Martial arts and creative missionary work

Hey Dudes. Life is Going alright, no requests for my birthday package other then Canadian themed clothing items and stuff. And a usb stick full of Heavenly tunes.

This week was reasonable. I’m actually starting to get good at jujitsu and I’m getting better at boxing. [Russell and his companion are volunteering at a martial arts gym as his companion is advanced].  Last week, some new guy walked into the jujitsu class, and was super nice. He started asked if he could practice some jujitsu stuff on me, so I obliged. We started doing some tapout together and he started going a little crazy for a practice. People where yelling haere maru at him, which means go slow, but he was doing n'import quoi. So I got a bit fiu and stopped going slow and finished the match. Then he challenges my companion, reasuring him that its just practice. You could tell that he was here to test if my companion knew what he was doing. So they start going, and the guy is doing a bunch of stupid things to my companion, so my companion pulled a move called the teepee and the guy tapped out in about half a second and had trouble breathing for a little while. One of our investigators who is also in the class tipped his hat off to my companion for putting him in his place. Fun times. people don’t understand that my short companion did MMA for 3 years before his mission... so now all the guys from age 15 to 30 in our secteur have tons more respect for us. We have now found two investigators with those classes and now share scripture verses to them after every practice. 

The Tahitian Elder in our house, Elder Mcgrevy, is waiting for his visa for his mission in the U.S./Idaho. He is starting to speak more English to us. and it is hilarious, because he just uses "urban slang" all the time. His favorite word we have taught him is 'dibs’ and he just uses it for random situations. It is so fun just the way he uses it. In the car today another Elder accidentally bonked him in his crotch and he said in his new English 'Don't touch my priesthood!" I may or may not have cried a few tears of joy. He has become one of my favorite people in the world.

Regarding the passing of Mike Wiebe---I am not sure how to express the emotions I am feeling knowing now that Mike has passed on. He was one of the most spiritually focused men I have ever seen... and he was so so humble. I remember having conversations with him during classes. You can truly tell that he was a man that understands the need for us, as people, to try and exemplify, as much as possible, Christ-like attributes. He was a a man I have a hard time imagining being mad or ungrateful—he just always was there to brighten everyones day. For that I am grateful. He truely was an inspiration to me. I am thankful that God has a plan for us all, and I have no doubt in my mind that Mike has a big place reserved for him with his family In heaven.

The work is moving, I’m still in a car, slowly feeling my butt getting bigger. Keep it real.

Orometua Goodwin  

"Sunset over Moorea with satellite dish"

Finding a tiny bit of shade at the chapel.

Shade, precious shade...

Language soup!

Family and friends,

This week was pretty stressful, but we got a lot of work done. Managed to get a bunch of lessons in. We worked super hard to get them but I have noticed that when you are out of your comfort zone, you start to learn more. There is learning in your comfort zone, but there is no comfort in your learning zone.

In the house we speak either English or French or Tahitian at the moment. English because we have a Tahitian Elder in the house waiting for his visa for the States….Idaho. We have been building Idaho as the coolest place in the U.S. He is so exited. So we jump around the languages. Even when Elder Owens and I are speaking English we use French words out of nowhere, because sometimes it is easier to say things in French than English... or a Tahitian phrase expresses an emotion better. So basically my English is really corrupt right now. It is a little "n'import quoi” in the house. 

Aita fifi—life goes on. 

Other than that I am becoming super comfortable as a missionary and with teaching. Nothing really fazes me anymore. I’ve been studying a lot that I can answer pretty much any question that gets thrown at me. My goal is to be able to answer any question with a scripture.

This week Elder Owens and I bought recorders, so we are working on some super awesome duets. By the time I get home, I should be able to play stairway to heaven by heart. 

We couldn't heal the fridge this week much as we tried... so a lot of our food has had to be thrown away. Kinda sucks, but at least we now know that we are lacking faith in this particular area. Something we can work on.

Elder Goodwin

I bought a pareo from this guy. He gave me permission to “Send this picture all over the world, to all the nations so I get famous.” His exact words. Great guy. this picture perfectly describes how he talks.

New recorders… the house just got a whole lot more annoying!

General Conference week...

This past Sunday’s General Conference was great.  I really enjoyed it.  I actually got to watch it in English at 6 oclock in the morning. It was a challenge because we had to drive to pick up the Sister Missionaries of Nuuroa and Punaruu. So we woke up at 4 in the morning twice (Sat and Sun). Long story short I went to bed at like 8 o’clock Sunday night. 

The secteur is good. It has been really slow this week. But life is continuing. 

Here is a funny experience this week. So the Elders living in the house with me and Elder Owens are on bike, but they have three huge mountains in their area, so sometimes we have to drop them off at the very top. Well, one of these times we didn't have a lesson and Elder Stewart and Elder McGrevy invited us to stay and sit in on their investigator. Well, their investigator was seriously drunk. He started asking us about where we were from and Owens said "USA baby!” The fellow immediately starts talking about how a America blew up Hiroshima. We get him to stop talking enough to say the prayer and we start talking to him about the Gospel. Well, he says something cool and I give him knuckles. He then leaves his hand up there like he wants a high five. So Owens obliges. He starts to laugh and then he starts grabbing our heads and pushing them down while he laughs. After that he wanted to take a bunch of model shots with the Elders. Anytime though I'd try to get out he would scream "Come here American! Right next to me!" So ya. Super ‘great' and a little awkward.

I talked to Jordan (Bester) a couple times. His visa finally came and he is in the U.S. right now (From Halifax mission (NFLD) to New Hampshire mission). I can't imagine changing missions, because every mission does things a bit differently. It would be weird to get used to the Mission culture. And Brent (Bester) told me a couple weeks ago that he was going to buy a ring... so I’ve known for a while. 

My companion is the District leader now. That makes all three of my companions being district leader. Carrément Top! 

Well I gotta go. I hope next week is better than this week. 

Peace out homies.

Elder Goodwin

Elder Owens ducking a flying water bottle...

Mission genealogy... me in the lower right.

Tahitian style tattoo design

This week's random photo

Busy week - lots of teaching

I’m good regarding the shoes. (in response to a question) All of my shoes are holding together really well. Elder Traydon Stewart is the Elder from Cardston. He is in the same house as Owens and I. Tell his family that he is cool dude. 

This week was actually pretty tough. We had a huge transfer today, so I was driving missionaries for a good portion of the day... fantastic. 

We have a bunch of investigators right now. In fact we average about 20 lessons a week. We are hoping we will find more people who are interested. Do me a favour at home and be nice and support the missionaries you have now. 

My bike is in great shape. I’ve used it a couple of times for splits--in fact my bike is still in Mataiea, seeing as we have a car right now.

I’m really sorry about how bad I am at emailing, nothing crazy happens here, we just kinda work. But I suppose I am not good at remembering the little moments that might be interesting. 

Funny thing that you might want to hear about is that since there are so many missionaries from Vanuatu in our district, I have been in a house with two so far. So I have been learning bislama on the side. Bislama is an English-based creole language. Sometimes it sounds a bit like a 5 year old heard English then wrote it down. “Mi likim yu" is how you say I love you. So the other day there where two RMs (returned missionaries) that served in Vanuatu in our Ward, so my companion and I started talking to them in bislama and we could sustain a conversation. It is super easy to learn for English speakers. So in my home coming talk I am going to bear my testimony in English, French, Tahitian and bislama. In fact I could probably bear my testimony in bislama right now. Heheh

I have chosen my Tahitian name. it is FaufaaMaitai... which mean a 'good win' but more the feeling of a good win.  I have ordered a tag that says OROMETUA FAUFAAMAITAI and I should get it in a couple months... heck yeah! 

Other then that, life is pretty steady.

Peace out fam jam!

Ua here vau ia outou!

Orometua FaufaaMaitai

Our district.

This week's bonus photo!

Some P-day adventures

Bonjour,

Hey guys… I'm on vite fait. How’s it going? My email this week is pretty lame because nothing too crazy happened, we just worked a lot. Lately I’ve been just learning Tahitian with members, and I’ve been reading a lot, and doing the side by side scripture study. I’ve actually been learning a lot. At this rate, I know within the year I will be able to speak it. It’s a tough language because the structure is so different from European languages... like super different. Example: Ua hinaaro vau ia faaite oe. which means “I want to make you know" or "I want to make you see.” However, directly translated it says "want I to make seen you." Its kinda tough sometimes to understand the direction on speech.

These last two weeks have been a lot of work, we have been doing a lot of lessons, but our secteur is very small so we often find ourselves not knowing where to contact if we dont have a lesson planned. It has shown me the importance of members when it come to finding people. 

Port-a-port is not productive, and there is definitely a better way. For instance, my companion and I ran into a guy while contacting that has a room in a recreation center in our secteur. We ended up working out a deal where my companion teaches a bunch of young men-aged guys how to do jiu jitsu... and I’ve been learning a lot as well. So we showed up to this place, and everyone was looking at us funky because they recognize us as the missionaries. Then my companion impressed the crap out of them by taking on a guy who has done three years of MMA fighting. It was quite the sight to behold. So basically now, all those guys are super chill with us, and the fellow who takes care of the room told us to start leaving with spiritual messages. I see a lot of potential with that. We do it Mondays and Wednesdays.

Funny thing that happened this week... we got home once at the end of the day, and this day in particular was dang hot. When we pulled up—Elder Kokona was sleeping half in the house and half out. So I pulled the car up right beside him, as slow and quiet as possible, and honked the horn. Long story short--we almost had to rush him to the hospital because of a heart attack (joking). Fun day all around

Just know that I am working hard and just trying my hardest to be a good missionary. I hope there more opportunities to teach on the horizon, but one must have faith. I love you guys, keep it real. All is well in paradise.

Elder Goodwin

Random pictures of the week. Elder Owens (Florida), Elder Stewart (Cardston) and Elder Kokona (Vanuatu) and I on the tour of the main island.

Elder Kokona from Vanuatu.

 

An ancient Tahitian sacrificial place--back when the second of the ten commandments didn’t apply.

Maraa Grotto 

Maraa Grotto

Your average Taapuna sunset! Yes that is Moorea.

Busy day...

Busiest P-day ever. Long story short. Car had to get repaired. Did the tour of the island with a member for six hours and ended up not having any time to email. I am alive! I will answer emails next weeks. sorry guys. 

Elder Goodwin

Climbing the hills of Vallee de Taapuna, Puna'auia

Hey guys!

I really like my new secteur. It is very different from Mataiea. It is very hilly and has a lot more paved roads. There are some super-rich houses in our secteur (see picture of the gate), and there is a less affluent, more normal part, where we do about 99 percent of our work. 

Our apartment isn't in our secteur. It is just off the highway in a servitude called Chan 1. Basically the house is known for having missionaries in it---so people steal from it every night. We had someone find a way to open the window in the other Elders' room, and he entered into the home while everyone was sleeping. He stole some money and not much else. Thankfully I have my wallet under my bed. So one of these days, if the see a news report that four missionaries tied up a robber and forced it to eat stale crackers until he promised never to come back, It might have something to do with us. Long story short, the other day I had an interview with the French Gendarme, and we made a report related to the break in, so my name is on some official document thingy. FUN TIMES. 

Up on the mountain you can see all of Moorea from here. I haven’t gotten a chance to get a good picture because it has been too foggy to get a good view, but I will get some pictures in the coming weeks... it is beautiful.  

Fun experience of the day. there is this crazy old guy we call Papi. He is super nice to us, and we do lessons in his house. He really likes looking at the sun and praying in weird ways. He says he speaks Hebrew, and he talks and it kinda sounds like Hebrew. We asked him how he learned it, and he said he has a Hebrew bible. We asked to look at it and he pulled out a German bible... hahaha. He says he is the last remaining decendant of Abraham and he likes to talk to Jesus, and Jesus talks back through him in a really weird voice, We tried to talk to the 'other voice’ once. I’ve never felt like I had to cast out an evil spirit before that moment... because what ever is talking, it is clearly not Jesus. When I asked it what its name was and he starred at us all scary like. There are two things we can learn from this guy. Don’t stare at the sun and drugs are really bad for you. 

Thats just about it...

Elder BonVictoire

Contacting in the wealthier areas is a challenge!

Cool dog and our chicken named Randal... too bad about mission rules!

The future of missionary work...

Elder Owen