Week Four

So this week, I have been trying to be like the Brother of Jared.

I've been making a lot of progress with my investigators, and I've been focusing on the need for faith in all things.  Last week I mentioned how I used the temple as a chance to know how to better teach one of my investigators.  Since that experience, I've been able to make a lot of progress with her.  She is still hesitant to get baptized though.  But since the temple, I feel as if I have just been on this amazing spiritual high.  And so this past week, I've been trying to increase my faith so as to better hear the word of the Lord.  

This past week we also started a Latino splits program, and we have gotten to create our own investigators.  It was kind of interesting for my Latino companion to meet an investigator that didn't believe in prayer.  I guess that everyone prays in Peru.  

Language has been coming along really well as well.  I´m now able to conjugate in the passive voice as well as command my investigators to read their scriptures.  It´s been a blast.  I get to go to the temple again today, and I´m going to try to listen to the entire session in Spanish.  

It´s hard to believe, but I've only got about ten more days in the MTC.  At times I feel like I´m ready to baptize the entire mission, and at other times I feel as if I can´t get a single lesson across.  I guess I'll see how prepared I am in ten days.

If anyone has any questions about how MTC life has been, feel free to email me, I love all emails.

Elder Gooden

Week Three

Hola Todos,

This past week, I've been trying to be like the missionary that my mission president sees in me.  I feel like this week was a bit of a set back in a way.  After week two, I started to feel a little bit cocky in my language and doctrinal mastery and started to slack off a little more than I should of.  As a result, my companion and I didn't do as good in our teaching exercises as we could have, and we stopped making progress with our mock investigators.  It made me feel a little disappointed in myself.  The really hard part though, was when my mission president passed by us and called us the dynamic duo.  President Bennett has shown so much faith in our abilities and has treated us like we are rock star missionaries.  I didn't feel like that was the case after my last few lessons.  

So I started setting more short term goals, and revised how I studied,   Just earlier today, I got to go to the Mexico City Temple for the first time.  In our earlier studies, we had talked about how church attendance can bring us personal revelation if we go with a specific question that we want answered.  I decided to put the same practice into temple attendance.  I wanted to know how I could best relate the gospel to an investigator I have named Eliana.

As I went through the session, I felt the power of the spirit at an overwhelming level during this session.  It was nothing like I had never experienced before.  What was even stranger though was that I felt the spirit bearing truth to me at parts of the session that I had never bothered to take much note of before.  At the end of the session, I was certain that I needed to teach Eliana with a focus on how much our Heavenly Father cares for each one of us personally.  I'll let you all know how it goes next week.

In other news, I'm now part of a new program at the MTC that is trying to see what the logistics of having American missionaries transfer to have Latino companions after the first three weeks.  For those of you who don't know, at the Mexico MTC, Mexican and other Spanish speaking missionaries spend three weeks at the MTC, while we Americans spend six, so as to better learn the language.  The Idea of this study is that after three weeks, American missionaries would get paired up with the incoming Latinos.  So far it's been a blast.  I've been paired up for part of the day with a guy named Elder Espiritu, which translates into Elder Spirit.  We've been able to do a lot of good work together, and I've been able to learn a lot from him.  

As always, feel free to email me if you have any questions about my mission.

Week Two

Hola otra vez,

This past week, I've been trying to be like Ammon.  This past week during studies, we read from the book of Mosiah that after the sons of Mosiah had been converted they desired no more to do evil but to do good continually, and the very idea that just one soul should be lost did shake them to their cores.  I'm not there yet, hence the words I'm trying.

I've realized that the first step to successfully teaching the gospel is to love the people you serve.  And while I'm not petrified of my investigators not receiving my message, I've begun to love the people that I serve.  I think that this can especially be seen in the way priesthood blessings have been done here.  Just two days ago, one of the Elders in my district was feeling ill, and had to skip much of classes that day.  That afternoon, my companion and I went over to his apartment and offered him a priesthood blessing.  If I can notice one big difference about that experience compared to others, It would have to have been the magnitude with which the spirit testified to us about what we were doing. It was so much stronger then than it was before my call.  

I've also leaned a lot more about faith.  My district leader told us earlier this week that we need to remember that while we need to have faith in Christ, and his power to lead us, we need to remember that he has faith in us.  I found that to be inspirational at the time, and decided to write that down in my journal later that night.  As I started to write though, the spirit testified to me, and caused me to remember the words of Alma 32.  I was reminded that God doesn't have faith in us, because being God, his faith has been replaced by a perfect knowledge in our abilities and our potential.  In other words, God doesn't have faith in us and our abilities, he has prophesied concerning what we can accomplish through him.  It is then that we place the same level of faith in Christ that he has in us that miracles happen.  

Just a quick summary of this past week: I've been progressing in the language really well.  Last night, I was able to have a conversation with one of my Latino roommates about my trip to Guatemala two years ago.  I received my long term visa today, so I'm officially here to stay.  All of the food here is still great, and I'm making friends with the chef to get the best cuts.  If anyone want to know more, or wants me to add more information, feel free to email me, and I'll try to get back to you by next week.

Elder Gooden

Week the First

Hola everyone,

This past week, I've been trying to be like the Apostle Peter,

I say this because of his experience with walking on water.  Peter, out of the desire of his own heart to draw nearer to Christ decided to walk on water(to summarize the story just a little).  Only when he had complete faith in the saving power of Christ though, was he able to do so.  When he lost faith, or acted out in fear, he would begin to slip into the ocean.  The same is with me and the gift of tongues.  

We get no grace period to speak English or Spanglish in the Mexican MTC, we are just told: speak your language!  The up side is, the Gift of Tongues is real, and totally amazing.  The down side is, it only works when I say what the spirit would have me say.  In other words, my conjugation and general knowledge of Spanish is really good whenever I am bearing my testimony or teaching an investigator.  When it's nine in the evening and my Hispanic roommates, (who don't speak much English) want to talk to me, I'm left clueless.  My goal for the first week has therefor been to not do anything that would cost me the companionship of the spirit so as to not be forced to tread water and possibly drown.  So far this has been working rather well; I've been teaching a mock investigator named Abby, And after only five days of teaching her we have committed her to baptism.  I just hope that things stay this easy in the field as they are in the CCM(Spanish abbreviation for MTC).  

  

By the way, for all of you that love tacos, I've been able to turn every single meal I've had so far into a taco.  It's been the best diet ever!!

Hope to hear from all of you soon,

Elder Gooden

. . . . . . . . . . 

Other info from a couple of emails he sent to mom and dad today:

-"I'm in an awesome district with a bunch of people that I like"

-The food is "Amazing"

-"Our mission president is Amazing"

- "My companion's name is Elder Smith.  He's from Arizona and has a football scholarship waiting for him back home at BYU"

- "By the way, my app that you said wouldn't help me put me about two weeks ahead of the rest of my district."  

- "My teachers are great, even if we literally can only understand half of what they are saying."  

- "So far my favorite part has been Sunday devotionals."

- When mom asked where are her pictures?!?!?!  He replied - "I haven't been able to hack the WiFi password yet, so I can't send any right now.  I'll try to have it figured out be next week, but if I can't then I'll just send you everything once I leave the CCM."

- About Mexico, temple trips, Spanish, and teachers  . . . "My teachers are all amazing and from Mexico.  I've been told that I'll get to go to the Mexico City Temple twice while at the MTC on P-day.  In fact, My district was supposed to go this week, but we had a glitch in the schedule, and didn't get to go.  As for the city, I've only seen what I saw on my way from the airport and what's outside my window.  One thing that I saw though that was really cool was this one residential district.  All of the houses were painted in these bright shades of green and pink and yellow.  It filled up the entire side of a Utah sized mountain.  Spanish has been easy so far.  Right now it's just a matter of expanding my vocabulary to communicate about spiritual things."

And mom's favorite part of his last email today . . . ."And just in case I may of forgotten, I love you.  Elder Gooden "

Day 1

It was important to Elder Gooden to be very obedient.  So when his instructions were to arrive at the airport 3 hours before his flight . . . that's what we did!  We got to Harrisburg Airport at 3:00 am.  2 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons in toe.

We ended up getting there before the airport was even open.  

After he was all checked in we played a few more rounds of cards and took a few more family pictures.  Said our goodbyes  . . . 

Here's the final leg of the trip Elder Gooden took into Mexico City.

In Atlanta he met up with another missionary headed to the Mexico City MTC and another member of our church.  The other member was kind enough to send us a text message along with a picture of Elder Gooden.  It was so good to see his face and know he was well on his way!

              

And then we got the first email!  So grateful he is safe and where he's supposed to be.

Hey guys, I`have made it.  

I am going to apologize now if my emails sound choppy, i am still trying to figure out the Spanish keyboard and do not know how to contract words yet.  My flight was good.  I was able to sleep most of the way.  I do not really have much to report besides that though.  I have gotten my name tags and mission handbook.  i also have a general idea about how the MTC will go.  The bad new is that i will not have any pictures to send until next week.  I was not able to take any pictures today, and i am only allowed to take pictures on my P-days here.   I just got here and have not even met my companion yet.  Some important information though, my P-days while at the MTC will be every Wednesday starting next week.  one thing to look forward to though, I ran into one elder on my flight from Atlanta as well as a member who spotted us as missionaries.  If you have not already received it, you will soon have photographic proof that i survived the flight to Mexico.  Sorry that this email seems a little empty, but it is only one day, and not a very eventful one at that.

Love 

Elder Gooden

The Grand Beginging

Day 0:
I'm leaving for my mission early tomorrow morning.  Before I head out and am deprived of the internet for the next two years, I decided that I should explain the reason for this blog, as well as how it got it's name.  As I've already mentioned, I'm leaving to serve an LDS mission for two years to the Mexico Ciudad Obregon area.  While I'm in Mexico, I will spend most of my time teaching faith and repentance in the name of Jesus Christ, as well as serving the people I meet in Mexico.  As per the rules of my mission, I will be given a missionary companion that I will be joined at the hip to at all times.  I'll be required to live a rigorously structured life that includes waking up a 6:30 and being in bed by 10:30 each day, studying for several hours a day, and surviving with very little access to the internet.  I won't be able to visit home at any time during this period, I'll only be allowed to call home twice a year, and I'll only get to write home once a week.  This is why nearly all of the posts that come up will be published by my mom.  I will be sending her a letter each week telling her what to publish for this blog though.
The title of this blog is a play on words from the primary song, "I'm trying to be like Jesus."  Growing up, this was one of my favorite primary songs, and it seemed like a fitting choice for the blog.  I've decided that all of my future posts will start with the words: I'm trying to be like...  Or at least that's the plan.
In addition to this blog, I'll also be able to email, or at least write depending on my area, anyone that is interested in what I'm doing or how my mission is going.  If anyone wants to email me, I can be reached at matthew.gooden@myldsmail.net.

104 weeks to go:

Elder Gooden