Surprise pictures!

A member in El Salvador sent us photos of Zach and wrote, "Su hijo está muy bien  trabajando  en la obra  del señor"

"Your son is working very well in the work of the Lord"

How merciful is our God

Hi everyone!

This week was pretty interesting. Several times this week the thought has come into my head  ¨Que misercordioso es nuestro Dios¨    ¨How merciful is our God¨.

I was able to see several miracles and tender mercies this week, that really helped strengthen my faith. One example: A man in La Union that I met once on interchanges has a fairly serious health problem. A little while ago he ruptured his appendix. Ever since he has had a bag connected to his stomach, kind of like a catheter. He is probably one of the most faithful and dedicated members I know. And he doesn't even have a year of being a member!  This week the Elders over there baptized this guys niece. The elders wanted this man to baptize her, but he couldn't because of his health. This week the elders there in La Union told me that this guy went in for a check up, and his stomach is completely healed, miraculously. The doctors are going to take out his bag and seal his intestine this week. My first thought when I heard that was of the man´s son. He has a cute little 6 or 7 year old son who is really excited to get baptized. My first thought was that this man will be able to baptize his son! My second thought was: ¨How merciful is our God¨.

This week we had a baptism! It was a great way to end the week! But as we were walking to the church I was feeling really down, felt like I was wasting my time, I wasn't doing any good here, etc. Then I realized that I was about to baptize someone! Baptisms are the best! Even on a day where I was baptizing, Satan was making me feel like I was a failure. Satan will never give up! We can't give up either!

Have a great week! I love you all!

-Elder Goodman

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I wore my USA shirt to pday. I'm not sure what else I'm going to do to celebrate today, but I woke up pretty happy!

This was another pretty average week- not a whole lot is happening these days. Just normal missionary life. I've spent a lot of time thinking this week, about how I've progressed, how I'm improving, what I still need to do to improve , stuff like that. Lot's of self-reflection.

The talk 'what lack I yet' from general conference awhile ago has given me a lot of help in my mission. I've gotten into the habit of praying every once in a while asking that the Lord will help me know what it is that I need to improve. I started in maybe January, around there, asking what I could do to improve. I got the answer that I need to take more initiative. I worked on that for a couple months and felt that I got pretty good at taking the initiative. Around March I asked again, and I received the answer that I needed to have more love, for the people, my companion, etc. Well, last week while spending all this time thinking I asked again. ''What do I need to be a more effective missionary?''  And yesterday I received the answer that I need to be more diligent. So for these next couple of months, I'm going to try to be more diligent. Wish me luck!

There's a 5-year-old kid playing gta5 here. Here's screaming at the screen, kind of distracting.

 For anyone out there who has ever wondered what alcohol is like. Or for anyone reading this who wants to try alcohol, please don't try it. Please don't. Growing up I was never really exposed to alcohol, I never really knew much about it. But here I see a lot of alcohol. I talk to people every day who have ruined their lives because of alcohol. There is a saying here: ¨Los niños y los bolos nunca son mentirosos''.  Which translates to: ¨Children and drunks are never liars¨. And it's true, for the most part.  So many drunk people stop us on the street asking us to help them, they're drunk, which means they aren't very good at listening. But I look into their eyes, and it is so so sad. There are so many people who have lost everything, everything, because of alcohol. First, they lose their jobs, then they start losing their possessions, selling them for more alcohol. Gradually they lose their self-respect, families, friends, everything. I was on interchanges this week and the other missionary told me about a man he's teaching who sold his front door, for more alcohol. Selling the front door is never a good idea, but in this country, it's a very very bad idea. The people can't control it. They buy alcohol before they buy water, before they buy anything.  Can you see how sad that is? They are slaves to a chemical. Utterly wasting their existence.  The saying ¨well you can take my _______, but you can't take my dignity¨ doesn't apply here. Satan takes away their dignity too. He leaves them passed out in the street every night after a long, dirty day of begging for money. Not to buy food, or water, but to buy more alcohol. It's infinitely more difficult to quit, then to never start. So please, don't ever start.

Hate to end on such a sad note, but yesterday I talked to a lot of bolos. (drunks) and I've been thinking about that a lot. I am so grateful for Christ, and his atonement.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!
I love you! I'm happy here!

Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

Working with members

Hi everyone!

This was a pretty good week! We spent a lot of time in La Union this week, so we didn't have a lot of time to work in our area, but it was good. Something cool we did in La Union was a job fair in the church building. The government runs the event, but the church lends the building. We set up a little booth outside the cultural hall to give away materials, and we actually got a lot of really good contacts. We also gave mini tours of the sacrament room. We put the electric piano on automatic prelude, and we turned up the ac full blast. When people entered the room they immediately felt the difference. And for many it was very spiritual.  One of the job booths was giving out coffee, the whole chapel stank of coffee, that was ironic....

I did interchanges with the zone leaders in La Union. Their house is super nice. The nicest I've seen on the mission. The Bedroom has a ceiling fan, and ac. And giant curtains covering the windows, so it stays really dark. I normally don't have a hard time waking up in the morning. But that day I did.

Today we stayed here in San Miguel with the other zones and went to the park. There are only 2 Americans in my zone, La Union, but here in San Miguel there are a ton. So we played Frisbee, and a little bit of football (the American kind). It was super fun!

For all of you who were wondering, I don't have to give my companion his butt-shots. We found someone in the ward who can do it. I'm pretty glad about that. After the first day he started urinating blood. I kind of freaked out a little bit, and I was really glad I wasn't the one who gave the botched injection. But we called the doctor and he said that it is normal.

The other elders in the ward had a baptism of a little kid, and the clothes were waaay too big. Using some safety pins I fixed it up a little bit. (see photo)

This week we've really been trying to focus on working with the members. All of our most positive investigators are references from members. It´s obviously the best way to go, but I have a hard time trusting in people enough. (a promise means nothing here)
If anyone has any ideas, or has experience from this, I'd love to here it!

The family reunion sounds awesome! Sounds like you had a great time! Shout out for Sam and Matt who enter the MTC this week! You're gonna be great! Pray for me and my companion. We´re having a hard time getting along.

I love you! Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

Another hospital

This was a pretty good week. Not really anything new has happened. Elder Maldonado and I are getting along great! I'm learning a lot from him.

He's having some leg problems. We went to the hospital to figure out what's going on. Turns out I'm going to have to be giving him shots in the nalga. Yikes!

This hospital we went to was super nice. The hospital San Fransisco in San Miguel. It was awesome! Much different than the government hospital I went to a couple months ago.

Not really a whole lot going on, to be honest. I'm happy! Love you all! Have a great vacation!

-Elder Goodman

Prueba de fe

This was a pretty stressful week, to be honest. (Thanks for the yoga poses mom! They help!) I've heard it said that the hardest part of the mission is the first 3 months. Training. It's true. And that the second hardest part is right around when you complete a year. They call it the prueba de fe. Trial of faith. It's true.

I have spent a lot of time on my knees lately. A lot of people let me down this week. I am realizing now, more than ever than people aren't perfect. I am also realizing now that God will never, ever, let us down. And like every other relationship, the strength of our relationship that we have with him depends on how much time we are willing to spend with him. And how much trust we are willing to give him. When all the people that you usually go to for help get taken away, you have to learn to trust in God. It's harder, but I'm pretty sure it's better.

One of my heroes on the mission is Elder Vallecillo, he's from Costa Rica. He was an AP when I arrived, and he was my Zone leader my first change in San Miguel. He once said that he wanted his mission to be hard, because it is only through hard experiences that we are able to grow.  Well, being the enthusiastic greenie that I am, I started wishing for a hard mission. What a bad idea.  These last 2 changes have been reaaaallly hard. But I have learned a lot.

Thank you so much for your prayers. I have felt the power of prayer. There have been so many times when I have been on my knees, asking for strength. And then a picture, or a feeling, or a thought comes into my head. Of my family praying for me. And I feel like I just got a warm hug, and I feel the Spirit. Thank you so much. I love you.

I want you to know that my testimony is stronger than ever! I am so glad and grateful to be a missionary. For anyone doubting if they should go on a mission or not: Do it! Whatever reason to go on a mission is a good reason. And as a missionary, be the best missionary you can be. Just follow the rules, and work hard, and love the Lord and the people. Now, if you don't want to do those things you should probably go home- because you'll be wasting your time. But if you follow the rules, and work hard, and love the Lord and the people, it will be the best experience of your life.

-Elder Goodman

Not Little Old Grandma Burps

This was a pretty good week! I'm really happy here! We had changes this week - And I'm staying here in San Miguel. When this change ends I'll have been in this area longer than any other area on my mission. My new companion is Elder Maldonado! He's awesome! We get along really great- he's a lot of fun to be around. And he's really good at talking to people and getting them to like him. He has a reputation that he baptizes a lot. Hopefully I will be able to learn a lot from him this change. He brought some fire to the area, this week we had a lot of good lessons and some investigators started to progress.

Right now we are teaching a really awesome family, the family Aguilar. They have three boys who are triplets. They all are 12 years old.  For the first time we were able to bring 2 of them to church. And they loved it! I introduced them to everyone I knew in the ward, and they had a great time, the ward really did a good job of making them feel welcome.  On Sunday night we visited them and we were finally able to get the mom's permission to put a date. She saw how happy they were when they got home and she really opened up. Truly a miracle.

Another miracle that happened with that family during that lesson.
On Sunday we ran out of toilet paper, and as you know we can't buy toilet paper on sunday. I was pretty worried about what we were going to do if I had to go before we had a chance to buy on Monday.  But during that lesson with the family Aguilar the drunk uncle  (drunkle, heh heh) saw that we were a little sweaty.  So throughout the lesson he kept giving us wads of toilet paper to wipe our faces, and my companion and I stuffed it all in our backpacks. And the toilet paper got us through until Monday morning!  Look at that! The Lord works in mysterious ways...

Funny thing that happened. This week we met an old lady, a member, who is 96 years old. She is old... and losing it, a little bit. She gave me a blessing the first time I met her..  She goes to church every week, it´s amazing. One time when we were visiting her family they gave us all soda- and she gulped the whole thing down.  But then you could tell that the gas was getting to her- because she was kind of doubled over in pain... and her daughter kept telling her to let it out.  The grandma was really embarrased though, she hid her mouth behind a napkin- and then just started belching. Like 2 minutes straight. And they were not little old grandma burps, they were nfl linemen burps. It was hilarious- I almost died laughing. Everyone did. Even the old lady, she was laughing too, while burping- you have to see it to understand how funny it was, but it sufficeth me to say that that lesson was one of the highlights of the week.

Well that's pretty much it, sounds like everything is going well at home! Thanks for writing me, everyone! Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman