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 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 15

Hola

So this week I've been trying to be like Jesus as always though, I'll cover that in the later end of my email.  

This week has been amazing!  I had my first baptism on Saturday which was awesome.  It was a nine year old kid named Rayez.  It was awesome to be able to do such a cool thing like that, and I learned a lot about the nature of the ordinance from having to memorize it for a second time in Spanish.

In other news, the ward that I'm in has nearly doubled its attendance since I arrived here (though this isn't hard to do when membership is as low as fifty people)!  The people here have been so friendly and welcoming that it's been easy to talk to less active members here about the importance of attending church.  It's also been interesting to see how my companion and I work together.  In a lot of ways, we are very similar.  We both like to study and read the Book of Mormon, and have each read it several times.  We both tend to lose track of small things that end up being important further down the road.  So it's been an interesting learning experience to basically see myself through a mirror.

As for why I've been trying to be like Jesus, I've been thinking a lot about why I'm here on my mission.  One of the things that I've learned here is that my mission is about the last place that Satan wants me to be.  And because of that, I've learned a lot about how he tries to tempt missionaries.  One of the most common things that he likes to do, at least with me, is when it's been a rough day with the language or when all of our appointment fall, he likes to ask the question, why are you here?  If you are truly a missionary, why don't you have the gift of tongues; why don't your investigators keep their appointments; one of your investigators is sick, if you have the priesthood, why don't you heal them?  In other words, he tries to get us to believe that there is no power in our calling, and challenges the legitimacy of the message of the gospel.  

But I also remember a talk that Jeffery R Holland gave at an MTC devotional, when he asked the same question of why isn't salvation easy.  His response was: salvation doesn't come easy.  It was never easy for him [Jesus Christ] why should it be easy for you?  and then I remembered a scripture in Mosiah 14: He is despised and rejected of men.  A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid as if it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows.  But we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

I also remembered that it's his name that I am wearing on my chest, and that I've been called to be his representative while here on the earth.  And so, this scripture has a very true message for missionaries as well.

We are despised and rejected of men; more often than not, people don't want anything to do with our message, some people even have anti-Mormon feelings.  We are men of sorrows and acquainted with grief; it's always sad when an investigator decides to stop progressing, because we know how much this message can help them.  And they hide as if it were, their faces from us; it's always a little annoying whenever we can hear the TV on inside a house but no one wants to answer the door.  We are despised and they esteem us not.  

Surely we have bore the griefs our our investigators and carried their sorrows; we have spent countless hours in fasting and prayer over the well being of our investigators.  

And so, I've learned that being a representative of Christ means taking the good and the bad.  But just like the bad parts are rough, the good parts are really great.  Take for example the ordinance of baptism.  One of the things that makes baptism so unique, is that it is the only ordinance that I can think of that is done in the name of God and Christ.  All of the other ordinances that are performed in the Church are done in the name of only Christ.  Everything from prayer to priesthood blessing, to temple ordinances is done in the name of Christ.  But baptism is done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  The only other time within all of the scriptures that this is done, is when Christ atoned for all of our sins and died on the cross.  And just like the atonement makes of free from sin, baptism symbolically cleanses us from sin.  And so I thought that that was a pretty neat comparison.

The last thing that I want to talk about is the Abrahamic covenant.  For those of you who don't know or remember, we read in the Bible that God covenanted with Abraham, and that one of the signs of the last days is that this covenant will be fulfilled through the restoring of the lost tribes.  But we often forget, just exactly what that covenant is, and that it is the purpose of the church to fulfill this covenant.  as for what this covenant in tales, we need to go to the book of Abraham.  In there, we read that Abraham was baptized, received the priesthood, and was sealed in celestial marriage, as explained in the bible dictionary, the covenant that God made with Abraham was that all of his posterity would have the opportunity to receive these covenant blessings and the possibility of exaltation.  Through baptism, all of us are adopted into this covenant, and have the responsibility to bring others into this covenant so as to restore the house of Israel.  If we aren't striving to make and keep the covenants in the Abrahamic covenant, we are apostatizing.

That's all the time that I have for now.  

Elder Gooden

Pictures from this week . . .