Elder A. Goff and Elder S. Goff: From Elder A. Goff

Elder Goff and Elder Searle

This last week was a good one. Elder Searle and I worked hard and we ended the week with 20 lessons which we didn't do once last transfer that I can think of. I'm happy to only be covering 1 ward and 1 branch again. It's a lot less stressful and we can concentrate more on the people we are teaching plus try to find more people. Last transfer it was hard enough to make sure we saw all the people we had been seeing plus adding on all the people the other set were seeing before they got taken out. Elder Searle is a good guy. He has been picked on a lot it sounds like. He has 3 months left and has had some pretty awful companions who really gave him a hard time. He has a bit of a speech impediment and is kind of clumsy, so I guess they think it's ok to give him crap all the time. I love his stories. I swear he's got a story for everything. I'll have to record a couple of his stories on camera for all of you and I'll send them home when my card is full again.

Alright. So last P-Day Elder Ika Elder Searle and I played a crazy game of Monopoly. Elder Searle was down and out pretty quick..Like within the first 3 hours. So he decided to sell Elder Ika the green properties for next to nothing when they already had a house each on them. UGH!!! So basically Elder Ika owned more than half of the board, but I stood my ground for a while. Elder Ika kept getting lucky through my properties. Then at last Landed on Fenway Park which is one of the Dark blue ones right before you pass go and I couldn't pay him the $14,000,000 I owed him. So Elder Ika is the Monopoly Champion until we face each other again. :D haha

We picked up Elder Ika's new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Catron. From Manila, Utah. Which is pretty close to where Elder Searle is from. Elder Catron is a good Elder. They are already tearing it up in first Ward and DuBois.

So I wasn't going to worry about telling everyone I'm District Leader now, but I guess President Gardner knows me too well. SO He sent Mom and Dad and letter telling them that I am. Now that you know though I have to say that planning a district meeting is much harder than I thought it would be. I planned one out on Friday and it just didn't feel right. So I continued to pray to know what our district needed. What God knows they need. I sat pondering for over an hour last night. Then it came to me. Hope, Patience and Humility. So I finally got it all planned out.

I figure I had better tell you all about my shoulder too. The one I had surgery on. Nothing bad has happened, but within the last few weeks it's been aching a lot. So I lift my arm to my side and bring it forward and it pops right at my collar bone where it connects to my sternum. So I have talked to President about it and he said surgery could be needed. He said another missionary did that and went home for 6 weeks. Haha So as soon as he said that I said...Yeah that's not going to happen. So he told me he would send me to see a doctor to see if Physical Therapy would work. I'll just do some pushups and hope that it stops soon. :D haha it’s not like a killer pain, but it's enough to bug me. :) I'll just have Jason fix it someday after he is a surgeon. Stupid shoulders anyways.

Sunday Elder Searle and I went to Fort Washakie for Church and he loved it. This is the 3rd rez he has served on. He served in Hardin too actually. After I did. He was companions with Elder McQueen right before he went home. So that has been fun to talk about the people we taught and about Elder McQueen. We have a lot of work to catch up on out there on the Rez.

Today all of us Lander Elders hiked up to the falls again. It was a lot of fun we got a lot more pictures and videos. That water sure looked nice though. I can’t wait to be able to swim again. Someday I'll come back and swim up here too.

Everything is going well. Darbin will be in my thoughts and prayers. I'll start fasting tonight. Since I just ate right before we got here, but you can count on my fast as well. The M.T.C. isn't too bad. It's just that the mission field is about 1000 times better. It's hard to be in a classroom all day. Constantly practicing teaching. Then to see how much better the other elders are. We all have weaknesses and short comings. We don't have to be perfect. That will take a long long time. All we need to do is put both of our feet in and do the best we can.

Christ will take care of the rest.

I love you all

Love, Elder Austin Gene Goff

Elder Goff