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!!!!