05.21.12

If you don't say American Football, they think you are talking about soccer.

Rainbow outside of our flat.

Random tunnel & paddy cap.

Well, it's a beautiful day here in Coleraine. It's sunny and everything. I could get used to this. I'm getting pretty good at cooking frozen pizzas and making sandwiches haha. I found some Golden grahams in the store and I am pretty excited. We mostly eat chicken, sandwiches or frozen pizza. We have a deep fryer so we cook fries sometimes. Fries are called chips here and chips are called crisps. Cookies are called biscuits. I don't always say stuff right, but they know what I mean. hah everyone always says aye. They say aye like we would say ya, and when we greet people on the street we say, "hi-uh" really quick. haha.

 

Happy Birthday to Grandma Rene! That is so neat that she will be turning 88. I loved going to her parties, they were always pretty fun. She is such a good example to all of us. Tell her I love her and and I hope she has a wonderful birthday.

 

This week we mostly taught member lessons. Everyone was gone because there was a motorcycle racing event. They just blocked off streets and made a race track. Some of them go nearly 200 mph during the race. A member told us that one of the riders wrecked and died yesterday, so that is pretty crazy.

 

 We taught a guy named Steven and finally got him to say a prayer out loud. I think that will help him to try other stuff too. There is a guy in our ward.  He is from the Netherlands and he acts very similar to Hal. His house smells weird, and he makes us sit on stools because there is too much cat hair on the furniture and on the floors. haha He always tells us that he just got back from the library where he was writing some dissertations and solving formulas that nobody else can figure out. Whenever we try to teach him a lesson, he starts going off about soo many theories that don't make any sense. haha I'm not even sure why he is so active.

 

Our branch mission leader is so awesome. His name is Norman. He is black, and he used to be a raging alcoholic, but like 5 years ago the missionaries taught him, and now you would never know that. He is so humble and friendly. He is in his 70's but he looks like he is 40. He always wears flashy nikes and stuff haha. His son is the one that will be getting out of prison for murder in a few weeks. We met him as well. His name is Johnny and I don't know much about him, other than he has a gold tooth.

 

Another lady we visit is named Anne Reid. She HATES hunting and killing animals, so during a visit I shared D&C 49 I tried to commit her to kill an animal and eat it by next week. hahah she was so mad. She is way nice to us. She loves the missionaries. Irish ladies are hilarious, they get all fired up about everything. Some day I might show her the picture of me pounding it with the buck we got.

 

I went on another exchange last week, with a missionary name Elder Jenkins, in a place called Omagh. He was way chill and we got along good. He is from Utah so we had a lot in common. Everyone here just makes us drink hot chocolate when we go to their houses ha. While I was there, we almost had to go chase a bunch of sheep off the church lawn, but they took care of it. I also got to eat at Burger King. I got a whopper meal and it was delicious. They have a drink here called Iron Bru. It is delicious and unhealthy. It's pretty much the mountain dew here.  

 

We had stake Conference in Belfast on Sunday. It was way good, but I had to sit behind the curtains in back because there were soo many people. It's amazing to see how much faith they all have here. Some of them had to get up at 6 in the morning just to get to Belfast on time. They all want a temple SO BAD. They pray for it during every prayer. They also had to pay for the gas, which is WAY EXPENSIVE here. We got a ride from a guy named Adrian. I don't know his last name because nobody here goes by last names. They get bugged if we call them by their last names haha.

 

Well, I sure love all of you. Everyday, when I get up, I say my prayers and then look at the pictures of my family on the wall. It always makes me happy. I'm thankful to have the support and prayers from all of you. Love you.

 

Elder Goodwin