Hi everyone!
This was a pretty good week!
We had changes. Elder Wallace is now a zone leader in San Vicente. My new companion´s name is Elder Beecher. He´s got about 18 months on the mission. He´s from Logan. I really like him! He´s pretty laid back, which is nice. I feel like I have a lot more freedom now. If I want to contact someone, or go into a colonia. I can now! He´s really easy to get along with as well. I feel like we´re already good friends.
This week was really good. I feel like I am really progressing as a missionary. I have to lead the area now so a lot more depends on me. And I feel like that´s really helping me grow! Spiritually, mentally, emotionally. Not physically unfortunately.
We had Stake Conference this week. President Vasquez and his wife spoke, and the temple president and his wife spoke. Nusly came to church! Stake conference! This week has been hard inviting people to church, because they have to go to Santa Lucia. But we told Nusly we´d pass by to take her and her kids to church. And she was ready! We had to take two buses, and with 2 children under 4 years old that was kind of hard, but we made it! And the ward was really really nice and supportive! The bishop gave her a ride home! (well, his wife. He doesn´t drive.) He actually stayed behind so there would be enough room for her to go first. I was really impressed by that! Nusly is Benjamin´s wife, and she has never come to church. Benjamin had to work that day, so he couldn´t go. But his wife just moved up to progressing!
This week we visited a family that lives in Apulo. The familia Galan. Her husband died recently ( turns out he was the body I almost had to help dress). They have a big field, that has just been left unkept. The weeds were 6 feet tall. They gave me a machete. And I cut it down. I wish I had pictures, I´m sure I looked really cool! It was pretty hard, but it was also my first time using a machete!
I feel like this has been a really long week, but I can´t think of anything more to write about. I really like being a missionary! Every day I wake up excited to go to work! I am contacting a lot more now. And my Spanish is getting good enough that I can start conversations with people. I used to just walk up and start talking about the church. But now I walk up and start talking about their dog, their family, that picture on the wall. I feel that it is helping my Spanish. But I am also having a harder time directing the conversation to the church. Maybe I need to go back to what I did before!
Have a great week! I forgot to take a picture with my new comp. Next week
-Elder Goodman
Monday, November 16, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
Survivor El Salvador
This week was a pretty standard week. Every morning for breakfast I make myself a huge bowl of oatmeal. (cheap and filling) and then I add sugar and powdered milk and cinnamon. I´ve found that the more sugar and milk and cinnamon I add the better it tastes! This week I decided to spice it up a bit and I bought some nutmeg. It tastes kind of Christmasy now.
Yesterday I locked the keys in the house. Benjamin Zipeda helped us break back in. Using 2 brooms, 2 shoelaces, and a piece of telephone line he cut from the house. (it was from an extra coil just hanging outside). He took out the window from the outside and was able to open the door. It was pretty cool actually! He said it was Survivor El Salvador. Fun fact, every door here locks automatically. The people here are really worried about security, (justly so). We live in a gated community. And we have a gate in front of our house, and then the front door that locks automatically. Our roof has razor wire AND barbed wire. Our side walls have broken bottles cemented on top to keep people from climbing over. And every window has a cage over it. And our front yard is all thorny plants. But even all that wasn´t enough to keep us out!
The picture is of Benjamin. We ate dinner at his house on Saturday. It has been really cool seeing his family change. And being a part of it. Probably the coolest part of my mission so far has been his family. They were telling us how grateful they are for what we´ve done for them. I have such a strong testimony of the Atonement, and what it can do for us.
Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman
Yesterday I locked the keys in the house. Benjamin Zipeda helped us break back in. Using 2 brooms, 2 shoelaces, and a piece of telephone line he cut from the house. (it was from an extra coil just hanging outside). He took out the window from the outside and was able to open the door. It was pretty cool actually! He said it was Survivor El Salvador. Fun fact, every door here locks automatically. The people here are really worried about security, (justly so). We live in a gated community. And we have a gate in front of our house, and then the front door that locks automatically. Our roof has razor wire AND barbed wire. Our side walls have broken bottles cemented on top to keep people from climbing over. And every window has a cage over it. And our front yard is all thorny plants. But even all that wasn´t enough to keep us out!The picture is of Benjamin. We ate dinner at his house on Saturday. It has been really cool seeing his family change. And being a part of it. Probably the coolest part of my mission so far has been his family. They were telling us how grateful they are for what we´ve done for them. I have such a strong testimony of the Atonement, and what it can do for us.
Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
El Dia de los Muertos
This week was awesome!
The Day of the Dead activity was really really fun. Cemeteries here are nothing like those at home. Here all the tombstones are big crosses- some of them are actually pretty ornate- but they are all painted crazy colors. Blue, Green, Pink, etc. And they are all on top of each other. There is no grass, to get around you have to walk on other people´s graves. Every year the people come to clean up the graves, re-paint, etc... And it's a huge deal. A huge party! There are vendors everywhere selling food, flowers, headstones, paint, toys. The people come in work clothes with big jugs of water and shovels and paint and stuff. I was pretty surprised when I saw whole families walking into a cemetery armed with shovels and buckets!
Our shift was from 1.30 - 4.30. We had a table set up with Plan of Salvation pamphlets and Family Search stuff. It was a straight 3 hours of just talking to people! I had a blast!
Halloween here is not very big at all. I saw two kids dressed up and 1 house decorated. But on Fast Sunday, the day after, an old lady got up and spoke for 10 minutes about how evil Halloween was. And how it made her feel sick seeing all the little kids worshiping the devil. That was pretty entertaining!
That Sunday the Gospel Essentials teacher didn't show up- so Elder Wallace gave the lesson. He wasn't paying attention last week, and he thought that this week´s lesson was the Chastity lesson. I didn't realize until too late, so he ended up teaching without any preparation. He had a hard time getting the class to participate.
I have a cool story from last week.
We have an investigator named Guadalupe who was introduced to the church by her friend Alex. It started with her wondering what Mormons think about God. Alex has a son named Axel (don´t get them mixed up) who is around 4 or 5 years old. Axel memorized the First Article of Faith for the primary program a couple weeks ago. When Guadalupe asked what Mormons believe Alex had Axel recite the first Article of Faith to her. Guadalupe was pretty impressed! Now she´s investigating the church!
Thanks for the dream team answers! Have a great week!
-Élder Goodman
I have all the pictures that you wanted, but I forgot to bring my cord to connect it to the computer. I can usually get around it by borrowing someone else´s or putting my card in their camera to connect it. But no one has their cameras with them today. I guess I'll have to wait until next week. Sorry.
Questions from Kanani
1. Do you go on exchanges very often? It sounds like Eliza goes on them all the time.
Every once in a while. Maybe twice a transfer
2. Do you have a day where you volunteer or give service? If so, what types of things do you do?
No. On Saturday we helped a lady clean out her house, that was a first for me though.
3. How do transfers work...is it every 6 weeks or different?
every 6 weeks
The Day of the Dead activity was really really fun. Cemeteries here are nothing like those at home. Here all the tombstones are big crosses- some of them are actually pretty ornate- but they are all painted crazy colors. Blue, Green, Pink, etc. And they are all on top of each other. There is no grass, to get around you have to walk on other people´s graves. Every year the people come to clean up the graves, re-paint, etc... And it's a huge deal. A huge party! There are vendors everywhere selling food, flowers, headstones, paint, toys. The people come in work clothes with big jugs of water and shovels and paint and stuff. I was pretty surprised when I saw whole families walking into a cemetery armed with shovels and buckets!
Our shift was from 1.30 - 4.30. We had a table set up with Plan of Salvation pamphlets and Family Search stuff. It was a straight 3 hours of just talking to people! I had a blast!
Halloween here is not very big at all. I saw two kids dressed up and 1 house decorated. But on Fast Sunday, the day after, an old lady got up and spoke for 10 minutes about how evil Halloween was. And how it made her feel sick seeing all the little kids worshiping the devil. That was pretty entertaining!
That Sunday the Gospel Essentials teacher didn't show up- so Elder Wallace gave the lesson. He wasn't paying attention last week, and he thought that this week´s lesson was the Chastity lesson. I didn't realize until too late, so he ended up teaching without any preparation. He had a hard time getting the class to participate.
I have a cool story from last week.
We have an investigator named Guadalupe who was introduced to the church by her friend Alex. It started with her wondering what Mormons think about God. Alex has a son named Axel (don´t get them mixed up) who is around 4 or 5 years old. Axel memorized the First Article of Faith for the primary program a couple weeks ago. When Guadalupe asked what Mormons believe Alex had Axel recite the first Article of Faith to her. Guadalupe was pretty impressed! Now she´s investigating the church!
Thanks for the dream team answers! Have a great week!
-Élder Goodman
I have all the pictures that you wanted, but I forgot to bring my cord to connect it to the computer. I can usually get around it by borrowing someone else´s or putting my card in their camera to connect it. But no one has their cameras with them today. I guess I'll have to wait until next week. Sorry.
Questions from Kanani
1. Do you go on exchanges very often? It sounds like Eliza goes on them all the time.
Every once in a while. Maybe twice a transfer
2. Do you have a day where you volunteer or give service? If so, what types of things do you do?
No. On Saturday we helped a lady clean out her house, that was a first for me though.
3. How do transfers work...is it every 6 weeks or different?
every 6 weeks
Monday, October 26, 2015
We had 23 investigators promise to come to church
This week was awesome! This week was the most successful week so far. We taught a ton of lessons, and we found some pretty positive people as well. E. Wallace and I have been working really well together, and I can feel the difference when we teach. He´s been helping me a lot in our morning practices, and I´m starting to get the feel for how I want to teach certain topics. This week our zone also started doing weekly practices, and that has really helped as well.
We made a goal to testify of the Atonement in every visit - every lesson. And I can feel the difference. I`ve heard it said that the Atonement is the center of the gospel, and the goal has been to make it the center of our message as well. There are tons of churches down here, literally on every street, every corner, all types. And none of them teach the Atonement. Everyone believes in Christ here, every knows he is "El Salvador del Mundo", but no one knows what that means. Our goal has been to help them understand that. Understand that through the Atonement we can be made clean. Understand that they can repent. That they can be baptized. That they can take the sacrament. We taught the sacrament a lot this week. And with it we were able to commit a lot of people to come to church. We had 23 investigators promise to come to church.
And on Sunday we had 3 show up. That was really depressing. Obviously 3 is better than none, but it wasn´t quite what we were expecting. Sunday was really hard. Our ward is not very strong, we have a pretty building, but we can´t fill it. (I took a picture, but the computer I'm using this week won't accept my camera). There is a lot of bad feelings in the ward too. A recent convert family that we visit has become inactive. This week we found out why. They wouldn`t tell us exactly what´s going on, but they are having problems with another family. Yeesh. Everyone has an excuse why they can´t come to church, but it´s interesting that the most common one is that they have problems with someone else. The second most common excuse is that they can´t wake up on time. Our church meets at 10:30. Needless to say, Sunday was a hard day (that rhymed!)
E. Wallace and I started a new game. We are building our ward leadership dream team. This is what we´ve got so far
Pres Monson: Bishop
Helaman: YM pres
Noah: Ward Emergency Preparedness specialist
Herod: Nursery teacher
Amulek: Ward Mission leader
If anyone has suggestions send them to me!
This week we met two people who live in Provo and are here visiting family. That's pretty cool!
One man has a niece going to Mountain View right now.
Also, next week our pday will be on Tuesday. Next Sunday and Monday we will be working in the cemetary doing a Dia de los Muertos activity.
Don´t freak out when I don´t write.
-Elder Goodman
Kanani's questions:
1. Can you listen to music, do you have a cd player?
Yep! We can listen to MoTab and instrumental hymns. We have a cd player too.
2. Have you and your companion been able to stay pretty healthy stomach wise?
For the most part. There is a family that we eat with every Sunday and Friday. Their food isn't very clean. We usually have diarrhea and stomach pains for the rest of the day and the next when we eat there. However, we get as much food as we want when we eat there. And it´s free!
We made a goal to testify of the Atonement in every visit - every lesson. And I can feel the difference. I`ve heard it said that the Atonement is the center of the gospel, and the goal has been to make it the center of our message as well. There are tons of churches down here, literally on every street, every corner, all types. And none of them teach the Atonement. Everyone believes in Christ here, every knows he is "El Salvador del Mundo", but no one knows what that means. Our goal has been to help them understand that. Understand that through the Atonement we can be made clean. Understand that they can repent. That they can be baptized. That they can take the sacrament. We taught the sacrament a lot this week. And with it we were able to commit a lot of people to come to church. We had 23 investigators promise to come to church.
And on Sunday we had 3 show up. That was really depressing. Obviously 3 is better than none, but it wasn´t quite what we were expecting. Sunday was really hard. Our ward is not very strong, we have a pretty building, but we can´t fill it. (I took a picture, but the computer I'm using this week won't accept my camera). There is a lot of bad feelings in the ward too. A recent convert family that we visit has become inactive. This week we found out why. They wouldn`t tell us exactly what´s going on, but they are having problems with another family. Yeesh. Everyone has an excuse why they can´t come to church, but it´s interesting that the most common one is that they have problems with someone else. The second most common excuse is that they can´t wake up on time. Our church meets at 10:30. Needless to say, Sunday was a hard day (that rhymed!)
E. Wallace and I started a new game. We are building our ward leadership dream team. This is what we´ve got so far
Pres Monson: Bishop
Helaman: YM pres
Noah: Ward Emergency Preparedness specialist
Herod: Nursery teacher
Amulek: Ward Mission leader
If anyone has suggestions send them to me!
This week we met two people who live in Provo and are here visiting family. That's pretty cool!
One man has a niece going to Mountain View right now.
Also, next week our pday will be on Tuesday. Next Sunday and Monday we will be working in the cemetary doing a Dia de los Muertos activity.
Don´t freak out when I don´t write.
-Elder Goodman
Kanani's questions:
1. Can you listen to music, do you have a cd player?
Yep! We can listen to MoTab and instrumental hymns. We have a cd player too.
2. Have you and your companion been able to stay pretty healthy stomach wise?
For the most part. There is a family that we eat with every Sunday and Friday. Their food isn't very clean. We usually have diarrhea and stomach pains for the rest of the day and the next when we eat there. However, we get as much food as we want when we eat there. And it´s free!
Monday, October 19, 2015
Senior Companion for the Day!
This was a pretty cool week. The missionary in the picture is named Elder Togicala. He's a Samoan from Ogden. And he's brand new. He's got about two weeks on the mission. He and his companion had a baptism this week, and because my companion is the district leader he had to do the interview. This means that Elder Togicala and I did an interchange for all day on Thursday. That was a good experience for me! I was the Senior Companion for the day! We had a ton of fun! It was amazing how we could feel the Spirit in our lessons even though my Spanish is barely sufficient and his was awful. It was a great testimony to me of the power of the Holy Ghost, it made me realize how much we depend on the Spirit in our lessons. And in our lives.
I got your package! The one with the CTR rings! I gave one to a girl we were teaching named Meybeline. She got baptized on Saturday, and she asked me to do it! I like to think that my little bribe helped! Everyone in our district except one companionship baptized that day. President Vasquez knew one of the people getting baptized so he came too! That was a little stressful! I really wanted a picture with everyone baptizing, and getting baptized, and him. But we didn't end up doing it. He took this picture for us though! He also spoke- he has a really cool conversion story.
Benjamin and Noosly are getting married this week! I'm really excited - they have two little girls and it's really cool to think that the two girls will get to grow up in the church! Last night during our prayer I asked for Benjamin and Noosly to get married, and E. Wallace started laughing. Apparently I said Castigados instead of Casados. I actually asked for them to get punished. Whoop! Family Viscarra and Johnny are doing good too. Thought you'd like to know, but there's not really anything new to report.
-Elder Goodman
Monday, October 12, 2015
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
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!
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
Monday, October 5, 2015
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
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
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