07.16.12

Family,

 

Moves call is officially in! I am pretty surprised at what is happening. Elder Vollheim is moving to Scotland to finish off his mission and I will be staying in Coleraine. Ha that is pretty much the exact opposite of what we thought was gonna happen. I will be serving with Elder Barney. He is from Provo and I've actually already met him a few times at Zone Conferences and I really liked him. So, I am pretty excited to serve with him. I think we will work well together. I am a bit sad that Elder Vollheim is moving though. It will be weird being in Coleraine without him. That is one thing you learn on a mission though, how to handle change. haha. President Brown is dominating though. He changed a ton of people and even made some new districts. He is just dominating. So now Coleraine is no longer in the district with Derry and Omagh. The new district is just Coleraine and Antrim. Pretty crazy.

 

The 12th was pretty good. I didn't get to see anything epic though, because we were ordered not to leave the flat on the evening of the 11th and then we had to stay in the flat all day on the 12th. Presidents orders. hah. So I didn't get to march around town with any Mormons or cause any riots haha. The night of the 10th was awesome though. They had a fireworks show right across the river from our flat, so we got to see the whole thing firsthand. I took some pretty sweet pictures. I am pretty happy that I can say that I was in Northern Ireland on the 12th. I was sick on the 11th and 12th anyway so it was probably best that we stayed inside. I feel good now.

 

Due to the fact that we had a few days where we couldn't do too much, this week wasn't the most productive. We did get to see a bunch of less active members and we found a couple more potential investigators. I went on my last exchange with the Zone Leaders on Saturday. I went with Elder Stoica. He is from Romania and is maybe 5 ft tall haha. He is soo little. We did some service at MB's and went visiting all the less actives later. It was a really good day. We had a few of the less actives we have been working with at church again, so that is good too.

 

I gave a talk in church yesterday about the bible. That is definitely not my strong point but I tried my best. I talked about the story of David and Goliath and how we should trust the Lord. I will share more about it next week because I don't have any more time today.

 

I am also gonna upload a bunch of pictures from the past week. I don't have much more time so this email is kind of short. I will write you a long one next week though. I sure do love you all and I appreciate all your encouragement and support. I love you.

 

Elder Goodwin

07.09.12



Chillin' in the grass.




Garvagh Pyramid hero shot.




Last Zone Conference with President & Sister Griffiths.




Riding on the bus in Belfast.



Straight up "Karate Kid" status epic picture.



Drinking from a fountain in the streets while tracting.  It is direct spring water.



Family,

 

I attached a hero shot to this email because it is so epic. Straight up Karate kid status. I also uploaded like 44 pictures to Walgreens.com.

 

Yesterday we got to eat dinner with the Kellys out in the country side. It was pretty awesome, Brother Kelly just sat and told me war stories the whole time. He has some pretty epic war stories. I will tell them to you all someday haha. He was in the army in Belfast during the troubles and he's been just about everywhere else. He served in the army longer than any other veteran in Northern Ireland. He is just epic. Plus, his wife knew Liam Neeson when they were little.

 

It's been fairly nice weather lately. It's cloudy, but it's more humid than usual so it's pretty warm. We didn't even have to wear our suit jackets one day. I love when we don't have to wear suit jackets.

 

I looked into getting a fishing license and I found out that they are £42 plus £17 pounds to use a rod! Out of control! I heard that you can catch eels in there though and I think that would be pretty awesome. Too bad we can't have pets haha. 1 pound is equal to about 1.50 in american dollars so I have to remember that I am always spending more than I think. I barely ever spend my own money though. Only if I buy a sick jersey or something.

 

We weren't able to meet with the man from Batswana this week because he was out of town, but he says we can come over this week. I am excited to meet with him again because I think he is very promising. We also found a couple of other potentials so hopefully they will be good too.

 

Mark, the guy who wants to come back to church, has now been to church twice! One of our members gave him a suit to wear and everything. He is pretty excited to be back and we are trying to help him quite smoking. He really wants to stop and I think he will. Next week, he is even going to bring one of his non-member friends to church with him! I am way pumped about that. We also had a less active family at church that haven't been for years. They are epic though. They all just sit around playing xbox all day. He always talks to me about how I should get a job in a mine at Australia when I go home because you make like 250 thousand dollars a year there. Sounds good to me haha.

 

We even got a less active guy to come out teaching in Port Rush with us. It's pretty funny that he doesn't usuallly go to church, but he is willing to go out teaching with the missionaries haha. He is also coming to church now too though. I love working with less active members. I think they just need to be reminded of the Saviors love for them and they just need a friend to talk to.

 

The bonfires hear are getting massive. I took some pictures of a couple of them and uploaded them. They have people camping in trailers by them to make sure that nobody lights them early. It's funny to go to different neighborhoods. You can instantly tell if they are Protestant or Catholic because they will have flags hanging EVERYWHERE. I am sad I missed all the 4th traditions though, but I get to see the 12th now. I keep telling all the members that we should put together a Mormon parade and march around town in the Catholic or Protestand neighborhoods, but they don't think it's a good idea haha. The parades supposedly have thousands of people marching in them.  

 

I got to meet President Brown on Thursday! He is such a nice genuine man and he has an awesome scottish accent. I am way excited to have him as my mission president. We met them in Belfast and had interviews with him, then they showed us a movie they made about their family. He was a Patriarch before he got called to be a mission President. He said that one day they told him he was no longer an active patriarch and he thought he had done something wrong. Then about a year after that, out of the blue, he got the oppurtunity to sell his business for a lot of money. He knew that the Lord must have something in store for him and the next year, he got called to be the mission president. During our interview I talked about how I was nervous to come on a mission and he talked about how nervous/scared he was when he got called to be mission president and how he still is nervous. We talked about how no matter what happens, the Lord will always be there to help us and we need not fear. He is just a normal, down to earth guy and I really respect that.

 

I love you all and miss you all. I hope everything is going good for you and I pray for you all. I love you. Have a happy 12th of July. Get some Mormons together and march around Cedar City haha.

 

Elder Goodwin

07.02.12

Yo family;

 

It was a pretty good week. We found a new investigator and we did some service. We had 4 less active members at church that haven't attended in a long time, some of them even years.

 

Our new investigator is the African man from Batswana. We met with him on Friday and had a good visit. He didn't let us talk much though haha. He even has a little family. His main concern is why God lets so much suffering happen in the world. He talked about all the bad things he had to see in Batswana. He said he saw more death there in 1 year then he has ever seen in 7 years here. The rest of his family still lives in Africa and he is scared to answer his phone sometimes, because he thinks they might be calling to let him know someone else in his family has died. He really liked what we said, and we are going over there again on Tuesday.

 

It's been hard to get appointments with people lately, because the Euro Cup tournament has been going on. I don't even know if that is what it is called haha. But people here LOVE football (soccer). All I know is that Spain won the championship and the tournament is over now, so that is good haha. THere have been a ton of people/tourists around because of the Irish Open in Port Rush. We went there to see a guy and it was packed. I want to go golf there so I can say I golfed where the Irish Open was haha.

 

I am sad that I am going to miss the 4th of July celebrations! Someone needs to take over my responsibility of making some homemade bombs or buying some illegal fireworks to light off. Just drive down to The valley of fire and buy some haha. I think I actually had some left over from last year behind my door. You can light those off too. I will get to see the 12th of July over here though. It is supposedly pretty crazy. There are a ton of huge bonfires all over town. They just keep getting bigger. There are thousands of palets and chairs and desks and anything they can possibly burn on those fires haha. There are so many different flags hanging EVERYWHERE. The different neighborhoods hang different flags though, depending on whether they are Protestant or Catholic ha. 

 

I got to eat dinner at a blind guys house while I was on exchanges in Omagh. His wife cooked the food, but he usually does the cooking. Everyone says he makes some delicious food though. He just walks around the house and does everything normal even though he is completely blind. He went blind in one eye because he got kicked in the head during a soccer game and the other eye went blind a few years later due to a stroke. We had some good food, but I discovered that I don't like rice pudding at all. Don't worry I ate it anyway haha. I really do like potatoes now though. It's weird ha. The potatoes here are really small compared to the ones in the states. They are about the size of eggs.

 

While we were walking around, we ran into a guy who joined the Church here 20 years ago and he wants to start going again. He came to church on Sunday. He has a crazy life story though. When he was around 20, he had to jump out of a 4th story window because his apartment caught on fire. He completely shattered his feet and legs in the fall and had to be in a wheel chair for 4 years. He can walk now though, which is amazing. He showed us his feet and they are like nothing I've ever seen. Worse than Bryces. hahaha. Anyway his feet just look like a jumble of bone fragments smashed together. It's crazy. He also got a beer bottle punched into his mouth once, so he is missing some teeth.

 

We got to do some service for MB again this week. I'm sure you all saw the picture BB sent. It was soooo rainy all day. I just shoveled dirt into a wheel barrow for a few hours. It was way nice to do some good physical labor. I will upload the pictures of what we did though. MB also took us to see the Garvagh Pyramid. It's in this little forest and it is pretty epic. I got some good hero shots by it hah. Everything here is so green.

 

It has been quite some time since I have seen the sun hah. It has been raining pretty much all the time. I only saw a hint of blue sky for a few minutes a couple days ago. haha but that is typical Irish weather. It stays bright outside so long though. There are only a few hours of darkness every night.

 

This week, we were at a less active guys house and he was telling us how he is good at cutting hair. So, I told him to cut my hair and he said he would hha. I'm not going to lie, it was probably the worst haircut I have ever gotten haha. He just straight up took a trimmer to the sides and didn't cut the top at all. He thought it looked way good, so I just said thanks and acted casual until we got to the flat. I will upload some pictures because it was pretty funny. Elder Vollheim managed to fix it when we got back though, luckily.

 

Well, I can't send any pictures because my camera is out of battery. That frustrates me greatly. I will upload like 50 next week though. I love you all and hope everything is going good. 

 

Elder Goodwin

06.26.12

Family;

 

I can't believe I have been gone nearly 3 months! Time really does fly. I feel like I just barely went to the MTC yesterday.

 

Last Tuesday was the last time we will see President Griffiths. He goes home this week. After the Zone Conference in Belfast, him and his wife gave all of us hugs as we left. She dominated and said we had to hug her because she was going home haha. It was a good Zone Conference though.

 

We have a new trainee in the District now and I am pretty excited. I always tell him that I have less time left than him haha. It's nice to be able to say that to someone. He came with me to Coleraine on exchanges though and we got 5 new potential investigators. It was probably the worst weather I have seen that day. People were saying that it rained a months worth of rain in a couple hours. Which is crazy, especially for Ireland. The streets were flooding and stuff. We had to go back to the flat 3 times to dry our clothes and put on new socks haha. Elder Rawlinson's mind was boggled. His area is a car area so that is the first time he had to walk. And we walked ALOT. haha.

 

We also went to Giants Causeway again so I will upload some pictures of that next week cause I forgot my camera. I don't have much time today either, so my letter will be kind of short.

 

The weather here is soo random. It's sunny and then the next minute it's rainy and cold and visa versa. haha. We also only get a few hours of darkness everyday. I don't think it gets dark until like 11 30 or 12. When I wake up randomly in the night, it's already completely light again by 5.

 

Elder Vollheim gave me a haircut a couple week ago and he actually did a pretty good job ha. I was nervous cause I'm pretty OCD about my hair being even, but he ended up doing it good. I just figured I would tell you that because I forgot. He also drew me some epic pictures. I will also upload those next week. He is way good at drawing though.

 

Once of the potentials we found is an African man from Batswana. It was the last house we tracted. He said about 8 years ago while he was still in Batswana, he met some missionary's and they gave him a Book of Mormon. He read it and even went to church a couple times. He is excited to start meeting with us again. I really think he will be solid. He has a little family and everything.

 

The Protestants and Catholics are funny here. They have been fighting each other for years, and they still hate each other. All the schools and everything are segregated into Catholic schools and Protestant schools. People are stunned when they find out there are other religions besides Catholic and Protestant haha. They sometimes ask if we are Protestant Mormons or Catholic Mormons. haha.

 

I love you all and hope everything is going good for you.

 

Elder Goodwin

06.18.12



The start of one of the MANY giant bonfires getting built for the 12th of July. This one is in a Protestant neighborhood I think.



...THE WAVE...

Family;

 

This week, I had to go to the SMART start. That is where all the trainees and their trainers meet up with President Griffiths and the APs and they make us do role plays to make sure that we are learning what we are supposed too. You know me, I just love doing role plays. Actually, I don't. haha. I am getting better at them now because I can see how helpful they are when you do them correctly. I felt a little bit like I was attending drama or something the first few role plays I did in the MTC though. haha. But, the APs were very impressed with how I handled everything and how I taught.

 

The fires goin on around Utah sound way bad. People here have even heard about it on the news or in the papers. Hopefully, they will be able to get them all under control.

 

The sun has officially disappeared for awhile here. Everyone says that those couple weeks of sun, might be the only sun we get for the summer haha. That's ok though, because I get sun burned easy anyway. I actually think the weather here is really good, even when it's raining. The only time it actually gets cold is when it's windy. Our mission leader is always talking about needing to get a tan and it's hilarious because he is black. So whenever we visit him, I tell him that we should just go outside so he can get a tan. He thinks it is pretty funny. haha

 

We had some more less actives at church yesterday! I can really tell that all the work we have been doing with them is paying off.  We had to drop our investigator though, because of some different things. Hopefully we can find some more investigators this week.

 

I have been playing the piano a lot lately. For some reason, it blows peoples minds that I can play the piano. haha because usually guys can't play the piano here. I usually play in priesthood and then we go to one of the less active members house and I play some hymns for him. Everytime I walk in, he just asks me to play a wee bit of piano haha. I uploaded a picture to walgreens of me playing in his house.

 

I'm telling you, one of the people we see acts EXACTLY like Hal. It's crazy how similar they are.

 

A couple weeks ago, I bought a gold club for 6 pounds at a shop. So naturally, I went out in back of the flat and hit rocks into the river with it. It was so epic. I uploaded some pictures so that you can see how awesome it is. We also got a bunch of old wooden golf clubs and golf balls from a guy named Davie, because we helped him clean out his shed, and he didn't want them anymore.

 

Word on the street is that you don't have to have a license to fish in The River Bann, which is in our backyard. I am thinking about buying a cheap fishing pole and just fishing there on p-day. That would be pretty awesome. I even got permission from the Zone Leaders. ha I heard that most of the fish by the shore are nasty and worthless, but I don't care because I'm not going to eat them. I just want to say that I caught some in the backyard haha.

 

Last week was the best food week I've had. We got to go to a Chines Buffet after district meeting, then we went to burger king after the smart start. I love burger king. I got a supersized meal and president Griffiths paid for it. Everyone is always talking about how cheap fast food is in America. They always get so jealous when I tell them about the dollar menus.

 

Shennie sent me that picture of Dad fighting a fire, and I showed it to everyone we taught yesterday. They all thought it was the coolest picture they have ever seen, especially since it was Fathers Day.

 

There are huge bonfires getting built everywhere here. They are getting them ready for the 12th of July. That is supposedly the craziest holiday around. People just stay drunk for like 3 days and they have massive band parades and bonfires. The Protestants and Catholics have different parades that are supposed to be on different sides of town, but in cities like Belfast they usually just march wherever they want anyway, which causes problems haha. I am excited to see what that will be like. Those bonfires are incredible. They are soo massive, and they are just getting started! I uploaded a picture of the beginning of one of the smaller ones.

 

Surprisingly, I am starting to like potatos more and more. haha but they are still definitely not my favorite food. Yesterday, a member made us dinner. She made roast beef with fried onions and potatos and carrots/peas. I actually really liked it, except for the peas haha. I also made us some spaghetti with meat sauce or spaghettie balognaise as everyone else calls it. It was easier than I thought haha.

 

I love studying the Book of Mormon every morning. It is dominant. I always highlight things and make them into little lessons that I can give to members or less actives. My favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon is Alma 44. It is just has so many awesome quotes and verses.  Doctrine and Covenants is also pretty epic. Personal study is one of my favorite times of the day. 

 

Well I hope things keep going well for all of you in Cedar City. I love all of you more than words can express.

 

Elder Goodwin

06.11.12

Party goin on across the river. Also where the olympic torch passed through.

Family!

 

Happy fathers day to Dad! I hope you have a great fathers day because you deserve it. Also, Happy Birthday to Tim and Haze!

 

These last few days have been pretty good. Not too much has happened here. Just the usual, eating some potatoes and other miscellaneous vegetables and spreading the Gospel haha.

 

A is pretty much dropped, which is too bad. He won't answer our calls and he won't answer his door. I think he is embarrassed because we saw him in the street a couple days ago and talked to him, but he was WAY drunk. Hopefully, he will let us teach him this week.

 

One of the youth in the ward had to give a talk on Sunday. He went up there and just said, well I forgot about this talk until 3 minutes ago. Then he talked about how him and his dad boxed for young mens once and sat down. hahaha I thought it was so classic.

 

Last week, we did service for a guy named LK. We tore down a wall so he could have more room to his driveway. He is an epic man. He used to be a paratrooper in the army, then he was a member of the SAS, and then up until a few years ago, he worked for the Secret Service. He likes me a lot for some reason, and everytime we are there he takes me inside and makes me look at all his old pictures of him in the service. haha They are some pretty awesome pictures though. He is pretty hardcore, but now he can barely walk. He is getting old and now all his injuries are starting to catch up with him. He is awesome though. He always wears his secret service pin to church. He is actually on the IRA hit list so he has to live outside of town. haha.

 

Everyone keeps asking what an average day is like here, so I will explain it now.

 

We get up at 6 30 and exercise/shower/ and eat breakfast. For exercise I either do 220+ pushups in sets of 40, or 6 by 12 dumbell curls depending on the day. Then we study from 8-11, but then Elder Vollheim has to study for 30 more minutes because he is District Leader. I hate being trapped inside hah.  After that, we eat lunch. Then we either go to our appointments or GQ or tract until dinner. Then after dinner, we do the same thing. We usually walk really far because everyone lives in different areas. I love walking and being outside though. Sometimes we get members to take us around to the smaller towns that we can't walk to, to see less active members. It's pretty fun. We go back to the flat at 9, do our planning, and then go to bed at 10:30. I usually do some more pushups or curls at like 10.

 

I also wanted to tell  you some funny things that Irish people say, besides aye. When they don't want to do something they just say, "I can't be bothered." haha I think it's hilarious because EVERYONE says that. Another thing they say is "wee." It means small and they say it all the time. If someone has a cute little kid ladies will walk up and tell them that their kid is a wee pet. Which means really cute haha.  Foods usually have different names as well, but I'm not going to write all those because there are too many. I love the accent here, but I'm starting to not even notice it. They also say "so I did" or "so I am" after everything. IE they will say, "I'm going to the store, so I am." or, "I went to the store, so I did." I always laugh when they say these funny phrases.

 

Well, I am going to upload some pictures to walgreens now, so I will get this sent. I love you all and pray for you. I can truly feel the spirit out here and I know this is where I should be. I love you.

 

Elder Goodwin

06.06.12

Walking trail outside our flat.

I am writing my email today, because the past few days were bank holidays. I am not sure what that even means, but they randomly have days off where all the banks, libraries and most stores are closed. There were just people partying all over the place. It was also a holiday because the olympic torch came through Coleraine on Monday. We didn't get to see it, but the party for it was going on directly across the river from our flat.

 

Thats pretty awesome that Connor got his call to Argentina. I think Andrew Wilson is there, but I'm not positive. He will be surrounded by small latinos haha.

 

It has been WAY nice these last couple weeks. We didn't have to wear our suits most of the days, just our slacks and white shirt. I even got to wear my short sleeved shirts. Unless it's warm and not raining, we have to wear suits. It was such good weather, I even got sunburned. It got up to like 85 farenheit one day. It's pretty rainy today though. The weather here is way random hah.

 

We walk a ton here. We don't have a car or anything, so we walk EVERYWHERE. I actually enjoy it though, especially when it's not raining haha. I think our area could really use a car because we cover a few different towns, but we can't get anywhere except Coleraine. Gas is just too expensive here though. USA drivers license's are valid for a year here, so we don't have to get new ones. We just renew our licenses after a year.

 

Everyone is getting pretty excited about the olympics being here. They have a giant outdoor TV in Belfast with a countdown for the Olympics. We were there for Zone Conference and got to see it. There are olympic souvenirs in almost every store. Belfast actually isn't that dangerous anymore. I would say the place where fools still fight about religion the most is London Derry. They even fight about the name. Catholics call it Derry and Protestants call it London Derry. So on signs and stuff it says London Derry/Derry. haha that is also why they built the peace bridge, to symbolize peace between the protestants and catholics, but everyone thinks it's foolish. Sometimes we go to our mission leaders house and tell him we love the rangers (the main protestant team) and his non member wife gets mad at us because she is Catholic haha. It gets INTENSE when the Rangers and the Celtics ( the catholic team) place each other. After the game, there will be drunk people celebrating for days in the streets. haha I love watching drunk people walk around. It is a classic sight here, especially on Saturdays.

 

This week has been pretty good though. We are really starting to see some good results of the fast everyone is doing. We had 6 less actives at church and we found a new investigator. He also came to church. It is really good for the branch to see new faces at church because there hasn't been much happening here in years. It was fast Sunday, so all the member talked about there conversion in their testimonies. It was way good, and our investigator said he wants to go next week too. His name is Aiden. He actually found us on the street. He is a pretty bad alcoholic, but he really wants to change. I would say that is the number 1 problem for people over here. Alcohol. We had a lesson with him on Saturday and he came to church on Sunday, which is pretty amazing. We brought Norman (our mission leader) with us because he had a huge problem with alcohol before he met the missionaries. He helped the lesson SO much. It went very well.

 

We got to go out to dinner last night. It was epic, we went to a place called Pizza Pomodoros. I got the meat feast pizza and it was delicious. A family named the Kilgors took us and paid for us. Our meals uaually include barbequed chicken, sandwiches, frozen pizza or hot and spicy chicken, so it was a good change of menu haha. I don't mind those other foods though, I actually really enjoy them usually. I haven't had any really gross food except for that awful polish soup. Polish soup is of the devil haha.

 

Well, I really do love you all and thank you for your letters, prayers and support. I hope you all have a good week. I pray for you all. I love you.

 

Elder Goodwin