eldergoodwintahiti.blogspot.com: Visits, travels and bunk beds, oh my

Hello parental units and friends,

This week my companion was super duper sick, so I took the opportunity to write a bunch about what has been going on and stuff like that.

First of all on Tuesday---President Fox, his wife and the assistants arrived at 8:00 a.m.. We hurried them over to the Uturoa chapel for our zone conference that started at 8:30. It was a great yet simple meeting. It was more about meeting the missionaries than doing trainings… although there were some great discussions. My companion was already not doing so hot by this point.

After that at 11:30 a.m. Elder Piazza (senior assistant to the President and he previously served in Tevaitoa my area) and I hopped on a private boat with President Fox and his wife and raced over to Tahaa, where we rented a Fiat Panda and did a tour of Tahaa. We inspected the missionary homes and visited the chapels (only two chapels and two homes). After that adventure we got back on another private boat to take us back to Raiatea for 2:00 p.m. We then hopped in our truck, leaving Elder Terry (my comp) with the other assistant to proselyte in our area.

We did a tour of Raiatea stopping at six chapels, three missionary homes. Visiting with two Bishops and one Branch President (they were the only ones available for the visit.) Finishing our tour at 6:30 p.m. as we rolled up to our Branch Presidents parents’ house---who have only been members for a couple years---to eat. We got to share President and Soeur Fox's first meal with a local family, since their arrival.

We then dropped them off at their little hotel for the night. Elder Piazza and I got home at 8:30p.m. and spent the night with four Elders in our little house. The next morning we picked them up and put all four of them on a plane to Huahine where they will continue their tour before stopping at Bora Bora.

Lovely experience, but a lot of driving. We calculated it. We must have driven just about 350 kms in one day.

I really like President Fox. He is a very calm guy, yet he has a lot of drive to help things move forward in the right direction. It is very interesting seeing his style compared to Président Bize's style. You can tell that God calls a variety of people with a variety of talents and skills as to help as many people as possible. It's really cool seeing President Fox and Soeur Fox's efforts in learning Tahitian. Super cool.

In other news, I’ve figured out how to carve small tikis whilst playing with our branch mission leaders tools. He said that any graven image I make, I can keep. I'll sent some pictures maybe. Me and him are doing a cool tiki thingy together. It'll be cool when it's done.

We also got a welcome surprise this week was the arrival of a bunk bed. We got a new missionary couple in the office who are very effective at taking care of the needs in the mission. He asked us if we needed anything when we were at Tahiti. We said "beds would be nice." So on Thursday he said he dropped off our bunk bed on the boat. I set it up when my companion was unconscious Friday afternoon. Sooooo happy. It has been nine months since I’ve slept on a bed.

Send my love to Kenny’s family. He gave me literally my last painting job right before I left. He really helped me pay for my mission and he gave me a lot of advice about life while I was over there talking to him. He was overall a really great guy. What a shock to hear he passed so quickly.

That’s pretty much it. I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Goodwin