Mataiea - working and learning

We have had the edge of a cyclone sweep the Presqu’ile (the small attached 'almost island’ of the main island of Tahiti) a couple weeks ago, but so far, we have been pretty safe here on the main island. 

Our last P day (preparation day) we went on a hike. It was decent, I enjoyed it. I have been working on my Tahitian a lot lately, the sad thing is that at the New Zealand MTC, they don’t give you language learning tools like a dictionary. but at the Provo MTC you get 4 different books for learning Tahitian, so I have been mooching off of Elder Ruff a lot. I have ordered some books from the mission, so we will see what comes of that, but so far I can understand maybe 30 percent of what people say, and I can speak the ever so slightest bit of it. The issue is, that Tahitian is not spoken nearly as much as French here on the main island, but I have been getting better slowly. 

Mataiea sector has been doing better. We have found a few people with a lot of potential... so the work is progressing a lot. Elder Ruff is the district leader now, so we are slightly more busy, and I have been gaining new experiences everyday. No really crazy stories happened this week, other than Ruff baptizing one of our investigators, and me getting to confirm him. He is an awesome dude. He may be in the top ten of the nicest people I have ever met in all my life, he is the kind of guy that would give you his car if you needed a ride home. 

I miss the cold a bit. It kinda sucks to be burning hot all the time. But I've been getting used to it. It is never colder than 25C here so I've been very warm, day and night.

The Tahitian word of the day is ‘fiu.' It means 'fed up', ‘I’m so done', or being on the edge of giving up. Fiu is a word we use on many occasions in our area. Ha ha. 

Ua here vau ia tatou! (i love you guys)

Iaorana

Elder Goodwin

A recent baptism 

A hike we had last P day. 

Christmas and beyond...

Ok, update time. Sorry about the lame emails lately, the holidays have been a confusing time. Christmas here is pretty much like Christmas in Canada, but no snow. A bunch of members and investigators gave us some gifts. They are all chocolate, so our house is now full of chocolate. I am going to gain so much weight. 

The work continues. It is hard to do work these last weeks because everyone was partying and didn’t want to talk to us... so we haven't had much work to do. But now that people have finished Christmas and New Years and it is time to get started again. 

The new house mates are Elder Toame from Vanuatu and Elder Gonzales from France and Spain. They are both pretty awesome. Elder Toame is hilarious... the house has gotten just a little bit more fun, yet surprisingly more focused on the work, which is a really good thing. 

The adventure of the week was that Elder Ruff and I where invited to a birthday party for one of our investigators, so of course we thought it was an awesome idea to go. Let it be known that it was not an awesome idea. We rolled up to a music pumping college type party, so we did what any person would do, and we started with an opening prayer, we ate some food, whilst talking to drunk people. There were four “reirei’s" there. A reirei is a man who dresses up like a woman. They where huge! Like rugby player status, yet they had long bleached hair and kept telling me they liked my tie. Overall a ten-outa-ten experience. Other than that, the work has been continuing. 

I think things are looking up for Mataiea. On a more spiritual side, I’ve learned that missionary work is difficult at times, but the joy I feel is stronger than anything i have felt before. Even when you have been rejected my everyone for the last four hours in the burning sun... at the end of day and you know you were an instrument in the hands of the Lord, and you had some effect on someones eternal salvation. You can't help but smile.

Goofy Christmas photo shoot with  Elders Lee Chip Soa, Mclelland, Ruff and I.

Group photos are with, Elder Lee Chip Soa, Mclelland, Ruff and I and Sisters Augustine (Utah), Toa (Tahitan), Stosich (Montana) and Janeau (French). This group picture is our whole district... all the missionaries from Mataiea to Papeari on the Island of Tahiti.

The face of, "we did 3 hours of contacting, and the only thing we got was a cool selfie over a river."

Christmas in paradise

My Christmas package was awesome. I love it. 

I already have my bike…  I just need to pay back the mission so it’s all good. I’m taking out about 10,000 South Pacific Francs a week until its payed off. It is, in fact, the nicest bike I've ever used. I’ll send pics some week soon. I don’t use it a lot right now, but when I do splits, I use it. (splits=switching with another companionship or member).

Families here aren’t like only a parent and child thing here. Families normally include grandparent, parent, child, and other cousins. Everyone one in Tahiti is related in some way... so you hear people say, "oh yeah that guy is my cousin" all the time.

The work this week was pretty lame. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we had very little planned, so the other Elders in our house all put Santa hats on and went carolling. We ended up singing in a store full of people. Overall ten-outa-ten experience. 

A huge transfer happened in the mission. The other secteur in our house got white washed (whitewashed=completely new missionaries) not because they suck, but because it ended up being a weird transfer. So we will see how the new Elders are. Elder Ruff and I are one of the only companioships that aren’t being changed in our zone. Fun times ahead. Party times are over so now enough for us to go and do contacting. But New Years is just around the corner, so it might not last. Overall good week. 

It was so nice to see you guys. You guys are looking great. And I will have you know that after we hung up, I totally lost it for a minute. Life goes on, and thanks for being such an awesome family.

Iaorana

Elder Goodwin

Mission Christmas party

A few pictures from Mission President Pierre and Sister Brigitte Bize' blog...https://www.facebook.com/Pierre-and-Brigitte-Tahiti-Blog-701349089926480/?fref=ts

Super quick update

In answer to Mom’s questions… yes they decorate trees here. There aren’t many lights and the local customs for Christmas are pretty much the same as in Canada. 

I’m sorry for the rushed email post this week. I’m saving content for my Skype call home Christmas morning. Actually today we had some Sister missionaries take absolutely forever at shopping. So now we have no time to do emails…  

Good to hear life is sweet at home. Can’t wait for Friday. Everything should work smoothly. Remember 8 o’clock in the morning, my time!

Love you guys. I have no photos of me this week... so just imagine me walking on water and drinking coconuts.

Iaorana 

Elder Goodwin

Mataiea sector continues - no transfer!

I have come to the stark realization that I will never wear any of my long sleave shirts. I only need one for going to the temple and for baptizing. It just gets too hot and rains too much here. So maybe is a couple months. a package of 3 to 5 short sleeve shirts would be a dream. But for now I’m doing dandy. (this is in answer to a question from Mom and Dad).

It is weird spending Christmas here... because it doesnt feel like Christmas to me. I look out the window and see green grass and palm trees and no snow.

We have been teaching some Christmas themed lessons lately and it feels strange. Our secter has been pretty quiet lately. but we are slowly bringing our secter back to life. But it is a lot of work. This week Elder Ruff and I did this cool service project for one of our investigators. We cut down this tree and cleaned it all up. And after we were done, we cracked open a couple coconuts and drank up. Pretty sweet. I will send pictures. Real coconut water tastes miles different from the stuff you buy at the store. Real coconut water has a little tingle to it. It is miles better than coke. 

I am not being transferred this week, nor is my companion, which is awesome. But Elder Mclelland in our home is being transfered to one of the Tuamotu's on the 28th. That is awesome! the Tuamotu's are my dream place to serve. When you think of untouched paradise. you are thinking of the Tuamotu's. 

The Tahitian word of the day is “puaahorofenua” which means "horse"... but the direct translation is "pig run land." AND THE BONUS WORD IS "MANUREVA TUTUHA AUAHI," which means "jet"… but the direct translation is "bird spit fire.”  So basically Tahitian is the coolest language ever.

It has been a busy/hot couple weeks. 

All's well in paradise.

Iaorana 

Elder Goodwin

Service project with Lee

Service project sunburn!

Working hard... oh and bugs!

Yes. There is in fact a heat wave here caused by El Nino.  We do have fans but they don’t help that much. They really just keep the mosquitos off during the night. 

I don’t have many photos and I don’t have tons of time today to do emails this week (sorry). Long story short, Mataiea area is struggling right now so we have been doing a lot of contacting. There are transfers next week, and I am not sure if my companion is going to stay, but I am pretty comfortable showing the sector.

The story behind the picture with the spider. I lifted up a spoon one morning and there was a massive spider on the dang spoon. I have never run faster in my life. We hunted the beast for a three days as it was roaming in our home, and when I found it I let out a screach comparable to 20 rubber chickens being squeezed at the same time. I am pretty sure the only goal it had in the life that spider was to scare the living crap out of people. It isnt even poisonous. Just so scary. 

This is how I broke the sound barrier!

The cockroaches here really like to die in really weird places. This is on my bag during my personal study. I feel like the cockroach knew he was going to die, so he thought it would be really funny to die on my bag. Oh and on the bug theme, I just want to put it out there that centipedes here can jump really high, and they are super poisonous and scary… 

A little more tanned and working hard. Oh and Tahitian pineapples are pretty much a drug. All's well in paradise. Tahitian word of the day is "uri taata"  which means monkey but translated directly it means "dog man."

Iaorana

Elder Goodwin