Little miracles...

Hey guys!

I actually have the Christmas package in my room right now. I picked it up off the HavaikiNui last Wednesday. Mail is actually pretty quick to get here. 

There is a transfer on the 5th of December, I will most likely not move (but you never know) and there is about a 50/50 chance that my companion will move. It is pretty crazy that there has already been one transfer that flew by during my time on this tiny little rock. For Christmas we might meet up with the missionaries of RaroMata'i in Ra'iatea. That would be really fun. I think the boat won’t be as bad a second time. Next time I’m going in P-day clothes for the trip instead of dress clothing. 

I got a couple cool pictures from Claire this week. I’ve asked her to send me a couple pictures every once and a while. It’s cool for me to see how much people change--and how much some people seem to not change at all.    

Oh and talking about airplane stuff. Mom, do you know WestJet is friends with AirTahiti, not TahitiNui. Air Tahiti is the company that goes from Tahiti out to the other French Polynesian islands, but does go international (except the Cook Islands). 

Miracle of the week:

We needed to go to a Member ladies house to go give her a heads up for her Faatamaaraa. She lives just a couple houses over, so we walked over there at about 7 o’clock. She was out on here porch talking with a lady that we have never met and her kids were just chilling beside her. We got up close and we realized that she was completely in tears, she seemed to be going through a really, really tough time. She came up and started kind of yelling at us telling us that she doesn’t believe in the Lord any more. We talked to her for a bit and ended up offering her a priesthood blessing. We came up and invited the non-member lady to come and watch. We explained to her briefly what we were going to do and what the Priesthood blessing is. We then did the blessing and after, the member lady was all smiling and saying sorry for what she said. She changed 100% from 5 minutes before. We then started chatting and laughing. 

All the while the non-member lady was looking at us with awe. We then talked to her a bit more and realized that we had contacted her daughter two days before and fixed a lesson with her. This lady asked if after her daughters lesson the next day, if she could get a blessing. The next day we had a great first lesson with her daughter and the lady arrived with her husband. They both wanted blessings. The lady more specifically needed a blessing because she had an accident and couldn't sleep because of back pain. We did the blessings and the lady and her husband cried the whole time. 

On Sunday we did the first lesson with the lady and her husband and she shared that she doesn't feel her back pain as she did before... and she has been sleeping really well since we did the blessing. Our lesson was really powerful with them. They already have a testimony of the power of the priesthood. They have a lot of potential and they were found in a very miraculous way. 

This week was great. we got tons of work done and have been seeing tiny little miracles left, right and center. 

Oh and you guys should go and watch the Moana movie. It has a bunch of Tahitian stuff in it. A lot of the names in the movie are Tahitian, Hawaiian, Fijian and other polynesian cultural mythology. Moana itself means ‘ocean' or ‘deep' in Tahitian. 

Thats my email.

Luv you guys!

Elder Goodwin

The resort you are looking at is the intercontinental Moana beach resort.

Typical day in the mission field!

...for a "three hour tour, a three hour tour!"

Hello fam jam!

This week proved to be the most tiring of my mission, but it was very enriching.

Tuesday morning we met up with a rather grumpy old man and hopped on his boat and set off for Ra'iatea. His boat is a reasonable size, but still pretty small when it comes to the open ocean. We all got kinda worried when we realized that some people can actually jog faster than this boat can move through the water. It was clear pretty early in the trip that this was gonna be a fun 3 and a half hours. The open ocean was pretty calm on the way there, but what you have to realize is that we were going head on with the waves going to Ra'iatea, so even though it wasn’t storming, it felt like an airplane flying through heavy turbulence, while a one armed pilot was trying to change a baby's diaper. 

After 3 hours we, in fact, arrived in at Uturoa in Ra'iatea. We were all soaking wet because of the salt spray. I could feel my skin stinging because of the salt. We then grabbed all our stuff and walked through downtown Uturoa looking like homeless people... until we arrived at our home... the Uturoa chapel. 

We showered there and hung up all our stuff to dry while we waited to join the Ward there for their Reactivation activity. The next day we had our Missionary Conference with all the missionaries of Raromata'i, (the islands of Ra'iatea, Huahine, Tahaa and Bora Bora). Elder Craig E. Cardon (who is currently serving as a member of the Pacific Area Presidency) was present with his lovely wife. They did a conference that lasted pretty much all day. It was a great experience. They taught us a lot of things we can do with our investigators to help them progress, and we have been applying the things he taught us all week. I honestly learned so much. it was one of the more spiritual meetings I’ve been present in. The good ol Pres Bize (Mission President) and Sister Bize were there as per usual. they are really great.

Overall a great Conference. 

The Return trip was a bit scary at first because it was very windy and very stormy. The waves were massive sometimes, but thankfully we were going with the waves. The Grumpy old man was taking advantage of the waves by surfing the boat on the waves to gain considerable speed. The most scary thing was that sometimes the waves started to turn to boat on its side---we were so close to swimming back to Bora at least 5 times. My comp didn’t take the return trip very well. He may have fed the fish a little bit. 

After getting home, all 6 of us were so tired. The rest of the week was super hard, so in order to recover this P-day we are taking things slowly. 

love you,   

-- 

Elder Goodwin

The unsuspecting passengers still fresh and excited.

Bora Bora, outside the reef.

Elder Owens (a former companion) keeping it real.

Searing heat, salt spray and sea sickness, oh my!

The little boat we took to Ra'iatea and back

What it is like when missionaries sleep in the gym at the church!

The Raromata'i or the Leeward Islands.

Great week and a really nice p-day adventure today

Family and friends,

These pictures are why I am late to emailing. It is hard to see from the pictures but the boat is moving at a rather fast pace and I am in fact balancing out on the outrigger. We went to a small Island (motu) that the family who took us owns. They took all 6 missionaries out to the motu and made us some food out there. Oh yeah and he said that after the mish, if I want to stay there, I can stay for free… hmmm. Oh and the name of the motu is "motu tane iti" it is really close to the airport and is supper duper tiny.

You asked about bugs… Sometimes we have bug problems, but I’ve gotten to the point were not much can wake me from my slumber. Oh and the beauty shots from last week are from a little place called Paoaoa point. If you can find that on google maps, you're golden. 

We sometimes use sunscreen. I don’t really get burned anymore from regular every day stuff. but BTW the back of my calves got absolutely destroyed at our motu visit we just did. I went to scratch my leg and I started to tear up  a little bit. 

My quality of life has been staying at a reasonably high level lately. The work has been progressing a lot... and my companion awesome.

Just a heads up. We have a multi-zone conference on Wednesday on Ra'iatea. All of the islands of Raromata'i will be attending. We are taking a tiny little boat all the way to Ra’iatea tomorrow morning and will be returning on Thursday. I will have tons of pictures. 

Well. Sorry for the short email. I feel like I am really bad at sharing my experiences. Just know that missionary work isn’t easy but it is really fun sometimes. Peace and love!

Elder Goodwin

Elder Owens making some members laugh by doing the mermaid pose.

Elder Tepuhiarii playing the kamaka.

Working hard and seeing success

Hey guys. 

All is well. The work is going well, we are finding lots of people every week, and the potential is starting to increase. Larsen and I are working really hard right now to boost up the area a bit. There is a chance that two of the missionaries here will get transferred next transfer, which is at the beginning of December, but they may just stay here until the New Year. We will see who is all still here for Christmas, normally i will most likely still be here. Packages shouldn’t take to crazy long to get here, because after it arrives at the mission office, they drop it off at the boat, and we pick up stuff from the mission office maybe once a week. My pants should be fine. I’ve gotten really good at sewing lately so all my pants are in really good shape. I may just replace one pair when I get back on Tahiti. 

I love hearing that you guys are taking the Elders places and helping them out. You have no idea how much of an affect Members that love the missionaries are until you are one. My one advice to you is to always treat the missionaries as your own sons. The people and moments I love the most on my mission are with families that treat me like I’m part of the family. 

I love you guys!

Elder Goodwin

The Va'a race (outrigger or in French piroge) The HavaikiNui finished here in Bora Bora on Friday. It was actually in our area so we decided to see what we could see. You guys should look up some videos from the HavaikiNui, it is super crazy cool.

Our humble abode

Elder Larsen and I found a crazy good view whilst contacting around in a very remote part of our area. 

There are markets for black pearls everywhere on Bora

Add caption