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