Week 48

Hola Todos,

This week I've been trying to be like Abinadi, but I'll explain that later.  For starters, Who was excited about conference?  I know that I sure was.  WE saw a lot of big changes to the way that the church will be doing home and visiting teaching.  With this in mind, I want to re extend my previous invitation for everyone to find a less active member of the church and fellowship them. Help them to remember why they joined the church in the first place, and help them to feel welcome there again.

Now to get on with this week and what happened.  We focused on conference nearly every day.  When we found new people to teach, we invited them to conference.  When we went to see our other investigators, we invited them to conference.  When we ate with members, we invited them to conference with a question in mind, with the promise that it would be answered if they listened to the Spirit as they watched.  I hope that everyone got something special out of this session, as we got to sustain the newest prophet of the Lord.  I testify that President Russell M Nelson is the Lord's representative here on the earth, That the priesthood keys with the accompanying power of salvation are held by him, and that by listening to his council, we will be brought closer to the Lord.

Now, getting on to why I've been trying to be like Abenadi, in regards to his council about listening to the words of the prophets.  In Mosiah 15 we read: 

11 Behold I say unto you, that whosoever has heard the words of the prophets, yea, all the holy prophets who have prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord—I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto their words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed, or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God.

12 For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?

13 Yea, and are not the prophets, every one that has opened his mouth to prophesy, that has not fallen into transgression, I mean all the holy prophets ever since the world began? I say unto you that they are his seed.

14 And these are they who have published peace, who have brought good tidings of good, who have published salvation; and said unto Zion: Thy God reigneth!

15 And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!

16 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that are still publishing peace!

17 And again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who shall hereafter publish peace, yea, from this time henceforth and forever!

Here we read an interesting promise that I love!  Firstly, by listening to the prophet, we become heirs to the kingdom of God.  This includes eternal families, exaltation, and every other blessing imaginable.  Secondly, it talks about an interesting promise that this conference spoke heavily about: The blessings of sharing the gospel.  In this particular verses, we read about how we become publishers of peace, and how beautiful upon the mountains become our feet, as we do so. (Imagine that this is a reference to the level of blessings and exaltation that we receive as a result of our efforts, and not a commentary of how clean our feet will be).  This past conference session, we heard a lot about how each of us, regardless of our callings or time in the church have the ability to share what we have learned, and help others come unto Christ.  

As a missionary, and especially this week, we have been focusing on helping people come to listen to a prophet's voice, and helping people draw closer to God.  We also share what we have learned, and how the gospel has changed our lives on a daily basis with everyone.  We can all be like Abinadi in this sense, and help others receive the blessings of the gospel be it through going on visits with the missionaries, temple and family history work, or visiting less active members of our wards.  We can all be saviors on Mount Zion.

J

ust for one last heads up, We had transfers this week, and I'm still in the same ward, but they've merged the area of the two sets of elders hear, so now I'm working with Elder Pepin, one of my friends from the MTC!  

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 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 13

Hola,

So this week, I've been trying to be like Nephi.  In 1 Nephi, we read about Nephi's reaction to leaving Jerusalem.  Contrary to popular opinion, at this point in time he isn't in his I'll go and do phase.  In the beginning of his story, Nephi, like Lamen and Lemuel, he is skeptical.  This is why in 1 Nephi 2 we read: wherefore, I did cry mightily unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words that had been spoken by my father.  

I've felt a lot like Nephi.  At the start of this week, things were rough with my new companion; the language barrier has made things difficult, he only likes to talk about and read his scriptures (I never thought I'd meet another person that has studied the scriptures as much as I have this early in his life), and he's obsessed with cleaning.  At the same time, I really liked my last companion.  In a way, I feel like Nephi must have felt when his dad took him to the valley of Lemuel.  I've left the land of my inheritance, and all my dad wants to do is teach my brother's repentance.  

And so like Nephi I prayed.  And like Nephi I received comfort, and a reminder that I've received a promised blessing to learn my mission language and baptize converts.  At the current rate that I was going with an English companion, I wouldn't learn my language fast enough, and if I don't learn my mission language, I can't help converts.  

In other words, In order to receive my land of promise, I need to spend a little bit of time crossing through the wilderness.  And like Nephi, I will receive comfort and direction as I continue to progress.

That's all for now

Elder Gooden

. . . . . . . . . . .

Extra email to mom:

Hey mom,

Happy Birthday,

This have been an adjustment; Elder Sanchez and I don't speak much to each other unless we're in lessons.  He likes to clean though, so that has made things nice for me.  The sisters in our area had a baptism, so I got to attend that, but I've been yet to actually baptize.  Also, all of our progressing investigators, apparently have gone apostate and don't want to make their appointments anymore, so we've been doing a lot of contacting.  

My companion also likes to study a lot, so I've been able to make a lot of progress on my elder bednar library.  I don't know what else to write about though, and you've started chatting, so I'll finish this up.

Elder Gooden

Week 12

Hola,

So this week, I've been trying to be like Elder Bednar, but as always,more on that later.  

This week has been a rough week.  All of the appointments that we had fell.  Which is kind of sad considering that we had about fifty of them.  In addition to that,we had transfers today, and I lost my dad.  in addition to that, my new comp doesn't know a word of English.  I guess the Lord got tired of hearing me speak English so much.  On the bright side of things, I'm no longer the newest missionary in the mission.  I also learned that letters take about six weeks from the time they are sent out. 

Because, I don't want to depress to many people with the bad things that happened this week,I figured that I should just skip to the I'm trying to be like segment.  It's much more interesting than talking about how my investigators act while drunk.  As I mentioned, I've been trying to be like Elder Bednar.  I say this, because at the MTC we watched a devotional where he talked about his Book of Mormon Library.  In it,he explained how he likes to take a blue missionary copy of the book of Mormon and pick a doctrinal principle to study from it.  He then goes to the index and topical guide to read all of the scriptures related to that principle and mark them and take notes.  I'm now doing a similar thing, but rather than rely on the topical guide for help, I've decided to read through the Book of Mormon every time that I pick a new subject.  I started my second edition this week on faith.  

It's been fascinating to read through,because I've been able to see how much faith ties into obedience.  I've also grown to develop a greater love for the scriptures.  There is so much that I can learn from them. I invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, whether it be your first time or your hundredth.  There is always something more to learn

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 . . .

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 "