Busy week of good-byes and hello's

Hey guys,

The transfer went really well last week.

My new comp is Elder Terry from Riverton Utah. He has been on his mission for 21 months so he will be finishing here with me probably in August. I’ve met him a couple times before so we know each other alright enough. It's going to be a fun couple of transfer periods together. 

It was kinda weird to say good bye to Elder Peel because now I have to lead the area, but I’ve only been here for 6 weeks. I think it'll be fine. I’ve just gotta get a little more used to the new areas, and the new responsabilities a little quicker. All is good. 

President Bize will be coming down to Ra’iatea next week. And the Assistants to President will be staying with us for like 3 days to do splits. It’s going to be really fun and we are going to get a lot of work done. We will have four missionaries in the area. It'll also be the last time that Pres Bize comes down to Ra’iatea, because he is finishing really soon. So we will see what comes of this visit.

Not a lot of crazy stuff went on this week. We just worked a lot and said good-bye to a lot of people for Elder Peel. I'll be on for a little bit still if you guys have any other news.

Wait, Is there anything crazy going on in world news? We are honestly in an information hole over here. 

Love you guys!

p.s. Nope. My mail and packages haven't arrived yet. It will probably arrive on Wednesday in a big bunch. No worries; Im super pumped though!

More on our Plan of Salvation conversation starter display

Just another amazing week on Raiatea...

Ioriana, bonjour,

It doesn’t take crazy long to get a package from Papeete to Ra'iatea, it all depends on how fast the Missionaries in the office can get it to the docks. Considering that there is a rather big transfer right now. it may come next week. 

So ya, there is a transfer right now actually, we have a lot of changes in the zone, my companion is headed to Tautira to go a finish his mission. So I will be getting a new companion... Elder Terry. He is from the States and has been on his mission for about 21 months. I’ve met him a couple times, he pretty cool, it’s going to be fun. 

Because of the fact that President Bize is heading out (finished his 3-years as Mission President) in June, the July transfer was cancelled. So that means and Elder Terry will surely be staying together until August, since Terry will “die” (finish his mission) in August, That means that I will likely stay here until September at the earliest. And because we are getting a new Mission President, I may just finish my mission here. That'll be awesome, I’m really loving it so far.

This week we did a really cool activity in downtown Uturoa, we rented out a spot in the main plaza and got a big old tent thingy set up with some tables and chairs. We bought wayyyyyy to much chalk and just let my companion go crazy. (and very talented artist BTW) We did the plan of salvation, and while all of this was happening we had a sister who has an absolutely beautiful voice play the ukulele and sing in Tahitian. We contacted people from every island in Raromatai. (the Leeward island group). it was crazy how many people where interested. There was even a cruise ship there and we contacted people from Portugal, France, the US and everywhere in between. It was overall an amazing experience. The picture I sent wasn’t really the final Stage of its progression. Peel ended up adding a bunch of blue and purple in to make it look like it’s floating around in the galaxy. Overall a very cool experience. 

We had our Baptism this week. It was a really awesome experience. Papi is probably the coolest guy ever. And he is in mega good shape. I want him to train me.

I got to do a split with an Elder from Tahaa (the little island beside us). Peel got to go to Tahaa and I got to stay with Elder Jenkins. It was really fun. Jenkins is a really good missionary, lots of potential. 

So yeah. my comp takes a plane on Thursday, so by next week it'll be a whole new era in my Mission life. So that'll be fun to see. I’m doing fine and dandy, happy to see you guys had fun at the cabin!

love you guys.

Elder Goodwin

Oh and my branch mission leader is going to make a traditional Marquisian Tiki and A large Tahitian fish hook for the house. It'l be cool. 

Vanilla farm, this is a wilder more traditional set up.

Elder Peel's gospel sidewalk art!

Soeur Rakotomalala is going home. Just a little farewell picture.

Papi's baptism

Peel, Papi and I

Mother's Day Skype call... check!

Bonjour,

Mother’s Day Skype call… check!

It was great talking to you guys on Skype yesterday. It almost feels normal now to just Skype every 6 or so months and then just not see each other for forever. So this time it'll be the same thing but we won’t be waiting on a Skype call. It will be in person! I don’t really feel “trunky" at all thankfully.  Because we just have sooooo much work to do. We are busy enough teaching our investigators, but on top of it---our other responsibilities keep us moving a lot. For now we are all golden.

Talking about bringing things home…. I will have space in my suit cases. I’ve been starting to get rid of stuff that I will no longer need for the rest of my mission. Since I don’t have a bunch of time left, I can live with only so many shirts and pairs of pants. and I’ve been carrying around a bunch of stuff from the beginning that we thought I would use, but haven’t yet found a use for them. So I think the space thing will not be a huge problem. If anything becomes a problem I can send non-valuable things by mail. 

Thats going to be a fun calling for you Dad. Just remember to be the "cool seminary teacher". Not the "lame seminary teacher". Find creative ways to get those good-for-nothin kids workin! 

No worries about my birthday package being a bit late. I guess I kind of deserve it after opening my Christmas package two weeks early!

Well. that's all for this week. I love you guys. keep being cool!

Elder Goodwin 

Travels et travaux

Salut friends, 

We worked out with a member how we are going to do the Skype call on Mother’s Day. Normally we will be calling around 12:30 p.m. or 1:00 p.m. our time. So just after Church for us. I’m excited because it will be the last Skype call of my mission!  The next time you will see my face not in picture---will be when I step off the plane. Heh heh… don't think about that too much, it'll just make you sad.

This week has been super great. We found a couple of really potential investigators this week, and thanks to a couple of members that know them, we had really great lessons with them. I can’t wait to see how they progress in the gospel.  We also have a baptism coming up on the 20 of May. Its' an old man that has followed the lessons for years and finally is planning his baptism. He is super pumped. Literally everytime he sees us he says "bien tots!!! papetito!!!!" Papetito means baptism in Tahitian. We teach him in Tahitian and he helps us out, and corrects our grammar when we make mistakes. Overall love the guy. I wish you guys could meet him.

My companion, Elder Peel and I also got to take a plane this week to Tahiti for a Reunion with President Bize. It was super fun. We got to go to the temple and do a little bit of shopping that you can’t do in Ra’iatea. (including a trip to MacDonalds). We got to stay with the Zone leaders of Fa’a’a, That was really fun. It was weird to be in Tahiti again. There were so many cars it scared me. Bora Bora and Ra’iatea have, like, no traffic. So it was weird to travel on highways again. I also don’t think I’ve driven faster than 60 km/h since 2016.

The reunion was great. I learned a lot… and we had a lot of stuff to share with the zone.

I’m super down to make you guys some 'poisson cru.' i also am trying to find a way to send some fafaru water (fermented sea water) home. I’ve heard of Missionaries doing it. If not we might have to find a way to buy sea water back home, and we can ferment it.

That’s all i have for this week. Love you guys!

Elder Goodwin

Pilgrimage to the fast food gods.

Elder Peel and I had a trip to the Temple this week. What a nice break.

Our district. 

Left to right: Soeur Weyland, Soeur Larsen, Soeur Basset, Soeur Rakotomalala (Madagascar), Elder Peel, Elder ME, Elder Hanson, Elder Alfred (fun fact about Elder Alfred, he was in my EFY (Especially For Youth company in France.)

A week of uplifting conferences...

Hello Fam jam,

I haven’t heard any news about the Skype call thingy this time around, I don’t think it’ll be a problem though. (editor’s note: Russell calls home on Mother’’s Day).  I’ll set stuff up this week and on monday we will fix the time. We have some members here with internet, so it should work out alright.

Yes we did have a conference here on Ra'iatea. In fact it was super great. We had the presence of Brother Cahoon and Sister Cahoon (A general authority) from Edmonton, Alberta at our conference. They presided over the Perth, Australia mission. (and they are somehow related to Travis we think). Brother Cahoon was the missionary that baptised President Bize’s parents in France, many years ago. I really liked the conference, It was really fun and I felt very edified after the conference. We overall did a lot of running around for President, but that’s kind of our job. No complaints. We even did a split with President Bize and Bro Cahoon.

in a lesson with Brother Cahoon there was a fight going on in the ‘quartier.’ A very poor quartier btw. And there were people pointing 5-foot long harpoon guns at each other, and we were caught in the middle. Long story short, the police were called and the gentleman we were teaching ended up coming to Church the next day. Brother Cahoon saw the best and the worst of Ra’iatea. heh heh!

Oh and we also had a Stake Conference here where my companion spoke in the general session. We also had the Presence of Elder Nielson of the Quorum of the 70 was there. Super great man. We had the opportunity with speak with him a bit and to hear some of his talks. Super enthusiastic and a very grounded man. Loved it. Overall an uplifting weekend. There were so many keys on the island this week.

In answer to your question about the Google maps picture of our house… it is the one of the left side of the chapel, closest to the entrance to the parking lot.

And about the pares I sent, the lady that made them is the best pareo maker in Bora Bora. Thats right. I’ve got friends in high places. heh heh.

Thats all I think... any Questions?

Elder Goodwin

P.S. My friend also carves Tiki’s. What do you guys think of Tikis? I might ask him to make me a couple. as long as we don’t pray to them... they make a great decoration.

Wood working with Dmp (Ward Mission Leader) Rudy.

Not sure if we actually helped him, but it sure was cool to Watch.

Tahitian style ukelele