WWAAZZUUPP?
Hello my white skinned friends and family. How is everyone doing in the land of the free home of the brave, home of the black president, Barack? Haha, speaking of him, some crazy old man asked me this week if I had Barack Obama's phone number so that he could talk some business with him and that he needed 3 million Lempiras and he knew that I could help him with that. I was just like ok, atta boy, come to church. I was like, well let me just pull out Barack's number because all gringos have his number right? I was like completely baffled and confused and I thought to myself, "Does this man know where he is right now and what he just said? I think he's a bit mixed up right now." Haha, we actually have an appointment with him so we'll see how that goes. I have just learned to expect crazy, unexpected things in Honduras.
Another awesome thing that happened this week. I utilized the roll of duct tape you all sent me to make a sweet duct tape ring. It is so awesome and I wear it with pride. A bunch of missionaries spend like 500 lempiras on a ring here in Honduras but I proudly say that mine was free and I made it myself with my own intellect and idea. Oh yeah, another awesome thing you could send me is more duct tape. The more the merrier.
To answer your question, yes I technically could have an ipod shuffle. Just not an ipod that has videos and stuff like that with that capability. That's why I didn't bring mine. Well, that and it kind of didn't work anymore. Haha. I wouldn't mind at all if you sent me one. Put really soft, relaxing music on it. Hymns, motab, spoken word, amazing talks, conference, Lex De Azvedo (piano music mom always had), legacy, pioneer trek music, childrens hymn book stuff. I would enjoy all that.
I wear size 10 and a half shoes, yes. I think ecko is a really good brand too. My rockports are really good, but they have a really soft sole so they wear down pretty fast. But alot of missionaries here have eckos and they are really durable.
Guess what, family? My zone is planning an incredibly amazing activity where we are going to go paintballing in Honduras next week! Paintballing in Honduras! YEAH! So awesome. I was getting ready to hear that we were going to play soccer again like we always do and they said paintballing so we'll see if we get permission and stuff.
This week, my cook made me a fish. She just cooked the whole thing with bones and everything so I had to eat it and pick through all the rib bones and spine bones and stuff. It tasted pretty good though. Then she made the best meal I have had here in Honduras. A ham and mayonnaise sandwich. Holy cow that was so good.
I added to my collection in my journal this week too. I caught and killed another tarantula last week and it is now displayed as a trophie in my journal. Another one of my trophies. It's decent sized and put up a fight before we finally caught it. Now it is dead and taped in my journal.
I learned something really cool this week from someone who was selling a toothbrush on the bus. Yes a toothbrush. When we're on the bus waiting for it to leave, there's a ton of people who come storming on to bombard us with bags of chips, popcorn, fruit, drinks, etc. But there was a guy who had a bag of toothbrushes on the bus. Before he started talking, I just thought, does this man honestly think people are going to buy his toothbrush? He started talking and made the toothbrush sound like something people would want and didn't get in peoples faces and was very polite and talked for about 3 or 4 minutes on why we would need the toothbrush and then said he's going to throw in 5 free pencils with a toothbrush for only 20 lempiras. And then he started offering the toothbrush and people were actually buying his toothbrush. Something as simple as a toothbrush, he was able to make appealing and desirous. It's a simple thing that we all use and need, but he was able to sell it to quite a few people. I thought that's how it is with the Gospel. At times there's people who just kind of throw or hurl or force the Gospel on people like the people who sell chips, drinks, popcorn on the bus and get in your face, but if we set up the Gospel as something people need and want, they will be able to see it's value in their own lives. And the free pencils the guy gave with the toothbrush, we can promise free blessings that Heavenly Father will give us. Anyways, that was something interesting and cool I learned this week.
This week, I have been sick but I'm finally getting over it. I had a little cold but I still was working really hard and taeching and I recovered pretty fast.
The majority of the people we are teaching right now have told us they can't even pray after we've invited them to pray. So we've been teaching them the steps. They've been telling us sometimes they forget, sometimes they're too tired, sometimes they don't think anything is accomplished by praying, etc. I love the scripture in 2 Nephi 32:8-9. Satan, or the evil spirit tells us all these things and he doesn't want us to pray. But God does. So we should listen to God and we always need to feel that He love and listens to us. Because He does. So that has been going pretty good.
Haha, a girl started asking me and Garcia this week if we could get married while we are missionaries. We explained that no and she said when I come back, I have to marry her and she was serious. I was just like, uh, well... were you able to read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we left for you? Haha. It was a great moment of changing the subject. If only I weren't so beautiful.....Haha jk. But tons of people try to flirt with Gringos here because "they all have money." I don't know who started that urban legend.
Hello my white skinned friends and family. How is everyone doing in the land of the free home of the brave, home of the black president, Barack? Haha, speaking of him, some crazy old man asked me this week if I had Barack Obama's phone number so that he could talk some business with him and that he needed 3 million Lempiras and he knew that I could help him with that. I was just like ok, atta boy, come to church. I was like, well let me just pull out Barack's number because all gringos have his number right? I was like completely baffled and confused and I thought to myself, "Does this man know where he is right now and what he just said? I think he's a bit mixed up right now." Haha, we actually have an appointment with him so we'll see how that goes. I have just learned to expect crazy, unexpected things in Honduras.
Another awesome thing that happened this week. I utilized the roll of duct tape you all sent me to make a sweet duct tape ring. It is so awesome and I wear it with pride. A bunch of missionaries spend like 500 lempiras on a ring here in Honduras but I proudly say that mine was free and I made it myself with my own intellect and idea. Oh yeah, another awesome thing you could send me is more duct tape. The more the merrier.
To answer your question, yes I technically could have an ipod shuffle. Just not an ipod that has videos and stuff like that with that capability. That's why I didn't bring mine. Well, that and it kind of didn't work anymore. Haha. I wouldn't mind at all if you sent me one. Put really soft, relaxing music on it. Hymns, motab, spoken word, amazing talks, conference, Lex De Azvedo (piano music mom always had), legacy, pioneer trek music, childrens hymn book stuff. I would enjoy all that.
I wear size 10 and a half shoes, yes. I think ecko is a really good brand too. My rockports are really good, but they have a really soft sole so they wear down pretty fast. But alot of missionaries here have eckos and they are really durable.
Guess what, family? My zone is planning an incredibly amazing activity where we are going to go paintballing in Honduras next week! Paintballing in Honduras! YEAH! So awesome. I was getting ready to hear that we were going to play soccer again like we always do and they said paintballing so we'll see if we get permission and stuff.
This week, my cook made me a fish. She just cooked the whole thing with bones and everything so I had to eat it and pick through all the rib bones and spine bones and stuff. It tasted pretty good though. Then she made the best meal I have had here in Honduras. A ham and mayonnaise sandwich. Holy cow that was so good.
I added to my collection in my journal this week too. I caught and killed another tarantula last week and it is now displayed as a trophie in my journal. Another one of my trophies. It's decent sized and put up a fight before we finally caught it. Now it is dead and taped in my journal.
I learned something really cool this week from someone who was selling a toothbrush on the bus. Yes a toothbrush. When we're on the bus waiting for it to leave, there's a ton of people who come storming on to bombard us with bags of chips, popcorn, fruit, drinks, etc. But there was a guy who had a bag of toothbrushes on the bus. Before he started talking, I just thought, does this man honestly think people are going to buy his toothbrush? He started talking and made the toothbrush sound like something people would want and didn't get in peoples faces and was very polite and talked for about 3 or 4 minutes on why we would need the toothbrush and then said he's going to throw in 5 free pencils with a toothbrush for only 20 lempiras. And then he started offering the toothbrush and people were actually buying his toothbrush. Something as simple as a toothbrush, he was able to make appealing and desirous. It's a simple thing that we all use and need, but he was able to sell it to quite a few people. I thought that's how it is with the Gospel. At times there's people who just kind of throw or hurl or force the Gospel on people like the people who sell chips, drinks, popcorn on the bus and get in your face, but if we set up the Gospel as something people need and want, they will be able to see it's value in their own lives. And the free pencils the guy gave with the toothbrush, we can promise free blessings that Heavenly Father will give us. Anyways, that was something interesting and cool I learned this week.
This week, I have been sick but I'm finally getting over it. I had a little cold but I still was working really hard and taeching and I recovered pretty fast.
The majority of the people we are teaching right now have told us they can't even pray after we've invited them to pray. So we've been teaching them the steps. They've been telling us sometimes they forget, sometimes they're too tired, sometimes they don't think anything is accomplished by praying, etc. I love the scripture in 2 Nephi 32:8-9. Satan, or the evil spirit tells us all these things and he doesn't want us to pray. But God does. So we should listen to God and we always need to feel that He love and listens to us. Because He does. So that has been going pretty good.
Haha, a girl started asking me and Garcia this week if we could get married while we are missionaries. We explained that no and she said when I come back, I have to marry her and she was serious. I was just like, uh, well... were you able to read the chapter in the Book of Mormon we left for you? Haha. It was a great moment of changing the subject. If only I weren't so beautiful.....Haha jk. But tons of people try to flirt with Gringos here because "they all have money." I don't know who started that urban legend.
God has a lot of worries. Wow. This last week, I've just been thinking about all the problems in all the families in the world. Alcohol, abuse, neglect, people suffering from hunger, thirst, etc. I have only seen a taste of it in Honduras and it has made me think how many prayers and people and His own children God helps. I have also learned that in many instances, God answers prayers through other people and we need to recognize promptings and help others keep moving forward and carry burdens with others and lift those up who are fallen. It's his work and glory to help each other out here.
We have a lady who has told us that all this stuff is great and she will believe the moment that we bring the prophet, Thomas S. Monson to her so that she can shake his hand herself. We just taught Alma 32 and how that really isn't faith. We have to have faith in things we can't see and if she reads BOM, goes to church, and prays, she will receive and answer but God will try her faith first. She is really one of the smartest ladies in Honduras I have met but is saying she hasn't received and answer and stuff. She has told us we teach really well. She has told us she's already baptized, but she hasn't gotten Holy Ghost through laying on of hands. She just said, ok I'll just come to your church one week and get the Holy Ghost and I'm good to go. We explained that that's not right and that only 1 church has that authorization to perform those 2 ordinances. Only 1. We're working with her right now.
Sundays in Mezapa are like a war. The young men and women bombard us and grab and eat all our food and grab my plack and grab my passport and grab stuff out of my pockets and grab stuff out of our room and all have ADD. But I love them and am patient with them. I teach the young men and women because E. Garcia doesn't want to because he says he will use violence. I taught about Abraham and Isaac yesterday. It went really well and I was able to get a good message across. I started out by asking them to think of something or someone they couldn't live without. A bunch of them said TV and cell phones and after I'm just like, OK now starting from now on, you can't watch TV or text EVER AGAIN! You have to sacrifice it and be obedient to what I told you. They all were like, whoa no way. Then I said, they can continue watching TV and texting, have no fear. It made them realize how obedient Abraham was when the Lord commanded him to sacrifice Isaac.
Anyways, the work is going really good. We taught 24 lessons last week and were really busy. There were a few days that we didn't even eat dinner and just had sandwiches and stuff in the house. We're working really hard and seeing the fruits and the seeds being planted.
We have a date this Saturday for a lady to be baptized. She is really receptive and has been going to Seminary already for like 2 weeks. She told me Sunday that she likes the church and wants to be baptized. YES! And we may have the baptism in a waterfall so that will be awesome. I will take pictures. We have no baptismal font here and so we do it in the river or a waterfall.
We also have a family that has like 8 kids in it. There's one kid who always has to be smiling at everything and everyone. He's a stud, really cute. We have taught them and they say God is angry with them because they're receiving us because they're Catholic. I had to tell him, no he is not angry and how have they felt as we have been teaching them? Sad, depressed, bad, discouraged? No they said. The opposite. And that means that those feelings are from God letting you know this message is from him.
We taught a family who let us in because we got them laughing when we contacted them. I told them I'm Honduranean and they didn't believe me and laughed at that. So they let us come back. The lesson was really good and they don't come to church and haven't prayed and asked if this is the true church but I learned to be happy and fun with the Gospel so that people will want to be that same way if they live and accept it. Maybe we planted a seed with them.
So guess what else happened this week? I was just walking from an appointment minding my own business when I felt a rock hit me in the back. It was a good sized rock too. It was thrown pretty hard but luckily, it hit me where my thick backpack strap is. It still hurt but if it would have been thrown 6 inches higher, it would have nailed me in the head. It was a little kid that threw it and so I tried to find him to tell him not to throw rocks at people but he just ran off.
The kids here are so chill and relaxed. They just run around barefoot and play soccer and are happy all day. They play with bugs, chase chickens, chase dogs, do whatever and just have fun with each other. They're so cute.
The dogs have no shame here. They are out of hand and are "making new dogs" in the middle of the street here.
Goodwin family, I am grateful for all of you and all your support and testimonies. You all strengthen me each week. Many have asked what I would like for my birthday. If you can find a mini preach my gospel in spanish, that would really be helpful. There are a few Elders who have it here and it's really light weight and handy. More peanut butter is always handy. More chocolate. Butterfingers, twix, snickers, reeses. Best 4 in the world. Junior bacon cheeseburgers....haha jk. Oh yes, and peeps. Wow. Such deliciousness. Ipod shuffle with sweet, relaxing church music with speakers if you can. Or CD's. Whatevers easier for you. Also size 10 and a half black shoes. Ties. DI ties. I desire DI ties. More got 2 be glued gel and salsa verde chips. Michael Dowdel guitar music for sure in a CD or ipod. I'm doing ok wth garments right now. I've got plenty. A blanket with fleece, not too heavy but one that will keep me warm when there is a rare occasion of coldness. A sweater too. Another journal too. And if you can, a basketball with a pump. Those are some ideas but I will be happy with whatever you send me.
As I am reading all of your emails, I am always smiling and laughing right out loud. The people here always look at me and are baffled at what I'm laughing at so often but all your emails are way funny and entertaining and comforting and constant and just what I need to hear and I thank you all for that.
I will return in an hour to send more pictures. I love you all soooooooo much! Church is true and blesses us. Lets be obedient and keep moving forward.
Elder Goodwin
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