Serving in Tevaitoa and Vai'a'au, Ra'iatea

Hello Dearest Fam jam,

So the easiest way I can explain where we live is that we live in the parking lot of the chapel of Tevaitoa. There is a little building just to the left of the chapel. (The Chapel is the 'H' shaped building on the road in the clouds at the southern end of this map) That is our home. It's kinda weird, but I can dig it.

So I am now in the area of Tevaitoa on Ra'iatea, but we also cover the area of Vai'a'au which cover all the way to Fetuna on the southern part of the island. Our area almost covers half of Ra'iatea. It is by far the largest secteur I've served in and one of the biggest areas in the mission right now. Thankfully we have a car.

This week was crazy busy. We got a lot done, but also did a lot of running around pickup stuff and throw it on the boat for the missionaries that transferred. We had a couple of changes in the zone, so that was a lot of work for us.

Funny story of the week. Left the phone on the roof of the car and drove about 2 kms to a lesson before realizing that I had put it on the roof. "Praise the Lord!" the phone was still there. Such a tender mercy of the Lord. And for the totally unrelated reason we now have a new phone in the area.

We have a bunch of really potential investigators here, we will be doing a lot of really good work together. I already know Elder Peel pretty well so the ice was already broken before we even started. So we've hit the ground running. I'm really excited for the opportunity to be serving here.

Just an overall description of what the area is like. The far away areas like Fetuna are super sparce and very secluded. Some of our investigators just live in the jungle. That is the only way that I can explain it. The mountains here are beautiful. I'll have to try and get some cool pictures of it. The island itself is just very wild in places. And there is a lot of Tahitian spoken here. And the Tahitian accent is super clear and clean... which will help me out a lot. Moustaches seem to be popular here, I've counted at least 30 different men in the ward with moustaches. There are also a lot of what we call, "faapu's" which is like a garden/farm thingy. Lots of vanilla and taro grown here. I've already gotten a gift of a bunch of vanilla that I dont know what to do with, but i'll try and bring it home. Smells great.

For the birthday package, send mostly mediums and a small for my comp. My comp is a very small man. So yeah... heh heh.

All is well here. I'll try and get some cool pictures of the area for you guys.

Elder Goodwin

Ps: I love you guys.

Transfer day from Bora Bora.

Last view of Bora Bora. Triste! I fell in love with this place and the people I served and the people I served with.

Just a regular trip to the boat docks to ship out luggage and bikes from the missionaries who were transferred.

This Tahitian equivalent of "Big Gulps" for the road trip. 

Bonding with Elder Peel in our little apartment.

Tahitian vanilla pods.

A beautiful little motu near our home. 

Elder Peel and our wheels