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!