Christmas

It was so good to see you all yesterday! I love you! I'm so grateful for the support, I always feel a lot more excited to work after we talk!

After the calls we went to an investigator family and we ate panes con pollo- the traditional Salvadoranian Christmas food. With Kolachampon- the traditional Salvadoranian drink.

The other elders in our ward didn't have any dinners planned. So we invited them over to our house and made them dinner. Tortillas with beans and BBQ sauce. Soup Maruchan with hot dogs. (normal food for our companionship) But we tried to make it special. We put on some nice soft music, and hung up the Christmas lights, and called it a candlelight dinner. We made a table out of boxes of Book of Mormons and we gave them each a glow stick bracelet ( like a ticket). And then we went turned off the lights and went to another room.

It was kind of funny though- because we had to return to our houses early yesterday. We knew it takes them about 10 minutes to get home, so about 15 minutes before the returm time we walked back in and turned on the lights and started taking everything down. Turned of the music and started clearing the places. It was kind of an abrupt way to finish the dinner, but I did give them some mints.

We cut our hair last night! I gave Elder Crespo a 1, and he gave me a 2. It's pretty darn short. I like it though- I think it makes me look stronger.

Man, not a whole lot to report from just 1 day. I love you a lot! Thanks so much for being so awesome and supportive- a lot of missionaries (or people I guess)  aren't blessed with great families and it's harder. Thanks so much!

-Elder Goodman

Zone Conference

This was a pretty good week! Pretty average though

Probably the most exciting announcement is that I have my own cell phone! We have a lot of calls to make at night, and we usually get to bed late. But now that my companion and I both have phones we get the calls done a lot faster now.

We had the primary presentation yesterday in Sacrament meeting. I played piano. It was way fun! The kids weren't used to singing along to music- so they sung the songs much faster than normal. My companion must have seen that I was getting nervous, because he sent me a ton of little motivational texts after every song. All the kids had little bow ties or hair bows that were red, yellow and blue. They even gave me a blue bow tie as well!

On Wednesday we had a zone conference. It was pretty fun! We did a pretty cool activity. We divided the zone into two teams. Each team had a scissors, scotch tape, a white poster board, Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, and jewel stickers and 25 minutes to build a temple.  It was pretty cool! I'll try to send pictures

On Saturday we went to San Vicente for a Christmas activity as a district (instead of stake). As a branch we put on a play. A Christmas Carol. I was Marley's Ghost- my comp was Scrooge. It was really, really fun!

I'm so excited for Christmas! We'll be calling on the 25th probably around 12 or 1. I'll try to send an email beforehand

I love you! Can't wait to see you Sunday!

Merry Christmas!

-Elder Goodman

Weekly Shopping

Erik the atheist guy

This was a pretty good week!

I had an epiphany/revelation this week.

I decided that my new goal as a missionary is to take it one day at a time. I've gotten used to thinking in big- but I've realized that I need to think about the little things as well. There have been some things that we do as missionaries that I have been slacking on lately. For example, planning. I decided that for the rest of my mission I am going to be a perfect planner. That's hard. But I can plan perfectly today. And tomorrow I can tell myself the same thing- that I can plan perfectly for today. I realize that if we take things one day at a time it's a lot easier to stay motivated.

On Thursday we went out to work and I felt that we should visit a less-active (future-active)  member that lives close to us. I had only visited the family twice before. We knocked on the door- and the lady let us in. We shared a lesson about the Book of Mormon that was pretty good. I asked her a question about how she felt when she first had gotten baptized and was reading the Book of Mormon consistently. She said she felt lots of comfort at that time. I asked her if she would like to feel that comfort now.  And she just opened up. She has been going through some trials lately- her son probably has autism, among others, and has been feeling pretty overwhelmed. We were able to testify that by reading the Book of Mormon she would be able to feel more comfort. We also gave the son a blessing. It was really, really nice. Out of the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses the word is declared. I declared it- my companion declared it- and she also declared it with her own experience. And the her cousin was also there in the house- and he´s not a member. The best part was something she told me when we were leaving. She told us that every time she is going through a hard trial and feels overwhelmed the missionaries show up at her door. It's happened 3 times now. (she got baptized 10 years ago and I found her about 2 months ago. I'm pretty sure the members don't know that she exists- we are the only connection with the church she has.

I decided that my goal is to feel the Spirit speak through me. To be worthy- and willing to be let the Lord use me as his servant.

We borrowed a guitar from an investigator and visited a ton of less actives before church yesterday with President Peña. We sang them a quick Christmas carol and invited them to church. It was really really fun.

I blessed the sacrament yesterday. It was amazing. I guess I've kind of been in the habit of not really paying attention to the prayers. But as I read the prayer yesterday I felt the spirit so so so so so so so strongly. It was amazing.

On Friday night we had an activity at the church. We went, but we couldn´t get any investigators to go with us. We stayed outside for about 20 mins before it started and just contacted everyone walking by on the street- to invite them to come. No one accepted. We found man who was atheist (the 3rd atheist I have found in the country) - and pretty contentious. I think we left a bad impression on him. But last night we where on the other side of the city giving a blessing to some members. We were walking home- and had a long walk ahead of us.  A car pulled up and the man inside offered us a ride. It was Erik! the atheist guy we thought hated us. He had a wife and 2 kids. They were super nice! Kind of cool.

Well - that's probably it for the week. 

Please pray for us. This is going to be a crazy week- and I really am going to need the prayers. I love you all!

Decorating the church

This was a pretty average week.

The highlight was probably the Christmas devotional- that was awesome! I set it up to watch in English- that was nice.

Sunday I helped a couple of recent converts set up family search accounts. That was pretty fun! Kind of hard when the people don't have email accounts, and the phone won't receive the text message verification. We made it work though.

On Saturday we had to go to Sensuntepeque and Ilobasco for a total of 5 hours on a bus. That was a hard day.

On Friday we went to San Salvador for a meeting with president! It was awesome! We also decorated the chapel for Christmas. I'm going to try to send pictures. It was awesome!

I bought some sweet Adidas sneakers today.

Elder Crespo brought a usb full of conference talks that I like to listen to.

Sorry- I can't really think of anything to write about. I love you all!

Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

Questions from Kanani:

1. Are you still able to teach in the new Cedros you have investigators in?  Even after the run in with the gang?
Zach: Yeah, we still go out there a lot. I went there on interchanges this week and we saw one of the gangsters who had stopped us. He was alone, so he didn't say anything. Kind of funny how much braver people get when they are in groups.

2. Is the food in El Salvador very spicy? 

Zach: No- it's actually pretty bland. Except for the pupusas no one really likes the food.

3. Do you have FHEs with families very often? 

Zach: Not very many.