To be? Or not to be?

  I think a lot about the choices I have made throughout my life, I think we all do.  More recently I have due to the end of this phase of my life, and the beginning of another.  I haven't always been who I am today.  I have become who I am through the choices I have made.  I am realizing more and more that I still have so much to work on.  I wont be done progressing just because I have fulfilled my mission and returned honorable.  Life is not a "to do list".  We should always think of our lives as a "to be list".  "To be or not to be that is surely a good question." (What manner of men ought ye to be? LYNN G. ROBBINS April 2011 General conference) 
   Since my mission is coming to an end, and I have so much I want to become I decided to make my own "To Be" list for my last mission newsletter article.  In the same talk Elder Robbins said, "Many of us create to do lists to remind us of things we want to accomplish. But people rarely have to be lists. Why? To do’s are activities or events that can be checked off the list when done. To be, however, is never done. You can’t earn checkmarks with to be’s. I can take my wife out for a lovely evening this Friday, which is a to do. But being a good husband is not an event; it needs to be part of my nature—my character, or who I am."  So this is my plan, to make these things part of my nature.

  My To Be List

Be the kind of man who honors his covenants.  Be who I am, but even better tomorrow.  Be a missionary.  Be someone who sets goals to accomplish them.  Be the man who isn't afraid of things that are tough.  Be humble, yet confident.  Be a prayerful man.  Be a man who feasts upon the scriptures daily.  Be a man who overcomes, and achieves.  Be a man who never forgets the things he's been taught.  Be an honorable priesthood holder.  Be a good man.  Be happy.  Be the kind of husband and father you know you should be.  Be energetic.  Be the man who remembers his roots.  Be the man who loves his family, no matter the decisions they make.  Be kind.  Be a man who does not judge.  Be a servant.  Be a man who works hard.  Be strong.  Be the man who remembers with fondness his mission.  Be a man who is in the world, but not of the world.  Be a man who gives what he can to help.  Be a man who keeps the sabbath day holy.  Be a man who goes to the temple regularly.  Be a man who is an example to the youth.  Be the man who always shares his testimony with others. Be Patient.  Be Diligent.  Be like Captain Moroni, and shake the very powers of hell.  Be like Ammon and glory in the Lord.  Be like the Brother of Jared and have great faith.  Be like Nephi and never question the commandments, but go and do.  Be like King Benjamin and serve to the end.  Be like Abinadi and never deny your testimony.  Be like Jesus Christ and be perfect.  To Be?  Or Not to Be?  That is surely a good question.  This is the kind of person I want to BE.

Hear, Remember, Understand, Apply and BECOME.

I hope I will be able to make these things part of my nature and less of a to do list.

Leaving home to get home.

I am going home soon, and it is all very exciting.  However, I feel like I have to leave home to get home.  Montana and Wyoming have become home to me, and yet Bunkerville, NV will always be home.  I was taught by my trainer to stand in Fast and Testimony meeting in a new area and to introduce myself and also let the people know that I do have a testimony.  So that's what I have done. I stand and say, "I am Elder Goff, I am from Bunkerville, NV.

   Now as I go back to Bunkerville and stand before them to give a report on my mission;

 I will say,

" I am Elder Goff, I'm from Hardin, MT.

I'm Elder Goff, I'm from East Helena, MT.

I'm Elder Goff, I'm from Lander, WY.

I'm Elder Goff, I'm from Worland, WY.

I'm Elder Goff, I'm from Billings, Mt.

These Places have become home."

"My Thoughts are Racing"

My thoughts are racing,

cause time has too.

Its hard for me,

to express to you.

The things I've learned,

and the things I've seen.

And the things I've felt,

because of these.

-Elder Austin Gene Goff

   I have felt so many feelings in the last couple three weeks.  I'm finding myself more and more trying to put into words the things I am feeling.  To me its as an old companion expressed before he left to go home, "In the last transfer of your mission you feel every emotion possible."  I have come to find out that is completely true.  I have felt so many things that I have such a hard time expressing to the people around me, or even to my family at home through my weekly e-mails. 

   I feel like Moroni in the Book of Ether from the Book of Mormon when he says, "Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.

   And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness."

   This verse of scripture fits the way I feel.  When I speak by the spirit as a missionary I feel powerful and great.  That I am going to miss.  The feelings I feel now are powerful and great, things that I cannot express.  That's why I am struggling to put my feelings that I feel into words that can truly express my thoughts and feelings.  I am convinced there are not words which could do such a thing.  It's impossible to come up with words or vocabulary that would help someone understand what a missionary feels at the end of their service.  So my humble poem will have to suffice.

It wasn't convenient for Chirst, Why should it be convenient for us?

When Christ had fasted for 40 days Satan came to him tempting him.  I'd like to focus on the first temptation.  Turning the stone into bread.  I will use parts of a talk given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland.

“If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”

"Whatever else Satan may do, he will certainly appeal to our appetites. Far better to play on natural, acknowledged needs than struggle to plant in us artificial ones. Here Jesus experiences the real and very understandable hunger for food by which he must sustain his mortal life. We would not deny anyone this relief, certainly we would not deny the Son of Man. Israel had its manna in the wilderness. This is Israel’s God. He has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Why not eat? He seems ready to break his fast, or surely must soon. Why not simply turn the stones to bread and eat?

The temptation is not in the eating. He has eaten before, he will soon eat again, he must eat for the rest of his mortal life. The temptation, at least the part I wish to focus on, is to do it this way, to get his bread—his physical satisfaction, relief for his human appetite—the easy way, by abuse of power and without a willingness to wait for the right time and the right way. It is the temptation to be the convenient Messiah. Why do things the hard way? Why walk to the shop—or bakery? Why travel all the way home? Why deny yourself satisfaction when with ever such a slight compromise you might enjoy this much-needed nourishment? But Christ will not ask selfishly for unearned bread. He will postpone gratification, indefinitely if necessary, rather than appease appetite—even ravenous appetite—with what is not his."

"A disciple of Christ must be willing to say, “Yes, but not this way.”

  There are many things in this world to be tempted by, and yet if we do our best to follow Jesus Christ we will find ourselves saying, "yes, but not this way."  By following Jesus Christ the best we can the temptations which do so easily beset us become something much easier.  I know that if we live within the bounds the Lord has set we will be able to be truly happy.  Not happiness for a second or for a day or two, but forever.  The bread that Satan offers is "BOGUS BREAD".  It's fake, it's lame, it's garbage, it's a load of bologna.  Jesus Christ offers the real deal, and he offers it the way it's supposed.  He offers freshly baked bread that is never ending.  It will always be fresh, warm and constantly, and consistently coming out of the oven. 

   Sometimes as a missionary at the end of the day I am so tired and beat that we plan, fill out the area book, get ready for bed, and while waiting for my companion I lie on my bed.  We have companion prayer and I lie down again...then I realize that I never said my personal prayer.  I think about praying as I lie down..I have even started praying at times and thanking him for the day...Then I always get a voice saying...PROVE IT!  Prove that you are thankful for the day by kneeling in prayer.  It may be easier to not kneel because I am so tired.  However, I get out of bed and kneel in prayer.  I don't make it a short prayer so I can go to sleep.  I do by best to talk to God.  To thank him for all the thing he has given me. 

   The talk I pulled this from is called "The Inconvenient Messiah"  It talks a lot about how life for Christ was not convenient, so why should it be convenient for us?  It's not convenient for me to get out of bed when I am dead tired to pray, but I know that I am indebted to God forever.  So why not make life inconvenient and Follow Jesus Christ.  It may be inconvenient at times, but it's much less inconvenient than the consequences of sin.   So follow Christ and be happy.  That's my blog for the day.  Loves.

Online Missionary work.

Prophecy about the Future of Missionary Work

In 1974, President Spencer W. Kimball issued an amazing prophecy about the technology driving the gospel message.

Technology will help spread the gospel. We need to enlarge our field of operation.… The Lord will lay in our hand inventions which we can scarcely conceive whereby we will be able to bring the gospel to the peoples of the world…. I have faith that the Lord will open doors when we have done everything in our power. I believe that the Lord is anxious to put into our hands inventions of which we laymen have hardly had a glimpse….We shall use the inventions the Lord has given us to awaken interest and acquaint people of the world with the truths, to ease their prejudices and give them a general knowledge. We shall need to answer specific questions, and perhaps that can be done by two-way radio and TV perfected to a point beyond our present imagination. It is conceivable that such a program greatly perfected could be multiplied ten thousand times in ten thousand tongues and dialects in ten thousand places far and near…. Tens of thousands of young missionaries endowed with the power from on high will follow up the proselyting."

It's amazing to me that I get to be a part of this Prophecy.  I'm glad to be able to do it and Hope that we can get more members involved.

Mission Newsletter Article

O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth.

   For behold, the dust of the earth moveth hither and thither, to the dividing asunder, at the command of our great and everlasting God. (Helaman 12:7-8)

   In recent times I have thought a lot about things I have heard at church, in the temple, and read during studies.  Why are we less than the dust of the earth?  Why was Adam made from the dust of the earth?  This scripture makes me think that maybe we were made from the dust of the earth so we could maybe see it symbolically.  The dust of the earth is more obedient than we are.  Maybe God truly does want us to be like that dust in a sense.  He wants us to obey without question.  God commands and it moves hither and thither.  Perfect and exact obedience.

   What can we do to be more obedient like the dust of the earth?  I could go through all of the regular, and often over quoted things for different missionary meetings, but I think they have been mentioned so many times that it’s about time we fix those things.  Step up and BECOME. We have heard it hundreds of times.  We have remembered it apparently because they are still brought up.  We understand what it can do for us as missionaries or we wouldn’t continue to bring it up in every meeting we have.  So what’s keeping us from making the next steps?  Ourselves right?  We are the ones who keep ourselves from progressing.  We must apply those things we mention so often.  Then we will become. Elder Richard G. Scott stated in our last general conference, “We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day.”  We will reach the potential God knows we can.  I know we can do better. 

   I love being able to look at the transfer board with President and Elder Heywood.  I love talking about each of you, and talking about your spiritual gifts.  There are many in our mission, and  it’s time to use them all and prove trustworthy.  Love you all.

New Experiences/Uncomfortable Situations

  Many people in this world have a hard time stepping out of their comfortable lives in to new experiences and uncomfortable situations.  I believe there is no one that can step into a new situation or experience without being a little nervous, anxious or apprehensive.  So I think it's important to understand we have all been there.  I can think of many situations where I felt scared to step out of my comfort zone to do something, but as I have done it I have felt myself grow.
  My first experience with this was my very first day of kindergarten.  I'm sure many of you can remember your first day like I do.  I remember my Mom dropping me off and standing outside of the car.  Then I remember starting my journey across the what seemed to be a mile wide grass field to get to my class.  I remember being nervous and really not knowing what to expect.  All I knew was my Mom was behind me and was not coming in with me.  So I walked to where I needed to be with my snazzy Snoopy backpack strapped to my back.  I still remember the apprehension I felt, and yet it soon became a fun thing.  I liked going to kindergarten.  I liked the things I learned and I especially liked recess when I could run and play with the kids from my class who before that time had been strangers.  Now many of those same kids I went to kindergarten with are some of my best friends.  Had I not gone to kindergarten and stayed at home playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on regular nintendo and drinking Kool Aid all day I wouldn't have made any of those friends or learned the things I had.  So in other words it was through that first uncomfortable and new experience that I was able to gain so many great friends and learn so much.
    The next experience comes from a recent conversation I had with a friend on Facebook.  She hasn't been to church in quite sometime, but she feels the desire to go back.  She has even gone to an activity with the singles ward, but is still a little apprehensive about going back to church.  I think it's because it's an uncomfortable situation and she will be surround by people she doesn't know.  I gave her an example of a cliff diver.  I have dove off of a few cliffs into water, and the first time is always so scary.  I always have the hardest time jumping the first time.  Nervousness is more the cause than anything else for me.  However, at long last when I leap with all that I have away from the cliff, and I fall through the air and go into the water, then back out.  I feel satisfaction and I go back up for another and another.  It's ll about getting enough courage to do it the first time, and after that it's a piece of cake.  After a while you will be like a friend of mine and do backflips and gainers and flippididoos off of the cliff. 
   If we gain courage and step into a new experience and uncomfortable situations I can promise that it will only do us good.  If we are follow the commandments God has given us, and ask for that courage and strength he will give it to us.  I share in closing my favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon that has helped me more than most.  Ammon is speaking about where his strength comes from and says, "I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things." (Alma 26:11-12)
   "For with God, Nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)  We can do it, and God will help us.  We have nothing to lose, but much to gain.  Take the leap of faith and God will bless you.
 

 

Charity is the "PURE LOVE of CHRIST"

I recently was given a district meeting assignment to give a discussion on a Christlike attribute.  I was told I could pick any one of them.  I went to one of my favorite resources for teaching missionaries, missionary things; Preach my Gospel manual.  It is a great training tool for anyone about how to be a missionary, and also how to become more like Jesus Christ.  I started by reading through the Attributes section, Faith, Hope, Charity and Love, Patience, Virtue, Knowledge, Humility, Diligence and Obedience.  As I read through them my mind kept going back to Charity and Love.  So that's what I chose to do a discussion on.  I'll share a little about what I read from Preach my Gospel and about the discussion I gave as well.  In Preach my Gospel it says, "Charity is “the pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47). It includes God’s eternal love for all His children. We are to seek to develop that kind of love. When you are filled with charity, you obey God’s commandments and do all you can to serve others and help them receive the restored gospel."  Charity includes God's eternal love for all of his children.  That is a lot of love considering he will love us no matter what, and will love us forever.  If I were to ask you to think of the most important things to you in your life many of you would name two things, God and Family.  So my next question is,  Why do you think it is that most people would name those two things first, above any earthly possetions?  As I asked that question in district meeting there were many answers.  God and Family are eternal,  possetions are not.  God blesses us, and so do families. 

   My thoughts as I studied this topic went to those questions and the answer I came up with was we answer with God and Family because of Love.  Love is something eternal.  We love God and We love our family.  Imagine if all people felt the kind of love they feel for God and Family for everyone!  What a difference that would make.  Chariy and Love is the way to do that.  In 1 Corinthians 13 is says, " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

BUT THE GREATEST IS CHARITY!!!  If we love we will see amazing things happen.  We will see people change and we will see them love as we have loved them.  As God and our family have loved us, even so let us love one another.  Love you all. -Elder Austin Gene Goff

http://lds.org/study/topics/charity?lang=eng  feel free to click on this link to read more about Charity.

A Firm Foundation and The Mighty Oak

There is a story in the Book of Mormon that I love,  Nephi and Lehi who are the son's of Helaman remember cousel their father had given them when he said, "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."  It says when these things happen,  It doesn't say they might happen, or they maybe could happen.  It says that WHEN THE DEVIL SHALL SEND FORTH THESE THINGS.  It gives us a great promise as well though,  It that if we build our foundation on Jesus Christ we wont fall.  It's impossible.  He will not let us fall if we put our trust in him.  He can't lie, he is a perfect God.  A life built on The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the sure foundation we need to have in these times.  With the devil's tools all around beating upon us.  Sickness, sin, temptation, television, movies, politics, and families being torn.  There is a Prophecy in 2 Timothy 3:1-7 that talks about what the people will be like in the last days that you could look up and read as well.  http://lds.org/scriptures/nt/2-tim/3.2?lang=eng#  

   Now I'd like to move on to a great poem that I have had memorized for some time, and it always gives me hope.  It too is about having a firm foundation.  It's called "The Mighty Oak"  by, Jonny Ray Ryder.

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree's leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew

This poem always puts a very clear picture of a big old oak tree that has been beaten and battered.  Leaves are gone, branches broken, bark torn away, and yet the tree is still standing. The Gospel can and will do the same thing for us if we accept and live it the best we can.  No one is except from trials and the devils awful winds, but with the foundation of Christ we will always remain standing.  I hope all of you who read this will memorize this poem as well.  It is something that can help you through dark times.  I know that if we live what we proclaim to believe that God will  bless our lives.  Love you all.  -Elder Austin Gene Goff

2011 Entrusted by Heaven

Our new theme for 2011 is: 2011 Entrusted by Heaven.  Of course it is vital we remember to trust in God, but many missionaries mentioned the trust we have been given to teach the Gospel. Online and in houses and on the streets.  As I have thought about the trust God has in each of us I went to the scriptures to study about the Trust God has in us.  In 1 Thessalonians 2 :4 it states, : As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts."  So it is through God we have been given this sacred and glorious Gospel.  Why?  Because he trusts us with it.  Will we prove ourselves trustworthy?  It goes on to say, " So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember, brethern, our labour and travail; for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.  That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory."  We want to use Facebook and Blogs as a way to help people.  We are laboring in all ways we can.  We hope to help God bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:37)  We understand the trust God has put in us.  We hope to continue to understand it, and to understand it even more.
   I hope that we can keep the trust of God that he has in us.  That we will walk uprightly before him.  That we will share the gospel and share it through the ways we have been given and use it righteously. I hope and pray that we will Trust God, and remember that He Trusts Us.