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

Week 29

Feliz día de gracias!

This week I´ve been trying to be like Abinadi.  No, I´ve not been threatened with death by fire, and no, I´ve not convinced someone to start baptizing thousands of people.  I probably won´t even really celebrate Thanksgiving.  More on all of this later though.

This week we had zone conference, 18 new investigators, and it was the second to last week of this transfer.  For all I know, I´ll be writing from Los Mochis next week, but until then, I´ve still got plenty of work to do here in Bamoa.  For starters, President Myers decided to focus on the importance o finding this week.  In layman's terms, this translates into the least enjoyable time for a missionary if all you can do is knock on doors.  Because of this, many missionaries like to fill their time with appointments with investigators, who may or may not be progressing, and trying to do anything else other than contact if possible.  This is why this last zone conference was dedicated to the various ways that we can contact, and why contacting is so important.  Put plainly, it´s that for every 27 new investigators that we find, statistically speaking, three of them end up going to church.  and of those three that go to church, only one of them end up getting baptized.  So, statistically speaking, if we don´t find a ton of people in our missions to teach, and make sure that we use our time wisely with them, we´ll never get to baptize.  So, the invitation was to redouble our contacting efforts and TALK WITH EVERYONE!!!

We also focused a lot on the importance of the Sabbath, and President and Hermana Myers shared something that I find very interesting.  It´s that one of the most fundamental ways that we can see if we are true followers of Christ or not is if we keep the Sabbath day holy.  Not only is it  an outward expression of our inner commitment to God, but that an apostle of the lord has said(this was back in about 1915, so I´m not entirely sure but I think it was from Joseph R Snow) that whether or not we sanctify the Sabbath, shows if our commitment to Christ is real, or if his sacrifice means little or nothing to us.  Strong but true words.

This translated over well to our week with finding new people.  18 new investigators was a new personal best for one week, we even found a family of four that were able to start recognizing the spirit after the opening prayer.  With a little luck, we can get a baptism within a month with them.

By the way, for everyone that saw the photo of the giant spider from last week´s email, part two of that story ended this week.  we came home one night, and we found it in the bathroom spread out over the entire bathroom sink.  after learning that the spider was really fast, and that it is immune to cockroach killing insecticide, I finally got him with the end of my shoe.  Photos of that will come in next week.

As I said, this week, I´ve been trying to be like Abinadi.  As a child I always looked up to Abinadi for his boldness and plainness.  Faced with the prospect of certain death, he chose to not only bear his testimony of the Gospel, but clearly plainly point our the errors of their ways repeatedly.  The most important thing though is that he always brought things back to Christ.

In the field, and for members of the church, we often have a fear of sharing what we know to be true.  We find it difficult to always take advantage of the moments God gives us each day to represent Him or to share a part of his gospel.  We close our mouths out of fear of a negative response or rejection.  For these feelings, I´ve found that the perfect remedy is found in Doctrine and Covenants 3:6-10: "And behold, how oft you have transgressed the commandments and the laws of God, and have gone on in the persuasions of men. For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God. Although men set at naught the counsels of God, and despise his words- Yet you should have been faithful; and he would have extended his arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary; and he would have been with you in every time of trouble. Behold, thou art (inset name here), and thou wast chosen to do the work of the Lord, but because of transgression, if thou art not aware thou wilt fall. But remember, God is merciful; therefore, repent of that which thou hast done which is contrary to the commandment which I gave you, and thou art still chosen, and art again called to the work"

The fact of the matter is that everyone is called to the work.  We all are given opportunities to help strengthen the Kingdom of God.  And all of us have the chance to receive personal revelation to help us in this work.  and if we chose to love God more than we fear men, we will have success.

Now, I know that I´m going a little bit out of order in how I normally write these things.  Normally, I explain how I´m trying to be like someone and then I have the big take home part of my emails.  This one is in a bit of a reversed order.  But the big thing that I noticed is that there is power in boldness.  I remember that it was nearly two months ago when a reference took my softspokenness for timidness, and that made me never want to talk quietly again.  the desire to not be called timid led me to be more bold in my invitations, and the bolder my invitation have gotten, the more ready I feel the spirit is to help me in this work. Maybe it might offend some people at times, but I´ve not been called to teach the gospel of itching ears.  And like every missionary likes to say in the mission, if I die out here, that´s a guarantied exaltation.  In all seriousness though, I´ve found that it´s always been much better to be bold and active in the missionary work than to be timid and passive.

That´s all for now,

Elder Gooden

Week 25

Hola,

This week I've been trying to be like President Myres, more on that later though.  This week was in a word, long.  My first two weeks here were met with a lot of success.  We found in those two weeks, 31 new investigators, many of them had accepted the invitation to be baptized, and I thought, ya.  I'm an awesome missionary.  Give me another transfer or two here and I'll baptize the entire town!  Maybe my pride got to me a little bit, because this week we found hardly anyone to teach, all of the appointments with the progressing investigators fell, and it was hot all week long.  One of our investigators did get married though, so that´s always good.

On the bright side, my companion and I have started eating healthier and we've learned that it's possible to live off of about ten dollars a week for food.  Beans, tortillas, and eggs go a long way.  And then if we want to add a little bit of flavor we have tomato and onion to add with it.  

This doesn't mean that I've stopped enjoying the abundance of coke in this country.  On Saturday, in honor of my ability to chug water so quickly, my companion decided that I should chug a liter of coke.  If anyone knows what the world record is for that tell me.  Right now I can do it in 47 seconds.  With a bit of practice though, I bet I get I can get it down to about 15.  Dealing with carbonation though is a bit different than plain water.  

As I said, I've been trying to be like President Myers, or rather, the missionary that he wants me to be.  One of the things that he has tasked for every missionary to do is memorize the Living Christ and share it during lessons.  For those of you who don´t know, the Living Christ is a church document that was published seventeen years ago to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. Contained with in is a summary of his life, the meaning that it has for all of us, and the promise that one day He will return to rule and reign over the earth as it´s king.  The fun thing for me though, is that I had to learn it in Spanish.  Speaking the language is one thing.  Learning how to memorize something and to say it with meaning is another.  

I started back in August, when I still barely had enough command of the language to teach in the lessons, but now, as of this past Saturday, I've been able to memorize all of it.  Believe me though, it was one of the harder tings to do on my mission.  Especially when I had Spanish speaking companions that some times made fun of my pronunciation or on accident said another word.  There was one time I tried to say it and ended up saying that Christ died for our fishes instead of our sins.  At the end of it though, President Myers was right in saying that memorizing this sacred document would bring us closer to God and give us a better understanding of the sacrifice that our Savior made for all of us.

This week, I want to invite everyone to read the Living Christ and think for yourselves what the sacrifice of our Savior means for you personally.  Think about what his death and resurrection mean in your life, and pray to find our how you can improve that relationship and feel more of his loving influence in your life.

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 24

This week I've been trying to be like Moroni, the son of Mormon.  More on that later though as always.  This has been a week full of interesting things, and I only have a little bit of time to explain all of it.  Some of the highlights include:

Nearly being hit by a drunk driver in the middle of the afternoon, JWs knocking on our door, being asked repeatedly if I support Trump´s politics, Our toilet got fixed in time for the fridge and shower to die, and our land lady decided that we should have our floors re tiled.  She might be my new favorite person in Mexico by the way.  The strangest thing though was when my companion and I realized that if only six people in the branch don't show up for church on Sunday, we become the presiding priesthood holders.

As for the week, my companion and I have been missionary superstars.  Our numbers for the past two weeks have been better than any other companionship in our district, including our district and zone leaders.  If we keep up the hard work, we'll have a ton of baptisms in no time.  I don´t want this to sound like I´m only worried about the numbers though.  We've really just been trying to do what we can for a few investigators, and their families keep showing up to the lessons.  I love small Mexican towns.

As for why I've been trying to be like Moroni, I've been focusing on the promise in Ether 12 that says that if we have a weakness, we can seek the help of the Lord, and if we go to him in faith and humility, he will make our weak things strong.  

Seeing as how I'm an American missionary with only five months here, I have an imperfect knowledge of the language, and I've inherently disliked talking to people for as long as I can remember, and I'm supposed to teach a new missionary how to do something I'm not fully sure how to do, I've had a lot of weaknesses to come to the Lord for help with.  And yet our progress here in Bamoa, and the improvement we've seen since I've gotten hear show that the Lord has been helping me out with this, and has been doing his work through me despite my weaknesses.  

As always, the Lord doesn't work in ways that we always expect. For example, with the language, I haven´t miraculously learned how to speak Spanish over night.  Rather, I've just had more promptings from the spirit telling me things like I should start to share a certain experience or that I should talk about this point of the lesson to help the someone understand better.  As a result, the people have grown to trust us, and feel that we are genuinely there to help them.  I might not have a single idea about what happened in a lesson, but the spirit does, and he can serve as an interpreter when I need to understand something.  

What I like most about this chapter though, is that afterwords, Moroni talks about all of the things that he remembers about the blessings of the Lord.  What I like about this though, is that we can all do that.  Almost everyone can remember a miracle that they saw in their lives, or a warm feeling they felt when they prayed with real intent.  Everyone that has been baptized has felt the truth of this gospel in their lives.  These are the things that we build testimonies on.  These are the small simple, sometimes scrutinized pieces of evidence that we all have as evidence of the truth that we have a loving father in heaven.  it's the evidence we have that Christ really did die for our sins and lives again.  So like Moroni, I invite everyone to remember.  Remember the things that you have built your testimony on.  Remember that this should be our faith in Christ and the hope that we have through his resurrection.  Most of all, remember that it is faith that builds miracles, not miracles that build faith.  

That´s all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 23

So this week I've been trying to be like Peter again.  I know it sounds like I've been trying to be like him a lot, but I find him to be relatable, and there is a lot to learn from his life.  I´m going to apologize now, by the way, to everyone that wrote me last week if I don´t get a chance to respond this week.  There is one cyber her and school is in session so we had to spend a lot of time waiting, and then the Internet crashed, or at least LDS mail.  As a result I'm pressed for time and praying that the Internet will last till I've finished writing.

My first week of training has been interesting.  For one, everyone hates Gringos and they don´t want to listen to missionaries.  Everyone has to admit though that we are the nicest people in the entire area though (as said by one of the Catholic ladies that is trying to "save our souls".  At the same time, I've been able to remember just how much Spanish I actually know and how great it feels to be the leader in a companionship.  It´s been a very strange balance of I know exactly what´s going on, I can do this, and we´re two lost American´s in the middle of Mexico.   

As I said at the start, I've been trying to be like Peter again, and for the same reason that I wrote about in my very first email. I've been called to walk on water.  Except this time, drowning was only a hypothetical idea. I was never in any real danger in the MTC; all of my investigators were really my teachers, at the end of the lessons, I could speak in English to everyone, and we never had to worry about getting lost.  Now, If I don´t know how to say something, it doesn't get said. If I can´t convey the spirit in my lessons, the investigators don't progress. And not only will they not progress, but I've got a companion that thinks that I have all of the answers.  As much as I want to say that I have them all, I don´t. Amazingly though, we've got some of the highest numbers in our district right now, so I think we´re doing something right.  The hope right now is just that we´ll be able to keep this up. First week is luck, second week´s dumb luck, and the third week is mastery. At least I think that practice strategy works in the mission.  

Needless to say though, with every week that I focus on Peter, it is a sign of my continual recognition of my dependence on my Savior each day.  Anyone that doubts that God lives and is a God of miracles can look at the fact that my comp and I are here in the heart of Mexico holding lessons and helping investigators progress.  That isn't our work.  This isn't dumb luck.  This is the Savior guiding His servants as they assist in his work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.  

Like Peter, we all have the ability to receive Divine help and let ourselves be led to his "green pastures".  It´s like the hymn says, "I´ll go where you want me to go dear Lord... I´ll say what you want me to say... I´ll be what you want me to be."  

With that in mind, we can all do as Peter and walk on water.  We can all do what is seemingly impossible, but we have to surrender our own will to do it.  We have to do as Peter did and leave our nets behind to follow him.  This is not an easy thing, and we don´t get to pick one day to do it and another day not to.  It´s an all or nothing deal.  And the result is a lasting, permanent change in character and relationship with God.  

So my invitation this week is to work on building that relationship. One of my older companions once asked me, If I was in Peter´s shoes, and Christ asked me, "Do you love me more than all these?"  and then he asked me a second time, and then he asked me a third time, with his loving but knowing eyes staring strait into your soul, what would your answer be?  Could you answer yes to all three times?  Would you perhaps doubt after the second or third time?  Would you honestly say no, that you loved him, but you didn't want to give up your biggest addictions or sins?  

I´m not going to say how I answered this question, and I don´t expect anyone to tell me their's either.  Just ponder the situation in your mind.  Try to imagine the Savior sitting in front of you asking the same question, and evaluate how your relationship with him is based off of how you feel that goes.

That´s all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 22, Conference, I'm training, and I'm off to my second area . . .

Hola,

This week, I've been trying to be like the apostle Peter. More on that later though.  

First off, I loved conference.  As always, it's a great experience to listen to the words of the living prophets and learn more about how we can draw closer to Christ.  One thing that I noticed was really big in the conference was the theme of repentance, and how it has the power to draw us closer to Christ.  I also loved Elder Oaks talk about the Family a Proclamation to the World, and how it is an example of modern revelation and proof that God once again talks with man.

This week I also received the biggest shock of my life so far.  We had special transfers, and I was assigned to train a new missionary, or rather to finish his training.  For some reason, his companion was reassigned to another part of the mission, and so now I have to finish his training.  It will be a challenge, but I´m sure that the Lord has prepared me for it.  I should meet him in about five hours.

As I said, I've been trying to be like Peter. I've been reading Jesus the Christ lately, and it draws a stark contrast of Peter before and after the resurrection of Christ.   Before his Resurrection, Peter was a good disciple that followed the commandments of Christ.  Naturally he had his faults, but we understand that he is a good disciple and missionary.  However, when Christ was arrested and brought before the high priest, He cowered in fear of punishment, and denied knowing Christ three times.  Upon recognizing his sin, he runs away weeping into sore repentance.

This changes though after the Resurrection.  We read in the book of acts that Peter received a cloven tongue and that he strait away went forth to proclaim the gospel to all in Jerusalem, fearlessly condemning them for the death of Christ.  The difference that we see here is that Peter received a gift from the Holy Ghost, and that afterwords he was able to overcome his weakness and undo the damage of his sins.

We likewise are able to do the same thing.  We read in the Book of Ether that if we humble ourselves before Christ he will make weak things become strong unto us.  We all have the ability to plead before the Master for strength and forgiveness that we can be better instruments in his hands.

That's all for now.

Elder Gooden

Week 21

Hola,

This week I've been trying to be like Captain Moroni, more on that later though.  Happy football season by the way.  

This week went well.  We have two investigators that are progressing really well so far and have baptismal dates for the start of this next month.  We also have a lot of other investigators that are steadily increasing in the faith, and we hope to have baptisms for them in the near future.  

I've also learned that the easiest way to make friends with people in Mexico is to baptize the members of their family.  There is a less active woman in the ward here that recently decided that she wanted to go back to church on her own free will.  At the same time she has a son that's eight years old, and she wanted him to be baptized.  Because she had been less active for a while, and the ward here isn't the most organized, we got to help her plan the baptism and she asked me to baptize her son.  Since the baptism, she has become a very active member of the ward and has been talking with the missionaries a lot.  It's just another example of how the gospel is able to bring people together and draw them closer to the Lord.

This week I've been trying to be like Moroni.  This is because whenever Moroni is talking, he sees the world in a very binary way.  In other words, for Moroni there is only right or wrong, good or bad, righteous or wicked.  Take for example his battle against the Zoramites(an ancient race of Nephite apostates).  During this battle, Moroni and his army through means of strategy and better equipment, as well as strength from the Lord had managed to surround the Zoramites and were at the point of destroying them if Moroni so desired.  At this point, He called a cease fire, and promised to let the Zoramites go if they surrendered their weapons of war and make a vow to never take up arms against the Nephites again.  

Originally, the Zoramites said that they were willing to give up there weapons and go in peace.  They did not however agree to make a promise that they felt they couldn't keep.  In response to this, Moroni responds: we will end the conflict.  He refused to retract the words that he had said, and decided, knowing that the best option was for the Zoramites to make this vow to continue fighting so as to compel them to make this vow or eliminate the potential threat in its entirety.  And as he planned, after a little bit more fighting, with the Nephites clearly in a better position to fight, the Zoramites agreed to his demands.  

What we can learn here, is that Moroni was justified to make his demands.  The Zoramites had attempted to attack the Nephite cities to bring them into captivity and subjugation.  Moroni only demanded that the fighting stop indefinitely, and until this goal was achieved, he refused to stop fighting.  He wasn't looking for a short term fix, he was looking for a long term solution to the problem.  

As missionaries and members of the church, we have the chance to be like Moroni every day in this regard.  Often at times, Satan tries to deceive us by making us choose between two good things, or tries to tell us that a little bad is acceptable if we can accomplish some good in the end. For example, Moroni could have chosen to listen to the Zoramites and agree to end the fight there with the condition of handing over there weapons.  But had he done that, the Zoramites would have returned with a larger army in a few years and continued the fighting. 

We all face our own Zoramite army today. we might feel that we can be justified in speaking harshly to someone because we disagree with one of their beliefs or ideas.  We might be struggling with addictions, and feel justified in partaking in smaller doses than normal.  We might think that so long as we meet the basic requirements for our callings in the church we can say that we are magnifying our callings.  We might say that we are keeping the Sabbath day holy if we just go to church for an hour or two before we go to watch the big game.  While all of these ideas might sound tempting, and many of us hear them regularly, they are just that temptations of the devil.  If we yield to them, we lay the foundation of our own destruction.

I invite everyone to be like Moroni.  Be unmovable in the faith, an unafraid to say no to sin, even if it seems like an easy of justifiable option at the time.  After all, the scriptures say that if all men were as Moroni, the very powers of hell would be shaken to their foundation so that the devil could have no power over the hearts of the children of men.

Elder Gooden

Week 20

Hola,

So this week I've been trying to be like President Giles, I'll explain more of that though in a little bit.  

This week has been a little bit strange.  Three of our investigators moved out of our area, We've started hitch-hiking, and we celebrated Mexican Independence Day.  Something that I've found very strange about Mexico is that many people are very unhappy with their way of life here.  Many people are unemployed, the standard of living here is very low, and most people in general are looking for a better life.  However, as soon as September 16th comes around everything changes.  The national colors come out, everyone is celebrating, and everyone constantly is shouting viva Mexico.  It also means that the missionaries get a ton of extra food to eat in the week.  

As for the hitch-hiking story, we've been assigned a third town to visit that's about three miles away and no bus goes to visit it.  Since we walk everywhere, this means that we can waste two hours walking to and from this town or get a ride from complete strangers.  It's been a fun experience.  It's actually extremely common here in Mexico and many people with cars are willing to help us out.  

As for why I've been trying to be like President Giles, he gave me two pieces of advice that have managed to stick in my mind since I got here.  One of them, is that while I'm on my mission, it's not about me (as for those that are reading this and/or aren't from the Harrisburg area, President Giles is the Stake President.  In other words, he's like a regional leader of the church that among other things interviews prospective missionaries to see if they are ready and worthy to serve a mission.)  This piece of advice has especially been present in my mind this week because of what's been going on in our area.  I've found that my new companions, while not entirely disobedient, like to sleep after lunch.  On one occasion, we stopped back by our house, and the consensus between the two of them was that they should take a fifteen minute nap.  At this point, the words of President Giles rang through my head, and I shared them with my companions.  I think that this got to them a little bit because after that they were constantly acting like we needed to work even harder than we were and visit more people.  They also tried to brush off sleeping as a joke, and that they didn't really want to take a break.  But I felt something change within me from that point on. I felt as if in the moments right after, the spirit confirmed that I had been tested to see what kind of missionary I wanted to be, and in that instance I passed.  For the rest of that day, I felt even more strongly the influence of the spirit in guiding us to who we needed to teach, and helping me to understand even more what my investigators were saying and what they needed to hear from me.  

That's all for now.

Elder Gooden

Week 19

Hola 

So this week I've been trying to be like Jesus in regards to love for everyone in the way that President Eves shared with us in one of our MTC devotionals.  As always, I'll have more on that later.

This week has been interesting I had yet another plot twist in this last transfer, after I finished my last email, I got a call from my mission president and he told me that I was getting a second companion for this transfer.  So if anyone has been keeping score for how many companions I've had, this equals four companions in three transfers.  Things have been a bit of an adjustment, given that our house is probably the smallest in the mission.  It's all been pretty good so far though.  There is definitely a lot more noise and a lot less space in the house.  Miraculously, it's gotten cleaner though.  

As I said to start, I've been thinking about the message that President Eves shared in the MTC with me.  His message focused on the character of Christ and how he was always thinking about others.  We read in the JST that after He was tempted by Satan and fasted for 40 days, he sent angels to minister to John the Baptist while he was in prison.  We also know that when he was being arrested, he healed a man's ear.  And of course, we can't forget about his atoning sacrifice for all of us.

The point to understand about this is that Christ has always expressed his love through sacrifice and service.  To follow his example, we should demonstrate this exact same form of love.  It is through this form of  Godly love, or Charity, that we become more like God. 

I know what today is, and that there are several people who still hold negative feelings about what happened this day.  But these feelings can be overcome with the power of Christ's atonement and we can be emotionally healed.  Charity is one of the best ways that we can feel this power in our lives.  The closer to God that we are, more powerfully we will be able to feel his influence and his love in our lives.  He is the answer to all of our problems.  

This is why, for this weeks challenge, I'm inviting everyone to find someone that needs service this week, and serve them,  I also want to hear about the experience if your comfortable sharing it, so please write me how it goes.

Following through with last weeks challenge, I've been focusing on how the spirit is able to guide me though missionary work.  for example, this week,  we were contacting in a part of our area after all of our plans for that hour had fallen.  I was about ready to just move onto the next hour's schedule, when I felt prompted to continue contacting in that area until six(the next hour block).  So following this prompting, I stayed in that area, and we found a man reading his bible outside his house.  Recognizing that we were missionaries, he was more than excited to talk about the gospel with someone else.  With patience and trust in the spirit, we were able to find a new family to teach, and maybe baptize.  The road is still fairly long.

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 18. I'm a zone leader...

Psych! 

But I have been trying to be like my mission president this week.  

This week has been very interesting.  Elder Sanchez and I had our last week together.  Plot twist: he left Valles and not me.  He's now serving as a zone leader in a different area.  I've finished my training in the mission field, and am now a regular missionary here in the field.  I've also gotten to the point that Spanish is coming more naturally to me to speak than English.  This will probably start to reflect in my letters after a little while.  So if my grammar sounds a little funny,  please understand that I'm thinking half of the time in Spanish.

Last week, I invited everyone to think about how the priesthood has blessed their lives or how they could magnify their priesthood callings.  To share my personal experience with the challenge, I've been thinking about the significance of priesthood blessings.  As priesthood holders, we have the power to call down blessings from heaven to satisfy the needs of other people.  As a missionary, and a holder of this priesthood, I have the ability to bless the lives of everyone that I see and teach.  This power is one of the examples of how the Lord has put his trust in me to help the people of Obregon.  

As for why I've been trying to be like my mission president, we had a special lecture this week where we learned more about how to teach with the Spirit.  In this lecture, I learned something very interesting that he said.  He was talking about how the Lord had commanded him to give the mission this special lecture and how because the Lord had commanded him to give that lecture, It would be irrational to believe that his spirit wouldn't be with him during it.  

As a missionary, I can apply this same level of confidence in my lessons.  I have been called of the Lord to preach the Gospel here in Spanish.  As his representative, it is irrational for me to believe that he wouldn't give me his spirit as a guide to help me in my lessons as well as to learn Spanish.  This has led me to reflect upon one of my earlier emails about how true freedom and happiness comes when we submit ourselves completely to the will of the Lord.  He is the Good Shepard.  He knows what is best for us.  And we can understand his will through prayer and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  

Following the pattern I set last week, this week also has a challenge.  I want to invite everyone to pay more attention to the promptings of the spirit this week.  For those that are unfamiliar with his voice, he communicates with us through our thoughts and through our feelings.  At times he has been described as a warmth and other times as a still small voice.  He always communicates with us though in a way that we can understand and recognize that his message is from God.  

Also, because I like getting emails and what to hear everyone's experiences of how following the spirit has blessed your lives this week.

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

Week 17

Hola,

This week I've been trying to be like Melchizedek.  

Before I say anything else though, I just want to send a shout out the the primary class of Sister Sorenson and say thanks for the awesome letters.  

As for the mission life, this week has been interesting.  We've taught a lot of people, extended a lot of commitments, and watched them all fall by the way side.  I guess that's just how it goes some weeks though.  The one thing that's interesting is that this may be the last time I'll write from this area.  We have transfers next week, and I've already had two transfers here.  I've heard that some missionaries can stay in one area for as long as four transfers, but I don't think that I'll stay here that long.  I would like to stay here another transfer though.  We have a lot of investigators that are progressing really well and I'd like to see them get baptized.

Also, everyone should learn to make sabiche, my favorite Mexican food after dogos.  They best way to describe it is to think of a mixture of pico de Gallo and sushi, or sometimes beef.  It's normally eaten with tortilla chips or hard tacos.  

As for why I've been trying to be like Melchizedek, I need to explain a little bit more about him from what the standard King James Bible tells us, and go to the Joseph Smith Translation.  For all of my non member friends, who don't understand what I mean by the Joseph Smith Translation(JST), a brief summary is as follows:

The LDS church, and it's members believe the Bible to be the word of God.  However, we believe that given how it is a compilation written originally in Aramaic or Greek and later into Latin before all of it's other languages, we recognize that there are inherent errors in it's translation, or even partial phrases that have been lost over the years.  In other words, think of a two thousand year game of telephone.  another way to remember this is that English has the world's largest vocabulary by about a billion words.  Not every word in English therefore has a direct translation, and several words in other languages have a double meaning in the English language.  For example, in Spanish, the word llave means key.  It also means faucet.  If I don't know the context of the word, I could mistranslated it.  And this mistranslation has a very different impact on what I want to say.  Given that the Bible was translated in several different languages before it was translated into English, we have a relatively large margin of error when it comes to an exact translation.

The JST is a compilation of biblical verses that had lost key phrases or meaning due to an incomplete translation or misinterpretation of the original texts, and helps to clarify the exact intention of what the author originally intended.  This translation was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith after the organization of the Church in 1820.  While we don't have a complete translation of the Bible from Smith, what we do have can help enlighten our understanding of the bible as we currently have it.

The point that I want to focus on today is an excerpt of the JST in the book of Genesis 14.  The text in the KJV says: 

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

The complete excerpt from JST is much longer than this, and I won't share all of it on the basis that I only want to focus on a small part of it.  If anyone else wants to read the full excerpt, the JST is in the back of every LDS published KJV of the Bible or at LDS.org.  the part that I want to focus on is this:

25 And Melchizedek lifted up his voice and blessed Abram.

26 Now Melchizedek was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire.

27 And thus, having been approved of God, he was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch,

28 It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor the will of man; neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God;

29 And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name.

30 For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course;

31 To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world.

32 And men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven.

33 And now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of peace.

34 And his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world;

The thing that I find fascinating is the way that the text emphasizes the power of the priesthood and how every worthy holder has been given the power to work miracles.  It's also caused me to think a lot about the priesthood especially because we had to teach about it in church yesterday.(one of the fun things about a small ward, the missionaries do everything).  But in the lesson manual, it explained how the priesthood has three main functions here on the earth.  The first is that it is by the power of the priesthood that missionary work is done.  The second is that it is used to administer the ordinances of salvation within the church such as baptism.  The third and final thing is that it is used to govern the kingdom of God on the earth.  All priesthood ordinances, blessings, and obligations fall under these three categories.  

What is fascinating, is when we further look into what this all means.  To better explain this, I'll use the offices of the priesthood to better show how and why this is important.

We'll start with the deacons.  When someone is ordained to the office of deacon, they are given the sacred responsibility to pass the sacrament every week as well as collect fast offerings from the congregation.  In other words, Deacons are called to assist in the governing of the kingdom of God.  Admittedly, this is only a small portion of administration, but it is a start of this third part of the offices of the priesthood.  The second office is that of teacher.  As a teacher, young men are assigned a home teaching assignment, and a companion to edify and teach the members of the church to word of god, and carry out the second function of the priesthood.  Then we have the priests, who are given power to both bless the sacrament and administer the ordinance of baptism, or in other words to administer the ordinances of salvation.  Upon the ordination of an Elder in the church, these responsibilities are magnified tenfold.  The title of Elder is given to all male full time missionaries that are actively teaching the gospel.  Elders also, as holders of the Melchizedek have the power to give blessing for the healing of the sick, and perform miracles in proportion to their faith.  Given that God is ruler of both man and all other inhabitants of the earth, every time that an elder uses his priesthood to give a blessing or perform a miracle, he is exercising his right to govern within the kingdom of God according to the power and authority God has given him through faith and obedience.  And finally, in addition to the power to baptize, Elders have the power to work as temple workers and administer the ordinances of salvation found there if they so choose to.  

In short, What I want to point out, is that the power that God gave to Enoch and Melchizedek is here on the earth today in the church.  I also want to point out how the principles that the priesthood are based on can be exercised in every member, not just males ordained to a priesthood office.

Sister missionaries are quite probably the most effective means the lord has for spreading the gospel.  Sorry guys if you felt differently, but it's true.  And the way that they are able to do so is by exercising the priesthood power to teach by the spirit.  Relief Society and young women's presidents have the authority to lead within there respective callings, and in the temple, women as well as men are able to administer in the ordinances of salvation.  

Because I'm running out of time, I'll choose to finish here.  

But before I close I want to invite everyone to do two things.  I want to invite everyone to either look for ways that the priesthood has blessed your life in the following week, or find a way to magnify your priesthood callings.  At the end of the week, I want for you all to write to me to share how this experiment went.  I'll follow through with the same challenge and tell you all how it goes next week

That's all for now

Elder Gooden