12.27.13

Hey this email will be pretty short cause I already talked to you. But, I just wanted to say that I LOVED everything in that package. So thank you all very much. 

 

It was really good to talk to you! Kind of weird cause I know I will be seeing you in person in just a few weeks. I think that knowledge made it a bit less exciting than usual. haha. 

 

Christmas here was great. The ward gave us loads of presents. I think like 80 percent of the presents we received were chocolates. So, hopefully I don't get fat again right before I go home. I would only need to gain 35 pounds in 10 weeks to be the same weight I was when I left. ha!

 

We haven't seen any investigators yet cause they all left for the holidays, but Neil should be back today or tomorrow and we're excited to see him again. 

 

We were allowed to watch pg movies again on boxing day so a less active family invited us over. They are called the Brysons. It's pretty neat that they invited us over cause when we first started teaching them they were really quiet and hard to teach, but we've been able to gain a great relationship with them and now we are all best friends. It was a fun day. 

 

I love you all! 

Elder Goodwin

12.16.13

First things first. Here's the google+ plans for Christmas day. 

I will be calling at 3:00 here which is 8:00am in Utah. Let me know if that won't work, cause it's pretty flexible. Any of you that want to go can. 

Here's what happened this past week.

We had the ward Christmas social on Saturday and it was really nice. They did a nativity play and we all sang Christmas carols together. Plus, Neil came and so did a less active woman named Gail that we've been teaching. They also both came to church on Sunday. Pretty dang neat considering Gail hasn't been to church in over 30 years. I will tell you how this so called Christmas Social took a turn for the worse. 

After we sang carols, we all gathered in the cultural hall to eat some soup and watch some dancing. The dancers were these Spanish girls, but one of them wasn't a member. One of them is in our ward though and she volunteered to do it. The first dance was a nice, family friendly, cultural dance. But, then the second dancer got on stage wearing a pretty inappropriate outfit and started doing some even more inappropriate dancing. Right in front of the whole ward! ha! The song she was dancing too had tons of bass and nobody knew where to look. Elder Stringer and I were just staring at our tables, not knowing where to look, but eventually we got up and left. It was probably the most awkward situation ever because everyone was staring at us, laughing their heads off cause they knew that we had no idea what to do. Then, Bishop Moffett had this disgusted look on his face while she was dancing, but he didn't know what to do either. The girl was a non member, so it was just a normal dance to her. hahah. All the old guys in the ward were mind blown. 

Saturday night was the worst night of my mission and I will tell you why. Earlier on in the day, all the electricity in the flat shut off in the middle of Elder Stringers shower. We thought we must have run out of credit because we have pay as you go electricity. So, we went to the shops to buy more electricity, but it still wouldn't turn back on. We called our landlord over and he brought an electrician over, but they couldn't figure it out either. So, we had absolutely no power that day and most of Sunday. That would have been fine with me, except little did we know that our security system goes haywire without electricity. So, we went to bed and we were fast asleep by 10:30. At about 11:30 we were rudely awakened by our burglar alarm going off full bore all throughout the flat. It was so dang loud and it nearly shattered all my nerves. Me and Elder Stringer both shot out of bed and started running around the flat, but we both had no idea where we were or how we got out of bed because it was so startling. Anyway after we got our bearings again and checked for burglars, we got it turned off and went back to bed thinking all was well. Then at about 1:15 the same thing happened and it blew our minds again. But, this time, we couldn't shut off the alarm because the keypad was out of battery. So we just sat on the couch staring at the wall while our alarm was blaring in our ears. We couldn't do anything about it because our landlords phone was out of battery and all the electricians were closed for the night.  It finally turned itself off after about 20 minutes. Then, the same thing happened at 3:30 and it blew our minds yet again and went off for about 20 more minutes before it stopped. Then I got a bad stomach cramp because of a spicy burrito I ate the day before and that kept me away from my bed for a solid hour. Well, that stupid alarm was still going off when we left for church. What was awful is that I had to give a talk in church after all that. I was so tired. haha!

Neil is still hanging in there. It's been really amazing to watch him make all these changes in his life and it's so obvious to see the person he is becoming. We have a great friendship with him and he has really learned how to rely on prayers. We asked him to pray about a date to be baptised and he chose the 12th of January because that is his birthday. And it also happens to be one day after my birthday! We are excited and we really have faith that he will make it. 

We saw an amazing miracle this week. We've been teaching a guy named Mark lately. He never let's us come into his house, but we've had 3 different 30 minute lessons on his doorstep. We gave him a Book of Mormon about a month ago and he's been reading it ever since. At first, he was always just reading it to gain information because he was curious, but it's changed. We usually go try by his house on Saturdays, but we didn't have time this past Saturday, so we were just going to leave it until next week. We didn't think he would mind because he usually doesn't seem too interested. But, on Saturday night we got this text from him.

 "I'm out delivering presents tonight to friends and family in case your thinking of calling, but I would like to arrange to meet up for an hour or so just to go over what I have read so far, some good reading mate, very spiritual can't seem to put it down at the minute even downloaded it on my phone so I can read it on the move."

 We were so happy to get that text that we stopped walking and said a prayer of gratitude to thank our Father in Heaven for that miracle. He is probably one of my favourite people to teach on my whole mission. He's a construction worker and he loves weight lifting so we talk about that sometimes. But, he really loves his family. He's got a wife and some young children. 

Well, I love you all so much. I would send you some pictures, but my camera is out of battery and I forgot to charge it. I'm excited to see your faces at Christmas! Remember the Saviour in everything! 

Elder Goodwin

12.09.13

Me and Elder Snowden - one of my good mission friends. He's finishing his mission and going home on Wednesday. His group is awesome and I'll miss them all. 

 

Hey everyone. This has been a pretty dang eventful week.

 

First things first. If you want to send me a package you can send it to this address 

 

C/O Belfast FMGroup

28-32 Annadale Avenue

Belfast BT7 3JJ

NI, UK

 

That is the address for all the missionaries in the Belfast Zone. The senior couple there collects the packages and delivers them to us whenever they get there. If you sent it to my flat, that is also fine.  

 

To start off I will tell you of the trunky email I just received from the mission home. The subject line says "Can you believe it!?" and then the rest of the email talks about how it's time to start thinking about coming home. Anyway, they want to know which airport I want as my final destination. So what think ye?
 

Moves call has happened again and to my great relief, Elder Stringer and I will both be staying. I'm pretty happy about that because it means that we will both be here for Christmas now and we will get to spend it with the members that we've grown close to over the past few months. We already have a dinner appointment for Christmas and a place to skype, so it should be awesome. Don't have exact skype times yet though. Sorry ..
 

Before this next paragraph I'm going to explain what airsoft is so that all the old people reading this don't get too confused. Airsoft guns look like real guns, but they only shoot out small plastic BB's and they only shoot at about 300 FPS. Usually powered by rechargeable batteries. Airsofting is when you take airsoft guns and go to a special course to shoot each other. It's like a battle where nobody get's injured or anything. 

 

I would dare say that most missionaries don't get the chance to go airsofting while on their missions. Except for Elder Stringer and Elder Goodwin. It's not as foolish as it sounds though, let me explain. So, we are teaching a Less Active man named Russel B, but his 16 year old son Carter is not a member, so we have been trying hard to teach him as well. We finally had a good chat with him and he mentioned that he LOVES airsoft. He even has his own guns and gear. We went straight to the Young Men President and asked him to arrange a YM airsoft activity and he did within a few days. Our Ward Mission Leader kept begging us to ask for permission to come as well because he felt strongly that Carter would start listening in on our discussions if he felt more comfortable with us. So, we called our leaders at his request and we were expecting an abrupt "NO", but instead we got just the opposite. It was a blast too. Carter loved it and now he is coming to more activities and will hopefully come out to church soon. Elder Stringer and I didn't realize just how painful these little BB's can be so we were only wearing thin sweaters and we ended up with tons of welts all over us. haha! They rented us AK 47 airsoft guns that hold 600 BB's. The guns were semi automatic so you only had to cock them once the whole time. Awesome stuff.
 

On Saturday, we were walking up this road that is pretty ghetto. Everytime we walk by this road the bins are always knocked over and there is trash everywhere. We always figured it must be some drunk college kids that knock all the bins over cause it's right by Belfast University. Well, lo and behold, we were right. AND we were lucky enough to run into all the drunk kids in the act of knocking the bins over. ha! There were like 15 guys and they were all so wasted. Just staggering around with tons of alcohol in their hands. Anyway, they stopped us and started having an absurd conversation about Noah's Ark and then all of the sudden one guy just starts peeing on a nearby door - while continuing to talk to us like it's a normal thing. This guy must have drank about 100 gallons cause he was peeing for like a solid minute. And we couldn't really get by so we just stood there awkwardly and waited for them to leave. haha! It was hilarious. They were pretty friendly in their drunken state.
 

Neil is still working on things. He's going home for a week during Christmas and he is really nervous about that because he's trying to do better at the Word of Wisdom. Drinking is a huge tradition here for every single holiday, so it's really hard for people to stay strong sometimes. Neil's family loves to do all things that the Word of Wisdom counsels us not to do. We've been teaching him about overcoming temptation with prayer and we are going to teach him the 12 step stop smoking program soon. We invited him to look at a calendar and pray about a date that he will be ready for baptism by, so we'll see how that went.
 

A woman in the ward is going to teach us how to make some delicious curry this week, so I will blow all of your minds with my Indian food cooking abilities when I get home. I love curry. Do we even have that in America?
 

I love you all so much. I will attach some awesome pictures too. If I can find some. 

Elder Goodwin

12.02.13

Stag onesie I bought for £7.  (Onesies are like the cool things for missionaries to have now days for some reason.)  They are way comfortable though. 

Away in a Manger

Belfast City Hall

Well, sadly, Neil probably won't make his baptismal date for this Saturday. He still has to overcome some bits of the Word of Wisdom, but he is going stronger and stronger everyday. He loves learning and feels the spirit so strong when we teach. Plus, he has developed friendships with pretty much the whole ward, so we don't really have to do much when he comes to church on Sundays cause other people are always talking to him. It's awesome! We are going to go look around the shops in city centre with him today to help him keep his mind off temptations. 

In other news, we had an awesome stake nativity thingmie. Everyone who wanted to participate set up their nativities all over the church. All the girls in the family would have loved it. Nativities everywhere. I got kind of bored. haha. But, everyone else seemed to be over the moon with looking at nativities for hours on end. Then, they had all the missionaries do a wee concert. All we had to do was sing 6 Christmas songs from the hymn book. I played the piano and did alright if I do say so myself. Except on the last song cause I got complacent and then panicked when I messed up which caused me to mess up a few more times. But, I pulled my act together and finished strong. ha! Lots of people brought their friends and non member family so it was really successful. There were over 100 people in attendance each night. They even had a room for little kids to listen to stories, dress up for the nativity, and make stuff. We may or may not have gone into the story telling room to listen to an old lady tell little kids stories. Alright we did and it was awesome. 

Thanksgiving wasn't too special, to say the least. We did end up getting a dinnger appointment, but they didn't know it was thanksgiving. Don't worry though! On sunday, some members who lived in America for a few years invited us over to have a true Thanksgiving feast and it was glorious. They made all the American things they could with the ingredients they had. Rolls, turkey, ham, stuffing, weird pudding stuff, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes and the list goes on. I loved it even though we ate so much that it was painful to walk the rest of the night. ha! I won't lie, I do get a wee bit "trunky" during Thanksgiving. You don't know how awesome our family gatherings are until you can't go to them for awhile. They really are some epic times. Anyway, I'm pretty glad that I won't have to miss anymore Thanksgivings. haha. 

I know you are all wondering what Christmas is like over here so I will tell you. It's pretty similar with things like Santa, presents, Christmas trees and stuff like that. But, everything is on a much smaller scale than in America. Barely anyone puts up Christmas lights, but the feeling of Christmas is definitely here. Plus, it's not your typical Christmas weather. It's just rainy and cold as usual. haha. Everything is smaller because this is just a much smaller place. All the cities were built like a thousand years ago, so they aren't made to have big cars and trucks driving around them or massive building like America. They have to make do with what they have. So, the houses, cars, and buildings are all smaller. Except castles and stuff. 

This Thursday marks exactly 3 months left on my mission, but it also marks exactly 3 months since Elder Stringer left on his mission. We both think that's pretty funny so we will go eat somewhere cool. It's weird how fast time keeps on going. 3 months still feels like quite awhile, which is a good thing. That means I won't be trunky. No matter how long you've been on a mission or how long you have left, it still seems like there's 2 years left. It's just a weird missionary mindset that only missionaries will understand. Missionary life has become my everyday norm and it just feels like that won't change. Well, I will stop ranting now.  ..  hah

I love you and hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season cause it's a great season. Remember the real reason! 

Elder Goodwin