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
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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:
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:
Friday, September 4, 2009
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?! ( :
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?! ( :
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