Monday 26 December 2016

Merry Christmas from Bora Bora

Hey guys,

The Skype call was really nice. I really enjoyed the chat. It honestly seems like you guys have a changed a lot in a good direction. It was also so cool for me to see that you guys are taking care of the missionaries in the ward. 

I fear that I dont have a lot to talk about. I kinda got it all out yesterday on the Skype call. I got to show some of the members some pictures of the snow behind the house, they thought that was pretty cool.

I haven’t decided yet if I want keep the islander accent or if, after my mission I want to go back to speaking the French way. I feel like I might just change the way I speak depending on who I talk to. Oh and just a heads up... I made a couple mistakes in my Tahitian in my testimony. Just little mistakes. But what ever. 

Well. I love you guys. it was super nice to talk to you guys. It recharged my batteries a little bit. Thank the Young Men and Young women for the very cool package. We opened it at our multi-island Christmas party and the missionaries all looked up the scripture clues and tried to guess what was in the packages. The only problem is that the number references in the French Bible are slightly different in some places to the King James Bible… which resulting in some very funny moments. Thanks for everything and an awesome tie from the Young Men.

Well. I love you guys! keep on being the best family ever. 

--
Elder Goodwin


Hello from Bora Bora... Christmas morning

My testimony

Owens, Blater and I walked several kilometers on Ra'iatea to go teach a bunch of lessons. Super fun time.

Tahitian dance crown thingy with custom designed Christmas tie from the Calgary 2nd Ward Young Men...  classic.
Christmas Eve Faatamaaraa... Elder Frazer front left





Monday 19 December 2016

Whew.... we made it to Ra'iatea

Well we managed to get a boat to take us to Ra'iatea so I am right now on freaking Ra’iatea! The boat ride was a lot better because the boat was way bigger and faster. The set up is a lot like the last time... sleeping in the chapel with the elders of Huahine. 

We don’t really have a lot of time to do emails today, but it kinda works out because I need to leave a little bit of material for the Skype call on Christmas day.

8 o’clock (Tahiti time) works for me. I may try and be on around 7:30 so anyways we will see each other on Sunday! wooohoooooooooooo.

Well I gotta roll, we will have a bunch of news about 'ma lyfe' during the Skype call.

I’ve got about 20 minutes then we have to go plan a skit for the Christmas Party.

Stay tuned!

Elder Goodwin

Oh and Merry Christmas is something like "Ia maita'i teie nei noela.” Keep in mind the L is pronounced like an R. there are no L's in Tahitian.

I still love ya!

Elders Fraser and Goodwin

Monday 12 December 2016

Ring ring, hey is your Fa'atoetoera'a-ma'a running?

... better go catch it then!

Hey Guys! 

Seems we don’t have a boat to take us to Ra’iatea for a joint missionary party. Normally the party is on the 19th. but we can’t go. So we will probably just sit in a small room together and sing Christmas carols while crying over 6 packets of Ritz Crackers. Joking. But honestly we will probably do very little for Christmas now... although our Ward is doing their Ward Christmas party at the St-regis Motu. That is gonna be AWESOME! 

Sooooooooo, this week was pretty dang rough, with Christmas just around the corner, the partying will be going through the roof. If it is anything like last Christmas, these next couple weeks will be full of parties and loud music. Honestly, this week I felt like we were really busy but kind of unproductive. We just ran around all week. We did hours of contacting to fill the void of cancelled lessons, but still ended up giving president a truly crappy report this week. 

Well, there really isn’t much news this week, and there really aren’t any photos to send over. But this next week we will be doing a lot of Christmas party stuff, so there should be a good old bunch of photos for you guys to drool over. 

Tahitian word of the day is . Fa'atoetoera'a-ma'a which means fridge.
Fa'a when added to the beginning of a word makes it a verb. Toetoe means cold. So Fa'atoetoe means "make cold" or " to cool". Ra’a, when added to the end of a word makes it a noun. So Fa'atoetoera'a means "the make cold thing" or "the make cold object" and ma'a means food. So the word literally means "the make food cold thing"

I love you guys. have a good week!


Elder Goodwin




Roromatai (on Raiatea) Missionary Conference with  Elder Cardon of the Pacific Area Presidency.



Monday 5 December 2016

New comp... and more work to do here in Bora Bora

Dear family and friends,

We are trying to get a trip worked out so that we can go to Ra'iatea for a Christmas party, we are still working that out good ol Pres Bize. It would be really nice to get out and stretch the sea legs again. 

The Weather report here in Bora was actually pretty bad this week. It rained a whole bunch. It kinda sucked because most of the lessons we do are outside---it is rare that we are in peoples' houses. So lots of lessons get cancelled when it is raining. 

It is also more difficult to find teaching appointments when the population is spread out. In Taapuna my most densely populated area (300 plus people on a 500 meter strip of road) it is very easy to find lessons. But here I find we do a lot more running around than actually teaching. But we do find about 16 plus lessons a week… even with the rain. And yes I think over all, here is more rural that Mataie'a. 

Yes there are a lot of tourists here compared to other islands, but there are a lot of locals and most of them speak very good Tahitian. More than Tahiti I would say. But also in Tahiti one quartier changes from the next when it comes to the amount of Tahitian spoken. This is probably the area I’ve served in with the most Tahitian. But at the same time it is also my area with the most English. 

SOoooooooo my companion got a transfer wall on Friday. He is going to Papeno'o on the northern part of Tahiti. I really like serving with him, he is a young missionary but he picks things up super quick, teaches really well and has a good sense of humour. All in all one of my favorite companions. We did a lot of work together and had a lot of fun doing it. 

Now my new comp is Elder Frazer from Vanuatu. He has been on his mission for about 1 year and his native language is the wonderful Bishlama, a pigeon of English.I think I’ve spoken a little bit about this language, it is basically sounds like a young person heard English and then wrote it down. So now I will be doing a section of my email called VANUATU TIME, where I will tell you stories maybe even a little insight into the wonderful language of Bishlama. Be sure in your free time to look up the "Buk Blong Momon." 

📣VANUATU TIME📣
Olsem wanem=how are you.
Mi likem yu=i love you.
ae blong yu i naes=you have beautiful eyes. 
(pronounced=eye blong you ee nice)

Thats what's up in my world. Just keepin it real on the flip side home slices.  

mi likem yu!

Elder Goodwin

p.s. Talking about the weather at home… I am so scared for the cold when I get home, I may just die the moment I step out of the airport. 

The last walk of an awesome companionship!

Kinda corny


Taking Elder Larson to the Airport for his flight to Tahiti



Yay... my new companion, Elder Frazer