Elder Goddard turns 19!

November 25, 2019

-This post submitted by Elder Goddard's Mom 

November 24th, yesterday, was Jordan's 19th birthday.  And to say that I missed him is an understatement.  I have always tried to make our kids birthdays special.  It was a very special day for me when each of my children came into my life so I have always wanted to celebrate their day as so.  Well, this was the first time that I was not with one of my children on their special day.  So it was a  bittersweet, emotional day.  I woke up and immediately posted my yearly birthday post for him.  Even though he would not see it, I still had to tell the Instagram and Facebook world how much I love my son on his special day.  I also asked for a favor from my social media circle to write Jordan a short email of love and birthday wishes.  And boy did everyone come through for him and me!  He opened his email today to over 30 birthday wishes from so many of you and I will forever be grateful!!  And I had already made a plea for cards and messages to send in a package, (which he opened yesterday!) in which we had received many.  So I just can't thank all of you enough for your love and support!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I am humbled.

But my reason for writing this post is this, I know that my Heavenly Father is mindful of me; that He loves me and each one of us; and is aware of what we need at any given time.  I had a tender mercy yesterday on Jordan's birthday that I will never forget.  I know it was not a coincidence and it may not seem like it is a huge deal but I know that it was Him showing His love for me.  

Jordan and his companion baptized a 15 year old girl several weeks ago.  Her name is Yassmine.  I have heard a lot about her and at one point, a few weeks ago, Jordan told me she wanted to follow me on Instagram.  And of course I was so excited and told him to tell her to find me!  So several weeks passed and I never heard from her.  I asked Jordan about it and he said she was out of data and had to wait for it to renew.  I said okay and didn't think much of it anymore.  She would contact me when she was able.  Well as I was getting ready yesterday I had a lot of time to think about Jordan and was becoming a bit emotional when I get a notification on my phone that I had a follow request.  And I bet you can guess who it was! Yes! Yassmine!  If you thought I was emotional before!! I immediately said she could follow me and I started following her.  She had made an adorable post just 7 minutes before, so I knew she was probably still on her phone.  So with the help of google translate I wrote her a message on her post.  I continued to get ready for the day as I hear my phone go off and Yassmine direct messaged me!

She said: Hello  (in English so we wrote in English the rest of the time)

-Me: Hello! :) How are you doing?  I am so excited you found me on here!  Did you see Elder Goddard today?  It is his birthday!

-Yassmine: Yes I saw him

-Me: That makes me very happy!  How was he doing?

Yassmine: He was very happy  I was cook rice to him (this was my favorite!!)

Me: I am so glad to hear he was happy.  Thank you for cooking rice for him.  That is very sweet of you!  Congratulations on your baptism!  So happy for you!

Yassmine: Thank you very much

Now if that doesn't make your heart happy I don't know what will!  I know that my Heavenly Father wanted her to contact me on his birthday so I knew that Jordan was happy on his special day.  And for her to cook rice for him!  What a sweet gift.  <3  I just know that there was no coincidence in this experience and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for such a beautiful gift for me once again on November 24th, Jordan's birthday.  <3  

J'ai dix-neuf ans (I am nineteen years old)

Monday, November 25, 2019 8:19 AM MST

This week we've found a lot of new people.  We've been doing a really good job at talking to everyone in between our lessons, and it's lead to a lot of contacts, and hopefully a lot of new potential amis.  There's a place in the back of our planners to write down contacts, and we've almost filled it all up and we're not even halfway through the transfer yet.  We've gotta quit talking to people or we're gonna run out of space!  (One of them just called me while I was writing this and that never happens so that's sick)

We've had some really good lessons this week,  We started teaching a woman named Egnonam.  She's a mother of 2 children, but her husband left with the first kid, so it's just her and the younger one.  We taught her twice this week.  In the first, we talked about how prayer can help us through our hard times, and I felt prompted to share my experience with prayer, when my grandpa lost his job this summer and we prayed and he got a new job that we did not think he would get.  She really liked that and I was happy to be prompted to share that.  Then in our second lesson, we taught the Restoration more clearly than I have since I got here.  She understood, and told us that she would read the Book of Mormon without a doubt, which is pretty rare here.  She said she was looking for the right path in her life and we were happy to say that we had that for her.

We also had zone conference this week, and man that hits different as a trainer and as a senior companion.  I learned a lot of things that I can improve on.  But I'm happy, because I will become a much better missionary and a better instrument in the hand of the Lord.  The Spirit was strong all day and I'm grateful for my leaders and I know that they're called of God.

Well this week was my birthday and it was fun.  Saturday night we went out to a restaurant with some others to celebrate.  It was fun and a good end to a nice week.  Then Sunday was just a regular old day, didn't feel any different.  But that's not to say it was a bad birthday, I love what I'm doin out here and I'm happy to spend the 20th year of my life out here in Africa helping people truly know their Savior.  And I'm happy to not be the brand new 18 year old missionary, now I'm the big experienced 19 year old missionary.  Feels great.

Anyways, this past week was great, and the days seem to be flying by.  I almost laugh sometimes when I'm going to bed because it felt like I just woke up.  But that's just because we're lovin the work right now, our days are jammed pack and I never have enough time to do what I want.  It's great.  But I want to thank you all for the love that you've shown me this week, whether you sent a letter in my package, or you emailed me this week.  I'm very grateful and overwhelmed by the support I've got at home.  Thank you so much.

Love you guys, have a great week

Elder Goddard

Birthday celebration!

A family photo...Elder Goddard with his Dad and Son...haha!

Elder Mputu

Birthday banner from his family

Elder Goddard and his son <3

puzzle complete

Elder Goddard thought it would be funny to send this picture

Elder Goddard had to put up his own streamers for his birthday this year...a tradition his Mom always does to their bedroom door

Training Pt. 2 Week 1

Monday, November 18, 2019 8:02 AM MST

Yo

This week on Tuesday I picked up my son.  He's from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and he's 24 years old.  And he only speaks French like I thought.  He's only been out on his mission 3 weeks so he's very much a new missionary and you can definitely tell sometimes, haha, but he is a great missionary and loves to work hard and I'm excited to help him adjust and see what we can accomplish during our time together!

This weeks been really fun in terms of lessons.  It's crazy to me to already be the one taking charge and teaching most of the lesson, but I'm loving it so far.  I'm surprised to look back and see how far I've already come.  I can teach an entire 45 minute lesson in French when I could hardly do anything with the language even 3 months ago.  It's pretty cool.

But that's the problem with this training thing!  I'm the one who knows how to do stuff, and he doesn't know how to do anything.  So I need to do everything, which I'm okay with, but I also need to slowly give my companion more and more responsibility so he can become a true missionary himself.  It's definitely a little stressful at times to find that balance between keeping the work moving forward and also helping him grow as a missionary.  But it's my calling and I know my Heavenly Father is there to help me with it as I follow the Spirit.

Saturday we had a missionary activity at our branch.  We'd planned a lot for it, and everyone in the branch was inviting 2 or 3 friends to it and we were all really excited for it.  And it went great!  In the morning, us missionaries went out with the members and did some street contacting with them for a few hours and inviting everyone to come back to the church later in the afternoon for an activity.  And the activity in the afternoon went great!  We had a lot of people show up; the place was packed!  Lots of family and friends of members of our branch were there.  And not only that but a lot of them then came to church the next day too.  We had to refill the trays during the Sacrament for the first time since I've been here.  We're excited to get to work with these new people!

This week we had some cool lessons.  One was with our amis Elie.  We'd had a really good lesson with him last time about the Restoration and he believes it and wants to come to church.  But he works Sunday at a hotel with only 2 other people manning like 45 rooms, so he can't find a way to leave to come to church.  We were talking about that in our lesson this week, and I had a strong feeling to tell him that God would provide a way for him to come to church if he read the Book of Mormon every day for even just 5 minutes, and then if he kept the Sabbath day in the way that he can right now by not buying anything on Sunday.  I told him if he kept these 2 commandments, God would give him a way to come to church.  We haven't followed up with him yet, but I hope he keeps them.  Because I have faith that if he shows his faith, God can make a miracle happen and get this man to church.

That's about it for this week.  Love you all and hope you're doing well.

Elder Goddard

My companion's name is Elder Mputu, I forgot to say that :O

puzzle time

Crispix!! My favorite cereal!  Thanks for the package Mom and Dad! haha

Elder Goddard and Elder Mputu

Elder Goddard, Elder Mputu, and Elder Dent (their roommate who also was in the MTC with Elder Goddard)

Trainer Goddard

Monday, November 11, 2019 3:27 AM MST

This past week I got my first real transfer call, and boy did I.  I'm going to stay here in Adidogome, but I'm going to train a new missionary!  What?!?  I already forgot his name, but I think he Congolese and a native French speaker.  I feel like I just got out here in the field, but here I am already a senior companion, and not only that but showing a brand new missionary how the mission works.  And doing that all in French!  It's a little crazy, but I'm actually really excited for the challenge.  If I thought these past 2 transfers in training made me grow, these next 2 as the actual trainer will cause me to grow even more.

Yesterday we had a baptism for Yasmine!  We had scheduled to baptize Jonas too, but he couldn't take work off to do an interview this week, so we'll do his soon.  But yesterday was Yasmine's day, and it was great!  We did the baptism before church in hopes that more people would show up, and it worked!  We had a lot of people there watch her be baptized and support her!  The Spirit was strong during it, I felt it burning.  And then to watch her receive the gift of the Holy Ghost just a few minutes after during church.  It was a great day, and we were all happy for her!

Outside of that, just a regular week in terms of work, just teaching all of our amis, some progressing better than others.  These next few weeks should be interesting though as I have to fix all these rendezvous myself and get my new companion up to speed on how we can help these people know their Savior.

This week I was reading in 3 Nephi, and chapter 17 stood out to me.  I just really felt the love that Christ had for the Nephites in this chapter.  And to think that He has this love for every one of us!  I felt the Spirit confirm to  me this love that he has for all of us when I was reading this chapter.  It makes me want to work harder so people here can feel of that love for themselves.

Last thought, with my new calling, I was reminded of a talk that I had read earlier this transfer.  It's called lift where you stand by Elder Uchtdorf.  It's about how you should not worry about if you are overqualified of under-qualified for a calling, but just know this is the calling God wants for you and you should magnify that calling.  While I might be a bit nervous for this, I find strength in knowing that my leaders and my Heavenly Father have confidence in me as a French speaker and as a missionary to be able to do this.  With their help, I know that I can do it.  Don't worry about your calling, just lift where you stand!

Thanks for your love and emails comme habitude.  (as usual)  Pics should come later today or in the week.  Love you all!

Elder Goddard

Water in a bag - costs 25 Francs

"Yeah it's water, that's how we do it here."

Elder Drogowski, Yasmine, Samuel (her brother) and Elder Goddard

Saying goodbye to his roommate Elder Zaza

Goodbye Elder Dorgowski!  Elder Goddard's trainer

What week even is it anymore?

Monday, November 4, 2019 8:46 AM MST

This last week has been a real good one.

Me and my companion have been using the local language Ewe a lot this past week, and it's been really fun.  We know next to nothing but we've been trying to learn a little bit.  Just like how to say hello, goodbye, thank you, and stuff like that.  The people love it, they laugh any time we use it.  I don't know if it's because we can't pronounce it at all, or if it's because it's two white boys speaking their language.  Either way, they're lovin it and we're havin a good time with it too.

Yesterday we had planned to go pick up one of our amis and walk with him to church.  We had 8:30 planned, and we called him at 8 to confirm, and he said he'd be there.  So we walked there and got there right at 8:30.  We knocked on the door, and his brother answered and said he left.  In the 30 minutes between our call and our arrival, he managed to leave.  It's such a joke sometimes, they respect appointments so much differently than we do at home haha.  No appointment is a given here they're always a wild card.

But despite that we still had 3 people come to church this week, which made us happy.  The 2 who are getting baptized and then one other kid that we've been teaching.  We went by his house Saturday and he wasn't there and his neighbor said he had moved to Ghana, which we were sad about but we kinda just forgot about him, because there's not much you can do when your amis moves to a different country haha.  But he walked with his brother across the border to come to church this week.  It was honestly such a surprise.  Like I said, everything here is pretty much just a wildcard, you take what's thrown at you and you do the best with it.

Anyways, he came up to us after church and asked when he could be baptized, so we fixed his baptism for December 1st.  So that's 3 baptisms scheduled now, 2 will be this Sunday and then his in December.  We're so excited for all of them, they're all so ready and I'm excited for them to take this step to follow Christ!

This week makes the last week of this transfer, which means I've got one week left of my training.  It's so weird to think, it's seemed slow in the moment sometimes, but looking back it seemed so fast.  And it's already November?  Time flies.  I'll be home before I know it so I've gotta cherish it while I'm here.  Anyways we're getting calls this Saturday, so I should have some news to share next week.  But hopefully it's that I'm staying in Adidogome!

Thanks for the prayers and emails, love hearing from all of you.  Have a great week.

Elder Goddard

Zone activity playing soccer. Jordan got a hat trick!!  He's still got it!!
Elder Goddard, Elder Drogowski, and Elder Wright

One of the amis getting baptized on Sunday!!

The little kids always seem to want to be around Elder Goddard! <3

"It's the guys here who can do the splits, not girls."  haha! (Samuel age 15)

We were tired

Just a little rain

cool dude

what's up?