Well here it is. The first email I’m sending out to everyone as a missionary. Let me just start off by saying WOW! Being a missionary is so so so amazing and powerful. It is definitely one of the best things that has ever happened to me! Being set apart as a representative of Jesus Christ is so powerful and testifies so much to me that He truly does love us and want us to return to Him. One of the best things about being a missionary is that I just get to solely focus my whole life for the next two years all on our Savior. I have never felt more connected to Him and the Spirit. It is so amazing just having the ability to teach and talk about the gospel so comfortably with the guidance of the Spirit. The love I have felt for our Savior and all He has done for us has never been stronger. I love Him so much!

At home MTC is a grind but it is so awesome to learn how to teach this amazing gospel through the Spirit. Every day is a long time spent on a computer screen but the things about the gospel I am learning are so powerful. We’re some of the first missionaries that are being taught from the new Preach My Gospel. And wow, is Preach My Gospel amazing or what! If you haven’t gone through or studied the new Preach My Gospel, you need to. Like right now. It is amazing the truths and lessons that it teaches. I invite you guys to include it in your studies because even though it’s focused on missionary use, the doctrine that it teaches and studies is an absolute game changer. I can truly say that it was written through revelation from our Heavenly Father. 

Some highlights of the week have been super powerful and spiritual. I was able to give blessings to some of my siblings and family as they started the school year. It was an amazing experience and I know and testify that the Lord truly does speak to us today. I have felt His presence and His love for us and it is something I am so excited to teach the people of Liberia! One invitation we received during the MTC was to go and practice teaching, through the principles and tips we have learned. They invited us to teach to whoever we could, whether friends or family. So, I decided I wanted to see if I could go teach in my old seminary class at Mesa High. I called up Drew and Jensen to see if they wanted to go and luckily they both did. We were able to teach lesson 2 from Preach My Gospel which is all about the Plan of Salvation. It was such an amazing experience being able to teach the truths about God’s love and His plan for us to students and teenagers that are going through some rough times. The Spirit was so strong and we were able to have a great discussion and lesson during that hour. (Shoutout to Jensen and Drew you guys are epic.) 

I don’t have a lot of time today even though it’s P-Day but I thought I would end by sharing one thing that I have found super important through my first week of MTC. My classes and discussions have been focusing a lot on our mission purpose and our responsibility to invite others to Christ. We have talked a lot about extending invitations to others and the power they can have. So, I would like to extend an invitation to all of you today. I would like to ask each of you to pray to Heavenly Father to ask who that you know needs help right now. So many people are going through trials and hard times and we don’t know what they are a lot of the time. But the best way we can help people is to love them unconditionally just as Christ loves each and every one of us. So pray to know about someone who can reach out to and show love for. I promise it is such an easy way to feel the Spirit and help make someone’s day!

Love you all and can’t wait to hear from more of you! Feel free to send me emails if you wanna talk and ask any questions you have!

-Elder Goodman 

(pics below 🙃) 

1) Day one of the mission 

2) Me and the family have been grinding games

3) Me and the boys teaching the gospel 😎

4) Love my office, it’s so epic 

5) The Church is true, the book is blue, and I love Mountain Dew