Week 1 in Benin!

Monday, August 26, 2019 9:56 AM MST

Bonjour tout le monde !   (Hello everyone!)

Well, I'm finally here!  It feels to good to get out of the MTC and actually be in my mission country.  It's so much better here!  I'm glad to be out of the MTC haha.  I'v got a lot to talk about, but I'm 

typing this on a French keyboard, so we'll how this goes.

Touching down in Benin was great.  Flying over Cotonou the city looked huge!  But the airport was open and very pretty, lots of green trees and everything, I was really excited!  Saying goodbye to the Cote d'Ivoire elders was sad, because we all became way good friends, but we'll see each other again someday.

After getting to the airport, we met President Goury in the parking lot.  I like him, he's got a big smile.  We went back to the mission home, and then we went to a restaurant.  He told us our assignments and companions there.  I have Elder Drogowski, an American from Ohio.  He's pretty cool.  He pranked me and had another elder wear his tag, and when I got out of the car he said, okay elder Goddard, grab your crap and let's get out of here.  I totally believed it, and I was really scared.  I was very glad to hear it was a joke!

The first night, me and another elder stayed the night with the office elders.  It was our first taste of what our mission would really be like.  I went to the bathroom that night and needed toilet paper, but there wasn't any in there, so I asked for some.  The office elders just laughed.  Long story short I used the shower head to wipe.  That's when I knew that I'd really arrived in Africa!

I got assigned to Adidogome, which is on the Eastern part of Togo, real close to Ghana.  I'm in an house with 2 other elders, Elder Taylor from California, and Elder Kombo from France.  They're both cool, I like Elder Kombo a lot, and he actually left the MTC 3 weeks before I came, and we're going to finish the mission at the same time, so it will be fun to have him around!

Being in the mission field means I actually have to speak French now, and it's going alright.  I can speak good enough, but I can't really understand anything that anyone is saying, so it's hard at times.  All my roommates speak English though, and don't really like to speak French around the house, so I'm not always lost, but I am a lot of the time out in the sector.  But I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting, and everyone said it was good!  So I was grateful for that.

We had 2 baptisms on Saturday!  I had no part in getting them there, but it was still my favorite part of the week.  I can't wait until I can have a part of getting someone to that point myself!  I taught only a few lessons this week, but the one's yesterday went really well, and I was happy.  One yesterday we were teaching about the temple, and I actually understood his concerns and was able to answer a few of them!  I was excited about that, but after that lesson I went back to not understanding anything, my gift of tongues ran out haha, but I was glad to be blessed with it when I was!

I hope the first week of school went well for everyone, and that everything's going well at home.  Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support I love you all!

Elder Goddard

Flying over Cotonou

His trainer, Elder Drogowski

French keyboard he has to type on

His sweet cell phone ;)

We love P day!  It is the best day of the week!  And it was fun to see him in "normal" clothes for once.  :)

Elder Goddard

Thursday, August 22, 2019 4:12 AM MST

Hello,

Elder Goddard has arrived safely in the mission field.

Thank you

Office Elders

Benin Cotonou Mission

We are loved...

-Post written by Elder Goddard's Mom-

Our Heavenly Father is so mindful of us!  I have seen it so much in the last 6 weeks that Jordan has been gone.  Another tender mercy took place that I would love to share with you.  Jordan's P day was today.  I got up at 1:00 AM MST to first chat with him for a bit and then was able to speak to him as well.  (Oh the things we do for our children!)  We spoke with Jordan until about 10:00 AM off and on.  We said our goodbyes for the week, but not without advice and warnings as he would be leaving the next morning at 7:00 AM for the mission field.  It was hard to say goodbye as we weren't sure when the next time would be that we would hear from him, let alone be able to video chat with him.  You see, there are times that the power goes out, or the internet is not available or reliable.  So I had a hard time seeing him go that day.  Also, thinking of him leaving the MTC was hard because he had been so sheltered.  I knew he had air conditioning, I knew he had balanced meals, I knew he had a safe place to be,  I knew he was taken care of.  And thinking of your son going out into a new country without knowing where he would be assigned, or with who, is a hard thing to do.  I can only have faith that Heavenly Father would take care of him and watch over him.  

At 10:34 AM MST my good friend Julie (who I didn't know at all before this experience!) posted on the Facebook group for Jordan's mission the following post:

My son is on the phone with us right now, and he is going to be Elder Goddard's companion right from the MTC.  Are his parents on here?

My other good friend Sara (who I have never met in person but have become friends with) tagged me on the post so that I would see it.  I looked to see what she had tagged me on and I immediately started crying.  I only had a little time to worry, because not too long after I got off the phone with Jordan, I knew who his companion was going to be and where he was going to serve.  I knew before Jordan even did!  This is when social media is an amazing blessing!  Julie and I chatted back and forth for a bit, but around 5:30 PM we were able to speak on the phone together.  I was able to ask questions and have my concerns heard and she was so willing to listen and answer the many question I had.  I will forever be grateful to her for doing so!  She lives in Ohio and so our time zones are also different, so she was willing to talk to me when it was a busy time of the day for her and when she should be winding down for the night.  I will forever be grateful to her and to my Heavenly Father for being mindful of me!  He knows what I need through this process and He has always delivered.  I am so grateful and blessed!  And I can't wait to pay it forward to those Mom's in the near future that need a listening ear and someone who has been through what they are going through.  The bond we missionary Mom's have is like no other.  I am forever grateful for this experience and to a loving Heavenly Father who is mindful of me.  <3  

Au revoir MTC

Monday, August 19, 2019 2:01 AM MST

Well, I never thought I'd see the end of the MTC, but I leave tomorrow morning!  It's been an experience here that I'll remember for the rest of my life for sure.  I don't think I'll ever spend 6 weeks in the same area with the same people in a classroom all day like I have here, and while it's been boring and hard at times, I'm going to miss it.  But, I'm also very excited to get out into the field this week and start to feel like a real missionary!

Not too much has happened this week, just class as usual.  It's been a harder for me at times, I've been a little sick and a little homesick as well, which isn't the best combination haha.  But I've been pushing through it, and hopefully a change of scenery and doing some real missionary work this week can help me out!

I leave tomorrow morning at 7 for Cote d'Ivoire, then have a 4 hour layover there before flying over to Cotonou.  I'm excited for the opportunity to actually get out there and lose myself in the work, and start to help people come to Christ.  I've said the MTC was just another 6 weeks before I could start my mission, but now that I'm here, the mission starts now!  I'm excited, even if it's in French haha.

I'm grateful for this gospel, and I know this church is true!  I was thinking this week about how blessed I am to live at this time with the Restored Gospel on the Earth, because I'm so happy because of it!  I can't imagine my life without the gospel, so I've been very grateful this week to be born at this time with the gospel on the Earth.  I'm excited to share that happiness with other people!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Goddard

Elder Goddard's MTC companion Elder Hougaard

Week 5

Wednesday, August 14, 2019 2:19 AM MST

Saluttttt  (Hiiiii)

This past week was probably my best week here.  We didn't do anything different, we still just were in the classroom all day every day like before, but I just feel like I'm feeling a lot better about being here and being here for 2 years.  This first month I was pretty stressed out about it at times, so I have't really been able to be myself at times.  But this week is the first time I can really say I've been feeling like myself again.  Being able to say I've had a month under my belt now felt good.  I've gotten back to joking around with people like I would at home and just being happy, so it's been good.  I'm grateful that the Lord has blessed me and allowed me to adjust because it's definitely been a big subject in my prayers since I've been here.

Other than that, I'm out of here in less than a week!  I'm a little nervous to get out of here, because life is really shelter in the MTC and not too much different from life at home, but it's about to be a lot more different for me in a week.  I'll be fully living the African lifestyle, and I'll have to do it while speaking French.  It will be an adjustment for sure!  I just pray that my trainer will be ready for me, and I work hard every day to try to make my French as ready for the field as possible.  For me, the anticipation of doing something is always more scary than actually doing it, so I just want to get out there and see what it's like!

There's so many fun little African customs here and I'm excited to bring home.  Whenever it's someone's birthday here, after you sing to them you run up to them with some random piece of food on a fork and have them eat it off the fork to celebrate.  I love the little things like that haha, and it's always funny.  Before it was only the African doing it, but us Americans have started joining in on it and it's fun.  I'm definitely going to bring stuff like that back to the US when I return.

We had a devotional from Elder Marcus Nash, who I think they said was the president of the Africa West area.  He said something that really hit me.  He said: "If your emotions are stirred and you're wondering why you're here, welcome to life and learning to rely wholly upon Christ."  That hit me, because it's definitely thought those things before.  And it made me realize it's become my life has been so easy up until this point!  I've really gone though nothing crazy hard in my life, but that's just how life is.  And I'v come to rely on my Savior here, and if I can bring that home with my after my mission, I can do anything in life.  So I'm grateful for him to have said that, and I encourage you all to learn to rely on your Savior!

Thanks for all the emails and prayers like always, I love you and miss you all!  Have the best week

Elder Goddard

This is what they do to get everyone's attention when it is someone's birthday.  They then sing to them and give them the piece of random food off the fork.

Proselyting and Beaucoup de class (a lot of class)

Thursday, August 8, 2019 4:33 am MST

Salut ma famille et mes amis!  (Hi my family and friends!)

It's been another week out here in the MTC, and we're one week closer to getting out of here and serving the Lord in the French language.  We leave here on Tuesday the 20th, so we're getting there!

It's been a pretty crazy week.  On Wednesday, we went out into Accra and went proselyting, and wow that was quite an experience.  It felt surreal honestly.  We hopped into a van, they dropped us off at a church building, and just drove away.  We were just all alone walking the streets of Africa.  I wish I could have taken pictures during our experience, but we weren't supposed to, so I didn't.  But wow, it's so different from home.  It's very poor.  There's open sewers, dirt roads with potholes, and just wood sheds and shops literally everywhere on every road.  It was surreal, that's when it hit me that I'm actually in Africa.  And Ghana is more well off than Benin will be, so it's going to be crazy to see what Benin's like.

We got new companions for the day, and I got Elder Benitez from Argentina, who's learning English.  So I had to do most of the talking by myself, which was a little stressful, but we got through.  Honestly, I was way more stressed than I should have been, because the people here are so open to talking about the gospel.  It was insane, it's so much different from the U.S.  You can really just walk up to anyone, talk about the gospel, and they won't even think twice about it.  We got about 20 people's phone numbers, and every companionship got about that many as well.  These people are so ready for the gospel.

We had church on Sunday in French, and I was surprisingly able to pick out a lot of things that I understood.  I guess it pays off to just study gospel vocabulary here haha.  We had lessons and stuff in French as well.  It's good preparation, because once I'm out in the field, there's going to be no English at all, which is a little scary haha.  So I've definitely been studying as hard as I can to be as ready as I can for when I get our there.  I want to be a good missionary!

All us missionaries here agree that the Book of Mormon is what gives life in the MTC.  It can get really boring and mind numbing to do like the same thing all day every day, but we all find power in reading the Book of Mormon, and it helps us to push on.  Take some real time out this week to read the Book of Mormon!  There's real power and peace that comes from reading it, I've felt it so much since I've been here.

I love you all, and I miss you all!  Thank you for all of your emails, your prayers are always felt!

Have a great week everyone

Elder Goddard

 Hard to get pictures of it, but we introduced the African Elders to baseball, and they were loving it!