Hi!
We finally got a baptismal font for our building! It came in a giant package from -no joke- portablebaptistry.com. We are super excited to try it out this Saturday!
We had a really good zone conference. We did an activity where we all had to get over a tall stack of chairs without touching. It turned into two elders tossing everyone else over into the waiting arms of the people on the other side who had already crossed. It was a pretty good metaphor for our work. We help our investigators take a leap of faith (baptism) and the ward members are those who catch them. The Garcia family came and were practice investigators for the missionaries. At the end they bore their testimonies about their conversion. They talked about the Book of Mormon and their testimony of that. The mom at the end thanked everyone for ''leaving your families for two years so that people like us can be with ours forever''. I told her that the first time I met them!
I'm not sure if I've told you about the Garcia family before, but they are my golden family. We are baptizing them in two weeks. Yesterday, the 10 year old son told us about the first time he prayed about the Book of Mormon. The night after the missionaries first came to his house. He kneeled and prayed. And then he waited on his knees. And then he fell asleep. And then in a dream an Angel appeared and told him 'I am a messenger from God, he sent me to tell you that the Book of Mormon is true.'' Whoa! I thought it was really cool that you wrote about angels declaring glad tidings in your letter!
We played softball with this family last p-day. We had a blast. I got 2 home runs! My companion also got a home run. They play with the third pitch drop rule ( It doesn't really make sense considering that we were playing slow pitch softball). He ran for first after his third strike, and the catcher overthrew first base. Overthrew so bad in fact that my companion made it all the way home. Probably the highlight was when I broke the ball. (pretty much exactly like Benny in Sandlot.) I felt pretty cool after that! We also played frisbee.
This week on Sunday we did interchanges with the priests. That was really cool, I wish I could have done that. But I am really glad I did home teaching.
I've discovered the secret to being happy on the mission. Two things. 1. Obedience. 2. Work. The harder you work during the day the better you feel night. And the more excited you are to start the next day.
I want you to know that I am being obedient, and that I am working really hard.
Have a great week!
Elder Goodman
Monday, January 18, 2016
Monday, January 11, 2016
Ward Mission Activity
This was a pretty average week. Probably the coolest thing that happened actually happened last week, but I didn't have time to write about it. We had our ward mission activity. (The day I was trying to submit my poop). We thought the ward was planning something, but we found out about two hours before that they wanted us (the missionaries) to plan it.
I don't want to brag, but we came up with a really cool idea! We had a treasure hunt in the church. We hid sticky notes with numbers on them all over the church. But in carefully planned spots. To find the sticky notes the people playing read a scripture, and judging from what the scripture talked about they had to go find the notes. For example, A scripture about Helaman's army of stripling warriors. The investigators/members made the connection that it's talking about young men, so they go to the young men's room. Where the next sticky note is hidden that gives them a scripture that talks about tithing. So they run to the bishop's office where the tithing envelopes are. We had 3 teams going at the same time, in different order. Racing. And the last clue talks about the tree of life. Outside there is a tree with Christmas lights on it. The first one there wins. My team won! Outside under the tree we had a mini devotional, and then lined everyone up in two lines facing each other. And they took turns bearing their testimonies to each other. It was a roaring success! Everyone loved it. I also came up with some benefits that came because of the activity.
1. The investigators are more familiar with the church building.
2. They got to bear their testimonies.
3. They heard other's testimonies.
4. They know have several friends in the ward (their teammates and their testimony partner.)
5. An investigator actually told me this one: She learned that if she studies the scriptures with a question in mind it will be more effective!
I also have really good news! I got the letters from the ward! And from Uncle Ike's family! Thank you! I also witnessed a miracle. I got the package from the Knudsen's! I don't know what happened to that thing, but it finally arrived. and it looked like they had to move it through a battle zone to get it to me. One of the bags of pizza flour broke inside, so when we opened it that stuff got everywhere. Everything inside was coated with it as well. And the Salt Water Taffy had melted over everything. But don't worry! I was able to clean it up pretty well. The only thing that couldn't be saved was the taffy.
A couple weeks ago some ward members gave us a bag of rice and lentils. I think it's designed for food storage. It's made by NuSkin. This week we tried it, and to be honest it was pretty gross. But... I was looking through the pantry and I found some curry. I added that and had some curried rice and lentils. It wasn't as good as your's mom, but it was alright!
This week I bought a kilogram of chocolate from a street vendor for a dollar. They just open up the cocoa pod and mix in some sugar. It's pretty rich stuff. I can't eat very much of it at a time. That's what the picture is. Street chocolate. There's also a different kind of street chocolate here that is even more common. It's made by the street dogs.... They just do their business anywhere they want. We always have to be on guard.
This computer won't let me send pictures, so I'll send more next week. Sorry!
-Elder Goodman
Questions from Kanani:
1. Is there anything you want/need?
I've been thinking that I want to try yoga.. Could you send me a really simple yoga book? I have a really hard time exercising in the mornings, so I'm looking for different things to change it up. 2. An elastic exercise band. 3. My leatherman- I'm not sure if you'll be able to send that, but several times I have been in situations where I wish I had it.
2. Do you have a parasite? Or did you find out what your illness was?
Nope. I'm clean! We still have no idea what it was.
I don't want to brag, but we came up with a really cool idea! We had a treasure hunt in the church. We hid sticky notes with numbers on them all over the church. But in carefully planned spots. To find the sticky notes the people playing read a scripture, and judging from what the scripture talked about they had to go find the notes. For example, A scripture about Helaman's army of stripling warriors. The investigators/members made the connection that it's talking about young men, so they go to the young men's room. Where the next sticky note is hidden that gives them a scripture that talks about tithing. So they run to the bishop's office where the tithing envelopes are. We had 3 teams going at the same time, in different order. Racing. And the last clue talks about the tree of life. Outside there is a tree with Christmas lights on it. The first one there wins. My team won! Outside under the tree we had a mini devotional, and then lined everyone up in two lines facing each other. And they took turns bearing their testimonies to each other. It was a roaring success! Everyone loved it. I also came up with some benefits that came because of the activity.
1. The investigators are more familiar with the church building.
2. They got to bear their testimonies.
3. They heard other's testimonies.
4. They know have several friends in the ward (their teammates and their testimony partner.)
5. An investigator actually told me this one: She learned that if she studies the scriptures with a question in mind it will be more effective!
I also have really good news! I got the letters from the ward! And from Uncle Ike's family! Thank you! I also witnessed a miracle. I got the package from the Knudsen's! I don't know what happened to that thing, but it finally arrived. and it looked like they had to move it through a battle zone to get it to me. One of the bags of pizza flour broke inside, so when we opened it that stuff got everywhere. Everything inside was coated with it as well. And the Salt Water Taffy had melted over everything. But don't worry! I was able to clean it up pretty well. The only thing that couldn't be saved was the taffy.
A couple weeks ago some ward members gave us a bag of rice and lentils. I think it's designed for food storage. It's made by NuSkin. This week we tried it, and to be honest it was pretty gross. But... I was looking through the pantry and I found some curry. I added that and had some curried rice and lentils. It wasn't as good as your's mom, but it was alright!
This week I bought a kilogram of chocolate from a street vendor for a dollar. They just open up the cocoa pod and mix in some sugar. It's pretty rich stuff. I can't eat very much of it at a time. That's what the picture is. Street chocolate. There's also a different kind of street chocolate here that is even more common. It's made by the street dogs.... They just do their business anywhere they want. We always have to be on guard.
This computer won't let me send pictures, so I'll send more next week. Sorry!
-Elder Goodman
Questions from Kanani:
1. Is there anything you want/need?
I've been thinking that I want to try yoga.. Could you send me a really simple yoga book? I have a really hard time exercising in the mornings, so I'm looking for different things to change it up. 2. An elastic exercise band. 3. My leatherman- I'm not sure if you'll be able to send that, but several times I have been in situations where I wish I had it.
2. Do you have a parasite? Or did you find out what your illness was?
Nope. I'm clean! We still have no idea what it was.
Monday, January 4, 2016
I baptized Guillermo!
Feliz año nuevo!
This week was actually a pretty good week, but I also got to see the worst of El Salvador when I went to the hospital.
1. I had to do a poop test- I'll let you imagine the details for yourself- Here they have private clinics that will do it for 2 bucks, really fast really easy. But my companion thought it would be faster to do it at the Hospital. It was not faster at the Hospital. It was a Government hospital- I had to prove I was legal, but I didn't have to prove insurance or anything. I'm not exactly sure what the situation is down here with healthcare, but I got the test done for free! It was also very poorly managed, and staffed. We had to run all over getting signatures, we needed one from the triage doctor in the emergency room. But when we got there he wasn't there. We didn't have much time, so we left for a meeting at the church across the street. When we returned he still wasn't there. And the nurse at the front desk was very unhelpful. We were very pressed for time all day, and it took all day to get it done. We were running in and out of the hospital so much that the guards started to question us telling us how suspicious we looked. It was a really frustrating day. Made worse by the fact that I had to carry around the ... ahem ... sample the whole time.
2. New Years, the whole city was hung over the next day, so we didn't get a whole lot of work done. I did see two drunks fighting in the street though! That was a little frightening to be honest. Not as funny as you think it would be.
3. We had the Christmas gift exchange this week as a zone. It was pretty fun, we all treated it like a white elephant party, the most common gift was ties. The Hermana missionaries thought that the rule was to spend a minimum of 5 dollars (the real rule was 5 dollar max.) So they bought some really nice gifts, cologne, nice shirts, stuff like that. It was kind of awkward for everyone.
4. We did a lot of baptizing this week! This entire half of the mission baptized 14 people this week. And our area baptized 4. That was awesome! I baptized Guillermo! And Alicia's mom came to the baptism! (I found out she's 61 by the way)
5. A funny experience that happened this week: We were visiting Guillermo's family, and when we came in they were watching music videos on their tv, music videos that were at least 30 years old. (I recognized one of the bands: Hall and Oats). My companion made the comment that I understood what they were saying in the songs, because I speak English. They got really excited and made me translate the songs for them. (Fun fact, the songs didn't really make much sense in English either.) They loved it though!
6. We locked ourselves out of the house this week. We found out that our house is not very secure, I climbed the porton (big metal sliding door) to get into the yard and then I was able to unlock the door through the window.
A cat has also been visiting our house lately, I'm not sure exactly how it does it, but it is kind of interesting when we see a cat walking around our house while we are studying.
I just realized I didn't give you an update on my health, I'm doing fine! Although starting last Saturday I've started to feel really achy. who knows?
Love you! Elder Goodman
This week was actually a pretty good week, but I also got to see the worst of El Salvador when I went to the hospital.
1. I had to do a poop test- I'll let you imagine the details for yourself- Here they have private clinics that will do it for 2 bucks, really fast really easy. But my companion thought it would be faster to do it at the Hospital. It was not faster at the Hospital. It was a Government hospital- I had to prove I was legal, but I didn't have to prove insurance or anything. I'm not exactly sure what the situation is down here with healthcare, but I got the test done for free! It was also very poorly managed, and staffed. We had to run all over getting signatures, we needed one from the triage doctor in the emergency room. But when we got there he wasn't there. We didn't have much time, so we left for a meeting at the church across the street. When we returned he still wasn't there. And the nurse at the front desk was very unhelpful. We were very pressed for time all day, and it took all day to get it done. We were running in and out of the hospital so much that the guards started to question us telling us how suspicious we looked. It was a really frustrating day. Made worse by the fact that I had to carry around the ... ahem ... sample the whole time.
2. New Years, the whole city was hung over the next day, so we didn't get a whole lot of work done. I did see two drunks fighting in the street though! That was a little frightening to be honest. Not as funny as you think it would be.
3. We had the Christmas gift exchange this week as a zone. It was pretty fun, we all treated it like a white elephant party, the most common gift was ties. The Hermana missionaries thought that the rule was to spend a minimum of 5 dollars (the real rule was 5 dollar max.) So they bought some really nice gifts, cologne, nice shirts, stuff like that. It was kind of awkward for everyone.
4. We did a lot of baptizing this week! This entire half of the mission baptized 14 people this week. And our area baptized 4. That was awesome! I baptized Guillermo! And Alicia's mom came to the baptism! (I found out she's 61 by the way)
5. A funny experience that happened this week: We were visiting Guillermo's family, and when we came in they were watching music videos on their tv, music videos that were at least 30 years old. (I recognized one of the bands: Hall and Oats). My companion made the comment that I understood what they were saying in the songs, because I speak English. They got really excited and made me translate the songs for them. (Fun fact, the songs didn't really make much sense in English either.) They loved it though!
6. We locked ourselves out of the house this week. We found out that our house is not very secure, I climbed the porton (big metal sliding door) to get into the yard and then I was able to unlock the door through the window.
A cat has also been visiting our house lately, I'm not sure exactly how it does it, but it is kind of interesting when we see a cat walking around our house while we are studying.
I just realized I didn't give you an update on my health, I'm doing fine! Although starting last Saturday I've started to feel really achy. who knows?
Love you! Elder Goodman
 |
| Baptism of Guillermo. He's the taller one in white |
 |
| Baptism of Alicia. (Her mom is in yellow) |
 |
| The Cat |
Friday, January 1, 2016
Monday, December 28, 2015
Los Chorros (the gushes)
Hi all! Merry Christmas!
Calling home was definitely the highlight of this week! It's kind of interesting, I've heard from a lot of missionaries that calling home is kind of a bitter sweet. That it's great to call home, but for the next couple of days afterward they have a really hard time working because they just want to go home. But for me it wasn't like that at all! For me, afterward, I felt really energized and ready to work. Elder Bucknum told me that it depends a lot on the family- some families are really good and positive (like mine!). But other families talk about how much they miss their missionaries, and how hard it is at home without them. Which is obviously really hard for the missionaries. Thanks for being the good kind!
After calling we stayed the night in the other missionaries' house, because the buses to Panchimalco don't run on Christmas in the afternoon.
Saturday was a crazy day. Saturday we did interviews for the people we were going to baptize this week. While Elder Alvarez (the Zone Leader) did the interviews, I had to talk to the families and fill out the Baptismal Register. One of the people we are baptizing is named Alicia. She is about 27 years old, but all her family lives together in the same compound. (This is pretty common, a space with a bunch of different buildings, the kitchen, a family room, different bedrooms). Obviously she is old enough that she doesn't need her family's permission, but she was expecting them to support her. During the interview I talked with the family trying to get them to help me fill out the register, and I found out that the mom does not support the baptism. At all. I got yelled at for about 10 minutes. The mom is probably only about 65-70 years old, but people age faster here, and she looks like she's 80-85 ish. But she is very strong in her opinions. That was a really interesting experience. You'll be proud to know that I kept my cool, and was very pleasant the whole time. The interview went long, and it was kind of awkward sitting there for another hour afterward.
I finished Saturday completely exhausted, I almost fell asleep on the bus back home. (we finished the interchanges in San Salvador and had to take the bus all the way back). We also had to buy presents for the white elephant exchange that we are doing as a zone. There is a tourist section of the ride back home that is notorious for having bad traffic, and Elder Torres and I had a great idea. When the bus got stopped in traffic we jumped off and ran ahead about 1 km to one of the little souvineer huts to buy the presents. By the time we finished the bus had caught back up to us and we jumped back on for the ride home. It was pretty risky, because it was the last bus home, but it worked out really well!
Sunday I woke up super super sick. I had what they call Los Chorros. Which translates to 'the gushes', more or less. I don't think I need to explain more, but it was the worst diarrhea I have ever had in my life. I felt completely drained. (heh). But we had two families that we needed to take to church. So I took the maximum dosage of the diarrhea medicine I brought and packed my bag with a roll of toilet paper and an extra pair of garments.. We have to climb a pretty steep hill to get to these families, and the whole time I kept telling myself the story of Brigham Young and the other missionaries standing up in the back of the wagon yelling 'Hurrah for Israel'! It worked! I survived all the way through sacrament meeting. Then I went to the house of the Planes missionaries with Elder Garcia who has chikunguyna pretty bad. And we just fell asleep. They had ran out of toilet paper the day before, so I was really glad I had brought my own. After church Elder Torres and Elder Bucknum came home, and they thought it would be a good idea if they went out to work and left me in the house with Elder Garcia. I had a feeling that it was going to get worse, and I didn't want to be sick in someone else's house, so we decided to get me home. By that time I was starting to feel pretty achy too, I think I had two different sicknesses. The travel home almost killed me. When we got home I just collapsed and fell asleep. Elder Torres gave all of our lessons that day over the phone. He woke me up at about 7:30 ish to try to give one lesson. But I couldn't do it, I felt too weak. I didn't eat or drink all that day, and I'd been having diarrhea (the worst I'd ever had), and I was really achy all over. I could stand up, but the walk too the bathroom was too far. (sorry if I'm going into too much detail :) By this time I was also getting the chills, and I was getting pretty scared, because I had no idea what was going on. But I realized that I was probably really dehydrated. So I started drinking as much water as I could. In sips. I called the nurse and she told me I probably had parasites. ( I'm taking a test for that today). I asked Elder Torres for a blessing, and went back to sleep.
Monday, This morning I woke up feeling great. I feel perfectly fine! I'm not sure exactly what happened yesterday, I never want to go through that again. Today I will take a test for parasites, but as of right now I feel fine! Dont worry!
Sorry for going into so much detail, but I had the time so I thought I'd make the most of it!
Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman
Calling home was definitely the highlight of this week! It's kind of interesting, I've heard from a lot of missionaries that calling home is kind of a bitter sweet. That it's great to call home, but for the next couple of days afterward they have a really hard time working because they just want to go home. But for me it wasn't like that at all! For me, afterward, I felt really energized and ready to work. Elder Bucknum told me that it depends a lot on the family- some families are really good and positive (like mine!). But other families talk about how much they miss their missionaries, and how hard it is at home without them. Which is obviously really hard for the missionaries. Thanks for being the good kind!
After calling we stayed the night in the other missionaries' house, because the buses to Panchimalco don't run on Christmas in the afternoon.
Saturday was a crazy day. Saturday we did interviews for the people we were going to baptize this week. While Elder Alvarez (the Zone Leader) did the interviews, I had to talk to the families and fill out the Baptismal Register. One of the people we are baptizing is named Alicia. She is about 27 years old, but all her family lives together in the same compound. (This is pretty common, a space with a bunch of different buildings, the kitchen, a family room, different bedrooms). Obviously she is old enough that she doesn't need her family's permission, but she was expecting them to support her. During the interview I talked with the family trying to get them to help me fill out the register, and I found out that the mom does not support the baptism. At all. I got yelled at for about 10 minutes. The mom is probably only about 65-70 years old, but people age faster here, and she looks like she's 80-85 ish. But she is very strong in her opinions. That was a really interesting experience. You'll be proud to know that I kept my cool, and was very pleasant the whole time. The interview went long, and it was kind of awkward sitting there for another hour afterward.
I finished Saturday completely exhausted, I almost fell asleep on the bus back home. (we finished the interchanges in San Salvador and had to take the bus all the way back). We also had to buy presents for the white elephant exchange that we are doing as a zone. There is a tourist section of the ride back home that is notorious for having bad traffic, and Elder Torres and I had a great idea. When the bus got stopped in traffic we jumped off and ran ahead about 1 km to one of the little souvineer huts to buy the presents. By the time we finished the bus had caught back up to us and we jumped back on for the ride home. It was pretty risky, because it was the last bus home, but it worked out really well!
Sunday I woke up super super sick. I had what they call Los Chorros. Which translates to 'the gushes', more or less. I don't think I need to explain more, but it was the worst diarrhea I have ever had in my life. I felt completely drained. (heh). But we had two families that we needed to take to church. So I took the maximum dosage of the diarrhea medicine I brought and packed my bag with a roll of toilet paper and an extra pair of garments.. We have to climb a pretty steep hill to get to these families, and the whole time I kept telling myself the story of Brigham Young and the other missionaries standing up in the back of the wagon yelling 'Hurrah for Israel'! It worked! I survived all the way through sacrament meeting. Then I went to the house of the Planes missionaries with Elder Garcia who has chikunguyna pretty bad. And we just fell asleep. They had ran out of toilet paper the day before, so I was really glad I had brought my own. After church Elder Torres and Elder Bucknum came home, and they thought it would be a good idea if they went out to work and left me in the house with Elder Garcia. I had a feeling that it was going to get worse, and I didn't want to be sick in someone else's house, so we decided to get me home. By that time I was starting to feel pretty achy too, I think I had two different sicknesses. The travel home almost killed me. When we got home I just collapsed and fell asleep. Elder Torres gave all of our lessons that day over the phone. He woke me up at about 7:30 ish to try to give one lesson. But I couldn't do it, I felt too weak. I didn't eat or drink all that day, and I'd been having diarrhea (the worst I'd ever had), and I was really achy all over. I could stand up, but the walk too the bathroom was too far. (sorry if I'm going into too much detail :) By this time I was also getting the chills, and I was getting pretty scared, because I had no idea what was going on. But I realized that I was probably really dehydrated. So I started drinking as much water as I could. In sips. I called the nurse and she told me I probably had parasites. ( I'm taking a test for that today). I asked Elder Torres for a blessing, and went back to sleep.
Monday, This morning I woke up feeling great. I feel perfectly fine! I'm not sure exactly what happened yesterday, I never want to go through that again. Today I will take a test for parasites, but as of right now I feel fine! Dont worry!
Sorry for going into so much detail, but I had the time so I thought I'd make the most of it!
Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman
Friday, December 25, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
I sat on the dashboard
This week was a pretty good week. Last week was pretty frustrating, I felt like I was swimming, I didn't know who we were teaching, what they needed, where we were, etc... But Thursday we finally had weekly planning. I found out that the missionaries before hadn't filled out the area book in 2 changes. And Elder Torres told me that they also hadn't planned in two changes, daily and weekly. Everything was a mess. We did weekly planning for 4 hours..... But I did it! We are finally updated! It's interesting, I know that the missionaries before worked really hard, because we have a lot of good investigators that they found and taught. They just didn't record any of it. So I came in blind. Kind of frustrating.
Things with Guillermo are going really well, (he's 18 by the way). In our visits he's teaching us sign language.I finally memorized the alphabet! I also found out down here they speak (or sign I guess) LESSA, not ASL. Interesting.
This week we had our ward Christmas party. It was awesome, if anything the people down here know how to throw a party! There was tons and tons of food, also tons and tons of people. We played games and sang songs. The 4 missionaries from the ward did a skit. We basically just acted out Pres Hinkley's story about the two boys who left the dollars in the old man's shoes while he was out working. Then we shared a couple scriptures afterward. It was really simple, but I think it touched a lot of people.
There aren't many buses here, so they're always really crowded, especially late at night. So to ge everyone home to Panchimalco a member used his truck (one of those big, flatbed produce trucks) to get that half of the ward home. And they packed it. I think they had close to 60 people all in the back of this truck. Missionaries can't ride in the back so we rode in the front, which was also packed. I sat on the dashboard. That ride home was crazy. It's a pretty lonely, windy road, so the driver flew. His wife kept telling him to slow down, but he didn't want to burn his brakes up on the downhill, so he didn't listen to her. The whole time I was thinking about what would happen if we crashed. We'd probably have to go back to being a branch.....
Last pday we played American Football, and for the first time the Gringos dominated. It was a ton of fun! I got a sweet over the shoulder Hail Mary for a touchdown!
I hope you haven't noticed, but I lately I have been having a hard time writing. I think part of it is that I don't have much time, so I just write as fast as possible. But I am having a hard time structuring my sentences.
Last night we stayed the night at the other missionaries house in our ward. (It's a long story that I'll tell you on Christmas) and I forgot to bring my camera. I have a ton of pictures to send too. Sorry!
Love you!
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