Zach's Mission President

Bruno Emilio Vásquez Robles, 50, and Brenda Elizabeth López de Vásquez, four children, Sonora Ward, Amatitlán Guatemala Stake: El Salvador San Salvador East Mission, succeeding President David L. Glazier and Sister Beverly B. Glazier. Brother Vásquez serves as a branch president and is a former stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, bishop and branch president. Employment resource center manager, Corporation of the Presiding Bishop. Born in Guatemala to Bruno Vásquez de Leon and Maria del Rosario Robles de Vásquez.

Sister Vásquez is a former ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, seminary and institute teacher and temple ordinance worker. Born in Guatemala to Francisco Roberto López Rubio and Rosalia Manzanero Castillo de López.

Zach's Mission President has an "I'm a Mormon video.  See it here.

A Day of Firsts

Hi everyone! Wow! This has been quite a week!

Tuesday was a pretty normal day. A member of the ward died- he was old and sick- they had a viewing that night. Elder Wallace and I stopped by, we were talking to the family and got asked to help dress the body for burial. We were both a little taken aback, but said yes. I think they could tell that we didn't want to because we didn't end up helping.

Wednesday. Our zone went to the temple in San Salvador that day. E. Wallace and I got a little lost. missed some bus stops etc. And missed the session. We waited in the waiting room for an hour or so. It was still a spiritual experience. We were a little bummed though.

Thursday. Thursday we went into San Salvador again. Immigration for me. We also had interviews with the president and his wife. I really like them! (I found out he was not a pro soccer player.) ( I did talk to a drunk guy who said he was! He also said his name was James Bond ....)

Friday. Friday was a day. We woke up at 4.00. We packed our entire zone of 25 people into a microbus to go to a fireside in San Salvador. A microbus has seats for 14 people (15 with a driver). It's smaller than a 15 passenger van, imagine an extended minivan. It was a wild ride! The fireside was at the chapel by the temple and all 3 El Salvador zones were there. The Guatemala missions also tuned in by internet. President Alonso and Ochoa spoke. And Russell M Nelson! I got to shake his hand! His talk was amazing! Of the 500,000 members in Central America 1/4 are inactive men who could hold the priesthood. He said half of our time should be spent with them. He also gave us 10 doctrinal topics. 'core curriculum' to study. It was a great day!

Saturday was a day of firsts. I had my first baptism! A girl named Lilliana, we reactivated her family and baptised her. The service was nice. I conducted the music. It was a little shakey for a bit while I tried to find hymns to sing while she was changing. I don't know Spanish hymns! I also saw my first street body! There's a street we walk on usually twice a day. One day it was roped of with police tape and a bunch of police guys were walking around. That was a little scary.

I got the pony express letters from the family reunion! Thanks everyone! They were awesome!
Have a great week!

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

1, Do you do your own cooking?
I make Cereal for breakfast. We eat lunch and dinner at a member's house. We also pay them.

2.  Which ward/s do you serve in?
Las Cañas ward.

3.  Where is the best place to send packages?
Mission Office. We don't have addresses.

4.  What kind of stores do they have there?  How close are they?
We have a supermarket just down the street. Pretty much the same as the U.S. The American brands are the same price. Central American brands are cheaper.

5.  Where do you go to get internet access?
The mall.

6. Do you boil your water or just use the water bottle filters?
We buy the blue 5 gallon jugs. AguaPura

7. Do you have people you are teaching?
Tons!

-Elder Goodman

Ilopongo, El Salvador

Hi everyone! It´s been a crazy two weeks!  It flew by and lots happened! I´ll try to give some good details!

Last week at the CCM was awesome! We had some awesome speakers! It was hard saying goodbye to all my friends at the CCM. I knew pretty much everyone there- all the Nortes on my transfer at least. My companion left at 3 in the morning, he had a flight to Honduras. I had a six hour bus ride. The bus itself was very nice. But the road was awful. I got really carsick. 

President Vasquez and his wife are really nice! I really like them! President Vasquez´s house is really nice. Nicer than most American houses! Unfortunately I´m never seeing another house like that again. Houses here are not the same.

I am in the city of  Ilopongo. Pretty close to the capital. My house has running water. Kind of. We can´t drink it. And it only works about half the time. Other half is bucket showers. Nice thing  is that it´s so hot here that the cold water feels pretty good. It´s usually about 100  degrees until we turn on the fans. We can keep it at around 75-80. Which is really nice!

I take a shower at night after we get home, and I usually feel pretty good until around 12 when when leave. Then I just start sweating buckets. And stay soaked throughout the day. Nice thing is that everyone down here is also super hot. I just am wearing a tie.

I spoke yesterday during church! Kind of! The bishop asked my companion and the ward mission leader to speak. And I told him that I wanted to do something too. I bore my testimony. I thought my Spanish was good when I left the CCM. It ´s not. I´m learning though! My companion is a big help. His name is Elder Wallace. He´s from Boise. And he played lacrosse before the mission at BYU.  I really like him. Even if he walks really fast.

Hope you have a good week! Have fun at school!

-Elder Goodman

CCM Numero 6

Hola! I haven't gotten the letters yet- that makes me feel good that they got sent though! Tell Grace and Jacob congrats for me! That's exciting! Tell Jenny I'm sorry about her game. that stinks! Thanks so much for your testimony at the end- that was really powerful!

Pretty much just another average week here in Guatemala. I really like it here - but I'm excited to leave. The food here is amazing! Definitely going to be the part I miss most! I like to talk to the cooks and get the name of the meal, unfortunately I usually forget the name. My district switched Ramas this week, so my last p-day is on Wednesday. In church last Sunday my district did a musical number, I played the piano. The song was Mas Cerca Dios de Ti. I'll let you figure out what that means in English! It was very good.

Last night President Duncan, the area president over Central America, came and spoke to us. It was very very good! The Tuesday before we watched a live MTC broadcast from Provo. Elder Nelson and his wife spoke. President Cox told us to watch for people we knew on the screen, and I saw Jordan Mugerian. That was cool! We got another batch of missionaries on Wednesday. There's an Elder Nawahine from Oahu. He went to Kahuku! I really like him. This morning we went to the temple. The worker checking our recommends at the desk recognized my name. He was baptized by Elder Nicholas Goodman. From Arizona. I'll bet we're related somehow. My teacher also served with an Elder Goodman. Also from Arizona. Cool though!

My time is up, and it's time for lunch. Adios! Have a great week!
-Elder Goodman

CCM Numero 5

That's so cool about Rachel and Phil! Their nephew is Elder McGuire, and he's awesome! He's in my district and he got a similar letter about me. I think that's pretty cool!

This was a really fast week. Elder Falabella of the Seventy spoke to us- in Spanish- that was really cool. There's some weird sickness going around this week, stomach. 16 people were out of commission on Wednesday. The record for one day is 20. It was pretty gross in the bathroom. Elder Garry, my companion, got it really bad. He was out for 2 days, poor guy. I was the awkward floater companion that hung out with different companionships in my district all day. It was actually a pretty cool experience because I got to teach with two other companionships, I feel that I learned a lot from them.

I think I said something last week about all the ambulances around here, turns out there's a hospital down the street. I'm going to assume that's the reason there's so many sirens.

The highlight of the CCM experience is always the city tour. 4-5 hour bus ride all over, and then a stop at the Central market. Everyone get's really excited about it. It turns out that the presidential election here is next month- and the current president is really unpopular. Apparently there's been lots of protests and the tour got cancelled. We're having a volleyball tournament and pizza instead.
Sorry if this letter seems like a bunch of random thoughts and stories, but this week has gone by so fast that I'm having a hard time thinking of things to write about. I bore my testimony on Sunday, about families. Our Branch President brought his son to priesthood meeting. As I was watching them I had the thought ''This is what I'm here to do, I'm here to find families, and baptize them, and take them to the temple, so they can be together forever.'' That's what it's all about. I love you!

CCM Numero 4

Amanda! That's awesome! I'm so excited for you!!!!! There are Sister Missionaries here- not very many, maybe 30 or so. Congratulations Piero! That's awesome! I'm so excited for you! Send the pony express to the Mission- we know we are supposed to be getting letters, but no one has any yet. One Sister in my district got one- but she sent it before she left. If you could send me updates on Clarke that would be awesome! You don't have to combine letters, I get an hour for computers.

Way to go sixth ward! Way to represent! I knew we're the best at dodgeball!
 　 　

This week was pretty average. I like it here! I got sick for a couple days, that's nice. Sore throat's been going around. I had to speak on Sunday when I was sick, that was kind of hard. We teach a ton here! Tons! We have two progressive investigators, our teachers. We teach each every other day. So we teach one every day. And in two days we'll have taught them both. Hopefully that makes sense. We also teach another Norte district every day. And we teach a Latino district every day.

This week we taught a district that had one more companionship than we did. My teacher split up me and my companion, so I had to teach alone! It was pretty scary, but also a little flattering! Teaching the Latinos is my favorite! They talk fast- but I'm at the point where I understand 80-90 percent, which is Awesome! Apparently I've been sleep talking in Spanish as well. That really made my day when they told me!

We sent off all the Latinos and some Nortes last Tuesday and got many more on Wednesday. Apparently someone had a health emergency, not one of the missionaries, and they had to stop in Mexico. They got here 5 hrs late. Bailey Maxwell and Zack Palmer are here now! Pretty Cool!  We have Latinos on our floor now. There's a set of twins here! One is going to Honduras and the other to El Salvador. Pretty cool! It took me almost a week to realize that there's two of them.

There are so many new missionaries here- we have to eat in shifts, and we had to move to a smaller classroom. It's pretty crazy! It's fun though. An elder in my district going to my mission, Elder Lowe, is from Henifor. Uncle Kurt was his woodshop teacher. Cool!　 I've been trying to get the guys to start singing in the shower. First time consisted of: "Do you want to build a snowman?... 10 seconds... Okay bye..." But! Monday night we all started singing- and showers got a lot funner! We had Elder Ochoa of the Seventy speak to us on Tuesday! That was sweet! Presidente Cox came up to me at dinner 30 minutes before it started and told me he wanted me to play the piano- he showed me the hymns he wanted, and I didn't recognize them. But I told him I would play. I didn't end up playing though because apparently Hermana Cox had already asked one of the Sisters to play. Whew! My reign of terror is over- in the new wave there is a missionary who was the ward organist at home. He is much better than I am, so I got replaced. We have another member of the Seventy speaking to us tonight- I'm pretty excited!

The road in front of the CCM is crazy- seriously- it's like they don't have any traffic laws here. We hear ambulances go by literally every hour (Most of the ambulances here are just pickup trucks with the bed covered, or what looks like an old UPS truck.) and we're certain it's because of traffic accidents. But we've never seen a crash. Until last night! Last night there was a pretty big crash in front of the CCM! We watched them clean it up from our windows. That was probably the highlight of yesterday. I'm running out of things to say- and I'm running out of time. Have a great week!

-Elder Goodman

CCM Numero 3

Hi!

That's awesome about the family reunion! Sounds like so much fun! Nathan sounds like a stud! I wish I could have seen him speak! Happy Birthday Jenny! I was going to send you a letter, but I got the schedule wrong. We can only mail out on certain days. It'll get there! Someday! I did make sure to tell everyone that it was my sister's birthday though! I also forgot to tell you that I saw Brother Holbrook on the plane to LA, that was pretty sweet! He's such a good guy. I also wanted to say that everyone loves Brother Holmes tie, and everyone wants to trade for it, but I won't trade it- sentimental reasons and all. I got offered 4 ties for it once! I'm not sure what to write about this week. We've been doing a lot- every day. My companion's name is Elder Garry. He's a stud, reminds me of myself actually! He's the typical All-American LDS kid. He's about 6'3 and super blonde. He had great hair and was pretty bummed when it got cut last week. He's from St. Louis and he's really good friends with Joe Bingham! Small world! He's very good at Spanish, we're having a ball teaching. We still teach several times a day, all in Spanish. I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's really fun. We've gotten to the point where we know what the other is thinking- which makes teaching really fun. He's going to the Honduras Tegulcigalpa mission. Most of the people here are going to Guatemala. About a third are going to Honduras, and 10 are going to El Salvador. 3 to my mission.  

I love Sundays here, it's all in English except Sacrament meeting. It's really nice. We have two branches here. The first Councilor in mine, Presidente Wood, is the Chief Legal Adviser for the Church in Central America. He teaches my priesthood and district class. I really like him. The second councilor, Presidente Lynn, is the Chief Medical Advisor for all of Central America except Guatemala. (The Guatemala medical guy is in the MTC presidency). Presidente Lynn gave us the health lecture on Sunday and scared us all out of our socks- by the end we were all wishing we'd gotten called to somewhere like Utah where they have all the weird diseases under control. I was really envying Clarke that day.  President Lynn had just gotten back from a trip to my mission, the stuff he was telling us was pretty frightening. All of my friends were making fun of me afterward. Apparently 1\3 of all companionships in Central America are out commission each day because of parasites. Nice. Thought I'd share that with you. They gave us all water filters, so... that's comforting I guess.

For the past 10 years I've really really really been hoping I wouldn't have to say this, but:  Mom and Dad, you were right. I've played the piano on my mission. I started playing on the second day. So, there you have it kids. Practice the piano, because in the Guatemala CCM there's not many people who can. Ugh.

The weather here is nuts, absolutely crazy. It is raining really hard outside right now, the lights flickered and we were all afraid that the power would go out and that we wouldn't be able to send letters, but it seems to be doing fine. Last pday right after I wrote my letter we played volleyball outside. It started raining ridiculously hard, we stayed outside, it's the first time we'd been in Central American rain! Our room smelled awful though afterword. This week we took a break and we were playing pacman tag on the sports court. We felt a couple drops, but the sky was clear and sunny and we wanted to keep playing. The teacher made us go in immediately though, we were all a little bummed. By the time we made it to the door it was raining pretty hard and by the time we made it to our classroom it was dark and cloudy and a full blown storm. Crazy. I don't know if you remember the storm when BYU played Texas- but it's like that every other day here. We never go outside though. The running joke here: "What's the difference between the CCM and prison? Prisons get visitors!" As true as that is, I still love it here. I usually have a hard time in the mornings, but I'm always in a great mood by breakfast time. This Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie- and we were all crying. All the little kids running around made us homesick! I absolutely love love love love love it here though. I'm having the time of my life!

Teachers are awesome! Missionaries are awesome! The food is awesome! The gospel is awesome! The gift of tongues is so real, I've only been here 2 weeks and I already know it. Elder Garry and I are pretty good at Spanish, but we get frustrated sometimes because we know what we want to say, but we can't say it. We were teaching a menos activo the other day, and she talked so fast. She had a little 3 year old kid who was crazy. Elder Garry and I were having a really hard time hearing her and understanding her. I told her that I knew that the church brought happiness, and she replied with a tricky question. She asked if we had been members our whole lives. We both said yes. Then she asked how we knew it was the church that brought happiness, if we'd never not had the church. It was a tricky question, and we didn't really know how to respond, especially in Spanish. Elder Garry and I both just bore our testimonies, and we were finally able to get the Spirit into the room. Our Spanish when we bear our testimonies is so much better than it should be, and I know that it's Heavenly Father blessing us with the gift of tongues and with the Holy Ghost.

Love you! -Elder Goodman