Monday 30 January 2017

Hard work and a little adventure

Dearest friends and family,

For Mom and Dad) For the package, just include like 3 pairs of ankle socks for P-day, all my old socks are literally destroyed. other than that, I think I’m good for stuff. Thanks for the watch. (sorry I broke my other one!)

For the new missionary schedule, we have actually been testing it out for a couple weeks now. We now wake up at 6 a.m. and Plan in the morning instead of in the evening. We do Personal Study at 8 a.m. and now we have the option to do companionship study for 30 minutes at 9 o’clock or to push it to later in the day if it works better. And we have to be home at 8:30 p.m. in the evening rather than 9. It is really nice, but the members aren’t used to it yet, so at faatamaaraas (meals with Church members).  It is weird for them to have us leave at 8:30---they are so used to the 9 oclock rule. We have heard that maybe our mission will push the schedule up to a 5:30 a.m. wake up, but I think that would make faatamaaraas too complicated, because the members like to eat really late sometimes.
Milk is "U" but sometimes people say "iu" but in the bible and in the dictionary is is just "u". It is very very similar to Tongan. (Mom asked)
This week I got to do a really good split with Elder Dalton in Faanui ward, you guys might remember hearing something about Elder Dalton, because one of his friends served in Calgary and has been to our house. He has been on his mission just a little bit longer than I have so it was really nice work with an experienced missionary. We ended up absolutely killing it. We got in like 2 bible bashes with people who where not expecting us to know the bible. It was overall a fun time.
I talked to our first counselor in our Ward who is a champion Vaa racer (racing outriggers). He has done the Havaiki Nui over 10 times or something like that. He has done dragon racing in Korea and won. He has done kayak racing in Canada... so he knows his stuff when it comes to vaas. He says that maybe a better option for my weight and body type would be to buy a Hawaiian brand of vaa called "OC1" the only difference between an OC1 and a Tahitian vaa is the fact the Hawaiian style has a rudder in the back. where as the Tahitian ones do not have a rudder.  All in all I looked at the pictures of the va'as, and overall I think they look really stupid. I’d rather a fai than a weird looking thing that doesn’t hold true to the traditional style.
So yeah. that’s my life this week. I love you guys. This week was really good, we actually had a lot of success.
Love you guys!

Elder Goodwin


After Pearl Harbour, the Americans came to Bora. They set up huge anti-air cannons and built the first airport in French Polynesia at Bora. We visited one of the cannon sites today. 

Loving the grammar!

Thank yo

 

Monday 23 January 2017

Storms and splits

Hey Guys, This week went pretty good. I dont know if you saw on the weather, but there was a tropical storm going through French Polynesia this week. The island of Tahiti got hit really bad, there are lots of floods and tons of damage done. Here on Bora it rained a ton and there was a lot of wind, which is strange because it is usually quite calm here. No major problems here, just a couple trees fell over and very minor damage to some of the less sturdy homes. 

The work here in Bora is pressing on in a sense. The members here are very motivated right now and we have been fixing splits left right and center with the members. Sadly with the bad weather this week, we had to cancel some of our splits. We managed to find a reasonable amount of lessons this week, but still it has a been a little rough the last couple weeks. My comp and I still get along really well. He is a really quiet guy, but we find our own way of getting along. 

Funny story of the week, I have already heard stories about Elder Frazer talking in his sleep from some of his previous companions. For me it all started our second or third night together. It was about 3 o’clock in the morning and I get woken up by my companion screaming as if someone is stabbing him in the chest. I have never been so freaked out in my life. I got up a flicked the light on and asked my companion what was up---he just told me that he had a really bad dream about an evil bird or something. Then he was quiet for about another 3 weeks then he did it again. I would tell the other Elders about it but they almost didn’t believe me, until a couple weeks ago when we where on split with the other elders, He did it and almost made Elder Owens pee his pants. Finally the other night I was having trouble sleeping because of the heat, so I was lying there and at about midnight I hear him punch the wall really hard, and since our house is made of wood, it was a very loud noise and then he starting screaming really high pitched and kinda vibrato. We get along terrifically… the only thing that is weird are the night terrors! 

I don’t have a lot to write about this week. 

RANDOM TAHITIAN WORD TIME! The word of the week is "Manu Patia" which is the word for Bumble bee. But the direct translation is ‘stabbing bird' or 'the bird that stabs.' 

Well I love you guys. All is well here. The work is progressing little-by-little and I’m progressing little-by-little as well. 

Have a great week. 


Elder Goodwin

p.s. Sorry no pictures this week... stormy weather

Monday 16 January 2017

Whoa... didn't get transferred... yet!

Hello all,
The transfer was pretty crazy for those on the main island working out all the movements. Some zones where completely changed. My last area got 'white washed’ (all new companionship) actually so now there are Sisters in Papehue. The Sisters of Maupiti are going to be arriving tomorrow normally, which is going to be weird because they are in our district. And Elder Owens and Elder Tepuhiarii got transfered out. Teps is going open an area in Faa’a and Elder Owens is going to be the new Zone Leader in Mahina. So now in the district we have Elder Dalton (Chicago) and Elder Rolls (Brisbane, Australia) fly in this morning. So Elder Frazer and I are staying together for another 6 weeks... which I'm actually pretty happy about. On Tahiti there are sooooooo many changes there is no way I could ever fully understand all the changes that have been made. 

This week was pretty rough but pretty great at the same time. Finding lessons at this moment is really hard for some reason. But all the lessons we did do this week where really high-quality great lessons. Lots of progression with a couple for our investigators. I got to do a split (swapping one’s companion with another) with one of the Area 70's (an area General Authority for the Church) for the Pacific the other day. He came down to Bora for a Stake meeting and wanted to do a split. I went with him and my companion went with some other Stake leader. We visited an old couple who have been investigating the Church for a while now. We taught a super duper spiritual lesson that we didn't even plan out... and fixed their baptismal dates. Pretty great if I do say so myself. 

On Sunday I got to translate for a pretty cool couple who are on vacation here. The lady reminded me so much of Mom it hurt. I also managed to fix a shark-feeding trip for them through a couple of members in the Ward. 

This new year is starting off a little bit rough. But I've fixed a bunch of Goals for this year and for the last little stretch of the mission, which I'm hoping will give me enough of a push to keep up the pace for the last 9 months. 

In other news... It was really hot this week. 

Well I love you guys. have a great week! 🐢

Elder Goodwin

Elder Owens and Elder Tepuhiarii got transferred!


Monday 9 January 2017

Bora is never boring...

Friends and family,

Well, my life went pretty well this week. Pretty scared actually for next week, we have heard this transfer is going to be a really big transfer which means big changes. So we know already that a bunch of people on Bora will be moved around. So we will see what is up for next week. 

I actually did a split all this week because an Elder in Faanui hurt his knee and it is hard for him to bike. So he came with me. Oh; we had a really really awesome lesson with an investigator who was showing signs of him being super duper potential for baptism. We were so happy because he is already married which gets rid of the number one block for baptism and he doesn’t smoke, drink or do use drugs anymore. We hope he keeps working hard. 

I also had a tragic double speed bumped cat the other day. Don't ask... we washed the blood off before anyone noticed… sad event.

Well that's my pretty lame week this week. I love you guys. Keep up being the awesome people you are. 

Elder R Goods.

At Christmas a really nice lady bought all six of us stuffed animals.

For a zone conferance over Skype---we decided to break out those nifty moustaches you sent me literally a million years ago. Over all, a fun time. 

Monday 2 January 2017

Happy New Year...

Fam jam

Hey guys! hows life? This week was pretty good. We have a number of investigators we are teaching. We may have some baptisms in January. 

The weather report here in Bora Bora. Freaking hot, and rain. The other day when we were doing our studies in the house, it was soooo hot I swear I almost gave up the Ghost. Probably over 30 all the time… 100% humidity…. never stops... all I know is that I wanted to die that day.  Sometimes we drink coconuts when we ask or when offered---but mostly I just drink a lot of room temperature water. I’ve just gotten used to the normal every day heat. I dont like cold water. It doesnt do the job for me.

The holidays are now over but the parties will continue here until about Wednesday, because that is when everyone runs out of money. The parties didn’t get in the way of missionary work. It just made unfixed events super difficult. All our fixed (planned) lessons would work out great and be very spiritual. But all our un-planned, dropping in, stuff was super sucky. Folks would would just tell us to come back after the parties. But overall my life is doing great, the work is doing well and my companion and I get along really well. 

Well. I love you guys. Have a great week.


Elder Goodwin