This week was very interesting to say the least. To start it off on not so bad news. My companion, Elder Tapuhiro, who was waiting for his visa to Australia got his visa on Friday and left this morning. I’m happy for him but I will miss him and do not have a companion for at least a couple days. I will just be on splits with the zone leaders and some of the other Elders to fill the void.
Bad news. Last P-day about 20 minutes after I finished emailing you guys, a horrible incident happened without anyone noticing for at least an hour.
Chapels hear are very open, so the door to the clerks office just leads to the outside, and after I finished emailing I placed my bag just outside the door to the office. We where 4 missionaries using two rooms right next to each other and I assumed the bag is in view from both rooms and that we have 4 missionaries, and that there is no one at all at the chapel, "how could anyone possibly steal something out of my bag... I was wrong! Someone managed to steal my camera without any of us hearing or seeing anyone. We saw nothing and heard no one. We ended up drawing out the situation and the timing of the event and realized there was a 5-minute window where he could have stolen the camera, but he would still have to manage sneaking around us without us seeing him.
I would take a picture of the diagram, but ya know... I think this is a test of my patience. sooooooooo, all the important pictures, I have sent home, but all the random fun/cool/missionary life pictures are gone... keep in mind I had 800 photos on that SD card. If we have faith, he will return at least the card, because people here are sometimes superstitions about messing with missionaries. In the past they have realized they stole a camera from a missionary and found a way of returning it. I’m not holding m breath. I will have to buy a camera here, there is a camera that takes good quality pictures that other missionaries have bought.
In other news, the Secteur is doing alright. I feel as though I have been very negative and very judgemental about the whole situation. I am really convinsed that a Bishop is called of God for a reason, and if we support our Bishop, we can accomplish great things. But if we don’t support him, we are destined to fail. Sure it is true the work is harder here at the moment... but it is not by any means impossible. It is very possible--you just have to go and find it. You have to look in different places with different techniques and eventually you get something you can work with. I feel as though a big down fall in myself is negativity, It has become a pattern.
English class is doing super awesome! I’ve really started to get the hang of it. And my students have started to really apply what we have learned. wW have started doing role plays in class so that they are forced to use the English that they know... it is super funny.
Thats all for me this week, sorry for being dumb and getting my camera stolen.
love ya. faaitoito.
Elder Goodwin