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 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

Week 10

Happy Belated Forth of July everyone,

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

First though, I need to say that my mission knows how to have an awesome Fourth of July celebration.  So this past week, on P-day, our mission president put on this huge celebration for us with water games and Mexican hot dogs.  It was a welcome break from the heat.  I've also come to learn that Mexico is very superstitious.  As a result, everyone is awestruck whenever they hear that we have given a blessing (many people think that the power to do so died out with the apostles) and everyone likes to worship the Virgin Mary or Saint Jude.  By the way, if anyone knows what Saint Jude is the saint of, that could help me out because he apparently is the patron saint of Mexico and no one knows why.  Also, children have been our most receptive investigators so far this week.  That is at least when they don't believe that the second coming is when Jesus steals all of the children and then burns the earth.  It turns out that a lot of the work here is just expelling false beliefs that the gospel is something attainable to only a few chosen disciples, or that some great feat has to be performed.  The path to salvation is as Alma says, easy.  Through the principles of faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, the laying on of hands for the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end everyone is eligible to obtain eternal life.

As I said, I've been trying to be like Moroni this week.  I say this for those who don't know, that Moroni was the last prophet of the book of Mormon and witnessed the entire destruction of his people.  He also was the narrator of the book of Ether.  In Ether Chapter 12, Moroni takes a break from his narration to talk about the importance of faith and the future of the Book of Mormon.  In it, he talks about how he and his father aren't very good writers, and how he fears that those who will read the book of Mormon will make fun of it, and on the basis of their terrible writing skills, think that it isn't the word of God.  But then he goes on to write:

26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.

29 And I, Moroni, having heard these words, was comforted, and said: O Lord, thy righteous will be done, for I know that thou workest unto the children of men according to their faith;

In a lot of ways, I can relate to Moroni in this sense.  Spanish has been a lot harder than I originally thought that it would be.  And while I can participate in the lessons, I only know the doctrinal points that I was taught at the MTC and a few other words that I've been able to pick up since getting here.  And when I do speak, my language is very slow and with very broken grammar.  But one thing that my companion pointed out to me is that because I speak with such rarity, and it requires effort on my part to say what I want to say, people tend to pay a bit more attention.

In a way, I guess that the Lord has been working the same promise.  I am a missionary of many weaknesses, especially when it comes to speaking.  But I have also seen that the gift of tongues is real.  The spirit has been guiding me as to what I need to say in the moment, and what I need to understand.  

I'm not the same missionary that I was before my mission, or even during the MTC.  I've found that all of my scriptural knowledge is practically useless here.  For one, not to many people read the Bible or Book of Mormon here, so they don't understand the scriptures half of the time when we read them.  Secondly, in the time it would take me to open my scriptures and point to a doctrinal point, my companion is able to explain it.  On the bright side, it's fun to be with a guy who is as well versed in the scriptures as I am.  

I've also come to see things that were written in the scriptures differently.  I've found that a lot of the stories that I thought were just parables or some other thing were more literal than I originally thought.  I've been able to learn so much from my mission, it's hard to fit it all into one weekly email.  If anyone has any specific questions, about my mission, or what I've learned about the doctrine of Christ since I've gotten here, feel free to email me.

Elder Gooden

Pictures from this week . . .