08.28.12



Our District at district meeting. Elder Barney, me, Elder Wilberg, Elder Leonard.



Black Saturday Parade



Train on the way out of Portrush for my last time.



Well, it's official! I am getting moved to Scotland! I will be in a place called Springboig. It's a part of Glasgow and Glasgow is the biggest city in the mission. It should be pretty exciting. I will be serving with one of the only black Elders in the mission. Elder Quashie? I think that's how it's spelled, but I'm not sure. He is from London. I will also be the senior companion. I am really excited to be senior companion, but pretty dang nervous as well. It will be more responsibility. I know that the Lord qualifies those that he calls, so I'm not too worried. Glasgow is pretty infamous though. Hopefully, I will see some crazy stuff and maybe even be forced to defend myself in a pub fight. haha I really don't know much about the place, but I willl be getting on the ferry tomorrow morning to go over. Everyone calls the accent glasswegian and says it is pretty much a new language. I probably won't be able to understand anyone for awhile, but that will be pretty funny. It is also one of the more "dodgy" areas of the mission and I am excited about that.

 

It has been really sad saying goodbye to everyone. I nearly cried numerous times yesterday, but I HATE crying in front of people, as you all know. It is weird to leave this area, because I have grown so close to the members here and it is almost like my second home now. It really almost feels like I'm leaving home again. I went around all day yesterday to get pictures with all my favorite people in Coleraine. It's tough, because I might not ever see some of these people again. I got all their emails and things too, though. I am sad to leave, but at the same time, I am excited to begin a new adventure in Scotland. Glasgow is exactly the place where I have been wanting to go, so, as usual, I lucked out again.

 

This past week was really good. We got 23 lessons and did a lot of finding on the streets again. We have been seeing lots of success. I will tell you of something that I found pretty comical.

 

One of the members called our phone, and Elder Barney answered it and accidentally said, "Dear Heavenly Father" instead of "hello". hahah then he tried to act casual and carry on the conversation. I had to leave the room because I couldn't stop laughing. The member never brought it up again, so he probably felt pretty awkward haha.

 

I heard that Jarica had her baby! That is way exciting. I am excited to see pictures. Now Braylee has someone to dominate. haha.  I also got a package from Shennie this past week and it was dominant. It had a sick shirt and some church news and some good quotes/talks. Thanks Shen!

 

Well, I don't have too much else to say this week. I just wanted to let you all know that I am going to be in Springboig, Scotland now. I will go find the Goodwin and the Benson tarten at one of the shops and buy some ties. I know that this gospel is true and that it will always be the firm foundation that we can turn to. I also know that obedience to these Gospel Principles is the only way we can find true peace in this life. I love you and hope y'all have a good week.

 

Elder Goodwin

08.20.12

Classic Ireland.  This is what the country roads look like.

Family-

 

I will start this email by explaing what craic is. It is not the same thing as cocaine, though that would be ok too. haha. It is like the same thing as saying fun. So if people say "what's the craic?" then that means pretty much whats up. If they say wheres the craic, that means where is the fun. There are many different ways they say craic here hah.

 

It is moves call this Sunday. I think I will probably move, but we will see. If I do move, I hope I go to Scotland.

 

Well it's been one of the best weeks I've had so far. We hit our goal of 20 lessons every week, again, and we also got 4 new investigators! Domination! I am really excited and I think we are definitely being blessed for striving to hit 20 lessons every week. We are promised, that if we do, the number of baptisms in our area will double. Also, the pigeon I was teaching died or flew away. I don't know which one.

 

Last p-day all the Team Great Britain stuff was half price and so I took out some money to buy some stuff. I bought an epic shirt, a flag, and some key chains to send home sometime. Then I bought a Liverpool jersey because it was really cheap and it looked cool. haha I don't know anything about soccer, but I figured I might as well get some jersey's while I'm here. Oh, and if anyone wants me to buy them something here, let me know.

 

We also tracted into some Born Again ministers or something. They knew their stuff, but they wouldn't let us talk. Hah they just kept rambling and everytime I tried to talk, they interupted me. In the end, I just said, You obviously know much more than me about the Bible, but what I know, is that through reading the Book of Mormon and praying about, I found my answer, and that is how you can know the truth for yourself. It doesn't help for us to force you to listen or force you to come to church, all we can do is invite you to try the same thing that we did. That is why we are here for 2 years. They still just kept rambling on and eventually, we just shook their hands and left ha. It was a good experience though.

 

Zone Conference was on Wednesday! It was way way good. President Brown talked about the importance of being obedient and how the Lord will always bless us when we do all we can. I really like President Brown. I think he is a really good addition to this mission. The work has progressed in huge steps these last few weeks, due to the counsel he has given us. We also got to eat at Boojums. It's pretty much like Cafe Rio except not as good. It's still delicious though.

 

We were able to get 5+ referrals from 1 member, from following the counsel of President Brown. When we finish our lesson, he taught us to say, "We sense that you have felt something of the love of God as we have taught you today. How do you feel? Who do you know that need to feel this same way?" We did it, and it really worked. She just kept giving us more and more referrals. When something like that happens, you are supposed to make a success story. That is when you record a message on the phone about what happened and then send it to the Zone Leader. Then, they send it to everyone else in the mission. Here is what I said. ha

 

"We are just calling to share some success. Earlier, we did not plan to see a less active woman, but decided to see her when we passed her house. We taught her about the temple and then told her that we sensed she had felt something of the Love of God and asked her how she felt. Then we asked who she knows that needs to feel this same way and ended up getting more than 5 referrals. It is truly a very powerful way to get referrals. Powerful, just like my Biceps."

 

haha Everyone thought it was hilarious and President Brown loved it.

 

When we were tracting the other day, a little kid started following us and asking if he could help. He was probably about 7 and we could see that his Mom was glaring from her house, so we told him we had to leave, so his Mom wouldn't hate us. He asked for some pass a long cards and I gave him a few. After we left, we turned around and could see him knocking on doors and giving them pass along cards. Haha dominance. We don't need to tract anymore, we will just have kids do it for us haha.

 

There was an "anti-social march" that went throught town the other day. The Protestants marched through the catholic side of town towards the police station because they said there is too much crime amongst the Catholics. Errr. They were just looking for trouble, but nothing happened, because there were police EVERYWHERE. It was pretty epic. We also had a helicopter spotlighting the river on Saturday night. It was way loud and right above the flat. I think someone drowned and they were looking for them or something.

 

It has been excellent weather this past week. It's really humid, so when the sun comes out gets way hot. I got sunburnt again. Granny would make scold me for not putting on sun block haha.

 

I heard that Grandma Rene has been in the hospital lately. She is tough though and I'm sure she wll be ok. I will keep praying for her. She is such a good person and Grandma. She is loved by so many and has influenced so many peoples lives, including mine. She is pretty epic.

 

I love you all and hope that thing are going good. If they aren't, then go read the Book of Mormon. haha but really. The gospel is true. I love you. I will also attach a classic pic of Ireland. This is what all the country roads look like.

 

Elder Goodwin

08.13.12



I finally got some McDonalds! And I look high!




This pigeon has accepted a baptismal date and is our only progressing investigator.



Sup family-

 

It is another glorious p-day today. Except without the sunshine. hah I do love p-days though. I love reading all your emails and seeing all the pictures you send. I bought a flash drive so that I can download them all to it.

 

Anyway, this past week was pretty good. We didn't have as many less active members at church, but we did officially reactivate one of them. Bro Morrison. I always go to his house and he has me play the piano for him and then we just visit with him and share a wee message. That's right I said wee. I am learning the ways. He also found me some good church music to listen to. He got me Johnny Cash singing How Great Thou Art and another religious Johnny Cash song. We are allowed to listen to music, but only if it makes you think of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. Hopefully we will get a few more people reactivated and find more investigators. We have been doing alot of finding. We have had good discussions with a lot of people, but so far, no new investigators. I'm sure we will find some soon though.

 

Church was pretty epic yesterday. There is a little boy named Freddie who is almost the exact same age as Haze, who disrupts the meeting the whole time. It's hilarious. He walked over to me and started hitting me and then giving me high fives. All during Sacrament. Then he tried to open my backpack and take all my stuff. He was out of control. haha then his mom came and picked him up. He is the only toddler in the branch so he is pretty much a legend. He has quite the reputation for ruining lessons haha.

 

On Thursday, we ran into this Catholic guy in the street. He started talking to us and telling me how Goodwin is a very Irish name and how he knows a lot of Goodwins in the Republic. He told me I looked Irish and that I needed to return to the "true religion" and stop messing around. haha it was pretty funny. People are always trying to convert us. Especially drunk people. We talk to a lot of drunk people hah. Seriously though I would say that drinking is the number 1 problem for people here. By far.

 

One of our less active members gave us his lighter because he is trying to stop smoking, so Elder Barney was playing with it in the flat, then the fire alarm went off. Every alarm in the whole building. hahah He probably felt soo dumb. I dominated him for it though. There were random people evacuating, but then it turned off after a couple minutes. haha.

 

On saturday and sunday there was a thing called the riverfest going on in the river. There were professional wake-boarders and epic jet ski tricks going on all day. We timed our lunch and dinner accordingly so that we could catch some of the action. It was pretty epic. Especially because the weather has been so nice lately. It's back to normal now, but during the week it was roasting. I got sun burnt again.

 

I have recently decided that I am going to start teaching pigeons instead of people because they listen better. hahah not really, but I really did teach a pigeon this week. It was under a bush and so I decided to share the Book of Mormon with it. It's a pretty funny picture. I will attach it to this email.

 

I got to eat McDonalds, finally! It was delicious too. I got a big mac meal and it came with a free olympic glass. Epic.

 

Well, I am thankful to have such a loving and supportive family. I am very blessed and I love you all. Thank you for all the support and strength you give me. The Gospel is true and through it, we can find peace in this life.

 

Elder Goodwin

08.06.12

Church by the flat.

Excellent idea.

Missionary picture.

Well, this week has been pretty epic. We got 6 less actives at church yesterday. Ya, that's right, 6! Read em and weep! But really it was way good to see them all there. Some of them, we haven't even worked with, they just decided to come out. We have been working alot with the others though. One less active member, Bro Donaghey, even made us dinner last week because he likes us. ha he said that he is going to start coming out. That is really exciting. We haven't had too many new investigators or anything lately, but we will just keep finding until we get some. We have been working on teaching now and not later. When we talk to someone on the street, instead of asking if we can set up and appointment for later, we just keep teaching them until they say they have to go. ha it works really good. It also helps us, because the mission goal for companionships is to teach 20 or more lessons every week. We got 20 this week and I am happy about that. Sometimes it's hard to get that many.

 

I really enjoy the subject of my email this week. haha it makes me laugh to reminisce about that moment. For any of you who don't know where that came from, just ask Mom. I also got another package from Mindy this week. It had a bunch of delicious cookies in it. It was a pretty epic package.

 

Other than doing less active work, not too many really exciting things have happened. Elder Barney has cooked me some pretzels and that is pretty nice. I am glad he can cook stuff. We work very well together. I think half the reason is because we are both American and we can relate to each other alot haha. During the Gospel Principles lesson we gave yesterday, he kept dazing off and then there would just be awkward silence for like 20 seconds, so I would just have to cut in and start teaching haha.

 

The weather here has been pretty nice lately. It  has been sunny the past few days and everything. I got to wear my short sleeved shirts again. Epic. hah, yes it is pretty humid here. Sometimes, it looks like it might be cold outside, but then it's actually really warm because of the humidity. The seasons don't really change much here. In the winter, it supposedly gets cold and icey and snows sometimes, but they don't have much of a fall or spring. There are some leaves that are starting to change color though.

 

Everyone has the olympics playing when we go visit them. They were really excited about the rowing, because there was a guy from Coleraine who took second or something. Everyone is talking about it, and there is supposed to be a huge parade when he comes back to Coleraine. It's pretty exciting. The olympics are epic.

 

Well, I don't have much else to write, but I uploaded some pictures for you all to see. I will try to attach a video of me hitting a watermelon with a golf club, but I think it might be too big. I love you all.

 

Elder Goodwin

 

Yep the golf video was too big to send.