06.24.13

So, I am pretty much going to dedicate this email to Grandma Rene. I will start by telling you all about how I found out.

So this morning during personal study, we got a call from President Brown and he asked to speak to me. I thought it might be a last minute moves change, but my heart dropped when he said, "Unfortunately I have some sad news about your family." Let me just tell you, those are the most terrifying words for a missionary to hear. Anyway, he then explained to me that he had received an email from President Orten with the sad news that Grandma had passed away. I was completely taken off guard and didn't really know how to react. He talked to me for a little bit longer and I was just replying with one word answers because I didn't want to talk anymore. So, after he hung up, I went into the bedroom and just sat on the bed for awhile and it felt like all of the fond memories I have of Grandma just came flooding into my mind right then. So, then I went in the bathroom and cried. That is honestly the first time that I have actually cried on my mission. As I was sitting there taking all of this in, I could really only think of one thing that I should do. So, after quite some time of this, I went back into the bedroom and said a long prayer. Let me tell you right now, that prayer is real and it truly works. I specifically asked God to let me know if she is happy and to help me feel it if she is. I felt the Spirit and right in the middle of the prayer, I all of the sudden felt peaceful about the whole situation. I very rarely have strong spiritual impressions like that, so I know them when they come. I started thinking about all the people who are up there soo excited to see her again. People like Grandpa Bob and her parents and her siblings and her son Kelly. I'm sure it's such a glorious reunion up there and that made me shed a tear just thinking about how much it must mean to those people to get to see her again.

I am really, really going to miss her. As I was thinking about all of this, I realized that I have spent at least a couple hours at her house almost every single week of my life. Watching Jazz games, cracking jokes, putting up Christmas stuff, playing in the backyard, having barbeques, mowing the lawn, visiting, and occasionally being lovingly harassed to play the piano or sing. haha. I thought about all the times I've been playing sports or doing different events, and I could always look out in the crowd and quickly spot Grandma's red hair sticking up. Even when she was feeling sick or when she was going through hard times herself. She is such a supportive person, and I'm sure she will be there to support us all still. One of the most Spiritual experiences that I've ever had was at the temple with her and I will remember that forever.  Her sense of humour is one of my favourite things about her. She was so witty and hilarious right up to the very end. (Must be where Dad get it from ha!) I always knew that I was welcome at Grandmas house anytime. 

I don't think I can say enough about the great life that Grandma Rene lived. She has a legacy that truly is epic. She has influenced my life and the lives of many others more than she will ever know and I love her very much. She has a very special place in my heart and I'm proud to be her Grandson. I am just so thankful that I am on a mission right now and that I have gained a strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation. I look forward to the day when I see her again and I know I will see her again. I love you all so much. Stay strong and use prayer to your advantage.

Elder Goodwin

I attached 1 picture that I got from Mindy. I have some others on my other memory card and I will attach them as soon as I can.

06.17.13



My hood.



Bowl of duck feet.

Elder Bayer eating a duck foot.

Duck foot.

My homemade NED spear.

So, here's the deal, there were no wild animals attacking missionaries, but that's probably mostly because there aren't many wild animals around here. That would be cool though. At least I didn't write the subject line as, I GOT STABBED this time. HA! 

Here's the low-down on the week. 

One of my friends, Elder Liam Musgrove, finished his mission last transfer and has been back in Manchester. He showed up to City Centre here and gave us a call last p-day to come see him. It was pretty dang weird seeing someone who I only knew as a missionary in their real life setting. He was a lot different, not in a bad way though. Ha, it was pretty funny. He has a beard already and changed up his hairstyle and everything. 

I went on an interesting exchange last week to say the least. I went with a missionary named Elder Bayer. He is from America, but got called to the Scotland/Ireland Mandarin speaking mission, so he only works with Chinese people in the Chinatown area. I was with him all day and it was way cool listening to them speak in chinese. I just sat there and acted casual most of the time. Pretty easy life. ha! The day before I went there, he told me that they had a dinner appointment scheduled. This would usually be an exciting prospect for me, but he then told me that the appointment was with some Chinese people who lived on the coast in China and that they would be cooking all types of seafood. This really really freaked me out. So I spent the next 24 hours complaining and worrying about eating seafood. It wasn't as bad as I thought though. 

We got there and they had a bunch of different dishes for us to try from. One of them just so happened to be a bowl of massive duck feet. So, I proceeded to eat a duck foot. I have such a hatred for fish, that I would rather try a duck foot than eat fish. Anyway, they were all using chopsticks, but they could see that I looked like an idiot trying to use them, so they gave me a fork and laughed at me. It was pretty funny. Then they taught me how to eat a duck foot. You can kind of see where the joints are, so you pick the first one and bite it, (There are about 4 joints in each toe) then you have part of the toe in your mouth and you just suck off the skin/webbing. It's a pretty weird texture and it's kind of strange to realize that there is a duck's foot in your mouth, but it honestly didn't taste too terrible. I finished the whole foot, but on one of the big joints, I couldn't bite it right, so I just bit straight through the bone instead and everybody looked at me weird. And when you've sucked off the skin/webbing, then you just spit the bone out on the table. Because that's how they roll in China. You just throw/spit whatever you don't want onto the table. I also ate some spice beef stuff with a bunch of tofu. It was the first time I've had tofu and it wasn't bad. 

I've been able to visit some old friends of mine from Springboig 1 and it's been really fun. I went on an exchange to my old area and I slept in my old bed and everything. It was pretty weird. I don't know if I liked it... haha. 

My time is running out, but I love you all. Things are going great here. Natasha is still golden. She came to church again and told everyone that she wants to be baptized. We should be seeing her again this week so I will keep you posted. Prayer works. Listen to the Spirit. Do Missionary work. And CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ALLEN FAMILY!!!!

Elder Goodwin

06.10.13

So, I was looking back over some of my last emails and I realized that they are getting pretty lame to read. So, I've been keeping a list with me of these to write you all about, so hopefully this one is better.

 

Good news! I was able to participate in a shirtless prank! Here's how. So, we were at a dinner apointment with a couple called the Milne's. Gordon Milne is not a member, but his wife is. They are probably about 50 years old. He is class though. We were eating in there and then we looked out the window and saw the other set of missionaries tracting around the neighborhood. They didn't know we were there and they don't know the Milne's, so we all started scheming about something funny we could do to them. So, I told Bro. Milne to answer the door like a nutcase with his shirt off because he has a bunch of epic tattoos. I also told him to start acting like he was going to fight them. So, they come walking up to the door and he just explodes out onto the porch without his shirt and yells at them, but then he was too nice and invited them in for dinner. By then they realized we were there too. It was a fun time though.

 

Alot of funny stuff happened this week, so now I have to share another story. All of us missionaries were doing our usual city centre finding on Saturday, and on the way there we were talking about how we think that seagulls aim for people when they poo. Because we've all been pooed on at some point. Well, right after we set up our table, low and behold, a seagull comes flying over the top of us, and I hear Elder Rawlinson scream. But it was too late. He couldn't get out of the way, so all he had time to do was duck a bit. The poo smacked him straight in the side of the head, right on his ear. haha! It was hilarious and he just took it like a man. He didn't really say anything, he just walked away and wiped it off. I was pretty dang nasty! Ha! There was like a splash that came off his face because it hit with such force. If anyone wants anymore information about what it looked like you can ask me because I made sure to take a picture. haha!

 

So, I need someone (not everyone) to send me some cool John Wayne stuff. Because there is a member here who helps us out a ton that loves cowboys stuff. Especially John Wayne. He is way awesome too. Everytime I see him I forget if he is a mafia boss or a church member because he looks like an old school gangster. We always go to his house on Thursdays and he gives us Irn Bru and candy. He also gave me some really neat scotland souvenirs. Oh ya, and he has this massive cigar from his non member days. It's like the size of a baton. He said it's worth £500 so I made sure to get a picture of me holding it. But, the moral of the story is that he is awesome and I want to give him something cool.

 

Natasha is the most golden person that I have ever taught on my mission. We had a lesson with her yesterday, and she said that everytime she has prayed about the lessons we give her, she has received a special answer. She completely believes that everything is true and when we invited her to be baptised she didn't even hesitate to say yes. We gave her a baptismal date fo 29 June, but then it didn't feel right to us, so we invited her to pray about a date that would be best for her. She is way solid though. Oh ya, and we found out that she is the best ballerina in Scotland. That is pretty dang cool if you ask me. She is only 17, so we just have to make sure that it's ok with her parents.

 

We had a conference in Edinburgh with all the missionaries in Scotland last week. They taught us all about family history and how we can utilize it as a missionary tool. There is a big push giong for us to start using that in our finding. I've been trying it out and it works really well. Especially to old people who are really set in their ways. It gives a good chance to break the ice with people by talking to them about something other than religion. I also got to see Elder Windhausen and some other missionary friends at the conference. I got a posterity picture with Elder Windhausen and his trainee. I his trainee's grandpa. Ha! I also got pictures with a bunch of other missionaries who are finishing their missions in a few weeks. I can't believe that so many of my friends out here are finishing their missions now.

 

I gave a talk in church yesterday about testimony. I just read classic missionary scriptures like Moroni 10:3-5 and bore my testimony because it was supposed to be a short talk. I have a strong testimony of prayer though, so that's what I talked about alot.

 

Well, brethren and sisters, the church is true and my shirt is blue and watch out for seagull poo and I love you.

 

Elder Goodwin

 

I attached a picture of the massive cigar.

 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!! And to all you other folks who are fathers. Anyway, I have the best dad in the world and I am proud to be wearing the same name tag that he did on his mission. He is a legend and the best father a son could have. Love you Dad!!!!

06.03.13

So, it's been another great week in Glasgow.

We had an interesting change in the mission during the leadership council on Friday. In the past, the missionaries within the same ward have had their own boundaries. For example, there is one other set of missionaries in our ward. They are in Springboig 1, which is where I served before. It covers the East end of glasgow and our area covers the north. Now, any missionaries in the same ward boundaries no longer have their own area. We will both coordinate our efforts and share the whole of the ward boundaries together. So, I am officially serving in my old area again because now I am allowed to proselyte there and see all the people I used to know there. It's pretty cool. Especially because now we will be getting more dinner appointments from all my old friends there.

Another interesting City centre GQ experience. I stopped this guy and tried to give him a card, but it turns out he was drunk and crazy. Haha he crumpled up the card and was shouting at me like 2 inches from my face. But then, he started being nice and I was being nice, so he just went on his way. It was pretty funny, all the other missionaries laughed.

I'm sitting here emailing with Elder Rawlinson from Eden, utah. Just thought I would add that in because he wanted to be included in the family email.

We have a way solid investigator now. Her name is Natasha and she is going to a dance school in Oban. It's like a 2 hour drive from here, but no missionaries cover the area, so the Zone Leaders get to cover it. She referred herself to a member family up there who runs the dance school. The same people that I got to go and see like 6 months ago. Anyway, she came to church yesterday and we taught her after. It was one of the best lessons I've ever been a part of. We taught her the plan of salvation and she already believes it's true and she said she could feel the spirit while we taught her.  She prayed about the Book of Mormon last week and she says she had a very special feeling and that she believes it's true as well. She is training to be a legitimate ballerina and she was an actress for some famous TV show. She is completely golden.

I don't have a ton of time today and I forgot my list of stuff I wanted to write you all about, so I will add it next week. I am off to play dodgeball. I love you all!

Elder Goodwin