01.27.14

On the ferry almost in Scotland. It was way windy and cold.

Elder Dickinson and I

Last FHE with the motley crew in Belfast

 

Hey so I'm in Perth now and it's pretty great. I left Belfast on the ferry at 6:30am last Wednesday and finally arrived in Perth at 9:00pm. So, it was a long day of travel. And here is my new address. Feel free to send me all types of awesome stuff. Even though I will see you face to face in 5 weeks.

 

85 E. Dunkeld Road

Perth PH1 5RJ

SCT, UK

 

Perth is really pretty. There is a river that runs through it called the River Tay and it's beautiful. This is the furthest north I've been in Scotland, so I'm enjoying it. The branch has about 25 - 30 active members and almost all of them are old, which is fine with me cause I absolutely love old people. I think they are legends and they always have awesome experiences to share. Plus, they've been through so much that they have cool personalities. It's sad though, cause the branch is so old, that they might have to take out the extra set of missionaries in the next transfer or two if nothing happens. Yet another reason to try our very best to help this Branch. I haven't managed to take any pictures of the area yet, but i definitely will this week so you can all see.

 

One of the cool old guys here is named Tom R. He's 88 years old, but he only got baptised 2.5 years ago. He's so cool. He just speaks out loud during the church services- for example, if someone speaking says anything he likes, he says, "That's Good" out loud. He has a really cool accent as well cause he used to be a skipper on a fishing boat back in his day. He still struggles with swearing too much. ha! While we were at his house, he told us a bunch of epic fishing stories.

 

My companion is Elder Dickinson and he's from Nottingham in England. He's a hard worker and we're enjoying our time together so far. I'm glad that he works hard willingly cause that means we will be able to accomplish alot in my last five weeks. I will attach a picture of him in this emai. He looks very English.

 

We've been hitting the streets and trying to find a bunch of new investigators and we've had some fair success. Yesterday, we got a new investigator named Graham A. I've nicknamed him the king of one word answers cause he only answers with 1 words no matter what we ask him. Then he turns the tables and asks us a question. ha! He's a very clever English guy with a massive moustache and beard. We went in planning to teach him the Restoration, but we both felt it wasn't right, so we switched to the Plan of Salvation. It was obvious that he was looking for a bit of contention at first, but the Plan of Salvation completely blew his mind. It was really cool to see his reaction to this plan that he had never heard of and knew nothing about. We could feel the Spirit so we know he did as well. It was a great lesson. We're seeing him again this Friday.

 

There are no buses or bikes here so we walk everywhere we go. Everywhere. It's a good thing my legs have turned into finely tuned walking machines over the past couple years. It also helps that I like walking now. Actually, the only time I don't like walking is when it's raining. Which is unfortunate cause it rains about 80% of the time over here. ha! It's been interesting to see how much the weather affects peoples moods since I've been on a mission. If it's one of those rare sunny days, then everyone is really happy and willing to speak to us. But, if it's the usualy cloudy and rainy day, then lots of people avoid us and cross the street before we can even get near them. haha! Or one of my personal favourites - when they see us they pick up their phone and pretend like they are talking to someone, so they can't talk to us. People come up with some pretty absurd excuses it's hilarious.

 

It's very strange trying to get to know the people here. I think sometimes the members are a bit hesitant to form a good friendship cause they know I will be gone so soon. And it's also sad for me when I meet someone I really like, but I know I won't be seeing them anymore in a few weeks time. But, it's pretty awesome being in a 6 week area. I know my time is limited, so we go all out to accomplish as much as we can each day.

 

We celebrated something called Burns Night at the church on Saturday. It was in honor of Robert Burns and it was pretty fun. They made all types of Scottish food for us and we feasted. Then they read a bunch of Scottish poetry in thick highland accents and I couldn't understand a word they said. It sounded cool though. We ate tons of haggis, Scottish pancakes, scones, broths, stews, and other stuff that I can't remember the names of. We ate haggis 2 days in a row and it was delicious both times.

 

There is also a member here named Eleanor and she loves missionaries. She feeds us a five course meal every single Sunday and her food is flippin amazing. I don't think I've ever had a five course meal in my life.

 

Anyway, this email is getting pretty long. I love you all and hope you have a good week.

 

Elder Goodwin

 

01.20.14

Hey I have a ground breaking announcement to make. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I got stabbed again. Just kidding I've never been stabbed. . . on my mission. A few incidents from home come to mind though. One involves a butcher knife and a thumb.... ha! The news actually has to do with where I will be finishing the last 6 weeks of my mission. 

Sudden death moves call didn't disappoint. I thought for sure that I would  just finish my mission here cause this is my last transfer, but the Lord has other plans. I will be moving to Perth, Scotland on Wednesday morning. Elder Stringer is staying here and a new district leader is coming in to replace me. I will still be a District Leader and my companions name is Elder Dickison. He's English which is a bit concerning. haha! Anyway, from what President Brown and the Assistants said, they need some damage control done in Perth cause there is nothing happening with the work there. They asked me what I thought about the call and I was completely honest. ha! I said, "I'm unpleasantly surprised - it's going to be hard to stay motivated for 6 weeks in an area where I don't know anyone and probably won't see the fruit of a lot of my labours." Then, they sounded all nervous, but they were consoled when I told them I will still do my very best. So, that's the way the cookie crumbles with moves. I really liked this ward and I'm going to miss Elder Stringer, but look on the bright side. Now I can get a kilt if I want! ha. I will let you all know my new address as soon as possible. 

The family we were teaching found some anti-Mormon stuff somewhere so they canceled the appointment we had with them. We still have high hopes for them because we managed to text them a few scriptures and they told us we can come by this Friday. So, hopefully that goes somewhere. 

Neil is going through a really hard time in his life right now and probably won't be able to see the missionaries for at least a few weeks. So, that's what is going on with him. 

We have a legend of a member living here. Her name is Alison T. On Friday, she took us out to eat at a place called Franky and Benny's and the food was amazing. Then, she took us into this way expensive store and told us to choose some shirts. She insisted that we allow her to buy us new slim fit shirts and a new tie from this expensive place. All their clothes are made in London from the finest material possible. So, she bought us those and then she took us to another store and bought us some cuff links. I'm not even going to tell you how much she spent in total. It was pretty mind blowing and we had no idea what happened when we got onto the bus afterwards. Elder Stringer and I just looked at each other and started laughing cause it was so random and awesome. We keep trying to thank her all the time, but then she just turns the table on us and says things like, "You give up 2 years of your life to come to Ireland and tract in the rain - it's nothing for me to buy you a couple of shirts." She is so awesome. She's also the same one that threw a surprise birthday party for me. 

I'm going to miss all those I've taught here. In particular, I will miss a Less Active family named the Brysons. They are always so kind to us and they are SOO close to coming back to church. I'm sad I'm going to miss it. They made us a bunch of delicious soup to put in our fridge last week and I'm sure that thing of soup will keep the missionaries fed for weeks to come. 

Well, I love you all. Next email will be from Scotland. So far on my mission, I've been in every area for exactly 4.5 months. And everytime I've moved, I've gone to a different country and had to take the ferry. Every time. That's pretty crazy if I do say so myself. Pretty cool too. Have a great week!

Elder Goodwin

 

PS: By the way, Perth is where a couple of my ancestors are from, so that is another really neat thing about this call. Also, Sister Brown told us that Perth is the most beautiful place in Scotland. And she's lived in Scotland her whole life so she ought to know. Love ya all. 

01.13.14

Moldy soup. A member gave us some nice soup but the we accidentally left it out on the counter for about 3 weeks. It was nasty and really stinky and we didn't know what to do with it so we poured it down the gutter.

Preaching the Book of Mormon to all of Belfast. 

Absurd birthday pic.

Slim fit suit

 

Hey this Sunday will be the last moves call of my mission. I've named this moves call "sudden death" because it is the deciding factor in my place of death as a missionary. In other words, I am nearing my last transfer. 

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and packages, they were all awesome and loved. It did hinder my 6 months to sexy plan, but it's back in action now. ha! My birthday was definitely one to remember. It started out just like any other day. We went finding in the rain and what not and had some good lessons. But, then I decided to buy myself a birthday present. And by birthday present I mean a European slim fit suit. It's a pretty awesome suit and I will send a picture of it, but I still  might trade it in for a different one cause I suck at buying things and I always get buyers remorse no matter what I buy. Europeans know how to make sharp looking dress clothes though. Anyway, one of the members here - Alison Tracey - was having us over for the evening cause her husband is a non-member and she likes us to teach him. So, I thought nothing of it, but then we got there and there were a bunch of other people there and I started to get suspicious. Then, we went in the other room and they had some happy birthday banners on the wall and a bunch of food. So, I received my second ever surprise birthday party! It was amazing! Even though  I suck at handling surprises and gifts I tried my best and we all had a fun time. So I had as much fun as possible while still being a missionary.

In other news, we found a truly golden family. We were just chapping doors in the neighbourhood and they invited us to come back a different day. So, we went back not expecting too much, cause when someone says to come back a different day, they usually mean, "I'm not interested, but I'm too polite to tell you so I will dodge the appointment instead." Well, we went back and they immediately let us in and told us they had been expecting us and that they had read the whole pamphlet we gave them. Their parents names are Martin and Angela and they have 5 kids. 3 of them are over the age of 8. They have been looking for a church to go to because they have a very strong faith in Christ and they read the bible everyday, but they haven't found a church they feel it right. They are so spiritually in tune and they are very smart people. They even have pictures of Jesus hanging up all over the house. Their standards are already very similar to our teaching so we are very excited to teach them again this Friday. 

Still not too much word from Neil. He's been going through some hard things lately, so we only get a text from him once in awhile. We are hopeful that we will finally get to see him again tomorrow. 

Mark is still a champion. He's coming to institute this week because he wants to know more about the Book of Mormon and he's still planning on playing some snooker with us sometime. He's feeling the Spirit every time he reads and he's about half way through the book now.

Elder Stringer and I had the opportunity to give a baby a blessing yesterday, which was a pretty neat experience. He just had a wee cold and the blessing seemed to help. Little kids are so awesome. There is always such a strong spirit around them and they learn things so fast. We always play this game called chair football and it takes adults ages to learn it, but when we teach kids how to play they learn it the first time we explain it. Don't know why I added that. ha!

Oh and I've also had my last regular interview with President Brown. The next interview I have with him will be my exit interview. He said some really nice things to me and it meant a lot. I'm thankful for him and his loving leadership. 

P day will be fun today cause one of the members here is an amateur boxer and he's gonna teach Elder Stringer and I how to box. We aren't allowed to hit each other, only punching bags, but it will still be great. ha!

Well, that's about it for this past week. I love you all so much and hope you are having fun. Stay true!

Elder Goodwin

 

01.06.14

Well family I have less than 2 months left on my mission now. I think most of my missionary friends and the ward members only have one goal. And that goal is to make me trunky. But, I won't let it happen! 

 

We're back to work here in Belfast. Now, with all the holidays gone we've been able to get out and do tons of finding and start teaching people again. Neil is still doing great, but he's been in Tipperary on holiday for awhile and we don't know when he'll get back. We hope and pray that it will be soon. It's not looking good for his baptism on the 12th though cause last time we saw him he was still struggling with smoking and you have to be smoke free for at least 7 days before your baptism. We will keep praying though. We also fasted for him yesterday. 

 

By the way, Fast Sundays are pretty rough on a mission. If you think it's hard to go without food at home you should try walking miles on end in fierce winds and incessant rain on an empty stomach - all the way until dinner time. The blessing will flow from it though and that's a promise! haha!

 

Speaking of the weather, it's been pretty bad lately. That's nothing new though. As they always say, there's a price to pay for the greenery and beauty in Ireland. And that price is rain, rain and rain. And wind and cold. haha! The other day, there was a huge flood warning for the nieghbourhood we live in cause the water level was rising in the coast and last time that happend it was pretty bad. So, they called a "code red" and sent in the coast guard with boats. They also sent in sandbags and we had to put them at our doors. Then there was absolutely no flooding. What the heck? Everybody just panics cause they have nothing to do. People kept telling us that we needed to stay indoors, so we called the Zone Leaders, but they didn't answer. We left a message and all we said was, "CODE RED, CODE RED - WE NEED HELP!!" They were pretty anxious when they called back. It was hilarious. So, all in all, we were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see any cool flooding. 

 

Mark is still being a legend. We got into his house again yesterday and now he's read all the way up to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon. He's really starting to get into it and asked us if he can attend the scripture study class at the church this week. We're pretty excited about the progress he's making. He keeps wanting us to go play snooker with him at the pubs. ha! I really think that he has a good chance of getting baptised if he continues to read the Book of Mormon. 

 

Well, it's only been a few days since last email, so there's not much else to report. You are all awesome. Thank you for the birthday wishes and be assured that I will make it a memorable birthday. While still being a good missionary of course! I'm going to need $20,000 in my account asap. Thank you! hahaha. 

 

Love ya!

 

Elder Goodwin

01.02.14

My Christmas Package

Me in my Tigger onesie on New Years - We bought Dominos two for two.

 

Well, I hope this email finds you all happy in Utah. (Or Idaho) 

 

CONGRATULATIONS to the Allen family! Nora Jane Allen will be another world changing child in this day and age. I'm excited to see all my nieces and my nephew soon. 

 

New Years was great. We were yet again allowed to watch PG rated movies so that's what we did. Monsters University was probably my favorite of the day. The senior couple fed us dinner. They are called the Forsyths and they're from Canada. We lived life on the edge and stayed up all the way until 9:45pm. ha!

 

We have an investigator named Mark who we are still really excited about. He finally let us into his home on Sunday and he's loving the Book of Mormon. We are excited to see how he progresses from here. 

 

There's not too much to report cause things really slowed down over the holidays. Our investigators should all be back in town soon and then things will pick up again. 

 

I love you all and hope you're staying strong in the Gospel. Have a great week. 

 

Elder Goodwin

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