Elder Goddard: C'est deja decembre? (It's already December?)

Monday, December 2, 2019 8:39 AM MST

This week was Thanksgiving and we kind of forgot about it oops. So we didn't eat anything or do anything special on Thursday, but Elder Dent got gravy and mashed potato packets in his package, so we had our Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. We just cooked up some chicken legs and served it with mashed potatoes and gravy. Boy did it feel good to taste mashed potatoes and gravy again, I sure was thankful for that.

This week we sat down and had lessons with a lot of our new contacts. One of them is named Olivier. We started out just getting to know him, and after started the lesson. We taught him the Restoration. The whole time he was engaged, but kind of just staying quiet. After we had finished teaching him everything, he just stayed quiet for a minute and then said that our message really touched him. He's a pastor, and he said he's always felt like what he said wasn't always everything. But now he understands, and knows that his next step is to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Lessons don't always to like that, but it's cool when there is one like that. We're happy to keep working with him and where this can go.

Lessons like that are pretty nice too also because I'd say I had a bit of a harder week this past week. There's just a lot of responsibility on my shoulders with being the trainer and having to juggle lots of amis right now. And I really want to help these people any way that I can, so when a lesson doesn't go as well, or when an ami doesn't progress, I kind of take that as my responsibility. Like I'm doing something wrong. I was thinking about it a lot one night walking home, just thinking to myself. I was pretty stressed out. And I said to myself, "I don't know why it's like this, but I know I'm trying," and as soon as I said trying, I immediately felt peace. I wasn't stressed out anymore. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father. He knows that I'm doing by best, and that was enough. The rest would be okay. I was very grateful for that.

To go with that, I was reading Elder Holland's talk from this last October conference. He talks about all the different things going in the church, and it can seem like a lot, and we can get caught up in that. But we need to remember that the focus should always be on Christ. Everything going on in the church points to Christ, and is there to help us come closer to Him. So I've been trying to apply that to the mission. There's a lot of different things that we can be doing as missionaries, but if I always put my focus on Christ, and strive to have His Spirit with me, I'll do what I need to do, and what he wants me to do. Everything will be okay if I put my focus on Him.

So that was my week. I hope you all had a good one and were grateful for everything we're blessed with back home. Thanks for your love and support, I'm grateful for you all! Have a good week.

Elder Goddard