05.20.13

Saying goodbyes in Galway: Curran's, Jensen's, David's 

Well, here I am, back in Glasgow, the land of safety and kindness. I actually really like it here a lot. I had forgotten how good Glasgow is. Especially on p-days because all the missionaries gather at the church and we play fun sports. We are going to play dodgeball this week. Should be pretty exciting. 

So, a highlight of the week was when we set up a booth in city centre. We put up a table with a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon and pamphlets on it and a huge sign, then we all split up and walked up and down the street talking to people. There were a ton of missionaries and it was really fun. We had some good success as well. I met this 20 year old guy from New Zealand who is a member, but hasn't been to church in years because he joined the marines. He is stationed in a camp near Glasgow. So, we were talking about the marines, and then he started telling me all the initiation rights he had to go through. They were hilarious. He said that for one of them, they made him run down city centre in the middle of the night without clothes on and slap all the bouncers in the face while yelling, "hit me baby one more time!" haha! I don't know why I added that into this email, but I thought it was the most funny thing I've heard for awhile. You have to be pretty crazy to slap a bouncer in Glasgow. 

During that city centre finding, we also had a group of people come up and try to bash with us. I guess they do this every week, but nobody had told me, so I stood there and talked to them for like 20 minutes. It was pretty ridiculous. They go and look stuff up on the internet every week so that they can attempt to bash with us when we show up. Anyway, in the end, I just told them that I am here to tell them that they will NEVER know if the Book of Mormon is true unless they read it and pray about it. For some reason, they will agree to read it, but refuse to pray about it. It boggles my mind because it's soo simple. They just won't do it. Oh well. 

So, good news! I am officially a grandpa now. My first son, Elder Windhausen is training a new missionary! I am pretty dang happy about that. He is training in the zone right next to this one, so I already got to see him on moves day. He will be a really good trainer. 

Church was way good. We had a stake conference broadcast and President Eyring and Elder Richard G Scott spoke to all of the UK. They gave some really good advice that is specific to the UK. They urged people to stop moving to America and to strengthen the areas where they live. Richard G Scott spoke about how precious women are and how we need to let them know how beautiful and precious they are. It just ended up making a bunch of missionaries feel trunky. Haha. 

So, I love you all! It sucked leaving Galway, but Glasgow is good too. The Lord puts us where we need to go.

Elder Goodwin