From Elder A. Goff - "Testicles haha"

Elder Ika and Goff in the car

Hey everyone,

So last P-Day Elder Ika and I didn't do a whole lot. It gets pretty lame with just one set. We sat at home the whole time wishing we had got mail the week before so we could write some letters. :) We cleaned the house really well so that was good. Brother Alexander talked to President Gardner this week when he was in Lander for church and told him that the Elders staying with him are "EMACULATE". I think he was exaggerating.

I was going to beg Glen to see if he could find me one of those Green lasers off of E-bay. I have wanted one forever. It would be sweet if it was one of the pen style ones. I had one before I left and broke it. So if you can find one that would be awesome.

On Wednesday Elder Ika and I went to visit a member named Brother Banner. He is an older guy and the other set of Elders stayed with him when they were here. He misses having them around so when we get time we will visit him. Anyways he was sitting at his computer playing a game of solitaire and I was playing with a can of that compressed air used for dusting your keyboard or whatever, and he said you know what that is for? I said to dust. He said no it's to remove growths from our bodies. So I was confused and he points at a mole on his arm and says see I have one right here I need to do. So he uses basically like the wart remover stuff except it is cheaper this way. You turn it upside down and use a Q-tip and spray it. When he told us that I said I'm covered in moles. I'm very spiritual and covered in moles so they call me HOLY MOLEY. haha well no one calls me that but that is what I told him and so we froze a couple of moles and they are now non-existant. Holy Cow though it's a painful process. It only stings when you freeze it but a few hours later it blisters and gets huge and ugly. (Good thing I didn't do the one on my face.) haha Then it basically falls off. However I am going to keep the rest of my moles. It hurts too long to do anymore. :D

Apparently Lander is the place to be for the 4th of July. Well I guess 3rd of July. There is a member here named Brother Bills who puts on his own show, and has for years. He uses the same equipment they used for the Olympics and at Disney world. It is all we have heard about for the last month at least. We got to go help test some cables. We find out transfers on the 2nd. So we should be around until the 4th which ever one of us gets transferred. Either one of us could leave. Who knows but God? Anyways. Each 3rd of July Brother Bills has this show and has the Elders Serve Ice Cream and Watermelon to people who come. There are usually around 10,000 people that go. So they are coming from all over. Lander only has about 7000 people. Elder Ika and I will get to stay out past our curfew to serve Ice Cream, by permission from President of course. Plus we will get to watch the fire works. Last years I was in Hardin for the 4th and we watched the lame fireworks from the windows of our single wide trailer. :D

On Friday we went up to DuBois because it was our last chance to go up there before transfers. It was really good this time. We went through the branch list like we did with the ward list here in Lander and got to meet a few people. Then on Saturday we went to the Barnes' in DuBois for dinner. They had a bunch of the Single adults there for a little party and Elder Ika and I felt a little out of place. haha. Nothing like a bunch of cute girls to make Elders feel uncomfortable. We roasted hot dogs and made tin foil burgers. It was fun, but weird. As missionaries you just avoid girls who are cute. Well if they are members haha. It was a good time though.

Sunday Elder Ika and I made it to 4 different LDS Chapels. We started in Dubois and went to sacrament meeting there. Then we had to leave because we were asked to speak in Fort Washakie. So we drove there right after sacrament in Dubois. Our talks went well. Both of us said after that we hardly used our notes. I only used one thing I wrote down. Then the spirit took over. I spoke on Prayer and Missionary work. How we use prayer and how members can use prayer as well to find people ready to receive the gospel or to come back to the gospel. I love in the Bible Dictionary how it defines prayer. It starts by talking about where it came from and all that then toward the end there is a part that talks about how many of the so called difficulties about prayer arise because we forget our relationship to God. It's pretty neat. LOOK IT UP! :D After Fort Washakie we went to Lander and made it for the last meeting in 2nd ward. Then that night we went to Riverton for a musical fireside that was put on by the Riverton Missionaries. So I think that has got to be some sort of a record. 4 in one day. I was impressed when I thought about it last night as I wrote in my journal.

All is going well. I have loved my time with Elder Ika. He is a great guy and a great missionary. He will be a leader. I have a feeling that we will be split up after this week. We have already been together for 3 months! Time flies. I don't know if I will be here or somewhere else next transfer, but whatever happens I have hope that no matter what it will work out for my good and for the good of those I will serve.

Thank you for the brick of pictures you sent Tiff. I got them when we checked mail after church yesterday. JoliAnn looks like she is flippin 18. Every missionary who sees Joli says, “OOH man how old is your sister? Can I write her?" haha I love seeing their faces when I tell them she is 15. It makes me laugh. I tell everyone that my family likes sending me pictures of all of the fun things they do without me. :D haha

Now the last thing I need to talk about is why my subject for this email is "Testicles". Well Elder Ika and I finally got to try Rocky Mountain Oysters. The Bird's asked us what we wanted for dinner when we came over again and we told them rocky mountain oysters. So they made some for us and giant steaks. Now you are probably wondering if they were good, and I tell you that I am a picky eater and they were actually really good. They were sliced and breaded and fried. We dipped them in sea food sauce to eat. They were really good. I'd eat them all the time. You guys gotta try them.

I love you all. Hope all is well.

Love, Elder Austin Gene Goff

Some red rocks between the fort and dubois

Elder Ika and Elder Goff

Elder Ika Eating the Testicles

Current Area: Lander, Wyoming
Current Companion: Elder Ika

From Elder S. Goff - "MMT"

So yesterday I was really happy. one of the guys from my zone went home and his comp said that he was going to come and be with us for the rest of the change or til the gringos get here that are all backed up in the MTC. I was really stocked cause the guy that was going to come just wants to work and get stuff done like me so I thought it'd be great to be with him cause I know that Alderete would do it to so he doesn’t look bad in front of someone else. turns out that it was just a joke cause elder Cruz the other elder knew that Alderete wasn’t to happy for him to come with us so he thought it would be good to play a trick but I got my hopes up for nothing haha. Its all good though things will get better I just know it.

My buddy Elder Marcelino ended his mission and is most likely just about home now. He was a way great guy and I'm sure ill see him around after this is over.

In the morning I hit 11 months in the mish and it’s also mom and pops anniversary so happy anniversary guys. I can’t believe I've got 11 months already. Just about half way and it feels like I have just started. I love this stuff though the good and the bad, it’s all going to be great memories afterwards.

We moved our house this past week we now live above a member family in our ward that is awesome. The dad is way funny and he came up and was hanging out with us as we were planning last night and just talked to us. We also have an air conditioner that my comp is just so darn happy about. It’s nice but I’m just not used to it I think.

There are a lot of people in my ward that have noticed that I really do just want to work and that Alderete is just done. They always play with him and ask why he just doesn’t leave already so I can do some work. Our bishop messes with him the most but me and my comp get along great and we get along with everyone in our ward great too I think. This whole passed week I haven’t had any money at all. Not even one peso so me comp has been paying for everything I feel super bad but there is nothing I can do about it. I hate having people buy me stuff and do things for me so it’s been really hard and weird for me. we will get the money on our JP Morgan cards the 1st of this week so ill have money again and then hopefully get my new debit card soon as well for just in case.

I love it when people think I talk good Spanish. I know it’s not that great and I have a lot to work on and I’m not going to stop studying but it’s cool when people don’t believe me when I say I have got under a year learning it. I had a taxi driver ask me how long iv been I’m México and I was like well like 7 months or so and he was like oh ok well how long did you study Spanish before you came and I said like 3 months and he didn’t believe me. He said he was in the states working for 5 years and can’t even have a conversation with anyone in English. I guess I do have the gift of tongues I didn’t think I did.

well everything is going well just trying to keep my comp happy and not cause any problems with him before he takes off but I really hope this time flies by. We should be putting 2 baptisms dates this week. I really hope it works out. Love you all

lotta love GOFF

Current Area: Down Town Tampico, Mexico - Unidad
Current Companion: Elder Alderete

Pictures of Elder A. Goff

Water Fight

COLD

We lost!

Prep Time

Ready to go in

OH YEAH!!!

Elder Goff and Elder Ika

Pictures of Elder S. Goff

Hno - Roberto Leon y his wife Hna - Estila and the cake they bought me when we were at the party for fathers day

Me after they shoved my face into the cake :)

These other pictures were e-mailed to Elder Goff's sister from an investigator of the church.  Her name is Marcela Urbina.

Elder Goff's sister told Marcela that she calls him "Soyboy"  :)

The B Day boy

Elder Goff and his comp

Marcela is the one in the white shirt :)

Birthday Party for Elder Goff

From Elder A. Goff - "TORNADO IN BILLINGS..crazy haha"

Apparently it wasn't too bad though. I saw a picture of it just before we sat down to e-mail. It looked pretty rad. I Wish I would have been up there. I would have rode my bike right through it. OH YEAH! not really...but really. not really. ☺

Well Alright now about our week here in Fremont County, Wyoming. I have really been wanting a special treat. What treat could Elder Goff want you may ask? I have really wanted Tater-Tot Casserole. So you know what we did? We flippin made it. We bought the biggest bag of tater-tots we could find, hamburger, Cream of Mushroom and cheese. We called a member to ask how long to cook it and at what temperature. After we did that we put it together, but we added a special little twist to the concoction. We added Salsa Con Queso. We needed to spice up our lives a little. It turned out pretty dang good! It could have used a little more Cream of Mushroom, but it was still edible. Especially by a couple of hungry missionaries. We ate it for lunch and dinner. Our dinner bailed on us. Good thing we made a large casserole. :D

The next thrilling thing we did was fill holes in Brother Alexander's drive way. Which is dirt, so it gets pot holes easy. We called President Gardner to get permission to drive his 4-wheeler with a small trailer on back so we could fill all of these holes. He let us use it! He said he wouldn't trust most elders on a 4-wheeler, but he trusts Elder Ika and I. I thought that was pretty neat. I just sat in the trailer on top of the dirt when we rode up the road. Elder Ika drove. I drive every day. It was the first time he had operated something with a motor that he could drive since he got into the M.T.C. Anyways. We took the first load and filled in holes and noticed one of the tires on the trailer was kind of low. So we said we would air it up when we went back for the next load. We emptied it and went back and totally forgot to air it up, OR COURSE. Haha so as we were going down the bumpy road with Elder Goff sitting on the pile'o dirt. He thought to himself...Wow this is REALLY bumpy this time. So he looked over the edge and saw that the tire was now completely flat. There was no way we could lift it. So we walked back to the house. Got the car. Used the jack to lift the trailer and took the tire off and went to town to get it doctored back to health. So we spent most of our service time waiting for the trailer tire to get fixed that we should have aired up right when we noticed it. Moral of the story...Don't procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end. It just makes it harder.

Next story...Elder Ika and I have been teaching a less active guy who hasn't been to church in 20+ years. His name is Fred Black. He is an older guy with an oxygen tank and heart and breathing problems. The other elders were teaching him before we took over their area, but they would just visit with him. So we decided we needed to teach him the missionary lessons. Which we like to do with most less active and inactive members. The Lessons have great power. When we first started going over he didn't want to go to church. We taught him the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. Plus we started teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we asked him again to come to church with us and he agreed. We called and reminded him on Saturday night. Fred Black came to church for the first time in over 20 years. He really enjoyed it. The talks were by 3 dads in different stages of their lives. One who just had his first child born a week and a half ago. One with kids married on missions and younger ones. Then the last one was a grandfather. They were really good talks. Fred liked them too. He said it was nice to reflect on the different stages in fatherhood. Hopefully we can keep him coming. Our ward mission leader couldn't believe he came. He said he has been trying to get him to come to church for years. So like I said, those missionary lessons have power beyond man. Heavenly Father made that happen. :)

It sounds like you guys had one heck of a time in Cali. Joli E-mailed me and told me all about it. Even about her sweet tan. Haha you crack me up sis. You are just as goofy as the rest of us. Never Change. Glad you had a good time at youth conference. ;) If you know what I mean. You Dork. :D haha I’ll send you a personal e-mail baby sis.

I'm happy to know you have gotten a couple new ties. I will have you know that I ruined a very pretty pink one you sent me. I don't remember what I got on it, but man I would rather lose a white shirt than one of my ties. White shirts are all the same, but ties can’t be replaced as easily. Someone should invent ties that can’t stain. That would be super. :D haha Maybe that's the way I will help people in my career someday. Make ties for missionaries who eat like pigs. :D haha ok...maybe just a hobby.

I hope all is well. Keep being awesome family. You should have seen me talking about my dear family with a less-active member last night. I cried for the first time in a lesson in a while. :p Guess that must mean I love you. :D Love you.

Elder Austin Gene Goff

Shoot I almost forgot. We were playing tag last p-day with the West family and it turned into a water fight :D haha Hope you like the pics.

Current Area: Lander, Wyoming
Current Companion: Elder Ika

From Elder S. Goff - "MMT= Mission Mexico Tampico, the best mission in the world!!!!"

This week has been a pretty good week. I’ll start out by telling about a really cool story of something that happened to me and my comp this week. one day after the food an appointment that we had fell threw and we didn’t have anything to do so I asked my comp what he would like to do, he gave me 2 options of what he would have liked to do but I was like lets go visit sister celestina (a less active we have been working with). We went to her house and when we got there and entered the gate outside her house she came around the corner of her house just crying. We asked what was wrong and she said that her granddaughter (Monse) had not made it home from school yet. She said she usually gets home at 2 and this day it was about 3 30. Celestina was worried because she didn’t ride the bus thing home with her sister and she always does. Celestina also heard that there had been a bunch of kid napping taking place lately as well so she was really worried. She was trying to call anyone she could to find out where Monse was at. she kept asking us what we should do and we were both like we don't know we don’t have a car to go look for her we can’t leave our area and we just went sure what to do, we started to think and me and my comp were like well we should say a prayer and then we will know what to do. Celestina was inside but we said a prayer outside the house with a couple others of her grand kids and her daughter in law that showed up. My comp said a great prayer and then not even 5 seconds after we said amen sister Celestina came out of her house happy as can be and told us the school had just called and monse was still in school finishing up a test she was working on. I thought that was great this really helped me strengthen my testimony even more about prayer. It’s something that we have a gift that we have from god to talk with him. Prayer is such a powerful tool and we all have the ability to use it but we need to use it.

We also had zone conference this week which was great. They gave a time for us to share experiences of the past change or anything recent that had happened. I shared this story of Celestina and prayer. The conference was mainly focused on obedience. I also received tree packages which was awesome thanks you guys.

So this week we had a family night with some members in my ward that I think are great. Their names are Robert Leon and his wife Estila. Estila isn’t a member we are working with her though. She is a hair stylist and my own personal stylist to tell the truth. She cut my hair this past week. She and Leon have been married for a year now. Leon was married and was living in Austin TX. He lived up there for 16 years I think he said but things happened and yeah he is back here. But he is a great guy he has been a bishop several times and has a great story of how he was converted and everything. We had a family night with them this past week and talked about love and charity and later in the week we asked them to come with us to another family night that we were having with some investigators. They went and it turned out great. They were in a lot of thing this past week that happened. Because at a fathers day party on Saturday that we were invited to with the whole ward him and his wife showed up with a cake for me for my birthday. I couldn’t believe it but it was great. no one even know it was my birthday but he came in with the cake right when we were leaving and said that I had to go back in so that everyone could sing to me. They sang to me and then after, they told me to bite the cake and then they shoved my whole face into it. I knew it was coming because I have had the opportunity to do it to someone before but there were 2 guys from the elders quorum and my comp that all pushed my face into it.

My comp now calls me elder Roca. He thinks I don’t have a heart cause I didn’t want to do anything for my birthday. I told him that sense we did what he wanted to do for his b day we were going to do what I wanted to for mine and I said I wanted to work. We contacted when we didn’t have any appointment and we went to the party at night so I thought that was enough. It all turned out good though. Yesterday there were some investigators that invited us over for cake as well which was fun so I thought we had a lot of down time but I guess that’s all he wants. Things are getting hard and harder with him but I’m trying so hard to keep things good and not upset him. He is a great guy but he just doesn’t want to be a missionary anymore and doesn’t care what I think but its all good things will get better.

I love you all and thanks for everything

Lotta love S.GOFF

Current Area: Down Town Tampico, Mexico - Unidad
Current Companion: Elder Alderete

Happy 20th Birthday Soyboy!

Today is Elder Sawyer Garrett Goff's 20th Birthday!  I wish we could call and tell him Happy Birthday.  We love and miss you so much little bro!  We are so proud of you!  Keep up the hard work and know that you are in our prayers and that we are ALWAYS thinking about you!  HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

From Elder A. Goff - "What a week of not many lessons"

Elder Goff

Hey Family,

So Elder Ika and I have been doing a lot of sand bagging this week as well. The rivers have been pretty angry it seems. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday we sand bagged. It has been pretty crazy. It seemed like every chance we got to go teach some lessons we would get a call to go help somewhere else. We are both still alive though. President Gardner said we could help as long as we didn't go swimming. Elder Ika got close because he almost ate it in the water. :D So the flooding has been a problem. There are a lot of National Guard here helping with the efforts. Plus it rained all yesterday and the day before so there is more snow on the mountains. Most of the rivers have gone down quite a bit because it has been colder. By this coming Wednesday they are predicting that it is going to be worse than is has been so far. I guess we will see. So Elder Ika and I have a feeling we will be doing even more sand bagging. We have been in Jeans most of this last week. I haven't been in regular people clothes so much since I left to the M.T.C. I assured Elder Ika that it will probably be the most for him his whole mission. :D Everything should be ok though. The Elders in Riverton are scared the dam is going to break. :S I don't think it will though. Elder Ika and I would be ok though. We sleep on the third floor of the house. :D haha

We had Zone conference this week. It was way good. We talked about the spirit a lot and ways to feel it and pretty much the entire zone conference was focused on the spirit. I don't know if I told you guys this, but Elder Hooser trained a missionary before me. I didn't even know that. Anyways he is one of my Zone Leaders. He is Samoan. My companion is Tongan and they asked me a White Boy to sing with them. Elder Quiocho played the Ukelele. And we sang "How Can I Be". I don't know who sings it. And I had only heard the song one time before they asked me to sing with them. I wasn't going to do it, but I decided to do it anyways. It was pretty cool. I like the song a lot.

When I had my interview with President Gardner he told me not to feel like I'm not a good missionary because I'm not in leadership. I told him I don't feel that way and I am in leadership. I'm a trainer. I told him I Iove training. I don't care if I Do nothing but train the rest of my mission. He told me that's good because he trusts me with new missionaries. He said there are missionaries who beg to train. He also told me there are 15 new missionaries coming in next transfer. He didn't tell me if I would be training again, but who knows. Whatever happens is what is supposed to happen. :D I'm sure going to miss Elder Ika if we get split up. We have had a good time together.

Elder Ika and I spent the weekend in DuBois. President Baker found out we were going to be there so he asked us to speak on a talk from out of the Conference Ensign. Elder Ika spoke on "You are my Hands" By President Uchtdorf. I spoke on "The Rock of our Redeemer" By Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the Seventy. It all went well. Got the message across we wanted to. I focused on Hope.

I need to tell Pop's happy Pop's day on Sunday because I won’t get to call. And Happy Birthday to Sawyer on Saturday. Thank you for all you have done for me. I hope all is well where you both are. Keep your head up.

Love,

Elder Austin Gene Goff

Hope you had fun in Cali.

Elder Goff's new pet

Snake

Wow!

Elder Quiocho, Elder Goff, and Elder Ika sang together at Zone Conference

Current Area: Lander, Wyoming

Current Companion: Elder Ika

From Elder S. Goff - "Elder Morgan is gone"

Me and Morgan the last time I saw him


So this week my buddy elder Morgan left me. He is now back in his house in Colorado. He was a great guy and I’m sure ill see him once again. We’ll end up going snow boarding or something after I get done.

This week on Monday night it rained like crazy I love the rain and thunder and it was going on all night. The rain here doesn’t smell as good as back home I miss the smell of rain in the desert. It was fun to watch for awhile but the weather in the morning was so gross because it was so humid.

There were a few shootings going on in my area this week on Thursday there were 6 people who were killed and on Friday there were 20 people who were killed. It’s really crazy but we are never anywhere close when things go down. We are always on the other side of our area. On Saturday we were visiting a sister and her daughter was at the super market and called home and said there was a shouting going on outside the store and the army locked all the people on the inside. the sister wouldn’t let us leave her house that night so we could get home we ended up staying for awhile till she trusted that we could walk home safe. And we did just fine :) I had another sister till me to be careful because there are going to be people that don’t like me to much cause I'm from the states because I guess there was some kids that get killed by boarder patrol or something and made all of Mexico mad I'm not sure though I don’t seethe news.

One of the first weeks I was here in Mexico I met a guy who served in Vegas well I found him again. he was on the street waiting for the bus and I just walked by him but then I was like wait I think I know him and I went back to talk to him and sure enough it was him the guy who served in the mesquite stake for awhile. He couldn’t remember anyone’s names from mesquite but I'm sure ill see him around again and get to talk to him more I just think its cool that he was right there.

One night me and my companion were walking home and there is a short cut that we take that goes right threw a grave yard. My comp is very girly I guess I could say and he didn’t want to but I got him to anyway the whole time he was freaking out and thinking he was hearing things. I started to smile a bit and laugh because I thought I would play a trick on him and he saw me smile and knew I was going to do something and got even more scared. I got him to calm down and said it was nothing then I took a dash off the road into the head stones and all I could hear was a girl screaming who was my comp haha. He continued to walk down the street and I was a bit off on the side of him and snuck up in front of him and jump out and scarred him super bad I think he was ready to fight haha. It was great I don’t think he will ever walk threw there again but I had to do it I had to have some fun.

So we are working with a man named Jesus who is into cultural stuff like the Egyptians and Mayans, this past week he told us that he had a dream about us and in it we gave him chocolate and chocolate to the Mayans is really special. It’s something that is expensive and one of the best gifts you could give someone. We tried to explain to him that it’s because we do have a gift for him and a way that he can feel happier then he ever has. We have talked about baptism with him but he wants more time so we will continue to work with him. We will have a family night this week with him and some members that I think will be great for him.

We were also talking with a less active who has a non member wife and three kids who aren’t members. We were talking to him and he told us about when he got married. he got married threw the catholic church but to do so they needed to see his baptism record and he took the one from our church and at first the priest said no but the priest know it was real and excepted. And as well I guess the priest had a book of Mormon and D & C in the deck in his office because they really are more scriptures. The thing I thought was the coolest he told us is that when he and his wife were getting married he asked if the priest could marry them to be together forever and the priest said no only the Mormons can do that. How cool I that. I thought that was pretty sweet some master of another church even knows that we can only do that.

This week was good and this coming week we have zone conference which I am excited for. We have had some changes in the mission and it is making some elders mad but I think it will help out in the end. As of right now we can’t play sports at all on p days now so we can focus more on the work. We also got our district meetings changed from Tuesday to Mondays to take up part of our p day as well. I think that it will all be great and it will all help out in the end but it’ll take a bit of time.

Well hope yall have a good week and ill talk to yall soon

Peace out Elder Goff

Me and some elders together at DQ

Elder Goff and Nephi and his little brother, "Angel" Moroni

Me with my buddy Nephi doing our hand shake

Current Area: Down Town Tampico, Mexico - Unidad

Current Companion: Elder Alderete

From Elder A. Goff - "Week 3?! Didn't transfers just happen!? WHERE IS THE TIME GOING!!!?"

Hey Everyone,

It's me, Elda G from Wy-om-ing. Well here goes. Elder Ika and I have had quite the week, full of fun and adventure. Even did some sand bagging, but that can wait until a little later in this e-mail. First of all our second lesson with James Pulver went really well. We reviewed the Restoration then taught the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. It's just so incredible. I love being able to answer questions that people have had their entire lives, and I'm lucky enough to have been blessed with this knowledge. So it's nice to see people's eyes open as we teach it. James didn't have any really huge things he was concerned with. He just likes what he has been taught and he feels that it all makes sense to his mind and heart. So hopefully he read from the Book of Mormon this week. We didn't leave him with much to read, but we did leave him with a few powerful statements from the Book of Mormon. I think he is still a little shocked that missionaries aren't stuck up, and think that they are better than everyone else. He is a pretty neat guy. Elder Ika and I will be teaching him again tomorrow night. It should be a good lesson and we are going to try to set a baptismal date with him.

Elder Ika and I have been working and working and working and working, and the time is flying by way too fast. However, I think it's because of the effort that we have been putting forth that we are seeing the Lord's hand with us more than before. This week we had 3 referrals from members. One came to church with a member family yesterday. (Who we haven't even taught yet.) Hadn't even met actually. Elder Ika and I had to be a little creative this week for church. We went on splits with priesthood holders. Elder Ika and I went to Lander 1st ward at 9. Church in Fort Washakie starts at 10:30. So...Elder Ika went to the Fort. At 10 he got picked up by Brother Williams and they went to church out there. While I stayed with the Lander 1st ward, ward mission leader, Brother Hart. Then church for Lander 2nd ward starts at 1. So Brother Hart passed me off to Brother Quinton after 1st ward was over, who is our ward mission leader for Lander 2nd ward. Went to all of our meetings before church with Brother Quinton. Then walked into sacrament for 2nd ward and Saw the referral with the Cassidy Family. His name is Bryan Neal. I went to talk to him and he was just a really nice guy. He is about 29 years old if I remember right. He just moved here from Colorado. He played College Football at a school in Colorado and also played Semi-Pro ball for the Colorado Semi-Pro team. Played Linebacker. So we talked about football for a minute...OF COURSE!!! Then I started asking him about his interest in the church and he told me that he tries to surround everything he does with Christ. He said his Football jersey number was 27. Because of his love for Psalm 27. Just seems like a really great guy. I told him a little about the Restoration and the need for one and asked if we could set up a time to visit with him. He said He would love to and Elder Ika and I are meeting with him tonight. :D I am always a little scared to have investigators at church for the first time at a testimony meeting. Why you may ask!? Because some people are crazy. There is one in every ward who gets up every time and says something that makes me embarrassed for them. Like there was this 16 year old kid who got up there to bare his testimony and said a couple of things then stood there and said well...I don't know what else to say. Then picture this. He says "YAY GO LDS" and jumps and claps his hands like a high school cheerleaders. AT THE PULPIT!! Then says in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. " WOO" and sits down. ARG...Haha there are a couple of worse examples that I won’t share due to lack of time. So After sacrament I gave Bryan a Restoration pamphlet and asked him to read it before we came over and write down any questions he had. So I have a feeling we will be explaining what Testimony meeting is. If we don't I'm afraid he will never come again. ;) Elder Ika got back from The Fort right after sacrament meeting got over. So we had to be a little creative with this Sunday so we can go to Du Bois this coming weekend to meet more of the members. They are having a dinner after church and they want us to be there.

Then on Saturday we got a call from a Member in Riverton who was out with a friend from Du Bois and they were talking about the church. They ended up calling us and wanting us to stop at her house to teach her when we go to Du bois this weekend. The Lord is sure blessing us. Now watch I'll get transferred before any of them get baptized. ;) Oh Well. At Least I got to help.

Now about the weather. It's been really nice out. It got to 82 which I think was the hottest. However. There has still been TONS of snow in the mountains. And it's been melting way too fast. So Elder Ika and I spent most of Saturday filling sand bags and playing in the mud. Elder Ika and I didn't even know about it until Saturday Morning. We were just about the leave the house at 10 when our phone rang. It was Sister Alexander the lady we live with. She told us that during the night the river finally went over and people were out sand bagging and asked us to go help. So we got out of our ties, put on my Levis and my sweet ariat Cowboy boots Elder Leslie gave me and went to find people to help. We found one place to help in Lander and only carried like 8 bags. So we went and ate lunch at noon. Decided we had better go to Hudson like we had planned because we didn't get out there last week. We had people we needed to see. So we changed back into our prophet clothes and went to Hudson. We visited with one Less Active lady then found out that Hudson was being flooded as well and they needed help. So we went to help fill sand bags in our Prophet clothes. It was awful. So we decided to drive back to Lander and Change. So we did and Spent the rest of the day Sand Bagging. Boy we are sore because of it. It totally wiped me out. And we are hearing that it’s not getting much better at this point. It's even supposedly going to rise even more until Thursday. We might be in our jeans again before long. I'll send pictures. So that was our week. All is well here...other than the Rivers. Elder Ika and I are having a Ball Down here.

Have fun in Cali. Disneyland will be a blast for Joli. Our Disneyland consists of letters in our local Post Office Box. :D

I love you all, Love,

Elder Austin Gene Goff

Current Area: Lander, Wyoming
Current Companion: Elder Ika

From Elder S. Goff - "6 weeks gone so fast!"

So we just ended another change. I and my companion are staying the same. I was kind of bummed when I found that out but oh well we will continue to see what we can do. I really am trying so hard I just hope that we will be able to have some success this change. I know he will be trying extra hard to pull me down a bit cause it’s his last change and he doesn’t want to do anything but I’m not going to let him. It should be an interesting change but well get stuff done. I really think that pres has got like a trick up his sleeve cause there are 2 groups of missionaries stuck in the mtc in the states and I think when one of them get here something might happen with me and my comp and he will get sent to the middle of nowhere. I guess we will see I think that’d be great. He is a great guy but he just doesn’t want to be a missionary anymore.

So Parley's b day is tomorrow big old 20. Tell his family to tell him I remembered :)

Joli I went to youth conference when I was a sophomore and I loved it. We had it at SUU and it was a blast. I know you will love it as well so make sure that you go don’t miss out bud. There will be a ton of games but a ton of spiritual things that you will enjoy as well.

So the president of México was in Tampico this past week and things were kind of nuts there were a ton more soldiers than usual in the streets and all kinds of air planes and stuff taking off and landing. I live right by the airport here so I always hear them. I guess they did a big show at the beach because it was Marian day here in México.

This week we had a ton of lessons with members present. We sat up in the afternoon for everyday this past week for someone different to go out and do visits with us. We went to investigators and less actives both and it was good. We got a new ward mission leader as well and he is awesome. His name is Paco and is 25ish and is the only member of his family. He is a stud and he is actually trying to help us out. he says that there were some fried elders here in the past so the members don’t care to much about us but that we are making a difference in the way they talk about us so that’s good.

We did a service project this past Saturday for some members in our ward and had all the other elders from the crew come and help out. The lady was so happy about it and shared her testimony yesterday in church about missionaries. I think we are making a bit of a difference in this ward well I hope so. We have been doing family nights with families in the ward and they have been going good. We have been making relationship and trying to be there friends and then we will work on getting references from them. It’s a long process but its better than just knocking on doors. I mean we have found some great people doing that but its best when the members are involved as well.

So I bet Darbin is stocked. He is going to get down there either during the world cup or just after it’s over. It’s in South Africa this year and that place is going to be crazy!!! The people here are more interested in the world cup then voting for governor and stuff that is going on right now haha.

Well everything is good here I love you all and I miss ya

Elder Goff

Current Area: Down Town Tampico, Mexico - Unidad
Current Companion: Elder Alderete

More Pics from Elder A. Goff

Ika and Goff

People slide down this!

The Brick!  (Pics Tiff has sent me from home)

Top of the Falls

Yep!  That's me!  Always takin it to the edge!  haha

More Pics from Elder S. Goff

THE CREW - All the elders from the other district, from our zone, and me with my comp...  A great service project!!!!

The Crew again

THE CREW once again, but without Elder Cruz because he was taking the picture haha

In the crew there is: Elder Alderete, Lundstrum, Me (I'm the big white dude, the only one without my name tag), Rodregez, Cruz, Morgan , Macias, and Marcelino

Elder Lundsrum from Tucson, AZ and Me and my comp Elder Alderete

Elder Macias, Goff, Alderete, Rodregez

Lundstrum and me again

Me and Marcelino

Marcelino is from Fresno, Cali and is a stud!

Elder Goff and Elder Rushka

I know I spelt his name wrong but it sounds like that but this guy broke his arm in his sleep. He punched his wall when he was sleeping but he is way cool. He is from Texas and says he is related to Bunkers so I thought that was cool.

Samari Goff at work!  I have a huge arm spand so I could take out a ton at once and the brother that was there was amazed!