A Bunch of Guys Who Were Crazy

This was a pretty standard week,

I got your package! Thanks! We got it in an unusual way.  We got a call from the AP's during lunch on Friday, telling us to go to our bus stop and wait. The Hna's in our district are the Hna Leaders, and they had just gotten out of a meeting with the AP's. On the way home their bus passes through our area. They tossed us the package when the bus made the stop!  That was an awesome package! Thanks so much!

It sounds like you guys had a more exciting week than me! We played basketball as a district today. I was the star of my team! Also the tallest! Perks of serving in Central America!

We are in the rainy season so it rains pretty much every night. Super super hard. I've been carrying my umbrella around, but that got annoying. But the day I didn't bring it we got caught in the rain. Go figure. It's always a gamble to see if we'll make it home in time!

We had a pretty interesting lesson this week. A bunch of guys who were crazy. They had tons of crazy questions about the church. They also tried to get us to play some card game with them. They got me to touch a card, and they were really excited about it. Apparently it's a sin to touch face cards. Because the soldiers cast lots for Jesus' clothes.

They also had some great ideas on how we could help them get to the United States. The first idea was to marry their girlfriends, and take them back with us. Wait until the wife gets residence. Then get divorced. The girls then go back and marry their original boyfriends and bring them to the U.S. The second idea was for them to join the church. Get called to serve missions in the U.S. Then just wander off one day and live there. The lesson ended with my companion pulling out all the pamphlets and slapping them down one by one while explaining them. It was actually pretty funny.

I'll try to think of more stuff to write next week

-Elder Goodman

Grandma took his Book of Mormon

General Conference was awesome! We got to watch it in English! Except the Sunday Morning Session. We watched that one in Spanish- and I got a lot less out of it. However, when President Monson and the three new apostles spoke I felt the spirit very very strongly. I didn't know what they talked about- But I still received promptings that they are called of God!

I had my own little pie night on Saturday. They have things called Pan Dulce here. Sweet bread. But it applies to pretty much every kind of dessert. Brownies, cookies, pastries. And literal bread that's sweet. I found a pan dulce that was coated in sugar, and had a fruit filling. It had the taste and texture of pie! It was really good!

On the bus to General Conference on Saturday a man got up and started preaching. Usually I just zone those people out- but this guy said something that caught my attention. He said the word Nephi. Turns out he was preaching from the Book of Mormon! He was quoting the Book of Mormon as he spoke about the last days and stuff. Interesting.

General Conference was definetely the highlight of the week. I remember at home I was usually done by the last session. And I had a hard time paying attention usually. This time was such a spiritual experience! Missionaries enjoy conference much more than everyone else!  I could go for 2 more days!

The Familia Viscarra that we are teaching is golden! They are the ones that I found by knocking doors. Everytime we go into the house we find more people to teach! We started teaching the mom  yesterday!  This family is different than the others. You can tell that they take education seriously. It's really fun to teach them though, they actually read- and they have questions. And they think about what we teach, and apply it to their lives. Last night one of the sons couldn't find his Book of Mormon for the lesson. Halfway through the lesson the grandma walked into the house and handed him his Book of Mormon. She had taken it to read without him knowing! We gave her a copy as well! I'm really excited about this family. Pray for them!

Pray for Benjamin and Noosly as well. Benjamin is the man we are teaching who is ready. Con Todo! He came to priesthood session and loved it! All he needs is to get married. Pray for his wife! She's fine with getting married, but doesn't want to join the church.  Benjamin is really worried about her. He wants to go to the highest part of the Celestial Kingdom, but he knows that he needs her. What's amazing is that he understands that. We bought him a triple and he's been reading D&C like crazy.

On an unrelated note I spoke again last week. Turns out the missionaries speak every fourth Sunday in our ward. I spoke about the Army of Helaman, and the importance of obedience and mothers. I also played the Army of Helaman song you sent! The chapel doesn't have air conditioning. It has fans- and everyone opens the windows as well. I didn't realize it before, but there is a fan right above the piano, and a window right behind it. My sheet music was all over the place! Elder Wallace and Hno Castañelo (the first counselor) came through in the clutch! Elder Wallace was all over trying to keep the music in place- and Hno Castañelo ran around to close the window and turn of the fan. But the song turned out really well. Everyone loved it!

Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

Be "The Fourth Missionary"

Hi everyone!

This has been an awesome week!

This week I read the talk 'The Fourth Missionary'.  It's a great read- changed my life. The main idea is to consecrate yourself to the Lord. To follow the commandments and do everything you're supposed to- because you want to. Not because you have to. Once you learn to take joy in the work you'll be able to let the Lord work through you, and change you.

I took that to heart this week, and had some cool experiences. I started speaking Spanish as much as I could, I started interrupting my companion during the lessons, and I started talking to people on my own. Coincidentally this is also the first week that I've been able to a) understand almost everything being said, b) carry a conversation on my own. And c) get exactly what I ordered for lunch!

Before this week my companion would give the lessons, and I would bear my testimony. This week I started teaching and trying to converse with the investigators.

My companion hates contacting. Before this week if he didn't want to contact, we didn't contact. This week I started going up to people and just talking- I came up with a short elevator speech about the church. And I would just give it to everyone!  I also started knocking doors. They don't do that down here. My companion had never heard of people doing it down here. The rule is that we can't enter a house if there isn't a man at home. This week I realized that we can still talk to people on their doorstep though! I just started knocking doors and talking to people. We found a really positive family this week from door knocking!

I also remembered Dad's story about knocking on doors and looking for 'Maria del Carmen'.  I started doing that! I would knock on a door- or stop  someone in the street asking them if they knew Johanna.(Johanna is a contact I was looking for who lived close) none of them did. But that gave me a chance to say something about the gospel as well! I actually found a women named Maria del Carmen doing that!

In short:
This was the week that I decided I wanted to BE a missionary.
This was the week that I decided to take responsibility for my learning and teaching.
This was the week when I started to enjoy being a missionary.
This was the week that made all the difference.

I'm excited for the next two years!

I love you!
-Elder Goodman

A Week of Miracles

This week has truly been a week of miracles.
 
I´m teaching now. My companion will literally just stop talking. And look at me. And then it´s my turn to go and pick up where he left off. The first time was pretty scary, but I´m used to it now. And everyone we teach is really patient.  I have a strong testimony of the Gift of Tongues!

We are teaching a man named Benjamin. And this week everything just came crashing down- in the best way possible.  He got a new job that gives him Sunday´s off. We were really praying for that. He came to church and he loved it! (they don´t usually love church here). The lesson in Gospel Doctrine class was on tithing. He asked where the slips were, and how to pay tithing. He really wants to live the commandments!  He quit smoking, and he also is working on quiting coffee!

We are also teaching a man named Johnny. I really like him. He lived in the U.S. for a long time. He speaks English very well. His daughter is already a member, and she´s really pushing him to join. I really like teaching him because the lessons end up being 50-50 English and Spanish. I teach him in Spanish- but´s it´s really nice to be able to answer his questions in English. We taught him the Plan of Salvation last night, and he loved it! The Plan of Salvation is easily my favorite lesson. It´s always brand new to the investigator- but they always accept it.  We shared 2 Nefi chapter two with him and he was just blown away! He literally just sat there awestruck after we finished reading it, then he started talking really fast about how awesome/life-changing it was!  He also told us: ¨I don´t know what it is, but my life has gotten so much better after you´ve started teaching me. It´s like God is just pouring the blessings down right now.¨  That was pretty cool!

Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman

Zona Ilopango

We discovered a blog of a missionary (Elder West) who is in the same zone as Zach.  I borrowed this photo from his blog.  http://eldercoltonwest.blogspot.com/

Pollo Campero!

Hi everyone!

This week was really really hard. Probably the hardest week so far- but I had a lot of cool experiences as well! We are really working to strengthen the ward- last week we had a ward activity where we visited a ton of less actives.

Last week attendance - 84
This week attendance - 122

It was really cool walking into the chapel and seeing it full! We also brought a family to church for the first time- and they enjoyed it! That´s pretty uncommon down here. This family I really, really want to baptize. The family Rivas. Father and 8 year old son are named Hector. The mom´s name is Rosemary. The dad is very cool. He used to be in the Navy, so he values punctuality and cleanliness- also uncommon. They are accepting pretty much everything. They ask a lot of questions (uncommon) which makes it really fun to teach them. We taught them the Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom and Sabbath Day all in one visit- because of all the questions they kept asking. And they accepted all of it! It was all brand new to them- but after every concept they´d nod and say "ah! that makes sense!"

Elders quorum this week was pretty awesome! After the lesson they told everyone to stay in the room, then they brought out tables to sit around. They started passing out plates of Pollo Campero (Latin KFC). We got chicken, French fries, coleslaw. It was awesome! Then they brought out cake and wrote out all the birthdays in June, July, and August on the board. Apparently they needed to use their budget for the quarter. So they blew it all on food for the Elders Quorum. I enjoyed it!

I think I said something about the average temperature here, but since then I´ve been actually keeping track. This is what I´ve found. The coldest it´s ever been was 74 degrees. That was at 2 in the morning when I woke up because it was too cold. In the mornings before study it´s about 80. Which is perfect. Very comfortable. By the time we finish studying it´s usually in the 90s. I don´t know how hot it gets in the afternoon, but when we get home at 9 it´s usually right around 98 degrees.

I really wanted to write more about what it´s like living in El Salvador. But I ran out of time. 1 hour isn´t enough. Maybe next week!

-Elder Goodman

p.s. Adriana didn´t get baptized. We´re hoping her grandma dies, then we´ll be able to baptize her. Don´t pray for that though!

Happy Labor Day!

Hi everyone!

This was a pretty good week! Looking back it went by fast, but the days take forever. It was cloudy and rainy all week which was really nice! This week we focused a lot on less actives. We did splits with ward members to try and visit as many as possible. It was pretty crazy!

This week I´m starting to practice street contacting. That is really hard. I always thought it was easy to talk to people- but down here the culture is so different, and I can´t understand them anyway. It´s really stressful!

Funny story, we´re teaching a man named Mauricio. He loves his Bible- so we gave him a Book of Mormon! We came back and asked if he had read it and if he had any questions. He hadn´t read it. Because of the pictures in the front. They were ´graven images´. Which is against the 2nd commandment. It didn´t take very long to clear that up! It helped that he had pictures hanging on his wall.  First visit he told us about a dream he had where he saw a beautiful building. Big and white. But he couldn´t go in because his name wasn´t on the book they had at the front. We showed him a picture of the San Salvador temple and he said that was it! That´s why he originally started talking to us, so he could enter the temple.  It´s pretty cool how many people have similar dreams down here!

We´re teaching a girl named Adriana. All we need for her to be baptized is her Grandma´s permission. Problem is that her grandma is pretty crazy. She´ll give permission, then change her mind. We´re trying to have Adriana´s baptism planned for Saturday- but we still need the permission.

If you´re going to pray for investigators pray for her! Thanks!

I´m trying to send pictures- but it´s pretty hard here. Spanish computer + different setup + really slow internet. 

[Kanani asked Zach some questions.  These are his answers]

1.  Do they give you a card and add money to it each month to cover your expenses?  How much do you get? 
Yup I get card and we take out $200 each month. $80 goes to our cocinera.(our cook) $20 to the ward member that does our laundry. And the last 100 we use to pay for breakfasts and pday food. And buses and soap, water, etc.

2.  Do you have toilets?  Anna-Maria didn't in the part of Guatemala that she served in :(
We have toilets, that don´t flush. You just dump water in them and somehow that flushes it. First time I was really worried that my companion was pranking me and I´d make a really gross mess.

3.  What is your schedule for a typical day?
6.30 wake up. exercise, eat get dressed. 8-9 personal study. 9-11. Companionship study. 11-12 language study. 12.30 go to lunch. 1-8 proselyte. 8.30 come home go to dinner. 9 plan, take a shower, write in journal. Read.  10.30 bed

4.  What are fast Sundays like for you?
Fast Sundays are not that bad! We start our fast at lunch on Saturday.  Skip Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast. Church starts at 9.30 so after church we go straight to lunch. On Saturday we had a baptism and ward council meeting. It was set up so that we didn´t really have time to go far. Not very much walking!

Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

At the temple.

At the air force museum.

 Where we play soccer.

My house.