decided to drop it for good. Other than maté cocido, no hot drinks for Tita. She´s incredible.

I´ve been in Provincia before in the mission, but Derqui has reminded me about how humble people in Argentina live. Even the villas that I´ve served in are better living conditions then some sectors of our proselyting area. To beautify the area here, people get creative with old tires, and try to make a humble attempt at a garden fence. It´s better than a mess of mud in front of their lean-to shelter, but it still shocks me. It really makes me grateful for what I have, and helps me stay focused on what´s really important.

I love you all! Have a great week! ¡Hurra por Israel!

-Élder Goff

Pictures:

2145 We played soccer with another zone next to us, and I asked one of the Elders to take some cool soccer pictures of me. The thing is, for him to do that, that would require me to actually be good at soccer. Oh well. Next time I´ll just photoshop my face onto Messi.

2133 The Elders of Zona Austral. (Missing two other Elders, due to a family emergency. :/ )

May 5, 2015- Cinco de Mayo y el verdadero Día de la Madre

¡FAMILIA!

If you would have told me before the mission that I was going to be in South America during Cinco de Mayo, I would have pictured burritos, piñatas, maracas, and muscaches. Hahaha what a little racist, Elder Goff. This day isn´t anything special outside of Mexico and Mexican restaraunts in the U.S.

Transfers just ended, and a lot changed really fast. Yesterday afternoon, we were teaching a lesson when I got a call from President. I was in the middle of the 12 week training program with Elder Rios, so we weren´t expecting anything to change this time around. President told me that he knew we were in the middle of training, but he recieved an impression to extend a new assignment as a Zone Leader in the Austral zone. I´m not really sure how to be one of those, but luckily my studly new companion, Elder Cunningham is happy to teach me how to do everything, including finances, zone meetings, and riding a bike. (I finally have a bike! If that´s what you want to call it. It might fall apart from underneath me.) Please pray for me, but pray even more for Elder Rios, he was pretty sad about the sudden change. But he´ll do great with his new companion. I love you Virreyes!

My new area is called Derqui, (or affectionately called ¨Barrolandia¨ (Mud-land) by the missionaries who have served there.) Elder Cunningham is from Seattle Washington, and is incredible. I look up to him as if I was five years old again. I´m excited to work in this ward. Judging by the few members I´ve already met, it´s going to be an awesome transfer. There´s a lot of work, but a lot of excitement and willpower amongst the missionaries and the members. As both the First Presidency and President Ayre say, that´s the golden combination. I love the work of Salvation.

I want to echo the words of my brother Elder Goff about the importance of change. Leaving an area as beloved as Virreyes is rough. I´ve come to love the investigators and members of that ward as if they had become my own family members, but I know that God has a plan for us. We never go through something that is so hard that it is impossible to overcome. Change is good because as Ry-guy said, it helps us change the bad in ourselves and become more Christlike. There´s something I gotta do in Derqui to help certain people come unto Christ, and there´s something I´ve got to change about myself that I´ll only be able to do in Derqui. So I´m thankful for the inspiration President Ayre received to send me here. And I know the changes you guys are going through will eventually make us better people. See you on Mother´s Day.

Love you! ¡Hurra por Israel!

P.S. Pictures:

2108 and 2109- The first of May is the Argentine Labor Day, so the ward made a traditional Argentine stew called Locro. It takes over six hours to cook, and two or three hours of preparation. It has everything from beans, to pigs feet, to cow guts in it. And it´s delicious.

2115- I couldn´t go to the Despedida this time, but here´s me eating the food that the Bravo family gave me, slightly sad that I couldn´t see them this time. They´re so awesome.

2125- Some of the most incredible members from Virreyes, and my Argentine Grandma.

2131- The Elders of Derqui: Elder Guy from every state in the U.S., Elder Bassett from South Africa, Elder Cunningham from Seattle Washington, and Me from boring old Utah. :) I love Utah.

April 27, 2015- And suddenly, it was Monday again.

Huh? Oh! ¡FAMILIA!

But, didn´t I just talk to you guys like, yesterday? It was a fast week. ¨See that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength,¨ because missions go by dang fast, and you can´t do anything to slow them down.

It was a fast week, but a rough one. Like a speed bump when you´re riding in the back of a bus going way too fast. And it seems like it was pretty rough for you guys too. But I still love you all so much! You´re an incedible inspiration to me! Especially my dear mother, who forwarded me the inspired advice from Elder Kent W. Pearson of the Seventy (or one of the ¨mini-apostles¨ as I explain to my investigators): ¨Prayer is less about changing our circumstances and more about changing us.¨

Ayelen, the young woman who has been ready for baptism since the day we met her, was so close this week. We passed by her house before Church to make sure that everything was all good to go, and were greeted by her older brothers who all night had basically been thouroughly studying the Word of Wisdom just to know how to break it even further. Needless to say, it was useless trying to get them to call her sister, and after a good 15 minutes or so, we had to leave or we would miss the Sacrament, so we left, not really knowing what happened to Ayelen. After Church was over, she came to church with her only sober brother, sorry because she had overslept and we couldn´t get her brothers to wake her up, so we set up a new date for the following Sunday.

I know that Jesus Christ lived, died, and lived again so that all of our pains and suffering- whether it comes from our own sins, the sins of others, or out of the clear blue sky without any explanation- will come to an end. Christ suffered, so that we can stop suffering. I know that´s true, and that not only relief from suffering, but exhaltation comes from obedience and fidelity to the Priesthood ordinances and sacred covenants made in Christ´s Church today. I love you all. Read your scriptures, pray, and go to Church like good primary kids.

¡Hurra por Israel!

-Élder Goff

P.S. Pictures

2104 New Members show their faith and conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by their good works. What better good works are there than cooking Apple Cobbler for the missionaries? Máxima and Selena, you guys are awesome. :)

2103 ¨Boca Juniors¨ is a huge Soccer club down here, that has a ton of fan support. This player looks exactly like the Bishop of Virreyes.

April 20, 2015- More tears than the first time I watched ¨Charlie¨

¡FAMILIA!

This week was insane. I don´t know if this P-day will do more good for my feet or my tear ducts. I´m gonna man up and confess that I cried a lot this week. Because of joy, because I felt the Spirit, and sometimes in a terrible pain for the suffering of others.

We´ll get the worst out of the way. There is an incredible couple in this ward that has been working for months to get married so they can get baptized, but are getting slammed with paperwork, deferrals, and frustration. But in the meantime, they´ve stayed positive, and active in the Church. They are beloved by the ward members, and regularly give us lunch. At the beginning of last week, we left their house stuffed, and happy, giving their three adorable kids high fives. A few days later, we were told that the three year-old, Bastian, had died after being run over and dragged by a motorcycle. We sang the hymn ¨O My Father¨ through the phone to the sobbing mother. I felt the Spirit so powerfully as we sang the fourth verse:

When I leave this frail existence,

When I lay this mortal by,

Father, Mother, may I meet you

In your royal courts on high?

Then, at length, when I've completed

All you sent me forth to do,

With your mutual approbation

Let me come and dwell with you.

Rest in Peace, Bastian. D&C 137:10

Also, please give my condolences to Sister Prince. I loved Brother Prince as my own grandfather. I pray that he will rest well in Spirit Paradise and prepare for his eternal marriage with Sister Prince in the Celestial Kingdom.

Mom, you also made me cry a lot. Your letter to Noemí (with back pain) was incredible. When we brought the translated copy to her, the whole atmosphere of the house felt wrong. There was more smoke than oxygen, the girls were crying, and Noemí had eyes redder than I have ever seen. She told us that she didn´t want to see us, and she didn´t want her daughter to investigate anymore, so I started babbling something about how much we loved her, and awkwardly gave her the note. There was silence for several minutes. She must have read it ten times. She faintly smiled and humbly thanked us. When we left, her eyes were as clear as someone who hadn´t smoked in years.

The next day we came back, Noemí told us of a dream that she had. Mom, you were standing next to her in bed, free of pain, encouraging Noemí to endure the pain. I showed her a picture of our family that I always carry with me, and she pointed directly to you, and said ¨That´s her. I never thought in my whole life that someone would love me enough to send a letter from a country so far away. I need that letter in English. I know I won´t be able to understand it, but I need that letter before my surgery.¨ I promised her that I would bring a copy of the original, and told her through tears how happy my Mom would be that she could help someone even though she herself was confined to a bed.

This work is incredible. The Plan of Salvation still blows my mind. How great is the mercy of our Heavenly Father. I know that God´s work is to bring about the greatest happiness to every human family for all eternity. I´m so grateful to be a minister of the very Gospel that will make that possible.

I love you all so much. Hasta la próxima semana. ¡Hurra por Israel!

-Élder Goff

P.S. Pictures:

2093- Probably the only time that I´ll ever have everyone in the District at a District Meeting at once.

2094- I have no idea where this frame came from. But it made for a cute little family picture. :P