Hello Family,
What is new? Not much here, just working hard in the work of the
Lord. I hope you all find yourselves well when you get this letter.
It sounds like everyone is doing well. Keep doing well. It has not
been hot at all lately. I am losing my golden Honduras tan. COME
BACK SUN! It's been really cloudy and rainy. Strange, huh?
Well, this last week was filled with a lot of cool events. We had a
service project, a ward mission activity, a wedding, and a baptism.
It was a good week.
Well, we had a baptism last week! On Sunday at 7:30 AM.
Early, huh? But he has been ready for a while, he has just been
saying he's worried he's going to fall and not continue forward, he
wants to be really sure, etc. And he already knew the BOM was true so
we have been explaining to him that that is sufficient right there,
and HIM and HIM only will decide if he falls. You have your agency,
we have been explaining to him. There's a really good scripture in
the BOM that says those who perish, perish because of their own
iniquity, something to that extent. We read that with him and it
really helped. But he accepted a baptismal date last week so that is
really good. His sister was baptized 3 weeks ago.
We had a marriage on Saturday. The
wife is only 17 years old so that mom had to come with us and sign
some papers. They have one kid that is 2 and a half years old. So
that means that she got pregnant at the age of 13 years old! CRAZY
HUH? That is actually fairly common in Honduras.
We also had a mission activity that turned out really good. We got 40
references from it! UNITY!!! Our mission leader is the best mission
leader I've ever had and he basically organized it all. We started
with a simple video, "Finding Faith in Christ." He then made a
scripture chain of scriptures that had key words in it that had to do
with common things in a church: rug, wall, pulpit, sacrament,
baptismal font, etc, etc.....And then he taped another clue to that
object. He talked a bit afterwards and challenged the members to
think of a reference and write it down. It turned out really good and
fun.
There is no such thing as a coincidence in this work. Her is another
neat experience. Another extremely uncoincidential (big word huh?)
thing that happened this week: I went on splits to Fesitranh with
another elder who has like 4 months in the mission. We went to the
house of a really less active member and she
asked us if we could come back another day, they were busy. But we
saw that her daughter was doing homework for her English class and
offered to help her with it. She accepted.
She saw my name tag and told me, "Hey, the sister that baptized me is
named Sister Goodwin." She asked me if I had any girl cousins or
aunts that served missions. To my knowledge, I don't so I told her
no. But she hasn't been to church for 5 years and I told her that
it's not a coincidence that we find ourselves together at your house
today. Because we hadn't even planned coming here, Elder Nelson just
told me that we should go visit your house. She knew English because
she lived in the states and she was talking to us in English so we
responded back in English and shared a few thoughts and words of
encouragement to her in English. I really had to think about what
words to use, it felt very different, but we could really feel the
spirit.
I'm pretty sure I will have a change, so I have been thinking about
the people's houses I want to stop by before I head out. It makes me
feel sad but at the same time there is anticipation to see what my
next area will be like. I love so many of the people here. I have
told 2 specific families to call me up when they go to the temple for
their sealing, because I would like to be there. I told them I will
pay for it if they don't have the money, because it's quite a
sacrifice for people here to go to the temple in Guatemala. But in
2012, they will have a temple here. The Rodriguez Family and The
Orellana Family. I love how generous and how caring the people are
here. I know I will never forget them and keep in touch with them
even after I'm done with my service.
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! The church is true.
Elder Goodwin
What is new? Not much here, just working hard in the work of the
Lord. I hope you all find yourselves well when you get this letter.
It sounds like everyone is doing well. Keep doing well. It has not
been hot at all lately. I am losing my golden Honduras tan. COME
BACK SUN! It's been really cloudy and rainy. Strange, huh?
Well, this last week was filled with a lot of cool events. We had a
service project, a ward mission activity, a wedding, and a baptism.
It was a good week.
Well, we had a baptism last week! On Sunday at 7:30 AM.
Early, huh? But he has been ready for a while, he has just been
saying he's worried he's going to fall and not continue forward, he
wants to be really sure, etc. And he already knew the BOM was true so
we have been explaining to him that that is sufficient right there,
and HIM and HIM only will decide if he falls. You have your agency,
we have been explaining to him. There's a really good scripture in
the BOM that says those who perish, perish because of their own
iniquity, something to that extent. We read that with him and it
really helped. But he accepted a baptismal date last week so that is
really good. His sister was baptized 3 weeks ago.
We had a marriage on Saturday. The
wife is only 17 years old so that mom had to come with us and sign
some papers. They have one kid that is 2 and a half years old. So
that means that she got pregnant at the age of 13 years old! CRAZY
HUH? That is actually fairly common in Honduras.
We also had a mission activity that turned out really good. We got 40
references from it! UNITY!!! Our mission leader is the best mission
leader I've ever had and he basically organized it all. We started
with a simple video, "Finding Faith in Christ." He then made a
scripture chain of scriptures that had key words in it that had to do
with common things in a church: rug, wall, pulpit, sacrament,
baptismal font, etc, etc.....And then he taped another clue to that
object. He talked a bit afterwards and challenged the members to
think of a reference and write it down. It turned out really good and
fun.
There is no such thing as a coincidence in this work. Her is another
neat experience. Another extremely uncoincidential (big word huh?)
thing that happened this week: I went on splits to Fesitranh with
another elder who has like 4 months in the mission. We went to the
house of a really less active member and she
asked us if we could come back another day, they were busy. But we
saw that her daughter was doing homework for her English class and
offered to help her with it. She accepted.
She saw my name tag and told me, "Hey, the sister that baptized me is
named Sister Goodwin." She asked me if I had any girl cousins or
aunts that served missions. To my knowledge, I don't so I told her
no. But she hasn't been to church for 5 years and I told her that
it's not a coincidence that we find ourselves together at your house
today. Because we hadn't even planned coming here, Elder Nelson just
told me that we should go visit your house. She knew English because
she lived in the states and she was talking to us in English so we
responded back in English and shared a few thoughts and words of
encouragement to her in English. I really had to think about what
words to use, it felt very different, but we could really feel the
spirit.
I'm pretty sure I will have a change, so I have been thinking about
the people's houses I want to stop by before I head out. It makes me
feel sad but at the same time there is anticipation to see what my
next area will be like. I love so many of the people here. I have
told 2 specific families to call me up when they go to the temple for
their sealing, because I would like to be there. I told them I will
pay for it if they don't have the money, because it's quite a
sacrifice for people here to go to the temple in Guatemala. But in
2012, they will have a temple here. The Rodriguez Family and The
Orellana Family. I love how generous and how caring the people are
here. I know I will never forget them and keep in touch with them
even after I'm done with my service.
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! The church is true.
Elder Goodwin
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