La douzieme semaine (the twelfth week)

September 30, 2019 1:29 PM MST

Bonjour. Commencons,  (Hello, let's start)

A lot to write about this week!

Wednesday I went on a split with Elder Taylor, and he said he had heard that there's a zoo in his sector, so we were going to find it.  We went to where he thought it was and it just looked like a dead end.  But there was a guy there and we just started talking to him.  We asked him if he knew the zoo, and turns out he was the owner!  He opened the door that just looked like any other door and suddenly we were in his zoo.  And then he gave us a tour of it.  Haha it was great, we held scorpions, snakes, crocodiles, and chameleons.  It was crazy!

Today is my companion's birthday, so we went to the beach and had lunch.  It was way fun, it reminded me a lot of the 2 times I to San Diego with my friends and family last year.  He's been a good trainer for me and we get along well and are really good friends.  It was fun to be able to celebrate him and thank him for all that he's done for me.

Saturday was our baptism!  I was pretty nervous the whole day leading up to it, I really wanted everything to go smoothly.  Papa Koffi called us like an hour before it was supposed to start, and said he was there and ready to go, which gave us a good laugh because that describes him so well, he gets so excited about the gospel and everything.  And everything with the baptism went well.  I got him under first try, and said the prayer right!  I was a little nervous because when I pulled him back up he just stood there with his eyes closed, but after a second I asked him, "c'est bon?" (it's good?) and he just smiled and said "oui, c'est bon!" (Yes, it's good!)  Haha I think he was expecting more, but he was so happy after that haha, I love him and was grateful for the chance to baptize him.

We got our transfer calls on Saturday, and while me and my companion are staying here, the other 2 missionaries in our house are leaving!  We expected one to leave, but not both.  So we're getting a new companionship in the house Wednesday night, which should be fun.  It made me realize a 6 week transfer really isn't that long, because I'm gonna miss the guys who are leaving!  It felt too quick.  But it's a good opportunity to get to know new missionaries.  And they're white-washing the sector, so we have a bit of a responsibility to show them around a little bit and help them get settled into living here, and continuing the work of the old missionaries.

Today's the start of transfer 3, which is a little crazy for me!  It went way faster than my transfer in the MTC.  I'm feeling really good about being here, and I'm excited to see the work that I can do in a whole transfer.  I'm feeling good about being here and being adjusted to the work.  Should be fun!

Love you all, hope you have a good week!

Elder Goddard

Papa Koffi

Jordan's first baptism

One of the members

Happy birthday Elder Drogowski!

He said the camel was asleep.  Let's hope!

One brave Elder!

Wow!

Plantains Jordan made

Beach day!

Meal at a member's home.  Fufu, fish, stew and chocolate soda.

Eating lunch with the "zone" for Elder Drogowski's birthday.

Week 11

Monday, September 23, 2019 4:48 AM MST

Bonjour tout le monde, comment ca va?  (Hello everyone, how are you?)

Week was good,

It's rained 4 times this week, which means the streets were flooded and muddy all week!  Just like home.  The first time it happened when were in the middle of a lesson and it just started pouring.  After our lesson we needed to be somewhere else, but we waited a little in the house of our ami to see if it would die down, and it did a little bit so we left.  But there was a huge river in the middle of the road and no way to go around it.  And we had to cross it.  So we did what any good missionary would do and took our shoes and socks off and walked straight through it.  Haha everyone was laughing at us yovos, and we were laughing at ourselves too.  It'll be a good memory.

But what won't be such a good memory is what happened yesterday.  I'm a pretty bad cook so I usually just sit back and let everyone else cook for me.  But yesterday I felt bad for always doing that so I tried to cook something up for everyone.  I had some oil and was trying to cook up some fries, and basically the pot lit on fire and I started a grease fire.  Haha I dealt with it well and put it out, but it was pretty embarrassing.  I didn't catch anything else on fire, and we still had fries so all is well.  But I don't think I'm gonna try cooking again anytime soon.  I think I'll just stick to other kinds of service.

This week has been really good in terms of work.  At district meeting this week we talked about how God sometimes plans our day differently from how we did, so we need to be open to changes in our schedule.  And that really held true this week.  We had a jam packed schedule almost every day, but I don't think a single day went anywhere close to what we planned.  We had so many appointments fall through, which was frustrating, but we knew God had different plans for us, so we continued to work hard.  And God blessed us because of that.  We've found some new amis that really are progressing and have a desire to know and live the gospel, but we wouldn't have found them if our day would have gone how we planned it.  And we've also had God just putting people right in our lap.  We had one lady called us to her from the street, we had one guy just knock on our door one morning, and we had one guy just show up to church unannounced without having taken any lessons before.  This has been frustrating at times, but we know God has a hand in our life and he's looking out for us and helping us.  I've got a big testimony of that.

We're going to have a baptism this Saturday for Frere Koffi, and we decided that I'm going to be the one doing the baptism!  I'm nervous about it, but also really excited.  I've got to do it in French, and he's a big guy so I hope I can do it alright.  But this is what the mission is all about!  So I'm excited for it, and for his desire to follow Christ and live the commandments.  He's so willing and we love it!  I'm excited to let you all know how it goes next week.

Thank you all for your love, support, emails, and prayers like always.  I'm praying about you guys at home all the time.  Hope all is well and you have a good week.  Love you guys.

Elder Goddard

It rained just a little bit this past week!  Haha

Inside the church

Their favorite ice cream treat

Burned his thumb during the cooking incident :(

Footy and Missionary Sunday

September 16, 2019 7:18 AM MST

Bonjour :P

This week was good!

Tuesday I had my second interview with the mission president, and it went really well.  I did the whole thing in French!  I was able to talk well enough and also was able to understand like everything that he said, so I was very excited!  He told me all of my MTC buddies had done all their interviews all in French too, and that he's never seen a group of Americans pick up the language that quickly.  So I'm happy to see that me and the boys have been working real hard, and that our hard work has really been paying off!  I'm excited to see the kind of missionaries that we can all become.

I said last week that we had a game set up with some guys in the street to play soccer with, and that happened and it went really well!  We showed up and no one was there and we were sad.  But they texted us and said they were coming.  And 2 hours later they finally did!  And it was way fun.  They're really good, and really fun to play with.  It's probably some of the most fun soccer I've played in my life.  We were moving the ball quick around the dirt road.  I think they were surprised to see I was a *** yovo who could actually play haha.  But after the game, they all sat down and we taught them the first lesson.  It went well!  They all listened, and they all took a brochure after.  And we took all their contacts.  It was cool!  We set up another game for this Saturday, but we're trying to set up lessons with the ones who were really interested before then.  I hope we can find some success with these guys!

We fixed another baptismal date this week.  His name's Fr. George.  He works at a grocery store and we always go and teach him while he's working.  He's so willing to keep the commandments and do the things that he is asked to do, it's great.  We fixed his date for the 28th, so we're hoping that we can have 3 baptisms that day!  We're praying that all our amis can be ready and that we can know what we need to do to help them get there.

Yesterday was missionary Sunday at our branch, and they had us missionaries doing different things around the branch.  My duties were blessing the sacrament and teaching primary.  They were both great experiences.  I was a little nervous to bless the sacrament in French, but the prayer was actually pretty easy, I just had to take my time.  I was surprised however to uncover the bread and see I had a whole loaf of French bread sitting on the tray for me to break haha.  And primary was great!  The kids were all so cute and they all participated!  We taught them about how God can help us overcome problems and reach our goals.  We used a drawing and a story to teach it, and they were helping us along with it and I really actually understood it and got something out of it.  They're amazing!  It was a fun little spiritual experience.  And there is something about little kids speaking French that just make them even cuter haha.

Well, I'm officially 2 months into the mission thing now and I think I can say I'm pretty well settled in.  I love living here, and I love the people that I get to teach and be around all day!  Sometimes I can get sad when I think about home, but I know how to lose myself in the work now.  It's easy to just look forward to our next lesson, or preparing our amis for baptism, and all my worries seem to go away.  22 months more is still a long time, but I'm excited for the opportunities that I'm going to have, the people I'm going to meet, and the growth that I'm going to experience.

Thank you all for your emails and prayers, I love you all!

I hope you all have a great week

Elder Goddard

Soccer buddies

Where they played soccer and a beautiful shot of the sky

This is in their house on the ceiling 

Lots of bugs!!!

***  yovo - Urban Dictionary

Yovo is the name you're being called on the street when you're a white person living in Benin (West Africa).  It means "You ! White !" :)

Better!

Monday, September 9, 2019 5:14 AM MST

What's up everyone, this past week here in Togo was a lot better!  I'm not worried so much about the time, and I'm just focusing on the here and now!  I've been a lot happier, made a lot of good memories, and helped a lot of people come closer to their Savior.  And this week flew by!

We didn't have any baptisms this week, but we were able to fix 2 for the end of the month, the 28th.  We're teaching a family of 4, and we brought a member with us for our lesson on Friday.  He was able to speak their native language, and because of that they really liked the lesson, and the father and one of the daughters accepted to be baptized!  It was good.  The other 2 will probably be baptized as well, the father really wants to get them there.  He came to church and loved it, and said he wants to get the whole family there next week.  We're praying for them that they will, and will be baptized!

This week has been a little slower in terms of lessons, we've had a lot of lessons fall through, so we've had a lot of extra time to be contacting on the street.  And it's been good!  We met our goal of 5 new amis this weeks, and it feels good!  We're hoping to keep hitting that number every week, because that's the goal set by the mission.  But we got a little creative with our contacting.  We've just talked to people on the street, sure, but we've also been playing soccer with the kids on the street.  We just have a little fun with them and then hope to teach them or their parents a lesson after.  It hasn't lead to amazing success yet, but it's been fun!  We set up a game this Wednesday with a big group of guys, and we're going to show up in regular street clothes and have some fun and then share a message after and hopefully find some success with that!

We have a young man that goes with us to our lessons a lot of the time.  His name's Samuel.  He turned 15 this Saturday, so we went over to his house and had a little party.  We brought UNO over and played it with him and his family.  It was way fun!  We love him and were happy to celebrate with him.  He's going out with the missionaries at 15 and I was scared to even think about it right before I left.  He's so strong in the gospel, and really he's taught me so much!  I'm happy for the opportunity the mission gives me to become great friends with people like him.

I hope everyone had a good week this past week, and that you all have a good week this week!  I miss you all and love you all; thank you for your prayers, they've been felt!  I love you all!

Until next week

Elder Goddard 

His soccer buddies!

Samuel

Samuel's birthday party

Movie night!  They brought all their mattresses out to watch a movie on the huge movie screen.  Haha!

They add a picture to the wall everyday to celebrate each day they are all together!

Fufu and beef stew.  He said this was the best meal he has had so far!  They were at the "Fufu Bar."

Week 8: Highs and Lows

Monday, September 2, 2019 7:19 AM MST

This week was an interesting one to say the least!  There were lots of good, and some bad as well.  

Tuesday was zone conference.  It was an interesting day because we were in the same stake center for pretty much the whole day, and the whole thing was in French, so I didn't get an insane amount of things out of it haha.  I understood the gist of things but never everything.  It'll be interesting to look back at this zone conference when I'm at my next one, and see how much my understanding has improved.

Wednesday and Thursday were probably the days I felt for the first time like a true missionary.  We were finally out in the sector a lot and taught 7 or 8 lessons between the 2 days.  It felt good to do that, and I feel like my French was actually pretty good in the lessons, so I was just excited about that.  I just wish I could understand people!  That's my problem right now.

Saturday we had a baptism!  We had 4 people baptized, 3 were for our roommates, and one was for us.  It was great!  They asked me to give a talk right before it started.  I hope I did alright, I felt were awkward trying to express myself in French haha.  But it was a good experience to do that.

Sunday it rained really bad in the morning, and pretty much no one came to church except for the people who had been baptized and were going to receive the Holy Ghost.  We started an hour late because no one from the branch presidency showed up until then.  It's definitely a little different from church at home haha.

After all the lessons Thursday night, I got hit with a bunch of stress for some reason, and I was freaking out honestly.  I was just so overwhelmed with the language and how long I'm going to be here.  I was very very overwhelmed.  I felt like I couldn't do the mission anymore and I needed to go home.  The next day I explained my feelings to my companion.  I was pretty much dead set on going home.  I went to talk with my family that afternoon, and they told me to keep pushing through.  It helped to talk, but I was still overwhelmed.

The problem for me is that I feel like the days are long, and with that and having to be here for 2 years, it can be overwhelming!  But that night I had a really good experience.  I was on splits with another Elder in my apartment, and were talking about missions and our experiences and everything.  I'm going to share what I wrote in my journal that night:

"We were just talking about the mission, and everything about it.  But mostly how it changes us into the men that we need to become.  We talked of patience, patience with yourself, patience with the time. patience with the language.  It made me realize how easy life was at home.  I had nothing hard, I had no need for patience.  And that's how it still would be at home.  If I went home I'd learn nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  The only thing is that the stress I would've felt on the mission would instead come to me throughout my life, through guilt and regret.  But here, I can learn so much.  I have the chance to grow so much.  I was thinking about it, it's funny how time passes so quick when you have nothing to be patient about.  But when your entire life requires patience, it goes so slow.  And that's where I'm at right now.  I need to have patience with literally everything.  The time, the people, the language, my teaching abilities, my knowledge.  Literally everything.  And it's so hard.  But tonight, I'm sort of okay with it.  Because I know it will shape me into the man I need to become.  Patience is the key for me right now.  Nothing will come easy for me.  And it's so stressful at times.  But it will bring so much good.  It sucks at times, but I really truly am glad to be here.  Thank you Heavenly Father for this opportunity, I'm not going to waste it."

Sorry that was pretty long, but that was the climax of my week there so I thought it was important to share.  Like always thank you all for your love and prayers and emails!  I hope everyone's having a good time back at home.  Love you and miss you all!

Until next week

Elder Goddard

Fufu, beef stew and plantains

Elder Kombo!  Grateful for him for helping Jordan and being a great friend to him!

Papa JaJa, a member in the branch.  He is trying to sell Jordan a soccer ball but is charging him too much.  Haha!

View from the 2nd floor of the church

Jordan watching a movie in their makeshift movie theater.  Haha!

Shawarma and a burger

They have these all over in their house!  Yuck!