07.08.13

This is me and my English companion (Elder Topp) on the 4th. 

Listen up! This is how the week went down. 

The 4th of July was epic. Not really because nobody celebrated it and my English companion was annoyed by it. haha! That didn't stop me from doing a bit of celebration though. I put up some decorations that Shennie sent me and we were gonna have a barbecue. But, in the end, we just went to pizza hut buffet with some other missionaries cause we couldn't be bothered cooking anything and we only have an hour for lunch. I took a really funny picture with Elder Topp that I will attach to this email. 

We had a mission leadership council last week and for the first time ever, there was sister leadership there. It was pretty cool and they helped a lot. They are called Sister Training leaders. There are only 2 of them in the mission right now, but there will be a couple more soon. I think it's a good thing, but it means that sisters will aspire more now. There are so many Elders who aspire for leadership a ton and it annoys the heck out of me. That is one of the things that annoys me the most in fact. People brown nosing with the hope that they will get leadership. I will stop ranting about that now. 

We are teaching an African man named Lambert right now. He has two young kids and a wife. He has been getting taught for awhile, but in our last lesson, he really opened up. He said he has been offered jobs as a pastor in some African churches recently. Just so you all know, in African culture, being a religious leader is like the most sought after thing for them. He said he prayed about whether he should take the jobs, but he keeps getting strong impressions and dreams that the only place he will find peace for him and his family is in this church. The only problem now is that his wife doesn't want to listen very much. We are looking for a good fellow shipper for her, so hopefully that will get her more interested. 

We taught Natasha again yesterday, and again, she received a very strong answer to her prayer about whether or not she should be baptised. She feels very strongly that she should. Now all that is left is for her to pick a date for the baptism. We are going to church where she lives next week (Oban) so that should help. It's like a 2 hour drive up into the highlands. I'm pretty excited. 

Other than that, not too much. I've been attacked by the insane young children of many less active members, but that's nothing new. I love you all so much! 

Elder Goodwin