Week 79

Hola,

So I'm old in the mission.  This week though I've been trying to be like Alma the younger though.  That may seem a little ironic, but I´ll get to that later.  This week we had a great zone conference, and I learned a lot about the importance of simplifying the message that we share with everyone.  We also focused a lot on how our mission makes us sacrifice in order to see the blessings of the Gospel in our lives as members as well as missionaries.  

As for why I've been trying to be like Alma the younger, WE've had to teach the law of Chastity a lot this week.  It ended in a lot of tears for some ot the investigators, but I was really able to see why this commandment is so important for the Lord, and what it means to really repent from sexual sin through my investigators.  I  don't have a whole lot of time left though, So I'll just leave everyone the homework of Alma 36 and 39 as a homework assignment, so that you can see what 

I'm talking about.

Elder Gooden

Week 78

Hola 

This week I guess you could say I got a week off.  So Tuesday, we got pulled out of Escuinapa, and they sent us to Culiacan.  This meant that I got to enjoy a lot of free food and study time.  I read from Mosiah 2 to Alma 34 in five days.  if anyone is keeping track, that´s a total of 61 chapters.  

It wasn´t all pure study though.  We did get to go out with the mission secretaries and assistants to work for a little bit.  But the laid back schedule really threw everyone in the zone off, and we´re all glad to be back and working.  That´s all for now though

Elder Gooden

Email from the President

Good afternoon,

We inform you that we are all well. The missionaries of the high risk area have been alerted and are traveling towards the city of Culiacán, this area is the southern part of the state of Sinaloa (Escuinapa, El Rosario, Teacapán and Pueblo Nuevo).

The rest of the missionaries in Sinaloa and Baja California Sur are in normal status. We are monitoring the situation continually; if we have any change in the weather, we will follow our emergency plan.

The rest of the missionaries are proselyting.

Later we will update the information.

Sincerely,

President Gabaldón

Mexico Culiacan Mission

Week 76 and 77

High everyone,

This week i´m gong to be like President Kimball, and ask for forgiveness, for not being able to write really much of anything.  The important thing to know about for right now is that tomorrow, We´ll get hit by a hurricane, and that my district should take a beating,  I´ll write more about that though next week.

Elder Gooden

Week 50

Hola todos,

This week I've been trying to be like Alma the Elder.  I'll talk more about that later though.  This week went really well.  WE now have three investigators with a baptismal date, and they all seem to be progressing really well.  everyone here has been working super hard to reach our goal of 100 baptisms in April for this mission.  It's really inspiring to see how many people are getting motivated by this goal and how many doors the Lord has opened to help us with this goal.  Personally, we're looking at the potential to have up to seven or eight baptisms this month, and we have several people lined up for next month.  It's become so easy now to see how the Lord has been preparing people now for years to receive the Gospel, and I've just been super blessed to work with them all.

In other news, we had stake conference this week, which turned out surprisingly well.  Last time, I found it hard to get people to come to conference.  We're couldn't really focus on the sacrament or even explain that the stake center is where our normal meetings were held.  What I did get the chance to do though is I got to share with people how during Stake conference, we would get another chance to listen to leaders of the church, that had been called by prophecy, explain what we needed to do in our personal lives to follow the general council of the Lord. 

Also as a fun side note, we got to eat lunch with President Myers and his wife on Sunday after the conference.  I'd almost forgotten what an American style house looks like until I got to the mission home for the first time in a year.

AS I said though, this week I've been trying to be like Alma the Elder.  That's partially because of our efforts to get 100 baptisms, but because we've also been trying to focus on the teaching of Alma.  We've focused on the importance of sharing what the prophets have taught with us.  It's also been a matter of why we invite people to get baptized.  Even though we've been focusing on inviting people to get baptized a lot during all of my mission, not just this month, we've stopped to focus on why we extend this invitation.  It's like Elder Oaks taught: we don't baptize people to increase our membership, or to get more people to church, we don't baptize people to fill out a statistical report.  We baptize to bring about the salvation of the sons and daughters of God.  No one else can do this work.

That is the balance that all of us, not just missionaries, need to learn.  By offering these ordinances, we are asking people to receive the ordinances of salvation.  By helping everyone receive these ordinances we help them come closer to God and finding real and lasting happiness.  As members of the church, we are the only ones that can do this.  We are the only ones that can share this message with everyone.  If we don't do it, our friends, loved ones, and acquaintances will never receive the good news of the Gospel.

That's all for this week though

Elder Gooden

Week 49

Hola Todos,

This week I've been trying to be like Jesus.  I'll get back to that point later though.  We had a lot of good things happen this week.  first of all, It's been crazy to try and have two areas in one.  We've just been visiting several investigators and their families all week long to try and figure out who really wants to progress.  That's been kind of interesting because a lot of what we've started to do is focus more on the people and not just thinking about getting people baptized.  With the mission boundaries getting ready, to change, everyone wants to get a hundred baptisms as a mission this month, so the pressure has been high.  My comp and I have been doing everything we can though to help all of our investigators to get to where they need to be so that they can take that important step.  In other news, we have a really big house.  We now have two fridges, two floors, a ton of extra space, and a cat that doesn't want to leave us alone.  With all of the extra space, we have decided to fill the house with pictures of Jesus, and dedicate a fridge to Mexican coke.  I may or may not finally start to gain weight.  We'll see how much coke we drink though.  

As I said though, I've been trying to be like Jesus this week.  This also once again has to do with what I've been doing in trying to search more for the needs of our investigators and teach them what they need to learn rather than just focus on getting them to church or accepting a baptismal date so that our numbers look good for our area come Sunday.  This has meant a lot of slower lessons, more promised blessings and connecting with the people, and a much stronger connection with the spirit.  This connection has had a profound impact on how I've felt towards my investigators.  I'm no longer looking at them as potential statistical reports, and more like people that need to feel the love of the savior.  I find that I'm trying to make my commitments fit there needs, rather than search for a way to make their needs fit my commitments.  Even though I know that this will end in baptism, we're working to make baptism the evidence that our investigators know that the church is true and that they have seen that in their lives.

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 48

Hola Todos,

This week I've been trying to be like Abinadi, but I'll explain that later.  For starters, Who was excited about conference?  I know that I sure was.  WE saw a lot of big changes to the way that the church will be doing home and visiting teaching.  With this in mind, I want to re extend my previous invitation for everyone to find a less active member of the church and fellowship them. Help them to remember why they joined the church in the first place, and help them to feel welcome there again.

Now to get on with this week and what happened.  We focused on conference nearly every day.  When we found new people to teach, we invited them to conference.  When we went to see our other investigators, we invited them to conference.  When we ate with members, we invited them to conference with a question in mind, with the promise that it would be answered if they listened to the Spirit as they watched.  I hope that everyone got something special out of this session, as we got to sustain the newest prophet of the Lord.  I testify that President Russell M Nelson is the Lord's representative here on the earth, That the priesthood keys with the accompanying power of salvation are held by him, and that by listening to his council, we will be brought closer to the Lord.

Now, getting on to why I've been trying to be like Abenadi, in regards to his council about listening to the words of the prophets.  In Mosiah 15 we read: 

11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.

12 For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?

13 Yea, and are not the prophets, every one that has opened his mouth to prophesy, that has not fallen into transgression, I mean all the holy prophets ever since the world began? I say unto you that they are his seed.

14 And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!

15 And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!

16 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!

17 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever!

Here we read an interesting promise that I love!  Firstly, by listening to the prophet, we become heirs to the kingdom of God.  This includes eternal families, exaltation, and every other blessing imaginable.  Secondly, it talks about an interesting promise that this conference spoke heavily about: The blessings of sharing the gospel.  In this particular verses, we read about how we become publishers of peace, and how beautiful upon the mountains become our feet, as we do so. (Imagine that this is a reference to the level of blessings and exaltation that we receive as a result of our efforts, and not a commentary of how clean our feet will be).  This past conference session, we heard a lot about how each of us, regardless of our callings or time in the church have the ability to share what we have learned, and help others come unto Christ.  

As a missionary, and especially this week, we have been focusing on helping people come to listen to a prophet's voice, and helping people draw closer to God.  We also share what we have learned, and how the gospel has changed our lives on a daily basis with everyone.  We can all be like Abinadi in this sense, and help others receive the blessings of the gospel be it through going on visits with the missionaries, temple and family history work, or visiting less active members of our wards.  We can all be saviors on Mount Zion.

J

ust for one last heads up, We had transfers this week, and I'm still in the same ward, but they've merged the area of the two sets of elders hear, so now I'm working with Elder Pepin, one of my friends from the MTC!  

That's all for now,

Elder Gooden

Week 47

Hola,

This week I've been trying to be like The Apostle Peter again (More on that later though).  This week we had a lot of really cool things happen.  For one, Rosario came to church!!!  At the same time, we've been able to find a ton of people that really want to progress and receive the blessings of the gospel.  

WE also had an awesome district activity today.  WE went to a small town called Cocorit.  There we found Iguanas the size of cars and metal monkeys.  We also ate Mexican pizza and bishops (the type of ice cream, not the ordained member of a ward), and made predictions for who would leave the district next week in transfers,and who would stay. Everyone says that I'm going to stay, which makes sense, but at least two people are expected to go.  We'll see what the verdict is though next week.

As I said though, this week I've been trying to be like the Apostle Peter.  Partly because, I read through first and second Peter this week in my personal study of the bible again.  The other part is that I'm looking at the context of these letters into perspective thanks to the bible dictionary.  

So what we need to understand from the context of these letters, is that they were probably written around the end of Peter's life.  In First Peter we Read that he is writing from Babylon,which is probably an illusion to Rome.  So we can probably assume that in addition to being the only words of the apostle written by him in the bible, they were also the last words that he ever wrote to the members of the Church near him.  In it what he does is he focuses  on the need for the members to be faithful to the gospel in spite of heavily persecution and apostasy.

With one of our investigators this week, we were talking about the importance of attending church, and how partaking of the sacrament fortifies us from worldly temptations and spiritually uplifts us.  Specifically, we told her that taking the sacrament would help here in her desire to keep the word of wisdom.  The problem for her was her work schedule. She works nights every day of the week, and going to church would require her to stay up one hour extra to attend sacrament meeting.   

So we did as Peter does in his epistles, and reminded her of the importance of obedience and faith to receive needed blessings.  She ended up coming to church with us this Sunday, At the end of Sacrament meeting, she was still very tired, but enjoyed the meeting a lot, and told us that she wanted to do everything possible so that next week she could stay for another hour of church.  If we do our Part, the Lord gives us the blessings we need to obey his commandments.

That's all the time for today though,

Elder Gooden

Week 46

Hola todos,

This week as always went by super fast here in Obregon.  This week we had Zone conference, back to back exchanges, and a lot of walking.  As always, I learned a lot from zone conference and from my zone leaders during exchanges.  During the zone conference, we talked a lot about the promises of striving to work with the spirit, and the Sabbath.  As I've already written in several of my earlier letters, the Sabbath is extremely important.  it is the truest sign of conversion we have in our investigators, and is the best way for ourselves individually to draw closer to God.  However, I've already spoken on that topic extensively, and so I'll any further commentaries to what I've already written.

This week, even though I didn't write it at the start of my letter, I've been trying to be like Sister Myers.  During the zone conference, she taught us a really effective way to teach about the atonement, and how it relates to the Sacrament.  My favorite way to relate them that I've found is in John 6: 51-57: 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

I'd love to get into why this is such a great scripture, and it's relation to the sabbath, but The Internet here got cut, and I lost a lot of time, so I'll just have to leave my letter for this week as it is. I'll try to give a better explanation next week.

That's all for now,

Week 31 Happy Christmas Season

Hola todos,

This week I've been trying to be like John the Baptist.  I just wish that this mean we had as many baptisms as he did, but more on that later.  

For starters, shout out to the Martins for the Halloween card I got.  As can probably be seen, the mail here takes a really long time to get to me.  On the bright side, it´s a form of communication that´s a little bit older and not as common, so it´s really fun to get and obvious to the other missionaries when someone else receives a letter or package.

As I said at the start, I´ve been trying to be like John the Baptist.   This one doesn´t have a long sermon afterwords, but just a simple update of what we´ve been doing.  This week we´ve begun the light the world event in the church.  For those of you that haven´t yet heard of it, or don´t fully understand what it is, it is an event of the church for the entire world.  A few weeks ago, the church released an advent calender of service.  Each day has a teaching of Christ that we can interpret in any number of ways to meet our own circumstances to provide service.  For example, today´s scripture is honor your father and your mother.  This could mean any particular thing, so long as we stay true to the spirit of Christmas.  How though might you ask does this tie into John the Baptist? He was the forerunner for Christ.  He was the voice that cried in the wilderness that prepared the way of the Lord.  It was he that was given the honor of baptizing the Savior and helping people turn their hearts to him.  By spreading the word of Light the World and living by the daily scriptures we get, I´ve been able to better act as his representative here in Mexico and help others prepare for when he comes the second time.

Also, following with the Christmas spirit, I've decided to share a Christmas message each week this month in my emails in edition to all of the other normal things.  This week, I decided to share something from the Polar Express.  For those that have seen the movie or read the children's book, the story revolves around a young boy as he begins to doubt if Santa really exists.  The resulting story is that in the middle of the night, a train pulls up to the side of his house, and takes him to the north pole.  

Through several twists and turns throughout the story, the boy sees several examples of Christmas magic in action.  Doubtful though, he is still convinced that there has to be  a reasonable explanation for why everything in this train is happening, and at times even goes as far to justify that this is all just a dream.  

This goes right up until that fate full moment when Santa comes out to go to his sleigh. The boy notices two things about what is going on in this moment of importance.  First, he is unable to see Santa thanks to the mass of other children and elves in front of him.  Secondly, he is unable to hear the sound of the sleigh bells until one of them falls off the sleigh and rolls towards his feet.  At this, he admits in what is doubtlessly a combination of defeat and a sincere change in heart, he admits audibly, though softly enough that he doesn't think that anyone can hear him two simple words: I believe.  His confession of faith allowed him to hear the sweet sound of the sleigh bells.

Unknown to him at the time of his confession, Santa had been walking towards him this entire time, and had arrived just in time to hear him.  Thanks to this statement, Santa chooses the boy to receive the first gift of Christmas, which becomes the sleigh bell.  

It is later that Christmas morning, that the boy shows the bell to his family, and while his sister is able to hear the sound at first, his parents are unable to.  The boy, now serving as the narrator of the story years later explains how as he later tried to share the joy of hearing the bell with his friends, many of them couldn´t hear.  and in time many that originally could, lost this privilege.  Even his sister in time found that she could no longer hear the bell.  But the author proclaims at the end of his book, "but the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe."

What great eternal truth lies hidden in this simple child´s tale!  Here we see a perfect example of how faith operates in the minds and hearts of all of God´s children.   Here we see someone who has been taught in the traditions of a believer, but has reached a point in their life where believing may no longer seem popular, easy, or practical.  At one point we learn about how the boy has become negligent in following with the traditions of his beliefs in things such as negligence to get a photo with a mall Santa, sending a letter to Santa, or setting out the milk and cookies.  Likewise, we can at times feel the same way to our own christian beliefs.  We may feel that the belief in Christ as the literal son of God, the Savior of the world who rose from the dead, and who now at this very moment is at the right hand of the father working to bring about the immortality and eternal life of mankind as a bit hard to swallow.  Maybe we think that it's easier to just say that he was a great prophet or a good person.  We can admit that we can learn things from his teachings to build our own moral character.  While none of these statements are wrong, if we minimize the nature of Christ to these characteristics, we loose sight of his divinity, his atonement, and basically, the things that make Jesus the Christ.

God though doesn´t want us to be kept in this state of ignorance or deniablility.  His plan is for all of us to come to a clear knowledge of the truth of his son.  So he sends messengers like the train conductor.  What we can see in this part of the story is that the train conductor´s arrival wasn´t by invitation, but was needed, and his mere presence was in fact a miracle.  In like manner, God has sent us people here in the earth to help us overcome our own trials of doubt, the prophets, and at a more local level, the missionaries.  While these messengers cannot give us their faith or their own spiritual experiences, they can help us by being a witness to the truth and help us know that we aren´t alone in believing things which aren´t seen but true"(Alma 32:21).

Finally, the real moment of truth comes to the boy.  At this moment, he is able to see all of the evidence of what people are saying.  He has seen the North Pole, he has spoken with elves.  He has had experience after experience after experience that while don´t necessarily provide definite proof, for he can still say that all of it is just a dream, his reasoning to believe has increased.  and now, the only thing between him and the blessings of seeings Santa are two simple words said with real intent.  

Likewise we have our own bits of evidence and guides to help us.  The Holy Ghost testifies of the truth of what we have seen or felt concerning Christ.  The book of Mormon is another testimony of the reality of the Resurrection and ministry of Christ in both Palestine and the Americas.  And not only that, we have all things on earth denoting that their is a God.  But if we refuse to act upon these experiences- if we don´t nourish our faith- we can´t enjoy the blessings of the Gospel.  As i said in an earlier letter, the principles of the Gospel rewritten in order, and we can´t progress to step two until we have completed step one.

The climax of the story is the ability to hear the bell and see Santa.  Something that I find very interesting about the story is that the writer chooses to call the bell the first gift of Christmas.  We all know that the first Christmas gift given wasn´t wrapped in a box with fancy paper or placed under a Christmas tree.  The first gift of Christmas was given over 2000 years ago in the little town of Bethlehem.  The reward of our faith is this same gift, the blessings of the Christ child.  We get to feel the sweet presence of his redeeming love; we are blessed with the comfort of the knowledge that we will all rise again; and, dependent upon our willingness to endure to the end, we may live again in the presence of the father.  

Echoing the words of the writer, I testify that the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.  Christ lives.  He is more than just a fairy tail or an ancient teacher who´s lessons we often like to read to children.  He is the great King Emanuel, who even now is at the right hand of the Father.  He is the light, life and hope of the world.  

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

. . . . . . 

Some Pics from this week

Week 30

Hola batos,

This week I've been trying to be like the prophet Jeremiah, more on that later though.  For starters, we got the news on transfers this week, and for the first time ever, I´m going to be staying in an area with the same companion.  I finally have the same number of companions as transfers in my mission.  So that´s actually a bit exciting.  I'll finally get to see if I can handle living with someone else for more than six weeks at a time.  With some companions I'd thought that I could.  With others, not as much.  I think that this transfer will go well though.

This week we had exchanges with the zone leaders, which was fun.  I forgot how much I miss being in a city surrounded by people that I can talk to.  They also get bikes in that area, which was really fun to have for a day.  We've also gotten a lot of time to talk with people of other faiths and learn a bit more about the other religions here.  For example, one thing that is very different in the Mormon church than any other religion, is that anyone is allowed to partake of the sacrament.  All of the other Christian churches, the Catholics, and the Jehovah´s Witnesses only let baptized members take the sacrament.  I never realized that this was something different about our church.  Another thing that is different is that most churches have a different idea about the meaning of the Gospel of Christ.

Most people that I've talked with here, and the way that I thought before my mission, is that the Gospel is church.  Or in other words, everything that goes on in the church from prayer and scripture study to missionary work is the Gospel.  While all of these things tie into the Gospel of Christ, it is actually a lot more easy to understand and follow.

The Gospel of Christ consists of five elements: faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end.  That´s it.  Curtain call.  Sermon´s over.  But even though it´s easy to learn what these five elements or steps are, it takes a lifetime to put them fully into practice.  That´s why we have the organization of the church to help us.

What also needs to be understood, is that the Gospel, as above mentioned is written in a specific order.  We start to follow Christ with faith.  This leads us to do things such as pray, read the scriptures, and attend church.  It eventually leads us to repentance as we come to understand our dependency on Christ and we demonstrate our trust in him.  Repentance without faith is nothing.

But when we repent in faith, we are able to achieve spiritual cleanliness.  This cleansing power qualifies us to receive the blessings of baptism.  Baptism as a sanctifying ordinance, draws us closer to God, and we become worthy to receive the constant companionship or the gift, of the Holy Ghost.  It is the gift of the Holy Ghost which guides us to increase our faith and understanding of Christ, and helps us endure till the end, or as I´ve written before, to remain in joy.  

What can be clearly seen though is that without going through the first steps, we can´t enjoy the latter blessings, and once we get to the latter blessings, those first steps become the next phase of our gospel journey.

As I said in the beginning, I´ve been trying to be like Jeremiah.  The reason why, is because Jeremiah went through an extreme level of persecution and had to stem the tide of idolatry nearly single handedly while the Jewish state was under siege from Babylon.  Needless to say, his sermons get a little repetitive very quickly, and the people tend to get more and more angry with him as time goes on.  Here in Bamoa, I´m not threatened with prison time or execution.(even if the mafia has started sending hit men down our street).  I also don´t have to worry about a large scale invasion.  What I do have to deal with though are people that don´t want anything to do with us, and maybe have anti American feelings.  At the same time, many of the members here are really just waiting for another Latino missionary to come.  The needs out here are very different from those in the states, and so at times it can be hard to help a branch with an attendance level lower than the deacons quorum back at home.  But just like with Jeremiah, I don´t really  have any other option but to just go out and do the work, and hope for blessings of obedience.  

That´s all for now

Elder Gooden

A few more things just sent to mom and dad . . . .

I've learned that I have the ability to say things as they are, and I can rely on my companion to make things more human

Favorite part of his mission so far - just being very blunt and honest with people about the importance of keeping their commitments to God 

On being like Jeremiah -That´s what bamoa has taught me.  The persecution is just different here though.  Anti american feelings fun strong in small towns, most people just decide to blatently ignore us as we try to talk to them through a screan door, and they prefer to tell us to come at the only hour of the day they aren´t home.  I'm surrounded by people that don't listen to me if I don't speak with boldness, and when I do decide they don't want to talk with us anymore.  Counting down the weeks till I leave.  11 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours and 13 minutes

On Thanksgiving - we didn't eat that day.  it's not a holiday here.  The family that we were supposed to eat with had to cancel.

I´m living off of about ten dollars a week right now

On wednesday, the mafia killed three people because their family members didn´t pay up on something.  I was about three kilometers away at the time.  It did happen about five minutres away from our house though.


Also - a letter from President Myers this week:

Dear Sister Gooden,

Thanks for your email.  Your son is a wonderful missionary.  His Spanish is excellent and spiritually he is becoming a powerful missionary.  I am so proud of him.  He is a long way from our mission offices.  At first, I wondered if he would be okay being so independent.  I would like to  let you know that he is thriving and doing fantastic.  About your packages, if your packages are arriving in 2 weeks, that is the optimum.   Especially, since Elder Gooden is serving in Estación Bamoa.  I will be seeing him almost every week during the month of December so I can always get a package to him quicker than usual on our part.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and that your holiday season is bright and wonderful.

Con Amor

Presidente  Shaun Myers