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