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

So many wonderful goodbyes on Bora Bora...

Well!!. I've got news. I will be transferred this after noon to the wonderfull island of Raiatea. I will be serving in the area of Tevaitoa, so I think this will be a really fun experience for me. We are in the zone of Raromatai, which is the only zone that is based in the islands rather than Tahiti. We have the islands of Tahaa, Huahine and Raiatea in our zone. 

I will be in a car again. We have the wonderful opportunity to drive a Toyota Hilux pickup, that’s gonna be really fun. My companion will be Elder Peel from somewhere in Utah (go figure!). I’ve already met the guy a bunch of times, he’s a super cool dude. He’s been out on his mission for about 20 months now so we are going to be killin it out there. 

I leave at 4 o’clock our time today (Monday, April 10). I get to take a plane this time. We will see how this new area will be. I thinks its going to be great. I'll get to visit the others islands in the zone every once and a while too. It’s only a 20 minute flight. I think that Raiatea is only like 40ish km from Bora. It's kinda like flying from one end of Calgary to the other end of Calgary

I’ve been saying goodbye to the members in the ward all this week. We will have a gathering with the members to say goodbye at the airport shuttle docks. So maybe later today I'll send those picture or next week. We will see. I overall really loved serving on Bora Bora. I’ve promised a billion people that I'll come back to visit some day. The Bishop here offered me his house if I want to come back and the owner the motu that we always go to said he'll let us stay there for free. So if we come back we won’t even have to stay in a hotel. 

This week we absolutely killed it. We were teaching lessons left right and centre. We managed to find a bunch of new investigators thanks to some awesome members and we fixed one of their baptismal dates the first lesson. I'm really happy with the state of the area right now. There is a lot of potential here. 

This week we did a huge Bora Bora wide open house at the Chapel. There were maybe 300 people there and most were not members. Elder Dalton and I took care of the class were we taught people about what missionaries are and we got the opportunity to teach the mayor of Bora Bora and answer some of his questions he has. Nice guy. 

I’m overall feeling really great, really excited for what is to come in my mission. This next area is going to be an adventure. 

I love you guys. have a great week.  

Elder Goodwin

Drawing of me... from Elder Pedron

Visit to the Bora 2nd World War Cannons

Elder Dalton and I

Busy, busy week plus General Conference

Hello!

Yes I did, in fact, spend over 10 hours this week sitting in a hot chapel for 6 oclock in the morning until the after noon to watch General Conference!. Long story short I was super tired. We decided to spend Friday night and Saturday night at the other elders' house. So we basically had a missionary sleep over. The only thing that sucked was that we had 6 elders and one bathroom, so we had to get up really early so we could all get to the chapel on time. 

The pareo’s (Tahitian wrap skirts) I bought for the young men included with the postage was only 9000 pacific francs. Not expensive at all actually. I sent it last Monday actually, so it may arrive next week. The postal lady said maybe around 2ish weeks. 

In response to your question about why I am likely coming home in November, I didn’t extend my mission at all. It is just because of some changes in Missionary Training Centre intake dates. Some of the transfer times have moved during the mission so my original return dates no longer line up perfectly. 

All is well over here. Transfers are next week so I’m a little antsy. (I have been here a long time so kind-of expect to be transferred to a new area) but all will work out well. I’m just trying to get work done this P-day so no crazy stories or anything. No huge news. But next week will be a big email probably. 

love you guys. 

Elder Goodwin

Patapata hoho’a

Iaorana!

Yes it is true, there are only two weeks left until the transfer, and it is almost 90ish percent sure that I will leave Bora. If I somehow stay I will be really surprised. 

My health is great, the lumps (lymph nodes) have gone down, you can barely see them anymore. I’m clean, no worries. 

In French Polynesia… the missionaries are probably the poorest people around, but the richest at the same time. Our allowance to buy food is actually super small, and most Elders have very little spending money. But the ward members and other locals have so much respect for us that we find ourselves not paying for stuff. We went to a small pearl shop. the guy gave us like 60% percent off everything and then threw a bunch of extra stuff in for free. We then got an amazing deal on 11 pareos, which for anyone else would have been hugely expensive. The Elders from Vaitape got to eat lunch and do a tour of St-Regis, a 5 star hotel last week. Some restaurants don't let us pay. We literally have to throw our money and run. We actually just got back from the Motu that we went to before. We were on the same boat as a couple tourists on the way there, we just waltz in and hang on the motu, eat food and play the ukulele for free and all the tourists had to cough up just to be there. The polynesian people are the nicest people ever, they truly take care of us... and I am thankful for it. 

The baptisms this week were awesome. Mami and Papi are the best people ever. They have been following the lessons for about 4 months now but they have been attending church almost weekly for about 6 months. They are the parents of our bishop’s wife, so bishop’s family played a huge part in helping them accept the gospel. I really love them a lot. Mami is kinda like my grandma from Bora. Great experience seeing them be baptised and being able to be along side them during their conversions. 

Overall life is going really well. Trying hard to stay motivated. We have progressing investigators and some potential investigators this last week.

Thats my week this week. love you guys!

Elder Goodwin

Mami and Papi baptism

Visited the motu today! 

A sign of respect...

Hi.

This week was pretty rough on the missionary work scale. But we managed to finish the week without being complete failures. Haha, naw it was alright. I'm just being hard on myself. Lots of running around this week is pretty much the best way I can describe the week. We have a bunch investigators that are progressing, but they have little things blocking them like marriages that need to be done, and such. We keep working because eventually these problems work themselves out in their own way. 

Dad I totally reallized that I forgot to even mention your birthday. I am so sorry. I am a horrible son. Just be aware that at the age of 60, in Tahitian culture I have to start calling you Papi. Be Warned. There is actually no reason to be offended, it is a sign or respect for old people. (editors note: a sign of respect for OLD people is it?). 

All is going well guys. I love you guys lots. I also got a little bit of news that I may be finishing in November rather than October. Just a little heads up. but we've still got a bunch of time before that. 

Thank you for all your love and support. Have a great week. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Elder Goodwin,

p.s.: I need to go pick up some elders on the other side of the island, so have to go.

White hot focus on the work...

Dear family and friends,

All is well on my side of the planet. the lumps (lymph nodes) are going down slowly every week. 

That's super awesome to here that the ward had a baptism. There is nothing better to bring a ward together than a baptism.

No major news this week. we ate at Bloody Mary's today, and we ate for free because this one American member that used to own Bloody Mary's is the coolest guy ever. Last week we did the same hike we did a couple weeks ago, but we brought our missionary clothes with us so that we could take some cool pictures. there are a bunch of pictures on the other Elders cameras, so I will probably send the other cool pictures next week. 

Funny thing that happened a couple weeks ago that I totally forgot to tell you guys. a couple young men and young women came up to me and told me that they figured out what super hero I am. They said that I look like Captain American.!  ...before he went through the machine that made him all manly. Soooo, I don't know how I should feel about this. I think I should just use it as motivation to workout. Sheesh

Work has been going really well. We have a couple investigators that are really progressing. So I'm feeling really great right now. My companion and I are doing really well, no worries. I’m trying really hard. I'm really loving the Ward I’m serving in right now. I know them all so well now, so its great to work with them.

I'm really sorry that I don't have a crazy amount of news.

Love you guys.

Elder Goodwin

Elder Rolls (Aus) and I doin' a little scripture study.

Elder Bayart (France), Elder Dalton (Chicago), Elder Sylvestre (France) -- my companion.

Sad goodbye to Elder Frazer... bonjour Elder Sylvestre

Hello all,

Well.. the lymph nodes seem to go down for a couple days and then the next morning they come back again. Its kinda weird, but I can live with it I think. 

Yeah, Jordan (Bester) emailed me about that last week. He'll make a really good AP He has the right character for it. He will learn a lot with all the responsibilities that are going to get dropped on him. 

That's awesome that there is a new family coming into the church! I cannot wait to meet them. You guys should invite them over for dinner or something. I think it'll be good for them to get to know the members. Make sure they feel welcome and loved by everyone. Sometimes it is hard for new members to "get in" with the Ward. 

So on Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Elder Frazer, I really really liked serving with him. He is a great missionary that has learned a lot on his mission. He is the kind of guy that doesn't look to make conflict at all. He first searches to understand before he starts judging. He is overall a very great guy. 

My new companion is Elder Sylvestre from a little village just next to Lille in the very northern part of France. He has the same sense of humour as Cobi Reeves, so we get along really well already. He is a pretty quiet guy, but he is a really good teacher in lessons. We have had a lot of fun in the short time we have been together so far. I'm pretty pumped for this transfer. 

The New elders in the district are Elder Pedron from Tahiti, who is Elder Rolls ‘son' (when you are their first companion and their trainer) . Elder Bayart from Valleiry, France who is Elder Daltons son and Elder Sylvestre who has been on his mission for about 12 weeks now and I am his second companion. Overall we are pretty pumped for this next transfer. We are going to try and make it a work hard play hard kind of district.

So yeah, this week was pretty great, we had 8 investigators attend the chapel this week. That was pretty great. And 2 of which have never stepped foot into an LDS church before. We are seeing a lot of progression in some of our investigators but we really need to focus on finding over the next couple weeks. we really need some fresh faces to teach. Overall the work is going very well. 

Do you guys have any other questions?

Elder Goodwin

Mom…  Do YOU have a ‘son’ on your mission?

Elder G… Yes. When you are a trainer you are their ‘father.' I trained Two elders, but one I don’t count because he only stayed in Tahiti for a few weeks waiting for his visa to Australia. But I trained Elder Tebaud.

Mom… Have you ‘killed’ any elders yet? (when you are their last companion before they return home). 

Elder G… Nope. Not yet. Still waiting on the opportunity. It’s awesome to ‘kill' elders because they give you all the stuff they don’t want to take home!!

Mom… Do you still have your bike with you? Will you try to bring it home with you?

Elder G.  Yes. Just in case we want to ride or the car breaks down. No.. I have an arrangement with a member in Paea to trade it for two Tahitian paddles at the end of my mission. Pretty good deal actually. 

The three senior Elders on Bora. Elder Dalton (Chicago area), Elder  Rolls (Australia) and the dude from the North Pole

Saying goodbye to Elder Frazer

Hello Elder Sylvestre from near Lille, France