Well family, how is it going? I hope that you are well as I always say. Things are going great here in Mezapa. Still defeating and slaying Satan. Conquering him.
Right now, I am typing this e-mail in a document in Microsoft Word. The power went out yesterday, and it damaged the internet sign. So now, we don’t have internet. So I am just going to save this document to my flash drive and get it sent to you when there is internet again.
Yeah, Elder Rivas and I were walking around yesterday and we were on our way to eat at our cook’s house for dinner. And then all of a sudden, we found ourselves in pitch black. The power went out. Everyone was screaming and stuff. It was the perfect stage for a horror movie, but I was readily alert for any dangers with my sharp wit and quick reactions. Nothing happened and because we couldn’t see, we just went back home and lit some candles.
This week, I witnessed yet another miracle. We have been having 4 kids coming to church lately. They have been to church for 3 Sundays now. Their dad is the cousin of a member. We were talking to them this week and 2 of them are old enough to be baptized. I just asked her, hey, do you want to get baptized? She just said, yeah, sounds good. So, we taught her and stuff about Joseph Smith, the restoration, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity this last week. She was way excited for her baptism. She is 11 and her sister is 8. They both were baptized this week.
She understood really well and was eager to learn. She doesn’t know how to read. Anyways, we would later find out that their mom died about 5 months ago. How sad, huh? So the dad is alone with the 4 kids trying to work, get them fed, get them taken care of, etc. So at the age of 11, the girl has been washing the clothes, helping everyone get ready, getting the food cooked, etc. Basically she has been playing the role of their mom.
We had the baptism of these girls in the pouring rain at the same spot we always do it. In the river. I did the baptisms and I got drenched. I kind of fell down and lost my footing on the way there too. All the members were having a good time watching me flop around in the water like a neandrathall. Laughing their heads off. They also made fun of my feet when they saw them. Haha, my grampy feet. They’re even worse now (if you can imagine that). Because of the walking I have done in Honduras for a year in dust, on rocks, and on worn out shoes. Haha.
So I know that the dad will be able to be baptized as well.
We had the members help us wash some of their clothes. They had 2 huge bags of dirty clothes that hadn’t been washed. That helped ease the load.
Luci lives with a down syndrome cousin. He is so cool. I love him. Every time we go there, he yells at us COMO ESTA? And then when we answer him back, he just repeats whatever we say to him. Bien. BIEN! And he always sits in on the lessons and while Elder Rivas and I are teaching, he’ll just say amen once in a while. “God loves us, and has called a prophet in our day….” AMEN! And then we just smile and tell him, you’re right, amen. Every once in a while, he’ll just start laughing his head off at nothing too. It’s way funny. We’re teaching the lesson and he just leans forward and starts laughing really hard to himself. He’s a fun guy. Really tender. He’s my friend. I always tell him to give me a hug before we leave and he pats my back real tender-like. He is probably half my height and is about 30 years old.
Geese, I love these humble people. I learned to be focusing on the will of the Lord, not on our own will this week. To do what He would want done. I also learned to not walk around all stressy and to just get things taken care of one thing at a time.
I learned also to have a good balance between enjoying this work and having fun and doing it with a smile and working hard. I had a race with one of the young men in the ward last week. An all out sprint in my church clothes. I beat him. I think I made my point.
We helped make a mud house this last week too. Well, not a complete house, but helped make a mud…..structure. It was going to used as like a storage room. The members in our ward were making it. I am almost positive that he is going to be the next branch president. He has to be in progreso with the Stake President the next week and he was there yesterday too. When I asked him about it, he just said he can’t tell anyone and it’s a secret. Hmmmmmmm. He’s a stud and a REALLY cool guy. I love him. But yeah, I plastered mud on a wall. Just got some dirt and we poured water on it and then just started throwing it on a wall where there was holes and stuff.
I had a multi-zone meeting last Wednesday. It went really well. I got some really good promptings from the spirit. Stuff that I needed to hear. I also talked to Elder Staples! He is awesome. He is doing really good and training right now. He is in the area where I started. The area where I was born. He is way funny and sick. I love the kid.
We have an investigator who doesn’t want to pray specifically about the church because she’s worried about what if God really answers her. At first, that didn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. I had no idea why you wouldn’t want to get an answer. But she started saying it was because she would have to change some stuff in her life and she wasn’t ready or willing to do so. So we looked for and found scripts about how the truth sets us free, and how Satan doesn’t want us to ask, and how asking through prayer is how we will be blessed and be able to know. She then said she’ll ask. The scriptures are very powerful.
We also talked to a lady that just wanted to bash this week. She just wanted to contend. Her church teaches their members all the other doctrines; Jehova’s witnesses, our church, the Catholic church, etc. They do it so that the members can basically disprove or discredit other churches. So we started teaching about prophets and she goes, look, it says in the Bible that the prophecies will cease. We kept reading and it says that will happen when perfection arrives. I asked her has perfection come? No. We are imperfect and she said she has what is perfect in her hands: The bible. Her reasoning didn’t make any sense at all and when we tried teaching with love about the importance of the prophets, she just kept saying, “But it says in this book in the Bible this…And that Joseph Smith’s name isn’t in the Bible and all sorts of anti-mornomism hob squash.”
I finally just told her we are not here to contend. We are here to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I can see that you just want to contend. We’ll come back when you’re ready, but have an open heart the next time. I left my family, I am paying to be here, I love being a missionary. I have sacrificed a lot to be here, so that I can teach the Gospel, not so that I can contend. I am her to help a family come to know the Gospel. Please, do not start telling me the church I represent is false. I would not be here, if it was not true. I would be here lying and wasting my time if it was false. I knelt and asked in prayer if it is the true church and I got an answer. I know God listens. I know he answers. I know he’ll answer you as well. The lady was just anti-mormon. She heard both my testimony and Elder Rivas’ testimony and we invited her to pray and she blurted out, I know someone who was a member of your church, but didn’t like the doctrine and stopped going. I’m like, well, if I looked around I could find someone exactly like that in your church too. Everyone has their own free agency to choose, sometimes we don’t make the best decisions but if we do, we will be blessed. That person lost the blessings. A member that was with us asked if she had a firm testimony of her church and she said she doesn’t need one, she has the Bible. The member shared his testimony as well and we told her to let us know when she wants to learn more and the missionaries will come back when she’s ready. She got thinking on that. I know she felt the spirit. I was pleading that I would have it when she started saying all that anti-mormon stuff.
My District leader thinks that I am going to La Ceiba as a district leader for my next area. La Ceiba is the tropical area in Honduras. Rivas thinks that I am going to be District leader as well. We’ll see….
I had been teaching the youth in Mezapa ever since I got here. And I saw that Elder Rivas has learned a lot of Spanish and is doing really good right now. So I gave him the “privilege” of teaching them yesterday in Sunday school. I taught the adults. It was such a relief. They were paying attention, participating, answering questions, giving input. A very productive lesson. Elder Rivas told me that the youth ended up getting off topic of the lesson, but all in all, they had a pretty good lesson as well. My son is learning really good. He is a stud. Very humble and un-selfish. He is really driven and focused too.
Well, I love you all so much. We're working hard and we're seeing miracles. We are being strengthened and the spirit of the Lord is working through us. I love you and I love my best friend, Jesus Christ.
Elder Goodwin
Right now, I am typing this e-mail in a document in Microsoft Word. The power went out yesterday, and it damaged the internet sign. So now, we don’t have internet. So I am just going to save this document to my flash drive and get it sent to you when there is internet again.
Yeah, Elder Rivas and I were walking around yesterday and we were on our way to eat at our cook’s house for dinner. And then all of a sudden, we found ourselves in pitch black. The power went out. Everyone was screaming and stuff. It was the perfect stage for a horror movie, but I was readily alert for any dangers with my sharp wit and quick reactions. Nothing happened and because we couldn’t see, we just went back home and lit some candles.
This week, I witnessed yet another miracle. We have been having 4 kids coming to church lately. They have been to church for 3 Sundays now. Their dad is the cousin of a member. We were talking to them this week and 2 of them are old enough to be baptized. I just asked her, hey, do you want to get baptized? She just said, yeah, sounds good. So, we taught her and stuff about Joseph Smith, the restoration, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity this last week. She was way excited for her baptism. She is 11 and her sister is 8. They both were baptized this week.
She understood really well and was eager to learn. She doesn’t know how to read. Anyways, we would later find out that their mom died about 5 months ago. How sad, huh? So the dad is alone with the 4 kids trying to work, get them fed, get them taken care of, etc. So at the age of 11, the girl has been washing the clothes, helping everyone get ready, getting the food cooked, etc. Basically she has been playing the role of their mom.
We had the baptism of these girls in the pouring rain at the same spot we always do it. In the river. I did the baptisms and I got drenched. I kind of fell down and lost my footing on the way there too. All the members were having a good time watching me flop around in the water like a neandrathall. Laughing their heads off. They also made fun of my feet when they saw them. Haha, my grampy feet. They’re even worse now (if you can imagine that). Because of the walking I have done in Honduras for a year in dust, on rocks, and on worn out shoes. Haha.
So I know that the dad will be able to be baptized as well.
We had the members help us wash some of their clothes. They had 2 huge bags of dirty clothes that hadn’t been washed. That helped ease the load.
Luci lives with a down syndrome cousin. He is so cool. I love him. Every time we go there, he yells at us COMO ESTA? And then when we answer him back, he just repeats whatever we say to him. Bien. BIEN! And he always sits in on the lessons and while Elder Rivas and I are teaching, he’ll just say amen once in a while. “God loves us, and has called a prophet in our day….” AMEN! And then we just smile and tell him, you’re right, amen. Every once in a while, he’ll just start laughing his head off at nothing too. It’s way funny. We’re teaching the lesson and he just leans forward and starts laughing really hard to himself. He’s a fun guy. Really tender. He’s my friend. I always tell him to give me a hug before we leave and he pats my back real tender-like. He is probably half my height and is about 30 years old.
Geese, I love these humble people. I learned to be focusing on the will of the Lord, not on our own will this week. To do what He would want done. I also learned to not walk around all stressy and to just get things taken care of one thing at a time.
I learned also to have a good balance between enjoying this work and having fun and doing it with a smile and working hard. I had a race with one of the young men in the ward last week. An all out sprint in my church clothes. I beat him. I think I made my point.
We helped make a mud house this last week too. Well, not a complete house, but helped make a mud…..structure. It was going to used as like a storage room. The members in our ward were making it. I am almost positive that he is going to be the next branch president. He has to be in progreso with the Stake President the next week and he was there yesterday too. When I asked him about it, he just said he can’t tell anyone and it’s a secret. Hmmmmmmm. He’s a stud and a REALLY cool guy. I love him. But yeah, I plastered mud on a wall. Just got some dirt and we poured water on it and then just started throwing it on a wall where there was holes and stuff.
I had a multi-zone meeting last Wednesday. It went really well. I got some really good promptings from the spirit. Stuff that I needed to hear. I also talked to Elder Staples! He is awesome. He is doing really good and training right now. He is in the area where I started. The area where I was born. He is way funny and sick. I love the kid.
We have an investigator who doesn’t want to pray specifically about the church because she’s worried about what if God really answers her. At first, that didn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. I had no idea why you wouldn’t want to get an answer. But she started saying it was because she would have to change some stuff in her life and she wasn’t ready or willing to do so. So we looked for and found scripts about how the truth sets us free, and how Satan doesn’t want us to ask, and how asking through prayer is how we will be blessed and be able to know. She then said she’ll ask. The scriptures are very powerful.
We also talked to a lady that just wanted to bash this week. She just wanted to contend. Her church teaches their members all the other doctrines; Jehova’s witnesses, our church, the Catholic church, etc. They do it so that the members can basically disprove or discredit other churches. So we started teaching about prophets and she goes, look, it says in the Bible that the prophecies will cease. We kept reading and it says that will happen when perfection arrives. I asked her has perfection come? No. We are imperfect and she said she has what is perfect in her hands: The bible. Her reasoning didn’t make any sense at all and when we tried teaching with love about the importance of the prophets, she just kept saying, “But it says in this book in the Bible this…And that Joseph Smith’s name isn’t in the Bible and all sorts of anti-mornomism hob squash.”
I finally just told her we are not here to contend. We are here to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I can see that you just want to contend. We’ll come back when you’re ready, but have an open heart the next time. I left my family, I am paying to be here, I love being a missionary. I have sacrificed a lot to be here, so that I can teach the Gospel, not so that I can contend. I am her to help a family come to know the Gospel. Please, do not start telling me the church I represent is false. I would not be here, if it was not true. I would be here lying and wasting my time if it was false. I knelt and asked in prayer if it is the true church and I got an answer. I know God listens. I know he answers. I know he’ll answer you as well. The lady was just anti-mormon. She heard both my testimony and Elder Rivas’ testimony and we invited her to pray and she blurted out, I know someone who was a member of your church, but didn’t like the doctrine and stopped going. I’m like, well, if I looked around I could find someone exactly like that in your church too. Everyone has their own free agency to choose, sometimes we don’t make the best decisions but if we do, we will be blessed. That person lost the blessings. A member that was with us asked if she had a firm testimony of her church and she said she doesn’t need one, she has the Bible. The member shared his testimony as well and we told her to let us know when she wants to learn more and the missionaries will come back when she’s ready. She got thinking on that. I know she felt the spirit. I was pleading that I would have it when she started saying all that anti-mormon stuff.
My District leader thinks that I am going to La Ceiba as a district leader for my next area. La Ceiba is the tropical area in Honduras. Rivas thinks that I am going to be District leader as well. We’ll see….
I had been teaching the youth in Mezapa ever since I got here. And I saw that Elder Rivas has learned a lot of Spanish and is doing really good right now. So I gave him the “privilege” of teaching them yesterday in Sunday school. I taught the adults. It was such a relief. They were paying attention, participating, answering questions, giving input. A very productive lesson. Elder Rivas told me that the youth ended up getting off topic of the lesson, but all in all, they had a pretty good lesson as well. My son is learning really good. He is a stud. Very humble and un-selfish. He is really driven and focused too.
Well, I love you all so much. We're working hard and we're seeing miracles. We are being strengthened and the spirit of the Lord is working through us. I love you and I love my best friend, Jesus Christ.
Elder Goodwin
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