My last transfer to the north coast of Tahiti!

7:05 a.m. local time, Raiatea---Hey guys. This isn’t my big email. If I have time later today I'll send another. This is just a heads up that I’m taking a plane in like an hour to go to Tahiti. I will be serving in Tiarei as senior zone leader for the stake of Mahina. I will be finishing in that area. I'll send more news when I get to Tahiti!

Elder Goodwin

12:39 p.m., Papeete, Tahiti---Hey guys. I won’t be able to send any pictures this week because of lack of time. But I’ll be sure to send a couple pictures next week. 

I took the plane this morning and I'm currently sitting on Tahiti doing my mails at a member’s house. There is a pretty big transfer going on right now, so we are and will continue to be pretty busy for a couple days running around dropping people off at the airport and dropping stuff off at the mission office. I’m in a trio for a couple days until the other Elder takes the airplane to replace me in Raiatea. I will be serving with Elder Hollowell from North Carolina. He will be finishing his mission in three months so we will be killin it over here for the next six weeks. 

In reference to the Calgary ward reorganizations… It’ll be really interesting how the new Ward works out. it's really going to change the dynamic of the ward. 

Well, I don't have much to say and not much time... I love you guys. I'll try and keep you guys in touch next week about how the secteur is. 

Elder Goodwin

The hair is great... working hard on Raiatea

Hello!

As for transfer news I know absolutely nothing for sure. But because of long-time experience dealing with transfer calls. It is 80% sure I will be transferred but as to where I will be going there is no possible way to predict. Transfers are the most illogical thing. There is no way to predict it. It's just pure revelation. 

My hair is doing well... as usual. (editor’s note: we sent some hair product to him at his request).

Basically this week was a super great week in the area. We managed to work a lot with the members (which had been our goal). We felt inspired to visit a guy in our in our Ward to engage him to find us an investigator. When we chatted with him he said "do you guys really want a reference" then he turned and led us to a house a little ways away and introduced us to his brother. We had a great discussion with him and it seemed that he really felt the spirit. We fixed another lesson for later this week. Now that's how missionary work should be. We literally engaged a member, visited a reference, taught a lesson all in about 30 minutes.

Next week we will be heading over to Tahaa for a training with Haamene Branch (a small congregation) and the Ward of Cumorah and the Branch of Hipu. (there are two branches and one ward on the island of Tahaa). We will also make the most of our two-night stay by doing a split with the 4 four Elders over there. 

Well that's basically all I’ve got for you guys. Today we will be working at our branch mission leaders place. We will be finishing up our little projects. Stay tuned!

Love you guys!

Elder Goodwin

Raiatea

Tahaa

Teaching, traveling and Tiare Apetahi

Hey guys, 

I’m writing late because this morning the district united (got together) and climbed a mountain. It was great. I sent some pictures of the highlights. 

This week was a very good week. We taught lots of lessons and managed to find a new investigator through a reference from a member. Always awesome when that happens. It’s one of the member’s brothers who is going through kind of a rough patch in his life. He’s very receptive and motivated to find solutions through the gospel. Golden find.

Other than that... the week was very normal. We got to fly in to Tahiti for another leadership council. We had some good teachings from President and Sister Fox, as well as a great, and rather well needed training on leadership roles. It was also great to see some of the Elders I know. When you are separated from the rest of the mission by an ocean for over 10 months people start to forget you exist. 

Sadly we did not have time to stop by “Macdo" this time around... 

Overall a great week. It'll be interesting to see the changes in the North Stake Ward boundaries. It'll also allow you guys to meet some new people. Fun times! 

Thanks for the email. Oh and the package got here. You guys are the best.

Elder Goodwin 

The only two pictures I took of our trip to Tahiti for our leadership council. This is of Bora and the one below is Papeete. 

A cool multi Ward "mini heiva”

A member tried to photocopy their ipad. Made me laugh.

Hike pics. 

Meet Elder Ward (guy with crown thing) Elder Cottle (tall guy) and Mario (a cool member).

Picture of the Tiare Apetahi. Extremely rare flower. There are only two plants like this and they are only found on the Temehani mountain on Raiatea. And yes I did take that picture.

Hiking in the jungle

Family and friends,

Haven’t gotten the package yet. I may get it on Wednesday or Friday.

Long story short, fishing didn’t work out this morning and we just ended up wasting a lot of time...

I’ve actually lost a bunch of weight lately. I working on gaining some more muscle right now with some exercise.

Sorry for the lameness of my email. Not really a whole lot to report. Companion and I get along alright. My Tahitian is doing a lot better. I bore my testimony in Tahitian from the pulpit on Sunday.

See you guys in two months.

love Elder Goodwin

These pictures are from our split with the Elders quorum. We literally hiked through the jungle to go visit members.

And two planner covers I made...

Training, travel and a terrific family

Hey guys!

This week was suuuuuuuuuper busy, more like the last couple weeks have been super busy. We didn’t have a full day in our proselyting area until Sunday. We were just constantly at the boats, or at the airport picking up and dropping off missionaries. And we went to Tahaa for a training with a branch council and a ward council. Oh and four areas in the zone got “white washed” so we have been working on damage control with the transitions of the new missionaries.

The training went great. We really have a great relationship with the leaders over in the 1st ward plus two branches of Tahaa. They keep asking us to come back for Firesides and trainings. It has also help motivate them, and this has resulted in those areas starting have way more success. The missionaries of Tahaa, Cumorah Ward moved into a new house so we all got together and had dinner with them. It was really nice to get to know the new missionaries.

Funny story. We ate at a super awesome oldish member’s house the other day. And while we we were eating there was an old timey French movie playing in the room next to us. It seems that the movie was about slavery and stuff, so throughout the evening my companion and I had to try and not laugh at the insane amounts of racial slurs coming from the other room. Good thing my comp has a good humour about that kind of stuff.

Tahitian 101
Funny Tahitian language discovery while talking to a 92 year old lady. The common word for “weed” here is "Pakalolo" which is actually a Hawaiian word. So I asked the mamie how they say it in Tahitian. She said its "Papaateroro." "Papaa" means “to burn” (while cooking) and "te roro" means “the brain.” Hmmm… makes sense. Oh and computer in Tahitian is "Rorouira" which means “electric brain.”

This week we have a Zone Conference with President Fox and the assistants. It will be nice because the four missionaries of Huahine will fly down to Raeatea for this one normally. It'll give us a chance to meet the new missionaries. There are a lot of unique challenges when your zone is split over three islands.

We are teaching the coolest couple ever. They are 24 and 22 years old, and by some miracle they have already been married for four years and have two little daughters. (co-habitation is very common here). They have been progressing really well over the last couple months and we are helping them prepare to be baptized in September. And they both have a solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. They are probably my favorite Investigators.

Thanks for all you guys do! Love you!

Ta!

Elder Goodwin

Boat to Tahaa

And the view from the patio (Cumorah) chapel.

More of the view of Bora from Tahaa, Cumorah Chapel

Little dinner with the 4 missionaries of tahaa. Prepared by the couple that came down to help with the move. 

Elder Omorodion and I on our way to Tahaa

Driving the boat!

My comp and I wearing Nigerian clothing

Yay... we got a truck but boy do we need it!

Hello, 

My companion (Elder Omorodion from Lyon, France) says a medium t-shirt could work but send a large maybe just to be sure. 

Its crazy to hear that Divine San Juan is already home from Hong Kong and her 18 months are done!. It just shows how fast time flies. 

Yes! We finally got the truck. And good thing because we picked up literally sooooooooooooo much stuff from the boat. Because of all the transfers lately and the fact that the mission office has sent us four beds, four mattresses, a dryer and many other things for the houses here… the first day with the truck we drove over 200 kilometres. It was one of those days where we were out running errands from 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night and didn’t think to eat. Normally we shouldn’t have another day like that for at least another week. That way we can actually do some proselyting, heh heh.

We had some great lessons this week. We taught a lady this week who has been investigating the Church for over 20 years. She and her husband recently made the decision to get married and for the wife to be baptised in early November. She broke down in tears when she told us. That’s when you see the true fruits of repentance---when people make a conscious decision to make changes in their life and therefore feel the spirit more strongly. 

Soooo. I’m almost done reading the standard works (the Scriptures) in French, so for the last two months of my mission I’m only going to study in Tahitian. Every personal, companionship and language study will be in Tahitian. IT’S GONNA BE SICK!

Elder Gary E. Stevenson arrives this week. We will be watching the Mission conference over webex this week. Kinda sad to be out in the islands sometimes. We get to miss out on some really cool opportunities. 

We’ve been spending most of our p-days hanging with our branch mission leader, wood carving at his place. It may be something I will get into wood carving as a hobby one day. It’s a very satisfying skill to have.

Well that all I’ve got for you guys this week. Keep staying classy!

Much love

Elder Goodwin 

We got a truck!

Elder Omorodion and I realized we hadn't taken a picture together yet. So we snapped this one real quick for you guys.

Logistics, luggage and lots of change

Hey guys!

In answer to your inquiry, I don't really need much in the package. Maybe a little Canadian souvenir for my new companion. 

Heh heh, soooooo, yeah... this week was pretty crazy hectic (spell check please)! We had the hugest transfer call I’ve ever seen. Literally half our zone was white washed. (editors note: this is a term for when you take out a whole companionship and put in two completely new missionaries).  And all the missionaries were leaving last Friday. So all day Thursday, we were dropping everyones' stuff at the boat and picking people up to go to the airport. We haven’t recieved our new truck yet so we only have one Toyota Avanza on the island to get everything and everyone around. Elder Terry and I may have set a world record by fitting 9 large suit cases, 1 bike and a back pack in that little car all at the same time. We also dropped nine missionaries off at the airport and picked up 6. Just for Raiatea and Tahaa. 

So my new comp. is Elder Omorodion from France. Although he was born in Nigeria and stayed there until he was six years old. He’s a very cool dude! It’s nice to have a French companion because it helps me speak less Tahitian creole. He’s been on his mission for about 15 months now. So he’s still got a lot of time left. 

It was sad to see Elder Terry go. By tomorrow he will be with his family. It was kinda hard to serve with someone who is finishing… because he was thinking and talking a lot about school and home life. So it made me think of those things too for a while... but all is well now! 

Yes… I’ve now been on four of the five islands of Raromatai (the Leeward Island group). The only island in the group I haven’t visited is the island of Maupiti. I had a companion from there. It’s very small. Only 12 kilometres around. 

The district has changed a lot, so I will have to send an updated picture next week. The picture I sent is the old district before the transfer. 

The work went well this week, but since we are the only car on the island for the moment, we had lots of little errands that hugely distracted us from getting a lot of work done. Normally by friday we'll be good.

Thanks for the picture guys, you guys are lookin good!

Love you guys! have an awesome week!

Elder Goodwin 

A selfie in case you forgot what I look like

Raiatea District before the big transfer this week

The picture Mom and Dad sent me that I commented on...