Hard Week

Man, nothing really happened this week. I'm running out of things to write about.  Last week for pday we had a marshmallow war in the church gym, we made forts out of chairs and tables and stuff. It's was pretty sweet!

To be honest this was a pretty hard week. All the people who have been coming to church are all getting baptized now. But the problem is we're not doing a very good job of finding new people. It's getting kind of frustrating. I'm starting to realize that sometimes you can't control other people. That they have agency too. It's kind of hard, but that's how it goes I guess.

We spent a lot of time walking around in the street trying to talk to everyone, and not a lot of people let us in. Lots of people promised to do stuff. And no one did. It was pretty frustrating.

Sorry, this was a really bad letter, I didn't write anything really, but my time is up.
I love you!

-Elder Goodman

Blanca Estella

Hi all!

Sorry, I had to send some documents into the office today, so I don't have much time.  I had my first wedding on Friday! We baptized the lady Blanca Estella on Saturday, and confirmed her on Sunday. It was a pretty busy weekend. I really think that Blanca Estella was the reason that I came to San Miguel. The missionaries have been working with her and her family on and off for 2 years, and she was never able to get baptized. But every once in a while you find someone that you get along with really well. And they start to progress. Sorry, I don't have a lot of time to put my thoughts together very well, but I believe she was waiting for me specifically. It's really cool how the Lord works. I needed to be in the Colony of Molino in The City of San Miguel in the Country of El Salvador in the Months of March and April and May to find and baptize her. And the Lord knew that. Needless to say I'm really, really, happy right now.

The two professional soccer teams from San Miguel, Aguila and Dragon, are playing for the championship this week. Everyone is pretty excited down here!
That's my time. Love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

Dumb Goat

Hi everyone!

This was a pretty normal week. The highlight would probably be the ward party we had Saturday night.

The Elders quorum put a lot of care into making sure that the women wouldn't have to do anything. It was to celebrate mother's day.

The made a ton of food, brought in tons of speakers, a light bar, and we had a talent show. The problem was that the fans in the cultural hall don't work. So it was reeaally hot. They turned off the lights too. So to be honest with all the heat, music, darkness, and dance lights, it felt a lot like a high school dance. The talent show basically turned into a karaoke night. Still pretty entertaining though! I played a couple songs on the piano for my talent. And before the night was over both of the counselors in the bishopric had given me a new assignment. I am now the new pianist for sacrament meeting! The nice thing is that they are also letting me choose the hymns, so I'll be able to prepare a little.   The funny thing is that we already have a pianist for sacrament meeting, she just doesn't come all the time. I guess she'll be on vacation until I have changes again.

On Sunday I woke up with killer diarrhea. And my companion. And the 4 other missionaries as well. And 5 investigators that came to the party. And a ton of ward members too. We got food poisoned! It's kind of funny, almost none of the women got sick. Only the men. From what I gathered, almost none of the women actually ate the food. The all tried it, and realized something was wrong, and didn't finish it. So all the care that the Elders Quorum put into making sure that the women didn't have to help at all backfired a little bit.

I had kind of a cool experience this week, that made me think a little. It might even be a parable.

We were out in the outskirts of our area. And we saw a group of goats. (herd? flock?, I'm not sure)
All of the goats had a rope tied around the neck. One of the goats had gotten tangled up in his rope, it was tangled around one of his legs. So he was stumbling around on three legs bleating. I saw that goat, and went up to it to try to help it, but it ran away. We tried again, this time by companion came and stepped on the rope, so it couldn't run away. And I was able to untangle the goat. And after I finished he looked up at me, pretty sure with gratitude in the eyes, and ran back to his family. My companion and I crossed the street and left, talking about how good we felt, etc.  As we were walking away I heard the goat bleat, pretty sure with gratitude again, I turned around for one last look. And saw that he had gotten tangled up again. Literally two minutes later.  dumb goat.

There's some sort of lesson to be learned here. I'm sure of it.

Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman

The back of my name tag.

La Union Beach

La Union Beach

Multizone Conference

Hi everyone,

This week was pretty amazing. The highlight was a multizone conference we had with president. He is so awesome! So awesome! If I can be like him one day...

He focused a lot on repentence. He gave us the chance to pray right there and ask about what things we need to do to get better. He said the only thing holding us back is our own disobedience. It was really really good.

I remember he told us about two elders who went into a house, the house of a man possessed by an evil spirit. The family tried to get them to help him, but the man sat up and screamed at them, they freaked out and tried to leave, but the family was blocking the door. Then the man got up and started trying to attack them. If I remember right they had to fight their way out of the house. Terrifying! They called President and told him what happened.  He asked if they were worthy, and they said no. He told us that the spirits can tell if you are worthy or not- and they'll eat you alive (his words). He said if you're not worthy, run. Run as fast as you can. But if you are worthy you won't be afraid, you'll be able to rebuke it.  Cool!

I have a little bit of an experience with that. I've been in some pretty scary situations on the mission. And I've never been afraid. I have had experiences where my heart starts pounding really hard, and I know that I should be afraid, but my mind stays completely calm, and I've always been able to think clearly and do the right thing. I know that it's the Holy Gost.

Have a great week! See you on mother's day!

Oh, I almost forgot. I got your packages! Thanks! They're awesome! They got here at the same time. The family history book is probably my favorite. All the missionaries are so jealous! Elder Gonzalez and I did yoga this morning! I am not flexible. I used the elastic band to make a slingshot. Using the door frame. I ambushed my companion when he was coming out of the shower.

Thanks so much! I love you!
-Elder Goodman