December 2009

I know he misses rock climbing, but this is scary!!

December in Guatemala

12/30/09

Dear Family,

I am so happy that I got to talk to you! Although I only talked to you sisters a few minutes it was really great to hear your voices and your support. Thanks Mom and Dad for talking and understanding and giving me advice! I loved your emails this week too!

I am happy to tell you that I am already halfway through one of the jars of peanut butter. . .and I have only used it twice. Oh man, I love that stuff. Also it was great to get a change-up with the ties.

We had changes. It was nice to talk to Elder Wood and Elder Adlard and also this awesome Elder named Elder Hatch. They gave me a lot of support and advice. Well I guess I can tell a bit about what happened. My companion Elder Baquiax had a girl following him around and I had to deal with that. And then we went on divisions with one of our zone leaders and left him alone in his area with an Elder from the ward. He wasn't going to do anything wrong; he was just there for a baptism, but I didn't feel good about leaving him there overnight wihout saying anything. So I called the Assistants to the President just to let them know what happened. They ended up looking for him and bringing him over ot our house for the night. My companion wasn't too happy with me for doing that. Also, at changes I could feel that the other Latino missionaries weren't too happy either. In fact, when they called my name and the name of my new companion they told my new companion that it was sad that he had to be with me and a bunch of stuff like that.

Well my new companion is Elder Ramireez from San Marcos Guatemala. He has 18 months and doesn't seem like he wants to be here very much. He is really quiet and not very open to talk to me. When I asked him about how his Christmas went he just said bad and when I asked him how he felt about the area he said sad. It is probably a mix of things but I just feel like he doesn't want to be my companion at all. I just have to have patience. The good thing is that he doesn't say anything so I get to decide what we do. It is a good expereince and I am learning a lot.

It is weird because he isn't a short guy, so I know that he can walk fast, but he is always walking 10 or 20 yards behind me. Also, he wears a Manchester jacket that covers up his name tag and most of his white shirt and tie. I feel like I am just walking alone most of the time. Hopefully with time he will open up and get a bit more excited about the investigators and the area. I experienced the same thing when I came here. I think he is depressed too. He said that if it seems like he is mad or sad it is because his grlfriend might leave him. We will have to distract him with missionary work!

The investigators are doing well. Guillermo and Lorena weren't able to come to church, but Vidal and Fredy came. They also are both planning on coming next Sunday and Fredy might bring his family. His uncle was there at our ward which surprised him. It is good that he has family that are members.

Guillermo is getting all set for the ninth of January. We had a really good family home evening on Monday and brought Guillermo and his two daughters over to a member's house. It was very successful and hopefully now he will have more friiends in the ward. We are going to go visit him today with a member that just finished his mission in Ecuador. With Guillermo we are going over baptismal interview questions with him and really discussing everything and pulling out any doubts or questions. He is a man of great faith and is really intent on knowing the truth. He will admit that he still has a belief, for instance in his mind there is the Trinity, but he is trying to accept the doctrine. With a little time after his baptism he will come to understand everything. Also he had a really good experience with his family and now has more support from aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Lorena has been busy still but as soon as we can we will go over the baptismal interview questions and set another date, probably for sometime later in January. We just have to get her to church. She can't some this upcoming Sunday either. After the holidays she will be able to start up again.

Vidal is awesome and came to church with us this Sunday. He only stayed for Sacrament meeting and said it was because he felt weird that hd didn't know anyone, but said he will keep coming so that he can get to know people. We erased the date for January 9th but he still is all for it. He just isn't quite ready. More than anything we need to get him some friends that he can go to church with. There is a family that lives up the street from him that I am trying to get over. First I want to take the dad over to a lesson at Vidal's house and then take Vidal and his neighbor Carolina who is also taking the lessons, to the family's house for a family home evening. We will then try and have that family pick them up for church. Vidal is quite the missionary though. He always tries and get his neighbors to listen to us. That's how we found Carolina. She is a good investigator too and Vidal said she might come to church next Sunday with him.

Fredy is 19 and has the family that are members. He came to churech in a suit and ite! He had to leave after Sacrament meeting but will come to church next Sunday too. He is the one that went on the trip to Oregon. We had an appointment set up with him yesterday but were running late because a member made us lunch and it took a lot longer than I thought. It's not like I can just say HURRY UP WE HAVE A REALLY IMPORTANT APPOINTMENT!!! so we were 15 minutes late and by the time we got there he wasn't home. We will try and visit him today. He is really pilas though.

The rest of our investigators aren't progressing. We are teaching a guy named Ronald Alexander who always has a lot of questions from the soul like why are there rich people and poor people and stuff like that, but he never reads what we leave him. We visited him last night and he just had a lot of questions about the adminstration of the church so it wasn't really a lesson, but I asked him if we could start teaching his wife too and he said OK. So we will start teaching him de neuvo. . .start over. Hopefully we can get them to read and pray.

I also talked to Elder Hall at changes and Alfredo got baptized!!! That was great news! Other than all of that, life is good out here. I just have to animate my companion a bit! It is weird. I asked him how much time he had and he said 11 months. So then that night he told me "Oh, by the way, I know I told you I have 11 months but I actually have 18." So that was weird. I don't know the purpose of lying about how much time you have. I am pretty sure that he really does have 18 months though.

Also we have a new Elder in our district. His name is Elder Riehl from Detroit. He doesn't have very good Spanish and seems really nervous (He just got to Guatemala yesterday because the MTC here is Guatemala was too full). We are going on 24 hours divisions tomorrow and he will come to my area with me. I am happy about that because I can tell he is pretty nervous. Hopefully I can take him under my wing!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers! I am praying for all of you ever day! I love you and I know that this is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. I am so happy for these 2 years that I have to serve. At times it seems long, but in comparison to the rest of my life I know that it will be just a blink of an eye. I also know that how I live my mission and what I choose to do here will determine a great deal how I will live the rest of my life!

Happy New Year!

Love,

Elder Goodman

12/21/09

Dear Family,

Feliz Navidad! Wow, the year has flown by! I can't believe that it is already almost 2010 and that I have been out here 4 and a half months! It has been quite the experience! Definitely the most edifying, uplifting, learning experience of my life. I am so excited that I will continue serving, learning, and growing the rest of these two years.

Well this week hasn't been the easiets, but I have learned a lot. My companion Elder Baquiax (Bauk-ee-aush) has some great strengths and like all of us, things that need some improving. This week our numbers tanked. . . we didn't get as many lessons, contacts, new investigators, etc. Everyday was something different. . . .

We had a Chirstmas conference with all of our mission yesterday. It was really fun and great to see all of my missionary friends. We had a talent show and our zone did a traditional Guatemalan dance. Santa came and gave us our packages, and we watched a slide show with pictures from our mission from the last year. It was a lot of fun.

Chiquimulilla has had a bit of success. Carol, Alfredo, and a kid that I never met got baptized and they have a possibility of baptizing a lot more next month. That made me happy!

Well our investigators are good. Leorena hasn't gotten back yet, but we expect to visit her tomorrow. Guillermo still hasn't gotten baptized but we have a 100% for-sure date. . .January 9th. Also we have been working with a man named Vidal and his neighbor Carolina a lot and as soon as they get to church they will start progressing rapidly. They both read the Book of Mormon a lot and pray about it. They are gaining their testimonies bit by bit! I will give you more details on them on Christmas.

Also, we are going to be a trio later today with and Elder named Elder Marida. He will be with us for the rest of the week. He is our Zone Leader and his companion finished a week early to spend Christmas with his family so Elder Marida will be with us. I am scared because I will be the inexperienced gringo with two experienced Latinos. . .It will go fine ghough. I know what I need to do and I know how to do it.

Oh, OK so thank you so much expecially for the pictures that were sent with my package!! It made me a bit homesick, but it is really great to have pictures of my family!

So about calling and talking to you. I will call you Christmas morning. It will be cheaper and also I am not supposed to give my nunmber out to family. I will call you around 9 our time. . .I think that is 7 your time Christmas morning. Only I have to use the personal card to buy a calling card. I hope that is OK.

I love you and look forward to talking to you here in a few days!!

Love,

Elder Goodman

November 9, 2009

And now today's letter. A 2 for 1 special!!!

Tuesday after our great day at the capital we went on divisions with a set of missionaries from our district. We got a lot of stuff done and even found some new investigators. It was comforting to see how much I have grown. After 4 weeks I finally know my way around Chiqui.We contacted a reference that we recieved at chruch last Sunday from one of the members of a 13 year old boy named Luis who wrecked a motorcycle and broke his leg in a few different places. He is 100% bed ridden because his screws in his leg have to heal. Poor kid. When we visited him he had a Book of Mormon next to him on his bed with a really old pamphlet from 15 years ago. His mom and cousin have been listening to the lessons with us and his aunt has been reading the Book of Mormon.

Later that night we went and set a time to go by the house of someone that we met contacting dorr to door. Her name is Argentina and her husband, Gelman said we could return on Tuesday night, so we did. They are really nice people - a younger couple with a little boy who is just a few months older than Ariana. They are very interested in the gospel and Argentina went to church once when she was a teenager. I can just tell a difference between them and other people. They actually listen and respond and ask any questions that are on their minds. It is so refreshing to talk to real people who actually listen and respond to our message. Hopefully they will continue to progess.

Most of the other things we do are visit members and have family home evenings with them, visit less active members to try and excite them about the chruch, visit eternal investigators to try and spark thier testimonies, and go door to door contacting. We did divisions with the stake president and some other people and Elder Hall observed that his calling is so real and that he can truly discern what the less active members need. He explained that although we help as much as we can with them, our calling is mainly focused on finding those who are ready to learn about the gospel and get baptized. It was a huge relief to hear that.

Our comedor is great. I am satisfied with our choice to switch. For lunch we go to her little restaurant and we always have choices for what to eat, which is nice. Then for dinner we usually have something very spectacular. Flour tortillas are rare here, but she has fed them to us 2wice and they are extremely delicious.

Sunday church was a great pick me up. We had a lot of less active members and investigators and our overall attendance was 20 over the average... we had 105 and we normally have 80. It is always the best feeling when people walk in that you really didn´t expect to come and that happened with about 20 people. It was so exciting. On top of that, the talks were amazing. The bishopric talked about Preach My Gospel all of sacrament with a big emphasis on the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. How much better can it get? Also, in priesthood they talked about celestial marriage and now Alfredo wants to get baptized with his wife. We will start teaching her this week. Valerio´s 20 year old daughter came to church and people that know her said that she was WAY friendlier at church than they have ever seen her. Thats a good thing, right?The only iffy thing was that one of our newer families that came to chruch asked for money from us. They seem really pilas and interested, but it is hard to tell if they just heard about our welfare program and know what answers to tell us during the lessons. We will do some more investigating and discerning this week.

Life out here is the best. It has made me reflect about the kind of member that I want to be when I get back. Seeing how important home teaching and giving references to the missionaries are, it makes me want to do better. I want to be a missionary the rest of my life.We made a ward mission plan and presented it at ward council yesterday. We initially set a goal of 25 baptisms for next year, but after discussing it, they boosted that goal to 40! That made me more excited than I can describe. The ward here is getting excited about missionary work and has been helping out a ton. We recieved quite a few good references yesterday that we are excited to check out.

Well the church is true. The best thing about being out here is that I get to bear my testimony multiple times a day. I DO KNOW that this is the church of Jesus Christ on the earth today and that God truly loves us and wants us to do the things here that will bring us to live with him and our families for eternity. I am so happy to be able to share that with the people here.

Love you all,

Love,

Elder Goodman

November 9, 2009

Hey Familia,

Well since I didn´t get to say it here, "Trick or treat". Bigger than Halloween here is the first and second of November. The first is Dia de los Muertes and so they spend a few days making flower arrangements and then go on the first and second to the cemeteries and do activities and other things there.

So before I continue writing I should tell you that Ive met someone. Her name is Trya and we have gotten to know each other very well. She reminds me a lot of one of my best freinds back home and we have gotten really close. You guessed it, I met a six month old Boxer. She reminds me so much of Mia, I LOVE it! I have a picture with her:

Things are still going well here. Our investigators are great, but there are always things impeding them. As missionaries, we can´t fix everything or force people to come to church, we can just try our best to encourage them and show them blessings of living their lives right.We teach two teenage girls and one of them had a dream about getting baptized and knows that she needs to, but their situation makes it pretty much impossible for them to go to church. They keep all of the other commintments including the latest to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning (we usually assign a chapter from different parts each time) and they continue to pray about it.Another man that we teach ants to get baptized so bad, but he lives in the same hourse as his kids' mom. That sounds weird, but the thing is that they used to be a couple but aren't anymore. He understands that he can only get baptized if he moves out or gets married, but it is a real trial of his faith. He doesn't want to get married to her, because they are just friends, and he doesn't want to rip apart his family by moving out. We did start teaching his 20 year old daughter and she seems pretty into it. She committed to read and pray about it.

Alfredo, aka snail man is a good investigator, but we can´t visit him like we want to because it is a 30 minute drive and 20 minute hike and he insists that if we go out to visit him we have to stay 2 hours or more and eat lunch. He has some really weird beliefs including that Adam and Eve were test tube babies and that's why they couldn't die and that the brother of Jarod and Noah were both part of the story of Atlantis. Also some beliefs about Jesus that I would rather not write. He has had a hunger for doctrine for a while, but turned to the wrong places. I don´t know if he truly believes this stuff, but he definitely has the theories stuck in his head and always brings them up. We just have to replace these corrupt ideas with good and correct ones. (With Alfredo)

This past week I met my first Bible bashers. It was really frusterating. Once again, I have just seen that we have come here to find those that are prepared to hear and recieve the gospel... Like the awesome investigators that we are working with. Valerio (who lives with his ex misses) and Alfredo come to church every Sunday and continue progressing with the scriptures and prayer and both know the truthfulness of our message.

It is embarrasing being the tallest person in the country and not be able to play basketball. Everyone just expects it and doesn't believe me that I don't play... until they start playing with me. Then they know. That's something that I will have to work on... my bball skills. um actually, I would just rather play soccer :D

So thats what we did last Pday. Played basketball and soccer with the neighborhood kids. This pday we went to the capital and went bowling. It was great despite the 4 hours on crowded buses to get there and back. Afterwards we ate at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. After being in Chiqui for a month, I felt Like we were in the states. We drove by the CCM twice which was weird too.

Well I love you all and it was great seeing those pictures! keep them coming! Good luck with everything

Love,Elder Goodman

Translating at the Clinic and Back to Chiqui

Wow, it feels like I just wrote you. It is weird when the schedule gets thrown off.

The last day translating was great. I was a bit more productive. I translated a lot in pediatrics, which I liked a lot. The nurse that I translated for was very straight forward and said whatever she was thinking. It was a good thing the patients didn´t understand her. She was really funny though. She wanted a picture with me afterwards and I told her that I can´t touch girls so what did she do? Put one arm around the front of me and the other on the back of my thigh. Awkward. She was in her 40´s so it wasn´t as bad as it could have been. I just laughed it off with Elder Hall. On top of that, the van that picked us up and drove us played awesome 80´s music the whole way, which was like torture for me. I felt bad, because we can´t listen to that and it isn´t a problem around here because I never like the music, but they played all kinds of catchy songs that got stuck in my head forever.

At the medical place I also translated for an older nurse named Joan in the education department. She was also way straightforward and intense, but so funny. She is in her 80´s but moves circles around everyone else. During lunch she was especially funny, telling us stories of her getting pulled over and her responses to the officer... "Why were you going so fast?" "If I go any slower, I may forget where I am going" or "How do you like your new Toyota" "It goes too fast". It was so funny picturing this old lady getting pulled over for speeding and I could really picture her giving these responses. I guess I´ll have to send a picture of her with this batch of pics.

It is amazing to be back in the field. I missed it a lot. worst part was that we didn´t really have time for much study while in Cuilapa. It was a big relief to wake up when we got back and have time to study the gospel. On Saturday morning we were supposed to go help with an Elder´s quorum service project at 7:00, but we stayed to study and it was worth it. We went later in the afternoon to the service project and they did a great job building steps in front of a poorer, less active family´s house. Before the steps, it was quite the climb to thier house. It was also good because one of our investigators, Hermano Alfredo (This is the guy that fed the snails to Elder Hall) came and was fellowshipped really well by the Elders quorum and also had an opportunity to feel good by serving. Sometimes it is hard getting investigators to church. Hermano Alfredo came, which was great, but we have been working with some others for a while, but they never make it to church. Even if they read a pray about it, if they never come to church, they won´t grow and progress and submit themselves to Christ like they need to. I know for some it is a small sacrifice, but I also know that if we can get them to sacrifice a little that they will be able to grow their testimonies as they see the blessings that come as they leave the world behind and come unto Christ.

We met another investigator on Friday night. On our way home from the church building he approached us on the street. It was funny because Elder Hall and I both thought it was a drunk guy asking for money because we were in between two bars and that happens all of the time. It turns out he was a reference that we had just recieved from the zone leaders. He seemed very excited to find us, so we taught him on Saturday and found out that he is a Catholic preacher and was worried more about learning why Brigham Young had so many wives instead of the doctrine. It seems as if he has other motives for talking with us, but it is still unclear. He could just be curious. He said he would come to church, but didn´t show up.

I have noticed that my Spanish has improved a bit since it is a bit easier to respond. It depends on who I am talking to and how much noise there is, but I am getting more comfortable speaking. I just need to step out of my shell more instead of sitting back and listening to Elder Hall talk to people. Sometimes learning Spanish is frusterating because it is so gradual that you don´t really notice whether you are progressing or not. Going on splits with members last night was good for me to see that I can communicate and I am betting better. I just need more patience.

Sometimes I can´t remember what I talked about in the last e-mail, but I´m pretty sure that I talked about switching comedors (the people that cook lunch and dinner for us). Well, next month we are switching comedors for a few resons, one of them being money issues. Being in Cuilapa made me excited for the change. Not many people here make flour tortillas, but the comedor in Cuilapa did and they were so delicious. Our new comedor told us that we can have flour tortillas whenever we want. A funny thing that happened is that the family of our current comedor is not being very nice to us now that they know we aren´t staying there next month. They keep trying to get us to buy stuff and when we tell them we don´t have money they tell us to go get some from our parents. Kind of rude... They just think we are rich, spoiled gringos. It doesn´t matter... we are going to save a lot of money by switching and also get better food, so I can handle some light ridicule for another 5 days.

Ok, so the people at the medical place showed us something really great. Marshmallow fluff and peanut butter sandwiches. It sounds weird and too sweet, but it is amazing. We just throw it into the toaster oven and it is so warm and delicious. Anyways, Christmas is coming up... I would love some Jif peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. Also, my ties are all dirty and silk, so I can´t wash them. Polyester ties are more washable, but I don´t have any. So if you find some cool cheap polyester ties in a thrift store, you know where to send them ;)

I love you all so much. Don´t forget to e-mail me about your lives... it would be a great Sunday activity. I also loved getting those pictures. I have a lot more time for e-mail out here and I wrote this in my apartment and then typed it up, so it took a lot less time. So don´t worry about me not having enough time to check email because I do now.Well I am going to upload some pics from the medical team. Enjoy!Love you. Love,Elder GoodmanP.S. I still have 20 minutes to be online if you wanna shoot me a quick email.

Translating for Docs from the Big Apple

Family and Friends,
Another busy and rewarding week. To start off, I witnessed my first baptisms of my mission. They were of the parents of a young man in the branch who is leaving on his mission to Peru this week. They have gone to church since the branch started 15 years ago, but had already been baptized before and didn´t feel the need until thier son recieved his call and they started to realize the importance of being baptized with authority from God. It was a really great baptisimal service. Wilson (the son/future missionary) baptised them and that was also the same day that he went through the temple. He was one happy guy.

Our investigators are doing well. One man that we are working with has a baptisimal date for the 31st of October. He is a great man and some members that know him that he has made some great changes in his life in the past few months for the good. That just tells me that these people are preparing to meet us and hear the gospel from us long before we actually meet them. We are trying to set up a baptismal date for "Snail man" AKA Hermano Alfredo. The only thing is that it is a 20 min. drive and 20 min. hike to his house and everytime we go he insists that we eat lunch with him before teaching him, so it takes a good chunk of the morning.

Other investigators seem to be progressing a bit slow because of things in the way. Going to church on Sundays is hard for some people... We just have to work as hard as we can to help them out.

I don´t know if I told you this, but we get a "Comedor" to cook us lunch and dinner everyday. Well ours was expensive for what she gives us so we switched. We start next month with our new one and I am so excited. I have heard that she is a great cook and she charges a lot less. The best part is that she is a returning less active member and is slowing bringing her daughters with her to church and church activities. She is an amazing woman and I am so happy for her. The sad thing is that her husband has a lot of really big problems and they are seperated right now. She has dealt with these problems for a very long time and I really feel for her and her daughters. I am so excited that we will be there with her 2 times a day to check up on her and help and encourage her. We are trying so hard to help her husband progress, but it is very hard. The members here are really great and helping us so much by visiting him too.

So this week we have a huge change. A medical team from New York came and so we took 4 days to help them translate because they dont speak Spanish. I was disappointed at first because I just want to be in the streets contacting and teaching, but it has been a very good experience. I do miss Chiqui, but I am learning a lot and translating is like a supercharge to my Spanish. It makes my brain hurt in a good way.Sunday night we traveled to a town called Cuilapa where we are staying now. It is the area of the Zone leaders and way closer to the town where the medical team works, Nueva Santa Rosa. We went on splits with the zone leaders when we got here and I went with Elder Toala. It was a very good experience. Sometimes it is hard to not have the comfort of speaking English if I need to, but the thing that I need to realize is that I really don´t need to. We found a really good family while contacting that was very interested. The spirit was so strong.Monday we woke up and went to Nueva Santa Rosa to serve. When we got there, they split us up to do different jobs. I started in the Eye Clinic but got moved around throughout the day to different areas. They have a childrens clinic, womens clinic, general medicine clinic, dental clinic, psychology clinic, and pharmacy. The volunteers that came from the US are very nice and a lot have been doing it for a long time.

I thought I saw it all in Guatemala, visiting these peoples´ houses and eating thier food, but I was wrong. I had never seen or heard their health problems. For the most part, the people that go to the clinic in Santa Rosa (it is free) are poor and uneducated and have never seen a doctor other than these people from the US that come every 6 months. There is always a big huge line and they have to come and wait in line pretty early.So we went Monday and Tuesday to the clinic and will go tomorrow, but we didnt go today because we had a zone meeting with President Alvarado and the assistants. They had the packages, but not mine. Hopefully the next time. Just make sure to send all mail to:

Elder Nicholas Ridge Allen Goodman
Guatemala City South Mission
Ave Reforma 8-60 Galerias Reforma
Torre II Nivel 606 Zona 9
Guatemala City Guatemala
Central America

So some miscellaneous stuff... I love the food. I haven´t gained much weight, but I am working on it. I weighed myself 2 weeks ago and I weighed 158.6. I will try and weigh myself again sometime soon and let you know. There are a lot of eggs and beans and rice here and they always serve it with 3 inch wide thick soft corn tortillas or breadstick-like bread without the butter. I have also eaten a lot of chicken fried steak, pasta, liver steaks, chicken, different varieties of tamales, etc. They have a lot of variety. And the internet lied when it told me that they eat the saltiest food. I wish they would cook with more salt. Maybe that tells you something about my diet...haha.

So if you want to eat something good, make tostada shells and to fill it, chop up carrots, potatoes, and green beans small... like tomatoes for salsa, cook until soft and then mix with cooked ground beef. Put mayonaise on the tostada shell and pile on the filling. I love it. You can have a little taste of Guatemala in your homes. The other thing you could try is a big juicy 8 or 10oz portion of cow liver. haha j-k. unless you like liver.Well I lost track of time. G2G. Love you all!!!!

PICTURES !!!!!!!!!!

Ridge with President and Sister Christensen at the Guatemala MTC (Centro de Capacitacion Misional, or CCM)

Ridge and Elder Davis. They were companions at the MTC in Provo, and again at the CCM. Elder Davis set a constant example of commitment and hard work, and Ridge was grateful for his example. It sounded like they really had a wonderful time together. Here they are, equally yoked:

In front of the Guatemala Temple. The temple is across the street from the CCM, so they got to attend every week. They went through an English-speaking session, because President Christensen said that the temple is not the place to be trying to learn a language; it is a place to feel the Spirit.

Ridge's District at the CCM:

Ridge and his new companion, Elder Hall. Elder Hall is from Portland, Oregon and is a District Leader. They are in the town of Chicuimulilla, which is about 20 km from the Pacific Ocean. He said that it is beautiful and HOT. There is a branch there and this past Sunday, there were about 113 members in attendance (that's actually about like our ward on some Sundays). There are 600 on the rolls, so they have a lot of work to do! I will add his last email below so you can all read what he has to say. There are a few parts of his emails that are my favorites. One is "Our apartment is above a house of a family and they own some dogs and birds and every morning I wake up to the parrot just talking away in Spanish. I like it."

Here is his email from Monday, October 12, 2009:

First batch of pictures!!Ok, so to answer your questions... I did not recieve your package or letters. I probably wont for a few more weeks, but it is all good :) It will be that one time when I just really need it and that hasn´t come yet. Everything happens for a reason :) I did get a letter from Ellie that was forwarded from the MTC in Provo my first day in the field. It was old, but nice to hear from her. We do live in Chiquimulilla. It is a pretty good sized town. I can´t answer any questions about the area or the mountain or anything becuase I have no idea.. haha. I am learning though... I pretty much follow my companion blindly around the town. I have 5 more weeks to learn it though. There are internet cafes all over the towns and that is what we use to check our emails. We usually meet as a district in Chiquimulilla because Elder Hall is the district leader, but right now we are at a zone activity in a town called Barberena so that is where we are emailing from right now. It costs 6 quetz for 1 hour and the ratio from quetz to dollars is 8:1 so it costs 75 cents for an hour. I guess that is pretty good.I am glad to hear that you enjoyed conference. I did too. I love reading my notes from the talks because they were all so good. A really good quote was from Elder Uchdorf: "Try and try again the impossible until it becomes possible and then try the possible until it becomes a habit." Not word for word but that is the jist of it. I love it in relation to missionary work... for instance right now I am having a hard time talking to my companion in Spanish. I really want to but it is so easy to talk in English and easy to justify it because we speak spanish with investigators and members all day so I know I am getting plenty of practice with spanish, but I keep getting these thoughts and promptings that I need to speak Spanish 24-7. I just need to keep trying this seemingly impossible task until it becomes possible and then after I realize it is possible I need to keep doing it until it is a habit and it feels unnatural to speak English. I just want to learn the language so bad! I have been blessed a lot with my Spanish though. Although I have a hard time understanding them when they talk way fast or get lost easy in long conversations or don´t know every work I am so thankful that I can communicate my feelings and desires. Most new missionaries can´t and I do need to focus on the positive. Anyways, that is a small example of how I can apply that quote and there are so many other ways to as well.Mission life in the field is amazing. The best. I love it so much. Right now it isn´t good as it will be, but I am so excited and hopeful. The reason that I say that is that I am mostly pretty quiet, just trying to absorb everything. I have learned so much in this past week, but it is basically that I dont know the area or where we are going or where people live or the people themselves. I cant remember who is who because there are so many people and it gets tiring following the conversations. The Lord is helping me a lot and I know that within a week or two I will know what is going on with the investigators and members and be able to help more rather than being passive.The lessons are going great. It varies, but for the most part if it is to someone that I dont know very well I am afraid to teach or say too much because I dont really know how much or what Elder Hill has already taught them. If I get a prompting to say or teach something I definately act on it, but he teaches about 75% of the time to those that I don´t know. It is a bit easier for the investigators who I know better. I feel more comfortable saying what I want to say and I know what is going on, so I can adapt to their needs.The church here is great and the members are pretty strong. They do a lot of missionary work. The sad news is that there are 600 members on the regitry for our area and we had 113 ppl show up to church. Elder Hall said that this is the most that he has seen in the 6 weeks he has been here. I guess some missionaries came through this area just baptizing people but not teaching them what they needed to know or helping them gain their own testimony. They just told them that they needed to get baptized and taught them what they needed to know for the baptizimal interview. Sad day. We are trying to do all that we can do to help out with that, but most of the people that did get baptized don´t remember much from our church and dont consider themselves members.Oh, before I forget, barrio is the right word, mom. It means neighborhood and in church terms it means ward.Some good news: we only need 3 more worthy preisthood members to form a ward. We found a very pilas (this word just means that they are really interested and we can feel their testimony grow) investigator from a member reference. He is probably in his 40s and 50s and says that he has been looking for the truth and doesnt like the feelings he gets when he goes to the catholic or evangelical church (by the way, those are the only 2 churches that anyone belongs too... if I meet someone and talk to them I can bet that they are catholic. If not, then for sure they are evangelical. I have only met like 1 or 2 ppl that werent either). Anyways, he already has a testimony of Joseph Smith and came to church yesterday. We also have 1 potential preisthood holder getting baptized this saturday and another one who is also very pilas. He came to church too and got involved in planning for an Elders quorum service project. He said he will go to that and if he does it will be a great opportunity for him to be fellowshiped into the branch better. Altogether we had 7 investigators come to church yesterday. That is pretty good.Ok, so about the title of this email. My bug bites are innumerable. I am just getting used to being itchy. It´s awesome. I always try and kill every bug that I see, then we ate at the district president´s house (equivalent to stake president) and he shared an insight from a book that Joseph Fielding Smith about how every living thing has a spirit and I felt really bad.Our apartment is above a house of a family and they own some dogs and birds and everymorning I wake up to the parrot just talking away in Spanish. I like it.Wish I could write more... Just know that I love it here and I am finding and teaching those people that have been prepared to hear our message. enjoy the pictures. They are from the CCM.... My favorite district ever. Also, the Guat. temple and one picture of me and Elder Hall. I gave Elder Hall moms email address and he gave it to his parents. Good luck with everything and I love you!

emails from Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Oh, how I wish I had some pictures to post! We decided that when his memory card is full, he will send it home and I'll develop the pictures and I'll send him a new one. Can't wait!! Here are his emails from Tuesday:

Family and Friends,Missionary life is amazing! This week was pretty eventful here in the good-old CCM.First off, on Wednesday 09-09 we went on splits with the missionaries from the Central and South missions. They sent all of the missionaries going to the South missions to the Central mission and vice-versa. I guess so that we can experience more of Guatemala.So we woke up and took a bus ride to a stake center about 20 or 30 minutes away from the CCM. We met there with alot of the missionaries from the central mission and got paired up. Since we are in the intermediate Spanish Speaking district, we got paired up with Latino companions that didn´t speak english. I got paired up with Elder Romero.So we went out and made our way to the area where we would be tracting and teaching. We first took the main bus system, which was pretty nice. It reminded me of a subway but with buses which is nice for Guatemala. Then we caught some not-so-nice buses to our area, Venezuela (No, not the country... that would take too long). Elder Romero and I were talking a lot on the way about families and hobbies and what lessons I knew how to teach and all of that when I remembered what I had been told about not getting too absorbed in conversations with your companion so that you don´t notice the people around you. So I turned around and started talking to this young woman named Anna about the church. She said that she had seen the missionaries walking around a lot but didn´t know anything about the church. She said she was catholic, but didn´t go to church everyday. So I talked about the restoration of Christ´s church and the authority of God. Then I left her a pamphlet about it.So we made our way to the area and It was very eye-opening. Definate poverty. They have mix and match houses made our of random scrap metals and dirt (concrete if they are lucky) floors. Most of the houses we went into had just one room with 5 or more beds a stove and a tv. The sad thing about it is that I know that it is worse than that in a lot of places around the world. I guess they are lucky in some ways that they have running water (not drinkable) and electricity.We taught a mom, son, and son´s girlfriend about the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and invited them the strengthen their lives by going to church and reading in the scriptures. It was hard because the mom has to work on Sundays, but we encouraged her to try and get it off. The most we can do is to promise blessings and give personal experiences and testimonies where it has blessed us in our lives.We then taught another lady whose son recieved the first lesson about the Restoration. So we taught her about it too. It was a good lesson and she said that she agreed with us and that she would pray about it, but it seemed as if she lacked sincerity. It felt like she was just going with it but really didn´t understand the importance. I could be mistaken. I hope.Along the way, we made a lot of contacts and Elder Romero made quite a few follow up appointments to teach and we handed out a lot of pamplets. There was one lady inparticular that seemed very interested and excited. Other than that it was people looking a bit bored and saying "yeah, i guess you can come visit". The most important thing is that they feel the spirit.. I hope they did. If not, then hopefully Elder Romero can help them feel the importance when he returns to teach about The restoration of the Gospel or God´s plan for us.Another thing about that area was that it was the best veiw ever of the city. The whole neighborhood sits on the edge of a hill (which makes it really hard to climb up and down the really steep steps) and it over looks a huge portion of Guatemala City.So then we had lunch. We met up with 4 other missionaries (One was an Elder Johnston from Snowflake who had been out for a year) and a member made us a really nice meal for 15 quetzales, which is about 2 dollars. However, it was disappointing because we just sat and ate with just other missionaries... no investigators or members or anything. They actually tell us not to do that... To make the most of all of our time.To Be Continued...

Sorry about that. I have an hour to write today but split into two parts... 30 mins at a time (weird, I know). So as I was saying, I was a bit disapointed that the time was not used so wisely. And the other fact about lunch is that we ate for 1 hour and 30 mins... Are you kidding me? I didn´t what to say... so I didn´t really say anything. And then we went back to one of the companionships apartment to "see the view of the City". I don´t need to see a veiw of the city... we just got a good one in the last area that we were in. Then we were just sitting there in the apartment and the missionaries said "Well we have to take you back to the chapel in 1 hour and 45 minutes and it is an hour ride over there so we don´t have time to teach a lesson or anything. I was just thinking "what the heck?" of course we have time.... We could make contacts or something. So I suggested it and they said ok but then we just sat there for 15 more minutes. really frustrating. So then we took off on our way back to the chapel and they said we would just make contacts on the way.So on the bus I said a quick prayer that I could find people to give my 2 copies of the Book of Mormon to. And as soon as I opened my eyes, Elder Romero pointed out an empty seat next to someone. So I sat down and talked to him a bit. He said that he is Catholic but doesn´t go to church and has a wife and 2 kids. He sells clothes for a living and likes to travel around playing music. I talked to him about the Book of Mormon being another testament of Jesus Christ and how it is an ancient record of Christ visiting the America´s translated through Joseph Smith. He asked me quite a few questions about it and said that he would study it and pray about it. I shared Mosiah 10:3-5 about praying to know about it and also the last 2 paragraphs in the introduction about how important it is to know if it is true or not. He gave me his phone number and we set up a day for the missionaries to visit him.So then we made our way to the main buses and it was kind of frustrating because the missionaries acted like they were in a hurry and didn´t talk to anyone. In fact, I almost lost them because I was wanting to stop and talk to people. And the sad thing is that we got to the chapel a whole 30 minutes early, but I really wanted to hand out my last Book of Mormon. So I told Elder Romero and he said that he remembered seeing a man sitting on the sidewalk who he thought could use some help in his life. I thought "so why didn´t you talk to him before?". So we went and talked to him and gave him the Book of Mormon. The only thing is that Elder Romero just seems to talk a lot and 50 miles an hour. He didnt ask him very many questions about his life or his beliefs or anything.So overall it was a wonderful and tiring day. I don´t mean to point out faults of the other missionaries because they really are good missionaries, but I did learn a few things... It was really good to be with them and see the things that I could learn from and the things that I will do differently. And I am not saying that I am a perfect little angel and the best missionary ever because I am not. I am sure that there will be days where I will not even want to get out of bed. This work is tough and tiring. But i do want to set small goals of things that I want to improve on like talking to everyone that I see and asking the investigators lots of questions. In getting to know people, you start to love them and start to see how much they need this gospel in their life and truly want to share it with them.Well I try not make these too mushy, but I just have to let you all know that this is the truth. It has made me so happy in my life and I want that happiness and peace in the lives of everyone. It is so peacful knowing where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going and knowing that we have the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us through our lives.Well the goodbyes part of this e'mail is about the Latinos. They left last night to go into the field. It was surprisingly difficult to say goodbye to them. We got extremely close and it was sad to think that they wouldn´t be with us for the rest of our stay. I got way closer to the Latinos than I have to the northamericans (the ones that aren´t in my district). I am excited to have Latinos as companions in the field and I can´t wait until the new group comes tonight. The only sad thing is that it is the smallest group of Latinos coming. But that just means that I can get that much closer to the few Latinos that will be here.Well I apologize again for not writing individual e-mails... There is just so much I want to say and I can´t get it all out... not even with a whole hour. I hope it hasn´t discouraged anyone from reading this email because it is too long....I love you with all of my heart and pray for you everyday,Love,Elder Goodman

September 8 email.

And now a word from Elder Goodman:

Family and friends,Guatemala is still amazing. Some wonderful things have happened for me and I havn't even made it to the field. One of the best things that has happened is that my faith in the Lord has really increased. I am continuing to see that he blesses us in ways that we don't realize at all.For instance... I was fasting this past sunday mostly for charity and patience with those around me and it was really weird because during my fast pretty much the exact opposite was happening. I just felt frustrated at every little thing. Then I was sitting is church and this memory came across me of how I always looked up to the missionaries in the area growing up. Then that same feeling came over me for each and every person that I was around. I am still working on the patience and charity thing but throughout the fast a lot of ideas popped into my head of how to battle those negative feelings when they come. I think that it is important for me to realize that we are all here to do the Lord's work and that this is no competition. It is really hard to think like that when we are all trapped together in the MTC... well, no trapped, but you know... not out there teaching.I still love the MTC here in Guatemala so much. The food continues to be great and I love all of the missionaries here. It is really good to share a room with 4 native and the have native teachers. We speak a lot of Spanish. I am confident that I will be able to communicate like I need to by the time I enter the field. I guess we will see tomorrow. Wanna know why? Cuz we are going on splits with missionaries from the Guatemala City Central and Guatemala City South missions all day!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! I am already sad right now that it at the end of the day tomorrow I will have to come back to the MTC. I hope that it is a really good experience and a really good indicator of how the field is.Well just to let you know again.... I cannot recieve videos and pictures via e-mail and I cannot e-mail friends. Can you please let my friends know that if they want a reply, then I need an address? For instance, Jessica Jones wants to send me her wedding announcement but I can't give it to her because I don't have her address. A few friends have written me via e-mail. Tell them to keep it coming even if I can't reply. It was really good hearing from Erin and Camille and Jeff... And i do feel bad for not being able to reply right away but I will write letters as soon as possible.And it is so good to hear from all of you via e-mail. I wish that I could print them out to read them, but sadly I can't. We have 15 minutes more than at Provo, but it still isn't much time to do everything. And I don't have time to write everyone individually :( But bottom line is that I love hearing from everyone and to me it is worth is to read everyone's emails.Well time is up but I know that this gospel is true and blesses lives. And it is the only way that we can return to live with our savior and our heavenly father with our families again.Love you all,Elder GoodmanP.S. I LOVE IT HERE... oh and I wish I could write more. Maybe it will be better when I hit the field.

Addresses

I should give you Ridge's addresses. Anything you send before September 25 goes to the MTC:

Guatemala MTC
Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15
01015 Guatemala
Guatemala

After that, you have two options. The first is a pouch delivery. These have to be either a postcard or a letter that is only one sheet, folded into three panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes). This is probably the most reliable, but it's kind of limiting, since you can't send anything except the single sheet of paper. Pouch address:

Elder Nicholas Ridge Allen Goodman
Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission
PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150
USA

Then if you want to send more, here is the actual mission address:

Elder Nicholas Ridge Allen Goodman
Guatemala Guatemala City South Mission
Ave. Reforma 8/60 Galerias Reforma
Torre II Nivel 6, 606 Zona 9
GUATEMALA (this is all caps)

He can recieve emails from anyone, but he can only send them to parents and sisters. For right now, he can email on Tuesdays (his P-day), and I will post his letters on here. ( :

To send more than that, here is the actual mission address:

Letter from Guatemala

We got two WONDERFUL emails from Guatemala on Tuesday. He started one, then continued in the second one. Here is the text of both:

Family and Friends,I just have to start off by saying that Guatemala is the place for me! I have loved it from the minute that our plane touched the ground. The food, the people, the climate... everything!Well that plane ride was not as long as I thought. Only about 6 hours in total. It went by really really fast. We are in the same time as Utah time right now so that is good.So the MTC (or CCM, as it is called in Spanish) here is amazing. If I ever expressed that I liked the Provo MTC, I was wrong. haha. This place is amazing. It is just so personal and everything is in the same building. I would probably get sick of being in the same building except everyday we get to go to this place called Casa de CRE which is around the block accross the street from the temple. Here we teach the teachers lessons and they act as potential investigators. They had a set up like this in Provo, but I love this one so much better. Now, it is still far from the REAL deal but It is way more realistic than is Provo. The temple is amazing and is so close. I see it out the window everytime I climb the stairs in the MTC.The food here is wonderful. Very fresh veggies and fruits with really good meats and potatoes and such. It is a lot like the food in Mexico with a Guatemalan twist. We have had hamburgers, hot dogs, fettucini alfredo, burritos, carne asada, tacos, pancakes, eggs(the best eggs ever), and lots of other stuff. They have a peanut butter and jelly table set up at lunch and they tell us to get our fix of peanut butter now because there isnt much in the field.Elder Davis is still my companion and I am really happy about that. He is so hard working and we are really growing strong together. We are getting pretty good at the lessons (In spanish, of course).Well heres the deal. I have to log out right now and log back in and I will have another 15 minutes to right.. so for now, TO BE CONTINUED

Elder Goodman

PART TWO:

Once again,I LOVE GUATEMALA! Ok so as I was saying, Elder Davis is my companion and I love it. We are really getting close. So the picture that was sent with my district is totally wrong. Right after they snapped the photo, we got all changed up. So we have 6 Hermanas and 6 Elders in my district. So weird. I havnt decided how I feel about it. On one hand, it is great because I love having girls around and they are a bit more mature and more hard working so they definately keep us on task, yet they all have really good senses of humor and we have a good time. On the hand, it is weird. We cant be to casual with them and we always have to be really polite (I know, right? j-k) and also, they are really pretty and I dont necessarily want to have to look at pretty girls all day now that they are banned from my life for 2 years. No, truthfully, it is great.There are 6 Elders to a room here and so in my room there is Elder Davis and I and 4 Elders Native to Central America. We really lucked out with that. We get to speak spanish a lot and we are getting really close to the Latinos. The language is going great. I pretty much understand everything. As long as they dont say it too fast. I just have to tell them to speak slower. Speaking is a bit harder. It is so much easier to read a good novel than to write one. But it is going well. It is weird because this keyboard is a spanish keyboard so that is the reason that there are no apostraphes in this email. Because I dont know where to find them.What else? I dont know, just know that this is where I am supposed to be. Oh, so Dearelder.com is probably not the most efficient way to get me information. Just email me. There is a 2-3 week delay and it isnt very exciting reading a letter that is out of date, but anything is great. Send pictures! I just realized that i didnt bring any pictures from life back home with me. Everyone has pictures to show but I dont...(frownyface cuz i dont know how to make one here) Well I dont have time to right everyone individually and I am sorry for that but I did get all of your emails. And also, Im not able to email twice during my pday anymore (frown) but at least I have email at all (happy face... if only I could find the colon button... oh, there it it :) :( there!haha) Oh, and the videos dont show up in the email.Anyways, it was great hearing about everyones lives (keep it coming) it was great hearing about Ari and Monica and Carter and life in Show Low. Oh, and Im actually not the stand out tall person here. There are two others Elders from the US that are as tall as me. So that is good. We will see how it is in the field Oh, and I cant email friends but I can recieve them.Elder Goodman

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE ENTHUSIASM THAT JUMPS OFF THE PAGE?! ( :

Good-bye Provo, Hello Guatemala!

Here are the final pictures from Provo:

And here is the first one from Guatemala:

We also got a wonderful, nice, long email from President Christensen. He and his wife have Goodman relatives, and he was wondering if we are related. His personal website has over 100 pictures of the MTC. See it at: http://www.davidachristensen.com/

You can take a tour of the MTC using all the pictures he has posted on his website. Go to page 3 and see the picture of President Christensen with the three sister missionaries. I TOLD Ridge that the Mayan people were only going to come up to his waist!!

You can email Ridge at: nicholas.r.goodman.gcs@myldsmail.net

His P-day is still Tuesday, and he will pick up his emails then.

MTC Pictures!

We got our first pictures from the MTC today - woo hoo!!! Each one has a caption on the back. Read below:

My companion is always studying! What's up with that?

Yes, an unfortunate sunspot. Makes me look like a pirate.

I absolutely love what he did with this one. He labeled each member of his zone on the front, and then on the back, he wrote each one's name, where he is from, where he will be serving, and who his companion is. He also notes that two of these Elders have an identical twin who is also in the MTC right now. Ridge's companion is Elder Davis. You can double-click on the pictures and they will show up as full-screen shots.

He flies out to Guatemala on the 24th or 25th, so he will only be in los estados unidos for a few more days as I write this. Here is his mailing address at the Guatemala MTC:

Guatemala MTC

Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71

Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15

01015 Guatemala

Guatemala

You can also set up an account with dearelder.com and put a little money in it and they will mail the letters for you. It is SWEET. I'm sure that Ridge would also want you to know that you can send care packages to him through that website. It's pricey to send packages, but the letters are only about 75 cents, I think.

He loves the food at the MTC and says that he has gained 5 pounds since he's been there. Oh, that's why he's looking a little pudgy - lol!!

Drop-off at the MTC!

Welcome to the first installment of "Dear Elder Goodman". We hope to have LOTS of followers over the next two years as Ridge serves in the Guatemala, Guatemala City South Mission.

Yesterday was the big day, folks. AND. . .I have to say that I am a huge fan of curbside drop-offs! I don't know if I could have sat through the presentation that they used to do. Whew - how did those parents do it?!

This was quite different, at least for me. We pulled into the MTC parking lot, where they were directing traffic like it was a Luis-Gonzalez-Diamondbacks event (you know - the ones back in the era when they were WINNING), a nice man gave us a yellow window sticker and directed us to "spot number nine". We drove around the corner where spots 1 thru 10 were mostly filled with crying moms and sweating, puffing dads who were pulling large pieces of luggage out of the backs of Mormon Cadillacs (aka, Yukons). Three or four Elders met us at the curb; one said, "Welcome to the MTC, Elder. . .what is your last name?" and took Ridge's backpack from him. The others grabbed his suitcases and an older gentleman said, "Say goodbye to your son, Mom. Elder, kiss your mom goodbye." We gave hugs, I scolded him in advance in case he doesn't write or email soon/often enough, and he turned and followed the other Elders away.

Yes, I cried. It's just a guess, but I think Dad did too. But all in all, it wasn't so bad. It probably helps that Ridge has been gone from home for a full year at this point. I've been so excited for him ever since that I haven't had a chance to be sad. I can't wait to hear from him.

Here is his address, everyone:

Elder Nicholas Ridge Allen Goodman
MTC Mailbox #123-0825
Guatemala, Guatemala City South Mission
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793

He will love getting letters - write away!