06.27.11

WHAT? HAS 2 YEARS COME AND GONE ALREADY? HOW IS EVERYONE? WE ARE
GOING TO SEE EACH OTHER IN 3 DAYS!!!! I AM NERVOUS AND EXCITED TO SEE
YOU ALL!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

So, not too much to report on. We had 2 baptisms last week. I am
glad to be finishing off the mission baptizing. We'll see each other
in 3 days, ok? Here are some really good quotes:

"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out where
the doer of the deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to
the man who is in the arena. Whose face is marred with blood, and
sweat, and tears. Who spends himself for a worthy cause and who at
best knows the triumph of high achievement and who at worst fails
while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither knew victory or defeat."

"We become what we want to become by being what we want to be each
day." Richard G. Scott

"The only true happiness comes from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

"We become who we follow."

"Try and keep on trying until that which seems difficult becomes
possible. And that which has become possible is now a real part of
you." Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Mans GREATEST happiness comes from losing himself in the service of
others." David O. Mckay

You can change anything you want to change you can do it very fast.
That’s another Satanic sucker-punch—that it takes years and years and
eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it
takes you to say “I’ll change”—and mean it.

Do not misunderstand. Repentance is not easy or painless or
convenient. It is a bitter cup from hell. But only Satan who dwells
there would have you think that a necessary and required
acknowledgement is more distasteful than permanent residence. Only he
would say, “You can’t change. You won’t change. It’s too long and too
hard to change. Give up. Give in. Don’t repent. You are just the way
you are.” That, my friends, is a lie born of desperation. Don’t fall
for it. Jeffrey R. Holland

I love you all. I know that the Lord is patient with us in our
weaknesses and He works side by side with us if we will only believe
in Him and make an honest effort. I know that Jesus lives and blesses
us with challenges to give us the opportunity to be more like Him.
When we have challenges, we can make goals to more fully develop one
of the Christlike attributes that He posseses. Faith, Hope, Charity,
knowledge, forgiveness, dilligence, obedience, etc. Because those
attributes can save our lives. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet
and that the Book of Mormon is true. LOVE YOU ALL SO
MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Goodwin

06.20.11

Family!

The second to last e-mail. It feels ery strange to write that: "the
second to last e-mail." One week, and I'll be in the USA.

[Jon] is the door greeter at church. He greets everyone with a warm
smile. I feel very proud of him. He takes notes in sacrament meeting
and the inestigator's class and is always happy. He is always
active and talking with people. I've seen alot of inestigators and
new people at church, and the happiest ones are the ones who innitiate
conversations and are active in making friends. The ones who aren't
as happy and who are shy/nerous are the ones who wait for others to
talk to them and are passive.

Well, we are going to see each other very soon. I am excited to see you all.

Part of a great talk by Dallin H. Oakes:

“We can do no great things,” Mother Teresa maintained, “only small
things with great love.” When this wonderful Catholic servant died,
the First Presidency’s message of condolence declared, “Her life of
unselfish service is an inspiration to all the world, and her acts of
Christian goodness will stand as a memorial for generations to come.”
12 That is what the Savior called losing our lives in service to
others.

Each of us should apply that principle to our attitudes in attending
church. Some say “I didn’t learn anything today” or “No one was
friendly to me” or “I was offended” or “The Church is not filling my
needs.” All those answers are self-centered, and all retard spiritual
growth.

In contrast, a wise friend wrote:

“Years ago, I changed my attitude about going to church. No longer do
I go to church for my sake, but to think of others. I make a point of
saying hello to people who sit alone, to welcome visitors, … to
volunteer for an assignment. …

“In short, I go to church each week with the intent of being active,
not passive, and making a positive difference in people’s lives.
Consequently, my attendance at Church meetings is so much more
enjoyable and fulfilling.”

All of this illustrates the eternal principle that we are happier and
more fulfilled when we act and serve for what we give, not for what we
get.

I'm thankful for the support you have all given me for these 2 years.
I was looking through some letters that you have all sent me today and
man, I have an amazing family. Thanks for supporting me on my mission
and thanks for all the letters you've all sent me!

I've been thinking about some things to do when I get back and go to
Wendy's is definitely on the list. I really don't want to do any big
productions, just be with you all.

I am reading a really good talk by Jeffrey R. Holland lately and I
love what he says in it. His talk is called, "Come Unto Me." And it
talks about delivering all of our burdens in the arms of the Savior
and letting Him comfort and strengthen us and then striing to do the
same thing to others who are afflicted or burdened at this time. It's
definitely a should-read talk.

LOVE YOU!!!!!

ELDER GOODWIN!!!!

06.14.11

Well it's official. I only have 3 P days left. It's time to kick it
into 110% gear! It's time to end with a bang. A cool quote, "Our
future is as bright as our faith." Thomas S. Monson. "It'll all work
out." Gordon B. Hinckley.

Another quote of the week, "That in which we endure in, becomes easier
to do, not because our nature has changed. But because our capacity
to do it has increased."

One of the things that Elder Clarke said when he came is that we need
to get up in the morning with this kind of an attitude, "YES!!!
Another day with new opportunities and new things to learn!" Instead
of getting up in the morning with this kind of an attitude, "Holy cow,
is it already morning? Wow, I'm tired. This sucks." I have been
really trying to do that ever since he came and it changes the whole
day. How we start off really affects the rest of our day!

We had a meeting with President Veirs yesterday so that's why I didn't
write. President Veirs is a great man with a GIANT heart. He loves
each and every one of the missionaries in this mission. Yesterday, we
didn't have our P day. But today is the great P day.

This week was pretty good. The only bad part about this week was that
President Clarke didn't come. But we were able to put a baptismal
date with [Sue]. She is going to be baptized on the 25. She is ready
and has been to church 4 times now. She walked all the way to church
for the first time on Sunday. We've been really pushing her to try
and walk to church because she usually always takes a taxi. But that
is not going to be constant because she's pretty poor. So we really
told her she could and really tried getting her to walk to church
Sunday. She walked slow, but she did it! She said her bones hurt
pretty bad after she got home, but she was happy to be in the church.

Elder Salas and I were on our way to lunch last Saturday and we passed
a young lady who looked a bit stressed. We felt prompted to go back
and talk with her so we did. She is a single mom with 6 kids. Her
name is [Jane]. She was out looking for a job but didn't find one. We
invited her to church and gave her a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation
and she came to church with her daughter who is 14. We challenged
them to prepare to be baptized in the first visit and she accepted.
What would've happened if we would've passed her without saying
anything?

[Bill] shares the Gospel with pastors. Hahaha. He goes up to them and
tells them why their churches don't progress and grow. "Because they
don't have the structure of Jesus Christ's church. Because you don't
realize how serious fornication and adultery are (which is a big issue
in Honduras). And you don't have a living prophet." He just straight
up tells the pastors why. He contacts people on buses and shares
messages with them. He talks to people where he works about the
Gospel. He says a day doesn't go by where he's not talking about the
Gospel. What a stud! We gave him a Preach my Gospel and he loves it.

We had 8 investigators at Sacrament meeting last week! It was a good
turnout! Three families. Although not all the members in those
families came, 3 different families showed up.

I always carry a great talk around with me called, "The Love of God"
by President Uchtdorf and review it when I'm feeling a bit stressed.
It talks about the most important things and getting the best
perspective in life. I would reccommend reading it.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!

Elder Goodwin

06.06.11

FAMILY!!!!!

What is up? I LOVE YOU ALL and hope that you are good. How many P
days do I have left? Four!

HEY, so why was this mission conference the best ever? Because Elder
Clarke from the Quorum of the Seventy came. WOW!!!! He was full of
vibe, enthusiasm, energy. He enjoys what he does. He didn't even
have to teach very much for me to want to be like him. He truly is an
example of someone who preaches the Gospel not only with his words,
but also by his example.

He taught us heads, shoulders, knees, and toes to make sure that the
Latins are focused in their goal of learning English in the mission.
Because he said that if the Latins learn english in their mission,
they will make 4 times more money after. He asked my companion in
english, "How is your english?" And my companion just looked at me
all nervous, so naturally I told him the answer to his question and
whispered to him, "good." So he repeated that and Elder Clarke said,
"NO!!! You have a problem Elder Goodwin." I laughed at it and
thought to myself ouch complete bombardment. Haha. And then he said,
"If the Latins don't learn English in their mission, it's the gringos
falt!!!!" The man is extremely direct. But he's awesome at the same
time. So Elder Salas and I have been dilligently studying English
since then, haha!

He bombarded me yet again. He specifically bombarded me. He said to
everyone, "Who is a missionary in this room who is known for baptizing
wherever he goes?" And everyone is like, "Elder Goodwin." I was
like, "Oh crap! Why did you all say that?" Because then he bombarded
me and got 5 inches from my face and said, "Well it doesn't look like
it." But it was pretty intimidating seeing him so close to my face, I
am not going to deny it. Gall complete bombardment. But then he
said, "If I were you, I'd sit next to Elder Goodwin when you eat lunch
to observe how he is so that you can all baptize."

And when he was speaking at the pulipt, he said, "Well Elder Goodwin,
what do you do to baptize?" I told him, "Well, I see what challenges
the people have that are keeping them from knowing the Gospel and then
I study in my personal study specific points that can help them
resolve their challenge." He said, "That's an important principle
Elders." It was cool.

He said when we want to do something, we must make worthy goals. And
a worthy goal needs a plan first. Start by working towards that goal
with your heart, then with your mind, then with your strength. In
that order. The 3 basic principles to salvation are love, faith, and
obedience. He also said, "No one will worry about you if you don't
worry about others. In order for people to care about you, you have
to care about them." That man is amazing.

He showed us how to teach the Gospel. He showed us how to get a
reference. He showed us how to teach tithing. He taught us and then
he SHOWED us. But the thing that I really loved about him was his
enthusiasm and energy. When he asked for volunteers and they walked
up slow, he bombarded them and said, "GO, MOVE, DON'T BE SLOW!!!!!"
Haha. He was really direct and straight forward, honestly kind of
like a drill seargant but with love.

He said, "What makes a good leader?" And everyone started saying
things like having the spirit, loving others, determination. Normal
answers. And then he said, "A good leader is someone who thinks he
can win and makes his team think he can win as well. So everyone on
his team performs thinking they are going to win." That is an amazing
principle. Very true too. Jesus Christ doesn't think that it's
hopeless for ANY of us. He always thinks that there's hope and
believes in the potential that each and everyone one of us have as
children of God. All He does is throw touchdown passes.

Hahahaha, do you know what he said to choose a wife after the mission?
Elders, after your missions, go on dates and if you think you have
found the right one, take her to the top of a HIGH mountain. If she
complains on the way up, leave her. Being married to someone who
complains is hell. Hahahahaha. That's true, when I've been with
companions that complain on my mission it sucks. It's like, why not
just do the work? Hahaha, I laughed way hard when he said that. He
said, "Sisters, when you think you have found the right guy, CALL HIS
MISSION PRESIDENT, and ask what kind of a missionary he was. And if
he says, "Good," leave him! You need to marry an excepcional man, not
just a good man.

So that was definitely the highlight of this last week. Seeing Elder Clarke.

This last week, we had 5 investigators in Sacrament meeting. One is
going to get baptized on the 18th of June. Her name is [Suzy] and
she's like 300 pounds. She wants me to baptize her so I've been
working out lately....her son is member. I hope I don't drop her.
She has been 3 times to church and we gave her a huge poster of Jesus
Christ getting baptized.

[Jim], the convert that got baptized 2 weeks ago bore his testimony.
He said after the meeting, I don't know how anyone can say this isn't
the true church. He said in his tesitmony, "Ever since these 21 days
ago that I met Brother Salas and Brother Goodwin, I've had some very
strong trials. But I've been reading and praying and I've been able
to overcome them. AWESOME!!!!! It was so neat to hear that from him!
One of the leaders up on the stand whispered over to us, "Now THAT is
a conversion."

We had a run in with 2 pastors last week. They read a scripture that
said that there are no prophets today and that the last of the
prophets came before John the Baptist. It is a scripture that is in
Luke. So we read Ephesians 2:20 and said Jesus Christ's church is
built upon a foundation of apostles and prophets. If a church that we
see today doesn't have apostles and prophets then it's not Jesus
Christ's church. It's a church of some man. And lets remember Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if there aren't
prophets and apostles in His church today, that would mean that He
changes, and since He doesn't, His church is like that in our days
too.

They really just kind of wanted to read scriptures from the Bible and
contradict what we were saying so we just ended the appointment with
giving them a BOM and inviting them to read it and pray about it. It
almost seemed like they believe in the Bible more than they believe in
God. After teaching them a principle we invited them to ask God and
they would just say, "Show me where it is in the Bible." Berrba
(sorry I was just a bit perplexed as to how someone can believe that
there aren't prophets in our days, haha). So we asked him if God
loves him more than He loves me. No, He loves us all equally. So if
he remembered about the people in Jerusalem, He would remember about
the people in the American Continent too. And we just left them with
the BOM, testified of it, and we were off.

We taught a cool family yesterday. They are baptized in the Mount of
Zion church. So we said, "Imagine that your house represents the
kingdom of God and your waiting outside to enter." We told them to
lock the door and then I said, "OK, now I'm going to enter in the
kingdom of God. I pulled out the key I had in my pocket to our house
and tried to open their house door with it." I didn't get it open and
I asked, "Darn it! I can't get in. Why?" Because it's not the
right key. And we said that not everyone has the right key, just the
church of Jesus Christ and his authroized servants. And the guy
asked, "Well what is the true church." We taught them and invited
them to pray! It was neat because they were all very interested. The
Gonzalez Family!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Well, I'm not going to lie, these 2 years have definitely not been the
2 easiest years of my life. In fact, it's been quite the opposite.
I've seen that as we worry about others more than ourselves, things
fall into place. If we're always like "me, me, me," we're losing the
point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ never said in the
scriptures, "I'M hungry, I'M bored, I'M this or that. He was always
looking outward.

I've learned that as we worry about the first and great commandment,
all the other commandments fall into place. But if we're worried
about all the other smaller commandments before worrying about the
first and great commandment, we can lose focus and become overwhelmed.

I've learned that faith and love are words of ACTION!!!!! Saying "I
love you" is quite easy. But showing it isn't. We show it by what we
do and how we do it. If we want to have more faith, we should be more
dilligent in keeping the commandments while remembering the first and
great commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart...."

Dilligence and obedience are far more important than intelligence.
God will not and cannot bless the most intelligent man in the world
unless that man keeps His commandments. Doctrine and Covenants
130:20-21. I know that constant dilligence and obedience will build
the stairway we can all take to enter into God's kingdom and sit at
His right hand.

I know that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired. The Book is a
powerful testimony of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Chandi and
Bryan sent me a Book of Mormon with their testimonies in spanish and I
read it all and highilighted each time "God," "Jesus Christ," or
"Lord" was mentioned. And 95% of the pages were marked. Practically
each and every page of the Book of Mormon mentions God or His son.

Well that's all I got for now......

Elder Goodwin

05.30.11

Hey family,

How is everyone doing? Word to my family. I have 4 weeks left until
I finish my time in Honduras I just barely got back from playing
basketball. It went well.

I am sad to report that 2 of my fingers are cut open. Let me
elaborate. So my fan has been rigged by a Honduras man who wanted it
to spin faster and there is no fan cover for it. It's just an open
fan that spins extremely fast. So I have it at the end of my bed at
night time and last night I got really cold and I decided I'd turn it
off. I was half asleep so I wasn't able to see very good. I reached
out to turn it off and the fan hit my hand really hard. So I went in
with my other hand and it got my other hand too. So now I have 2
injured, cut fingers on both hands. Haha. Don't worry though, I have
duct tape.

Well what else is new? Oh yeah, Jose got baptized. He said that he
plans on sharing the Gospel with his daughters. He truly is chosen.
He said he didn't feel like where he was going was the truth and we
found him about 3 weeks ago.

There was a discouraging thing that happened to one of our families. They
got into a fight and one of them scratched another's arm pretty deep. So he
gathered up all his stuff and just left. He is now living in Olancho.
So we are praying that they can get back together. The Mother
feels pretty sad about it. We called the Father and he said he can't put
up with it anymore and so he left. We reminded him about enduring to
the end and counseled him to have a chat with the Branch President.
But he is still in Olancho. We try and send him scriptures every once
in a while.

Not too much else to report on. Sure do love you. I bought a couple
hammacks and a couple mashetties to bring home. I found a couple
shirts and a Honduras hat too. So I'll bring that home.

LOVE YOU!

Elder Goodwin

05.23.11

What's kickin?

Hey y'all. Whatsup? Well another week has passed, leaving 5 weeks
left in my mission. AGGGHHHH!!!!! CRAZY, huh? Time seems to fly
when you're busy and have things to do, but time goes turtle speed
when you aren't busy and you have nothing to do. We have had quite a
bit to do last week.

We had 2 baptisms! YES!!!! She wasn't sure about the
decision about 3 weeks ago and used to hide from us when we got to her
house. But she heard us pray in her room and started reading the BOM
because we sent her text messages every morning from scriptures that
are in the BOM. We basically just used the scripture mastery ones.
She really likes the BOM now. Before, she didn't. But she said as
she read the text messages, she realized that the book talks about
Jesus Christ. Now she's a member! She said that before we got to her
house she was praying to be able to find a church to go to for good.
Because she stopped going to the Catholic church. Now she's in the
true church!!!!!!!!!!

Guess who came to the baptism? President Veirs!!!! He came for a
Stake Conference and we had the baptism 2 hours before the stake
conference. So he got there early and came to the baptismal service.
He also brought my package too. So no worries there. I now have
Funyins, Doritos, Fruity Pebbles, Snickers, notes. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
THANK YOU!!!!!

What else? We taught Jose about the Sabbath last week. He studies
and reads and prays. He is chosen. He was ready before we even found
him. The thing is, we don't go down the road where he lives very
often the day that we found him. But there he was. We contacted him
and now he has a baptismal date after going to church twice.

I got my flight plans!!!! Of course I had to show it to all the other
Elders in the zone and tell Elder Salas how much time he's got left to
see his flight plans. I couldn't resist.

Life is good! The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the
only true church upon the face of the Earth. As it says in Acts 3:21,
this church and this Gospel is a Restoration of ALL THINGS. Joseph
Smith is the instrument that the Lord used in order to restore what
was lost for centuries. So what does that mean? That we can be
baptized by someone who has the proper authority and be cleansed of
our sins, that we can receive the constant companionship of the Holy
Ghost, that we can be sealed forever to our families, that we can be
baptized for our ancestors who never got a chance to receive the
Gospel while on Earth, that we are led and guided by a living prophet
and 12 apostles, that we have more scripture to guide and direct us in
our day (BOM, D&C, Pearl of Great Price), that we can receive all that
our Heavenly Father wants to give to us as we obey His commandments
with a willing heart and mind.

I know as we enthusiastically and willingly submit our will to the
Lord's will, all things fall into place. Spiritual things and
temporal things. I also know that Heavenly Father will not ask more
than our best effort and if we are giving our best effort, He is
content and we should be content too. LOVE YOU!!!!

Elder Goodwin

05.16.11

Hi family,

The last change of the mission in Honduras San Pedro Sula. Now that
the suspense has been built up, I'll let you in on the changes. There
are no changes in Olanchito! Elder Salas and I are going to be
together for another change! YAY!!!! Sounds good. I am happy about
it. So my son is going to be killing me.

This last week was really good. The guy that has been to church about
10+ times came to church and after the investigators class he said, "I
have a surprise." I want to get baptized this weekend. So we said,
"Ok sounds good, we can help you with that." He always comes and
knows a really faithful member. That's who he comes with too.

We are also baptizing one of the members of the Lopez Family along
with him. It is going to turn out great! The rest of the members of
the Lopez Family still want to get to know the church better and are
going to study more to be more sure about the decision to be baptized.

Well, something disappointing happened this last week. Remember
the guy who got baptized last week? Well, he is
awesome. He is already in 2 Nephi 29. And we gave him his own BOM
about a month ago and is already in 2 Nephi 29. He eats it up and
loves reading it. We stopped by his house to see how he and his
family were doing and we saw him with a ciggarrette in his hand about
to light it. Then we yelled hello to him and he turned and saw us and
hurried and put the ciggarrette behind his back. We talked with him
and encouraged him to not give up. He said that he just has so many
problems right now. He's not working. Him and wife fight alot. His
landlord is threatening to kick him out of the house, etc, etc.

So we went in and told him if he falls down once in a while to pick
himself back up. To not stay on the floor. We read Moroni 7:33 and
Ether 12:27 and explained that with consistent faith in Jesus Christ
and humility, we can overcome our weaknesses. We encouraged him to
occupy his time with positive, productive things. Then he wouldn't
have the urge to smoke. When a temptation comes into his mind, to do
something else to get his mind on something uplifting. Like read the
scriptures, pray, listen to hymns, picture the face of Jesus Christ,
his wife, etc, etc, etc. He re-committed himself and we felt very
good after the visit.

We found a WAY cool guy last week. Seriously, the Lord is truly
blessing us lately with people to teach who are definitely prepared to
receive the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We simply said to him,
"We teach people about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ" when we talked
to him and he said, "Well, that's good. Because I'm not sure if the
church I go to teaches me about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ." He
expalined a few flaws that the church he goes to has. And he has been
extremely receptive at just about everything we have taught him. He
reads in the BOM. He came to church last week. He is even sharing
the Gospel with others already. And we didn't even invite him to do
it! He uses the pamphlets and tells people that Jesus Christ's church
has a foundation of prophets and apostles. He is a stud. And he has a baptismal date for the 28. He participated in
priesthood and everything!!!! AWESOME!!!!!!

There was a lady that told us last week, "God will touch my heart one
day and I will be called to His true church." We read Mathew 7:7: ask
and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you, seek and
ye shall find. And we pointed out that those words are ACTION words.
They aren't passive words. It doesn't say, "wait and it shall come to
you." For example, if I lost my backpack in my house, I would never
be able to find it if I just sat down in a chair and said, "Come here
backpack. Come over here backpack. I'm waiting for you....." No. I
have to get up and look for it under the bed, under the table, in
other rooms of the house, etc, etc, etc. And so we invited her to
LOOK for the true church and to meditate upon those ACTION words in
Mathew 7:7.

We found another family who are very loving and open, they just go to
another church. We went back to their house after teaching them about
the Restoration and the dad told us, "You know, we've been
thinking....and we think it might be a waste of time if you both keep
coming to our house. We like what you teach and all, but we already
have our church." Of coures, me and my comp weren't particularly
excited to hear this but we asked if he read the BOM. "Yes. And it
teaches us to do good things. It's a good book." And we asked if he
prayed. "No." What if our message is true and you haven't asked our
Heavenly Father to find out the answer? We asked him. Don't you
think it would be wise to trust in Him and as Him before making a
decision? "Yeah. You're right."

I'm not sure exactly why but he started to explain about tithing in
the church that he goes to. That once someone understands the
blessings of tithing, they pay it. It doesn't matter if the money
just goes straight to the pastor and he has his car and his house. He
can do that. Because I'm paying my tithing and the Lord is blessing
me.

That brought up an amazing opportunity to teach about how the Lord
would have us pay tithing and whos money it is. We explained very
clearly that tithing doesn't belong to any pastor or anybody on this
earth. It's the Lord's money. It says in Malaquias, "Will a man rob
God?" It doesn't say, "will a man rob a pastor?" So we explained
that everything we do in the church we represent is voluntary. No one
is paid for anything. And we explained that the Branch President has
his own job, he isn't paid for any work he does in the church. And
then we invited them to specifically pray to know the truth of our
message.

This week was a good week. I am feeling strange knowing that my time
is about over, but I can't lie. I'm looking forward to being in the
good ol' USA. Sure I'll miss the mission, but in 6 weeks, it's time
to get back to life.

Alright the church is still true. Love you.

Elder Goodwin

05.09.11

Family,

Wanna go to Dennys?

Well, it was good talking to you. I am not going to lie, the time
went by fast. But now it's back to the service of the Lord for the
time that I have left.

I sure do love you all. I am glad that we have such a strong family
that supports each other.

My computer sucks really bad so it won't be a very long e-mail. Plus
we talked alot yesterday.

Well, we are thinking that this weekend we will have a baptism.
He is the son of the family that just barely got baptized.
He is 17 years old and it's kind of hard to find him in the house
because he works in the morning and studies at night. We taught
the two boys and the Dad how to tie a tie last week and the Dad was
there in church yesterday with a white shirt and tie. He said to me,
"Look what I did." All proud like and showed me his tie that he
himself had tied. It was funny. He received the Aaronic Priesthood
yesterday.

After the phone call, we went and visitted one of the families that we
have been teaching for about 6 weeks now. And we asked
the Mom how her reading in the things we have been leaving has been going.
She said good. "I think I want to be baptized." Well, ok. Sounds
good. We will continue to prepare her. I would bet she will get
baptized in 2 or 3 weeks.

Bueno mi querida familia. Mi tiempo se ha acabado. Me quedan 8
semanas cortas. Quiero decirles que usteded son la mejor familia en
el mundo. Quiero decirles que esta obra es verdadera. Estos dos años
me han probado. Me han hecho crecer. He pasado por tiempos
dificiles. Pero tambien he visto muchos milagros. Gracias por todo.
Sigan adelante y nos veremos en 8 semanas. Cuidense!

Elder Goodwin

05.02.11

Hello!!!!!

Just got done playing basketball in the zone leader's area. It's 2
hours away. Far, huh? I think they oughtta give us a car to use.
That would be a lot more handier instead of playing the wait for a bus
game. Gall, that's frustrating to me. We just have to sit there and
hope a bus comes by. Swear word!

Anyways, you might all be asking yourselves whether my team won or
not. We played 3 games and my team won 3. YES!!!! I played with E.
Marciel and E. Stevenson. But we won all 3. All we played was 2 on 2
with all gringos because the latins don't play basketball. Just
soccer.

This last week was awesome. Remember the family we are teaching?
They came to church for the second time yesterday and they came all
together!!!! The dad was in prison for 14 years and he smoked and he
did drugs, he did a lot of stuff. He left about 5 months ago and has
really changed his life. He said he still has urges to smoke, but he
says when he has the urge, he reads the BOM and then he forgets about
the urge. His wife stopped drinking coffee. They are cool!!!!!!

We accididentally left a Word of Wisdom pamphlet in their house after
our last visit and we went to their house to check up on them and we
saw the WOW pamphlet. We were like, CRAP!!!! Because we wanted to
explain it to them really good and be there to answer their questions
when they learned about the WOW. But they had already read the
pamphlet and they were like, "This is really amazing. I had no idea
these things are damaging for my body (coffee and tea). But they said
they'll stop consuming the things they used to consume that are
against the WOW. AWESOME!!!!!!!

The husband and the wife have a baptismal date for this weekend!!!!
The Mom participated a lot in Relief Society and
in our investigators class and the Dad asked questions in Elder's
Quorum. We've taken a few members to their house too and they really
like what we are teaching to them! YES!!

Now, their kids are having some other issues. They are both basically
adults. One is 17 and one is 22. The 17 year old works full time and
studies in high school. The 22 year old doesn't have a job but he
used to live in the USA. He picked up a really bad smoking habit and
hasn't been able to quit it. So we are going to be working with the
kids on that. I am sure they will be baptized later on this month.

In our sacrament meeting, we had 10 investigators! YES!!!! Two
families and a guy that always comes alone.

E. Salas is doing really good. He still misses his family at times.
We are working well together.

Alright, the church is still true, Joseph Smith is still a true
prophet, and the BOM is still true. I still love you. And I'm still
working hard. TAKE CARE!!!!! Cuídese mi querida familia!

Elder Goodwin

04.25.11

Hey everyone!

Happy Easter.

The following e-mail contains:
1. A sweet turn out in the Sacrament meeting, 9 investigators!
2. An encounter with the fire cheif here in Olanchito.
3. A new family that we were blessed to find.
4. Other stuff.

Well, this week was pretty sweet. We had 9 investigators at church!
Nine! YAY! Two complete families and 1 mom of a big family!
YAY!!!!! We found a new family that lives a block away from the
church. They hadn't ever come to
the church because they thought we worshipped Joseph Smith. Guess
what all the lessons talked about yesterday? Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, Fasting, Agency. So they heard and saw first hand that the
negative things people say about the church isn't true.

The dad was in prison for 14 years and just barely got out 5 months
ago. He's so humble and willing to learn. You can tell he's not
proud of being in prison for so long. He read the entire pamphlet we
left about the Gospel of Jesus christ and is reading the BOM. Reading
is a pretty rare commitment that people keep in Honduras. And they
are keeping it!!!!! They have 2 sons as well. One is 17 and one is
22. One block from the church!!!!! We have keys to the chapel and we
had a lesson in the room with the baptismal font 2 days ago. It went
really well.

We found a gigantic size Book of Mormon for one of our families. She
said she always reads the gigantic Bible we gave her but can't really
see the words in the BOM we left. So we are going to give her a
gigantic BOM. Now she can see! They are kind of reluctant about
reading the BOM because it's something new. That is a little
frustrating to me because we had such a sweet, powerful experience
with them in the very first message we had. Right from the get go.
And we were solely talking about the BOM in that first message. God
wouldn't make us feel peace and happiness about something that isn't
true. Four of them came to church last week! They invited us to their house to eat Baleadas
yesterday, an invitation which we didn't hesitate to accept.

Another lady who came to church. Her son is a member. I
borrowed him pants and a shirt to come to church with us last week
because he didn't have clothes for church. And he was pretty
inactive. But he said he'd go with the clothes. Guess what happened?
We went to their house on Sunday in the morning and she told me her
son had gone to SPS and had taken my clothes with him! haha. Oh
well, at least he can go to church in SPS. Berta came and
participated and everything. She wants to be prepared to get
baptized.

Guess what else happened this week? We met the fire marshall here in
Olanchito. The chief. They have a pretty nice fire truck in
Olanchito. He gave me a fire-fighter sticker from the station and
showed me all his badges. He is way cool. We gave him a BOM and
invited him to read it and pray about it.

Turns out, he is one of the 7 founders of a "great an abominable
church" called the Gran Comisión. He said all you have to do is
believe in Christ and you're saved. We invited him to read the BOM
and he started arguing with us about it. Saying that we have the
Bible and that Jesus Christ didn't come to the America's. We said
that God loves us all equally so that's why He sent His Son to the
America's; so that the people in America knew about the terms of
salvation as well. So that they could live the Gospel and return to
live with our Heavenly Father. He said he'd read it and see for
himself. Hopefully he reads it.

Our Branch President asked the congregation a question that really got
me thinking. "What mother from the Olanchito Branch would sacrifice
her son so that the Olanchito Branch could be saved." And all of the
mothers agreed that none of them would. God has sacrificed His son
because He loves us. He did it so we could return to live with Him.
Not alone. But with our family!

The kingdom of God wouldn't be the same alone. Sure, it would be
great everything we would ever want: peace, joy, happiness. But there
would be something missing if we weren't there all together. But how
sweet it would be if we were all their together. Imagine all of our
ancestors who endured faithfully would be waiting there to give us a
great big hug. And our father in Heaven would be there waiting to
tell us, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Difficult? Of
course. Worth it? OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!! What more could we ask for?

Jesus Christ already did His part. He gave us a PERFECT example to
follow and laid down His own life for us. Now it's our turn to do
ours. His Atoning sacrifice has no effect in our lives unless we live
according to His Gospel. We will be sad and God will be sad if we
choose not to live the Gospel and we fall short of His kingdom. We
all are placed in circumstances and places where we CAN live the
Gospel. God didn't put any one of us in an impossible circumstance so
that it was impossible for us to return to live with Him.

The church is TRUE!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Sé que la igesia de Jesu Cristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Días es
verdadera. Es la unica iglesia verdadera sobre la faz de la tierra.
Es la unica iglesia con la autoridad y poder de Dios. Yo sé que José
Smith fue un profeta. Yo sé que él fue llamado por Dios. Se qué El
Libro de Mormon es evidencia convincente de ello. Se que este libro
es verdadero.

Jesucristo vive y dirige esta iglesia. Él nos ama y quiere que
volvamos a vivir con Él. Sin embargo, eso no depende de Él porque Él
ya hizo su parte. Ahora nos toca a nosotros hacer nuestra parte. Sé
que las familias son eternas. Espero tener mi propia familia eterna
un día. Quiero agradecer a mi Padre Celestial por la misión que he
servido y quiero agradecerles a cada uno de ustedes por apoyarme.
Gracías. Dios vive y contesta oraciónes. Les quiero mucho.

Elder Goodwin

04.18.11

Well, what is up? How is everyone doing? I hope that everyone is doing good in the land of the free and home of the brave. This last week was really challenging. The family who was going to get married lied to us. They didn't show up for their wedding. They say one thing and do another. It's pretty frustrating/sad because we just want to help them. But if they don't want to live the Gospel, we can't make them. The daughter was baptized last week but didn't get confirmed. We went to their house in the morning to go to church together so that we could go to church together and they just weren't home. They said they'd be home. As Forrest Gump says, "That's all I have to say about that." This week was definitely not the best week ever. I met 2 foreigners in Honduras. One was from Belen. And the other one was from Russia. Weird huh? The Russian guy was waiting in line at a grocery store in front of us. He glanced back at us and saw our name tag and tried to pronounce my name. He spoke spanish perfectly. And English. But he talked to me in spanish and asked what church we represent. I told him what the name of the church was and he said it's a sect. "All churches that aren't the Catholic church are sects." He said. And I said, no it's a religion. It's a church. And he said all sects are from the devil. And we represent a sect. He told me I should probably wash my shirt and iron it. And he asked me what I do for the people. I told him we look for opportunities to serve the people here and preach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's like, "I build bridges. That's how I help the people." And I told him that's neat and then said goodbye and that it was nice meeting him because he was getting checked out and he said some stuff to me in Russian and did a weird sign and called me the devil in spanish and said that he hopes that I find God one day. There were a lot of people there watching it and all I did was smile and laugh instead of argue back with him. Because I really felt an unpleasant spirit as he talked. The guy was brilliant. He was huge too. About six foot 6 and I'd say 270 pounds. Pure muscle. So that was an "interesting" experience. I'll have to admit that it really bothered me right after it was over. But after I got a chance to calm myself down and think it over, I got thinking about how it's necessary that there is an opposition in all things. And that anyone can say or think what he/she wants about the church because of their free agency, but we don't have to believe them. Like in Lehi's vision, the successful travelers resisted all distractions to get to the fruit of the tree of life. We worked very hard and tried to find a lot of new people, but it was one of those weeks where people just didn't receive us. I know that Jesus Christ's love for us isn't affected by our decisions. So my companion and I were really striving to not get discouraged and to keep loving the people. I read something I really liked in my personal study last week, "Faith and hope are not products of circumstance." I know that we can chose faith instead of fear or worry in any circumstance we find ourselves in. And it can be a habit we can develop too. My son is doing much better. He is getting used to things and really liking the mission. He has a really good strength. He is really good at getting people's trust and talking to them so that they can understand whatever he would like to teach them. I just know that true happiness is found in looking outward instead of inward. Looking out to the needs of others. Looking out to their challenges. Looking out to help them be happy. I know if we focus on others' happiness, we too will be happy. I am feeling a lot of things now that my time is going down. Nervous, anxious, happy, sad, excited, worried, glad. There's just a lot of things I'm feeling. I'm grateful for these 2 years I had to work through and grow. Of course they haven't been the 2 easiest years of my life. But I don't think anything worthwhile is easy. I think that if we really want to have a good, happy life, we have to work at it. Keeping the commandments willingly and gladly is the key to happiness. But that's not easy all the time. It's obviously a lot easier to not keep the commandments. Blessings are forfeited and growth is lost when we choose not to keep the commandments. Why does God give us commandments? For OUR own bennefit. And if we follow what He asks of us, we receive peace of mind and strength. But we aren't alone here! We have prayer, scriptures, words of living prophets, the Holy Ghost, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The odds are on our side if we choose the right.

04.11.11

I'm training again. This time it's a Latin. He is from El Salvador. He is pretty nervous and worried.....just like I was when I came to the mission! So I am trying to help him and we are working good together. His name is Elder Salas. He was raised in a house with a single mom. He doesn't have a dad. His 2 older brothers are not members. Well, I got the package. Don't worry, you weren't victims of identity theft! Haha. Thanks for the socks and peanut butter bars. I feel a lot better knowing that I have a "gringo card." We had 2 baptisms last week. So things are looking good. Tomorrow, I am going to be waking up at 2 in the morning to go to San Pedro Sula for a thing that is for leaders in the mission. So that should be good. I have been waking up lately without an alarm at like 6 or 5:30 and just thinking to myself, what the heck, I only have 11 weeks left in this country as a missionary. For real. It's weird to think. I'm going to do everything I can to finish strong and go out with a kick. It's good to be training too because the ones that come from the MTC are ready to work and are more than eager to do what they're told. So we are teaching that girl and her family still. They are wanting to read the BOM a lot to be really sure. She and her family are really cool. Unfortunately, they didn't come to church last Sunday. We are going to keep visitting them because we had a very neat experience with them the first time we went to their house. I have a task for all of you: What are some good treatments for diabetic people that have sores break out on their skin? Their is a lady we are teaching who is super nice and friendly but she suffers a lot because she has diabetis. She is 84 years old and very poor so she doesn't have too much money to buy medicine. But what kind of food would be helpful. Or what is best for the wounds that break out in her skin? Another important announcement: I am going to start looking for cool things to take home with me to you all. Requests? There's hammacks, mashetties, baleadas, clocks, key-chains, shirts, sombreros, music shakers, frames, basically whatever. But what is one thing you want me to get for each of you? Anything special. This goes for mom, dad, Chandi, Bryan, Tim, Mandy, Bret, Andlie. OK? Mom, yeah I got the credit card and debit card. I feel better about things and now I'm not scrapping every lempira. I can use my funds, that is correct. I wouldn't say I'm used to the heat, because it's un-natural to be exposed to so much sun and heat. But I've learned to live with it. Ha. What the snow in April? What's going on. Yeah, you're right. Those who don't have the Gospel miss out on a lot. LOVE YOU! Jesus Christ lives and He loves us. Heavenly Father lives and He loves us. They both want us to be happy, but can't take away our own free agency. Depending on what we choose to do while we're here is what we'll be rewarded with. Whether it be good or bad. If we willingly and gladly follow the perfect, universal yet individual plan God has made for us, his children, we will be blessed both temporally and spiritually. And we will have peace of mind as we do so. Our future is as bright as our faith. I know God has called prophets in our day. What they say is what God himself would say if He were here on Earth. What a blessing! Sure we have the scriptures, but they confronted different challenges and problems in the olden times than our current challenges and problems. We get direct, useful advice and faith-promoting messages from God himself through His prophets and apostles twice a year! Joseph Smith has to be a prophet. The Book of Mormon is convincing evidence of that. It's true and has very clear teachings about Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It's easier and definitely tempting to choose fear and doubts rather than faith, but I know that each and every one of us has the capacity to choose that path of faith, even when everything around us is un-certain. Faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father is always certain. Heavenly Father knows what we can be. He trusts us. We just need to trust Him and do our best to do His will. Because He's all-knowing and all-powerful. So that would only be smart to trust someone like that. LOVE YOU ALL. Elder Goodwin

04.04.11

After I get back, I choose to follow the prophet's advice and get married! Put the date! That is on my mind after I get back from the mish. I thought that the prophet and the apostles dominated those who are done with the mission and have chosen not to have marriage as one of their priorities. I liked his counsel, "Don't worry so much about finding the right person so much as BEING the right person." Conference can be described by 2 words, "pure greatness." That was so sweet, wasn't it? They are always messages of hope, faith, and strength to press forward through any difficulty we may be facing or will face. I think that what Jeffrey R. Holland really is true, that we can receive very personal messages at each conference if we listen to them with the spirit. I really liked all the messages, particularly the ones about marriage! There were 3 or 4! That's what the next goal is going to be! The perspective we have on Gospel principles and the use of the agency God has given unto us can help us to face the future with faith, optimism, and hope. Knowing that "everything will work out for the best." Because that's how God sees it. We're His children, and He wants us to grow and learn and prepare to live with Him. And He is in charge and will place us where we need to be in order to do all of those things. But who chooses our level of faith, optimism, and hope? We do with our choices and confidence in God and His promises. Like what Thomas S. Monson said, "Our future is as bright as our faith." That was really neat. I really got out of it and felt how truly strong the desire of our Savior is that we choose to follow the teachings in His Gospel with faith and a willing heart. That is where the true peace will come. Nevertheless, He allows all of us to choose whether or not we will accept, believe, and live His Gospel and counsel that is given to us through His prophet and apostles both in ancient times as well as today in our days. On a sadder note, Elder Ellett has a change! They called us and told us of the changes and I was like NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Like Zeus when they steal Hercules in the Disney movie. I guess it will work out for the best. I know that whatever happens, the Lord is in control of this work. I'll trust in Him. This last week, we found another really cool family. The dad is already member. He was baptized when he was 15 but has been less-active for some time. His wife saw us at the Registro which is a government building and asked us when we were going to go back to her house. We had no idea who she was but she said she wanted to get married and baptized and told us where she lives. So that was definitely not by chance and the Lord directed us to be in that place at the same time she was. She has a daughter who is 15 and she wants to get baptized too. So we'd reactivate the dad, and baptize his wife and daughter if everything works out and if they choose to accept the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They have already been to church before and they came to the Conference!!!! Boo-yah is what I say. We were blessed to be able to find another family. A little kid just came up to us and said, "Hey you. Yeah you. What's your name?" And we told him our name and then asked him to take us to his parents. He took us and he has a sweet family too! They go to no church but are willing to get to know our church and listen to us. The mom is married but her husband lives clear in Roatan, which is one of the islands in Honduras. She has 3 kids that are 8 and older and we are going to be working with them. We are continuing to teach another Family. That sweet family of 9. They are awesome! The daughter just barely got out of the hospital. They operated on her and surgically removed the baby. Scary! He was born weighing 4 pounds! But everything is developed and healthy. We left her with a Liahona of the last conference and she read a few of them in the hospital. We also left her with a BOM and she read a few chapters! The whole family is WAY cool! Yeah, Conference was sweet. Well, we were teaching a Catholic man last week and he said that no one is going to take him away from his church, but he'll listen to us. We asked him if God came down to earth and told him something simple like, "You need to exercise for an hour and a half." Would you choose to listen to Him and do it? "Yes," he said. "Now, what if He himself told you that the church we represent is true. Would you choose to listen to Him and go to it?" There is another teaching that we were inspired to give from the Lord last week per your request. Yeah I got all the ticks. Hmmmmm, I would say that my top 3 talks were Dallin H. Oakes talk about "desires," David A. Bednar's talk about "Revalation" (I really liked his analogy of night and day and the lightswitch) and that one guys talk about "To be or not to be." And Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood. What about you? I will have another comp. New, experienced, I don't know. But whatever will be will be. All I know is that we're going to work hard and choose to do things with a glad, willing heart. That's one thing I've really learned last week. I started thinking about it last week and realized that as we have faith in Jesus Christ and believe in Him (His infite love, His omnipotence, His desire to help us, etc) and his promises, our hope in receiving those promises grows and the desire we have to live up to the standards He has set forth grows. We see a brightness in the future. But it all starts with our perspective. I know for a fact that the prophet's job and the 12 apostles job isn't easy. But they are glad, happy people. That's a perspective/choice they've made. I know that we can make that same choice/perspective. And we can do it most effectively out of love for the Savior and a sincere desire to follow Him and believe Him. Why we do what we do really is a powerful factor. If we do it out of force, (which is the opposite of the Savior's version of the plan; He desires that we use our own God-given agency in order to choose to do things out of love and gentless) we miss so much. But when we change our own perspective and desire to do things out of love (for Him, instead of for ourselves or anything else), we have everything to gain. And the Savior is the center of it all. As we DO, what He would have us do for the right reasons and do it willingly, we BECOME more like Him. Well, I know that we can righteously exercise our agency and receive all the blessings our Father in Heaven has in store for us our choose to not exercise it righteously; if we so desire, but we forfeit blessings and growth at the same time we do. I liked the principle that was repeated in Conference several times, "Line upon line, precept on precept." I'm grateful for you all and for the love and support you've showed me! It's time to start the kick! Elder Goodwin

03.28.11

Fam dam, Hello. Well it is good to here from you all. I just barely got back from an adventure in the mountains. I fell down a few times but just like the song "I get knocked down but I get up again," I got up again. The mountain has a lot of ticks in them. But I found and burned all the ones that got on me. They died painful deaths. We had a baptism last week. She just barely got out of the hospital 5 days ago. She had bad fevers and bad headaches. She was in a crash about 2 months ago and has been having those fevers and headaches ever since. But she accepted a baptismal date and we were able to baptize her on Saturday. This last week, Elder Ellett and I were very happy at Sacrament meeting. We got there a little bit discouraged because the investigator who promised she'd go to church made up an excuse. And when the meeting started, we had 3. But there was a whole family that showed up about 5 minutes later! Do you all remember that lesson I told you about where we just went in and started talking about the BOM? That lady and 5 of her kids came! She has 8! And like 20 grandkids. And she is the head of the whole family. What she says, everyone else does. She said she's coming next week too! She has a daughter in the hospital. The mom is about 60 years old and raised 8 kids as a single mother. She is very Catholic. We went and visitted her daughter in the hospital after church and she said that it's incredible her mom went to church because, "no one can get her out of her own church. The Catholic church." I know that it wasn't us. I know that it was the spirit. I believe that the feelings and impressions the spirit gives are one of the most convincing if not the most convincing power on earth. We assigned her Ether 12 which talks about faith and miracles. And she said she felt so calm and peaceful after reading it. She said it gave her a lot of comfort. They have called us to just go to there house and pray for the daughter in the hospital. She is pregnant and the liquid in the stomach that surrounds the baby just left for some reason. I think it's pretty easy to start thinking, "Wow, I'm a stellar missionary. I did all this work." I think it's really important that as a missionary, you recognize where the root of all the success comes from and who is in charge of this work. We're simply the instruments in the hands of the master. It's definitely important to stay humble. I really pray and hope that I'm here for one more change with Elder Ellet. He is so humble and fun to be with. I tell him he's going to be AP later on. People here have a common belief that anyone who leads a church can baptize and that all baptisms are correct if the person has his/her heart right. It's definitely an apostate doctrine. So I like using the key example to solve that. I pull out my keys and ask them what a key is used for. And they say to open doors. So I say if a key allows me to open doors, can I open your front door with the key I have right here? No. All keys are different. And then we invite them to pray after testifying we have the keys. I'm way excited for General Conference! YEAH! I'm excited to hear from Jeffrey R. Holland. I know he's got some amazing mesage prepared. Well, not too much to report on. We're still working hard. Thirteen investigators came to Sacrament meeting! YES! That's a big difference from 3 last week! YEAH!!!!!!!!! Love you. Elder Goodwin

03.21.11

Last week, we had a Multi-zone Conference with Colon and La Ceiba.
One of my children is in La Ceiba as Zone Leader and my other child
Elder Southwick is in Colon. So we were all reunited.....WE ARE
FAMILY! We were able to take some family pictures. They're in the
Olanchito folder. I'm proud of my sons.

Elder Ellett and I had a really neat experience yesterday. We had
given an old lady a ridiculously huge Bible because she said she likes
to read the word of God, but it's really hard for her because the
words are so small in her Bible. We have a humungous Bible in our
house and we gave it to her with a note in the front saying that God
has revealed more sacred text in our days. It's in a book called The
Book of Mormon.

We went to her house and her grandkids and her daughter were there
too. We small talked for a while and then started teaching. We
simply just started talking about the story of the BOM and bore our
testimony of it's truthfulness. The spirit filled the entire room.
It was definitely evident. And it wasn't just "some other lesson."
We asked the daughter how she felt and she said she felt a
peaceful, nice feeling. And we explained that what we were feeling is
the Holy Ghost and that after becoming member of the Church of Jesus
Christ, it is a gift that is promised unto us. The constant
companionship of the Holy Ghost.

It was sweet. Elder Ellett and I walked out of the house and we were
like, "That was awesome!" I just wanted to stay there forever to keep
feeling it.

I told our cook that I like eggs better than meat this last week and
she warned me not to eat too many eggs. She said, "Be careful because
eggs have a lot of cholesterol in them." I told her not to worry
about that because I have a cereal that lowers my cholesterol so it
all balances out. Honey Nut Cheerios. Hahaha, it was way funny. She
just looked at Elder Ellett and I because we both starting laughing
way hard.

We are teaching a really cool family right now. We
really feel good when we go and visit them and it's definitely not a
coincidence that we started teaching them. Within the last month, the
wife has lost her son and her father in law to death. Her son was
killed and her father in law had a bad heart. We didn't have them
planned last week and one of our appointments fell through so we
figured we would go and visit them and see how they were. We got
there 30 minutes after they found out about the father in law's death.
We gave her a priesthood blessing and said a prayer. She was
grateful for it. She seemed pretty sad. She's also pregnant right
now.

Do you know where Elder Ellett studied in college? Harvard. WOW!
What a brainiac, right? He's a smart, humble kid. And he
says he used to always eat at Brad's. Small world, huh? I really
hope we're together for at least another change. And then we'll see
who kills me. Last week, he put me in a submission because I tried to
take him down to the floor and next thing I know he had my arms pinned
down with his legs and he was over the top of me. We have fun
together.

There's some very outrageous lies that other churches spread about our
church. That we sacrifice the first-born of each family in the
temple. That we worship Joseph Smith. That we don't believe in the
Bible. That we aren't Christian. It's frustrating that people listen
to the lies anybody tells them about our church. We tell people that
if they have a question, ask us. If you want to know about soccer,
you wouldn't go to a basketball player and ask him. You'd go to a
soccer player. We're the team that knows.

There's another really big bit of apostacy in all of Honduras too.
When you talk about the true church and testify of it they say, "No,
our body is the true church of Jesus Christ. We are His church."
Because they misinterpret the scripture that says our body is a
temple. We always read in Ephesians 2:20 or Ephesians 4 which talks
about Christ organizing His church and then Ellet and I testify and
invite people to pray to find out if it is the true church we
represent. Because God wouldn't deceive them. Trust in Him and ask
Him.

There's a lot of inactives in Olanchito. I read an article in the
Liahona that I thought was neat. It talks about a guy who was with
his family driving somewhere and they saw a Lamb Corral. There was a
baby lamb who had gotten out of the Corral and was frantically running
around trying to get back in to where all the other lambs were. The
guy was worried about the baby lamb because it could get hit by a car
or become in danger out of the corral so he jumped out of his car to
"rescue it."

He started towards the baby lamb with the good intentions of rescuing
it and putting it back in the corral but to his surprise, the lamb
dashed away from him in fear. Other people got involved that were
witnessing him chase the lamb around trying to catch it and they
finally cornered it and grabbed it. Then they put it back in the
corral.

He said that's how it is with inactives sometimes. Although they may
become bothered or don't appreciate or notice our "good intentions of
saving them," at first, that doesn't mean we should stop trying. That
doesn't mean we should stop loving them.

I feel weird knowing that I have very few weeks left in Honduras.
It's a strange feeling to know that my time is becoming shorter and
shorter. I'm amazed at the experiences I've had and the strength I've
been able to receive in my testimony.

I LOVE YOU!!!! The Book of Mormon is true and brings much peace and
solace to the human heart. The Lord gave it to us to increase our
faith in Him and to help us live His Gospel so that we can have peace
and happiness in our lives and one day return to live with Him.

Elder Goodwin

03.14.11

HEY WHATSUP?

Hey fam damily. Are you ready for emailly bah? How is shooly bah?
That language I just typed in is a language called "mom." Were you
able to decode it? Haha, well this week was pretty good.

We had a baptism! But she is really bubbly and happy. She's a proud mom
of a cute 5 year old girl. Her ex-husband lives in the USA. She
mentioned that to us and asked us and we taught the Law of Chastity at
her house and it went really well. She said she has no intention of
getting back together with him.

At the end, we did a good example. We asked them to bring us a glass
of water and then put a bunch of dirt in the glass of water and asked
if anyone wanted to drink it. They all said NO WAY, and we said
that's what happens to our spirit if we aren't clean and pure.

This last Sunday disappointed me quite a bit. We have been teaching
many people and have been having really strong, powerful lessons, but
we only had 1 investigator come to church yesterday. Well, I guess
you win some and you lose some. But I'm not disappointed with our
efforts. I know we're doing everything we can. We can't force them
to live the Gospel.

Elder Ellett and I really have a lot of things in common. He likes
Chuck Norris jokes. He plays sports. He went to a school called
Wayne High School. He got 4th at state in wrestling and is a really
built kid. Him and I enjoy working and teaching together. I hope I'm
with him for another change.

Well, we had a pretty interesting encounter last week. We were on our
way to eat dinner and an old guy randomly came up to us and said, "Did
you find Bin Ladin? No? Well, he's right there." And then he
pointed to the house where "Bin Ladin was." We thanked him for
telling us where Bin Ladin was and introduced ourselves. He told us
that we're spies from the CIA and that he already knew who we were so
he didn't need us to tell him. Haha. We assured him that we aren't
spies but he said, "No in the 60's, 2 gringo ministers came here to
Honduras to do a Mass at the Catholic church and they didn't have any
prayers memorized and didn't know the rituals, so now I know that all
people from the USA who try to talk about God are from the CIA."
Well, we assured him that we weren't spies again haha, and then we
invited him to listen to our message which he declined. So we
continued on our way and Elder Ellett and I couldn't stand it anymore
at that point and we both started laughing our heads off.

There's an amazing bargain here in Olanchito. Three eggs for 15
Lempiras. That's 75 cents. Twenty 5 cents an egg. It's a cafateria
that cooks whatever you want. So as you can probably guess, Elder
Ellett and I have been taking advantage of such an irrestistible
bargain. They also have omletts.

Elder Staples was district leader in Bella Vista, which is an area
that's really close to Olanchito about 3 changes ago. Elder Ellett
was comps with Elder Staples too. Colon is really "in the middle of
nowhere." But I really like it here.

This week, we have a multizone. It will be on Thursday. I am going
to see all of my children so I am going to be taking a family picture.
Elder Southwick and Elder Rivas will both be there. It will be with
the 2 most "out in the middle of nowhere" zones in the whole mission.
Colon and La Ceiba.

Chandi and Bryan, I finished reading that BOM you both sent me with
your testimonies. I highlighted every page that said God or Jesus
Christ and I would say 95% of the pages have at least one high light
on it. It's incredible. The BOM is a very powerful book. Anyone who
truly reads it will find it hard to deny the truthfulness of it.

We had another good lesson with a lady who is active, but her husband
is inactive. We taught them about the blessings we receive through
obedience and unity in the family. We committed them to going to
church and the dad said, I'll try. We asked him what's holding him
back. He said that he has a drinking problem and that pulls him back
at times and gets him discouraged.

We promised him he could overcome it and read Moroni 7:33. We gave
him a priesthood blessing to give him strength and encouragement. We
invited him to make goals and plans to avoid it and to decide how
he'll deal with the temptation when it comes. We said he can't do it
alone, but with Christ's help, he can. And we promised him that he
would feel more of that help if he came to church with us. He seemed
more positive after what we taught him and said he'll go. But he
didn't show up yesterday. That's definitely discouraging at times
because we know he felt the spirit and we know that he knows what he
needs to do. But no one can be forced.

These 2 years have been a lot of different things. I really don't
know if it possible to put everything I feel into words. It's
something that a person really understands when he/she goes on a
mission. I'm grateful for the hard times I've had because I learned
the most in them. These 2 years definitely haven't been easy.
Probably the 2 most difficult years of my life. I've experienced
peace and happiness as I've lessened my focus on my own personal needs
and problems and focused on others' personal needs and problems.

I've experienced the support and encouragement of a loving Heavenly
Father. I've felt that my "heavy burdens" have been made light
because Jesus Christ always has his arms and heart open to carry them
with me. I know if we meekly and humbly seek Him, we will find Him.
And we will feel of the peace and relief He has to offer us. I know
that I am loved and known by my Heavenly Father. I know that my
calling to Honduras San Pedro Sula was divine. I am grateful for all
the lessons I've learned and for all the inspired leaders I've had in
my service to the Lord. I'm especially grateful for President Veirs.
I am grateful for all of you as well. Thank you.

Well, now that I don't have a credit card, we have
been forced to abandon or home and sleep under a palm tree. I feel
grateful for the shade it gives me. To eat, we find ants and once in
a while if we're lucky, we kill a monkey for meat. Haha, don't worry
mom, I still have money! I just don't have "Wendy's money."
Honestly, don't even worry about sending a birthday package. I have
enough stuff and I'll just be home in 3 months anyways. No, Copan is
the famous area with the ruins. I haven't really seen too many cool
things.

Not much else to say. Other than you all still need to try a baleada.
OK LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Elder Goodwin

03.07.11

Hey Family,

What is happening? Do you want to hear a cool story? Ok, I'll tell
you one. Don't worry.

Last Tuesday, March 1, do you know what time I got out of bed? Well,
if you guessed 1:30 AM, you are right. I got up and got ready with
another elder who was going with me to San Pedro Sula. I had no money
whatsoever, which caused a dilemma because we needed 300 lempiras to
pay for the trip from Olanchito to San Pedro. Luckily, I have what is
called a "gringo card."

So I tried getting money out of an ATM and it rejected my card thrice.
"What the heck?!" I angrily thought. But I looked at the expiration
date on my credit card and sure enough it expired on February 28, the
day before I needed it. Nooooooooo! Our neighbor/landlord is member
and he woke up and told us he was going to borrow us the money. So he
did, and that's how we got to SPS. Cool story, huh?

So that brings me to my first point in this e-mail: I kind of need
that credit card they sent you. Thank you.

I am loving things here in Colon. It is a sick zone. It is extremely
different from all the other zones where I have been, but I love it.
I am in the second most remote area in the whole mission, other than
the islands. I really, really like my area. We have a lot of people
who are progressing excellently (I don't know if that's a word or not)
towards baptism. In fact, last week we had 1. Henri. He moved here
about a month ago and lives with members. He has been to church 3
times and we put a baptism date with him last week.

The leadership meeting was really good. It was for the zone leaders,
district leaders, and trainers of the mission. They talked about the
importance of the BOM, extending commitments, extending the baptismal
invitation, and following the spirit. It was really neat. It was
also good that we were served pizza for lunch one day and spaghetti
for lunch the next day.

I got back to Colon on Thursday but ended up going back to my area on
Saturday because I had to do splits with the zone leaders because one
of them had to do the interview of Henri. So it was a really long
week and I am thankful to finally be in my area on a normal schedule
again.

We are also teaching a lady. She is a single mom. She has
2 kids who can be baptized. She had a baptismal date for last week
but when we talked to her on the phone, she said that she doesn't feel
prepared and wants to learn more. So we assigned her a chapter in the
BOM and we are going to visit her this week. Her whole family is
member.

We are also teaching another lady. All of her family members
are member except her. She had a baptismal date about 4 or 5 months
ago, but left Olanchito because she found a job. Now she's back and
she came to church yesterday. She said, "I have finally arrived at
the truth." She has been to church many times and we did the
baptismal interview questions to be sure she is fulfilling with the
commandments and she is good to go with everything. So we have a
baptismal date with her this weekend.

We're looking for families right now. I want to find a complete
family here in my last area, teach them the Gospel, and see their
baptism.

I think I told you all this in my last e-mail, but I would prefer to
be district leader 9,000 times more than being zone leader. I am glad
for the experience, but it's good to have it behind me and be district
leader once again. "Been there, done that." My bet is that President
Veirs leaves me here with Elder Ellett 2 changes and then I train in
my last change.

This area is dryer than my other areas and my allergies have really
been acting up. But I have some allergy pills to be able to combat
the allergens, don't worry.

Well, the work goes on and we're still teaching people and looking for
more to bring the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not too much else
to say this week. We are really trying to use the BOM more and
answering people's doubts with it. It really is a powerful book.
It's the tool the Lord has given to the missionaries of His church.
What is the purpose of a tool? To make the job easier. A carpenter
couldn't do his work without a hammer, a missionary can't do his job
without effectively using the BOM.

I gave my testimony in the branch and I said, "I know that families
can be eternal. I hope to have my own one day, in fact in 4 months I
will be looking for it." The members all got a good laugh out of
that.

The church is true. Although other churches may have good intentions,
they don't have a fulness of the blessings, principles, and light that
is only found in the Church of Jesus Christ. I really was blessed to
be able to think of a good example recently. "Let's say you have a
new job and your first day on the job, your boss asks you, now let me
explain to you a little about this job......you can decide how much we
will pay you. Do you want us to pay you $20 an hour or $50 an hour?"
Obviously, fifty dollars an hour.

And people receive more blessings and more knowledge about the Gospel
with Jesus Christ's true church. Families are forever and we have the
universal solution to life's challenges and difficulties. When things
get rough, and when storms are raging, we can ALWAYS find solace and
comfort in the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The more we
learn about Jesus Christ, the more we will want to follow Him, and the
more we follow Him, our joy, happiness, and peace will become deeper
and stronger. "He walked such a lonely path so that we don't have
to." Jeffrey R. Holland. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
Steve Prefontaine

Elder Goodwin

02.28.11

FAMILY,

OOOY! That is the greeting in Olanchito. It's funny.

Hello! I am in my new area! It's in Colon. I am in an area called Olanchito. I think it's probably the best area I've ever heard of. Seriously though, it's sweet. They have everything here. I am in a branch. Colon is the only zone in this mission that is a district. Although this area is a branch, we have a chapel. We also have keys to the chapel.

My beloved son is in this zone with me. Elder Southwick. And I am in a position to see my other beloved son Elder Rivas because he is zone leader in La Ceiba. La Ceiba and Colon are the 2 most "out in the middle of no-where" zones there are in this mission. So when there are multi-zone conferences, La Ceiba and Colon are always together. So I will be having family get togethers with my kin and take pictures and send them to you.

President Veirs started off the change meeting by telling an experience a member of the first presidency had. I can't remember who it was, but he was called as first counselor to the prophet, the prophet passed away, another prophet was called, and that same guy was called as second counselor. He was asked about how he felt after everything was set in stone and he said, "It's not important where we serve, it's important how we serve." I thought that was really neat. They lowered 4 other zone leaders to district leaders as well. All 4 of us are about ready to finish the mission off.

I am district leader. I am very happy about that because I couldn't get as much done as I wanted to when I was zone leader. We always got bombarded by meetings, phone calls, etc. But I think district leader is the best leadersip calling in the mission. You can really put your shoulder to the wheel and at the same time help the missionaries that are in your district.

We have 4 baptisms lined up in our area for this weekend. All of them live in the house of members. She is 24 years old and her parents are members. We also have another guy who is 14. He moved here about a month ago and lives in a house with all members. He is 14. They all went to church last week.

My companion's name is Elder Ellett. Another gringo. Haha, anyways, he has 8 months in the mission. He is from Wayne. He went to Wayne High. He wrestled, played baseball, ran XC (that's always one of the first things I find out with my comps: what sports they played). He is a stud. He is very humble. He speaks spanish good. He has only been here for 1 change so I think we'll be together for 2 changes and then they'll send me someone to "kill" me. That's what it's called when another missionary is comps with one who is ending the mission.

We had a really good lesson with a lady last week. She was baptized as a baby and all 5 of her kids were baptized as babies too "so that they don't go to hell if the Lord decides to take them." Well, I know that we were guided to be able to help her understand that it's an incorrect practice to baptize children. I asked her, "If you washed all your laundry with soap and water, would it make sense to wash already clean clothes with soap and water again that same day?" She said no, it would be pointless. We told her that when we are born, we are clean and pure, you can't clean and purify that which is already clean and pure. And then we read Moroni 8:10-12 which talks about how people need to be able to have the capacity to sin in order to be baptized. And babies don't. She loved the verses in the BOM and said it's really clear. We left all of chapter 8 with her. She committed herself to reading and praying.

We also had a good lesson with a family who is a bit in-decisive about whether or not they want to go to the temple. We asked the lady this question, "Why do we study in high school?" To learn. "Would we be able to find a better job and make more money if we study in a University after graduating from high school?" Of course. We'd be better off and more prepared even though it's a bit of a sacrifice. We compared the church in our area to a high school and the temple to the University. We explained that we receive more blessings and more light and more knowledge if we go to the temple. Even if we have to make some sacrifices. We promised her blessings as well.

You know how I got here from San Pedro after the change meetings? Wow! So we had to be the first ones to leave because we're so far away. The bus ride was 6 hours! SIX HOURS! I'm with Elder Cornia still, who was a new missionary I really liked in La Lima. We stopped at a gas station and they had Creme Soda so of course I had to buy some. We got back to the zone leader's house, slept, then had a zone meeting the next day in the morning. Then I finally met my comp and got to my area. My area was another 2 hours from where we had the zone meeting. So I got to the house very tired.

This week, we are going to be having a leadership capacitation Tuesday and Thursday. So everything that it says in the paragraph above will be repeated! Oh joy, right! I need a private airplane or something. I'll have to give Uchtdorf a ring.

Yeah, La Lima had to have baptized AT LEAST 25. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they baptized more than that this last weekend, but I don't know how they ended up doing. I'll find out tomorrow. The area is pretty developed. It's got paved roads and stuff. The only thing unique about Colon is that it's a very, very tough zone. It's said that a missionary comes here as a boy and leaves as a man. Because it's always the lowest zone in baptisms. I know that we can baptize in this zone though. President Veirs tells us, "To want is to be able to." If we think we can first, we will be able to do it. Sister Veirs is going to cook dinner for the zone who baptizes the most in March.

No, we have someone that washes the laundry. I thank the Lord for that too because it sucks to wash it by hands. It's a really nice service these sisters do. The one that washed it in Planeta had a washing machine. Same with the one here in Olanchito. Yeah, I still have a cook too.

LOVE YOU ALL. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!! Obedience is not a burden or something that limits our freedoms. It's a privilige and gives us more freedom and more blessings. If we obey with love, Heavenly Father truly opens our eyes to be able to see His hand in our lives and to find the strength and comfort we need to keep on keepin on.

Elder Goodwin

02.21.11

Hey Family-

My family. What is new in the land of Utah? How is everything going? How is life? I have a question for you all. Have you ever heard of an ipad? Because Pres. Veirs and Sister Veirs each have one. They came to our stake conference last week and whipped it out and were looking at documents and stuff and I was completely mind-boggled. "I stood all amazed." I think I may have even drooled a little bit. I was grateful that they asked me to play the piano so that I could be close enough to witness that. That is so hi-tec. So from what I saw, it's a portable, touch screen, thin computer. Am I right? Wow. The world has really gotten hi-tec on me since I've been gone.

Well, I have a change. It will be good to get to a new area. I would like to go to Colon or La Ceiba. La Ceiba is the tropical part of Honduras with all the beaches and stuff. I have learned a lot here in Planeta. Just a few things I've learned: What do we solve by worrying? Not too much. A high-council guy said that we shouldn't worry, we should fill our lives up with worth-while things, and if we're worried, make goals that will reduce those worries and get to work so that we can accomplish them. It's a lot more simpler in spanish: no debe preocuparse, debe ocuparse.

I also learned that we can enjoy a fulness of blessings and joy and peace if we are dilligent in a good cause. I really like what Josh said in his e-mail that mom sent me a while ago, "Satan chooses his workers when they're idle, the Lord chooses them when they're working."

I also learned that once we believe in the Lord and our own potentials, we are bettered and grow. There are no limits. He knows where we are and what we need to learn or develop to become more like Him and His son Jesus Christ and will help us along that path if we trust in the promptings we receive and truly believe that He can reveal such things to us.

Obedience is the way the Lord wants us to live our lives. And each one of us is free to choose if we will heed that counsel or not. If we do it with a humble, willing heart, we will see blessings. Msh 2:17, 41. We must do it for the right reasons though. The "bite the bullet" approach to obedience is better than not obeying at all, but it's best if we obey for love to our Heavenly Father. Everything should start with love in our callings. When we truly love someone, we receive revalation to help them.

When we have problems or concerns or worries, we can forget about them if we lose ourselves in the service of others. I can't remember who said this but it was a general authority, "Man's greatest happiness comes from losing himself in the service of others."

Many times, God doesn't necessarily take away our trials or hardships, but rather gives us the strength, faith, and pacience that we need in order to endure them well. But he does know our threshhold perfectly and will not overprogram us. Each ipod has a different storage capacity and it just doesn't work if we try to fit more than it can hold. It's like that for our own lives, temptations, trials, burdens. But the Lord will not put more into our capacity than it allows. He can bless us with these trials to increase our capacity and prepare us to live with Him with our families, but He knows where the line is and won't cross it.

Anger and frustration don't solve anything. And we all have our agency in order to decide how we will react in different circumstances. We can all choose to refrain from such feelings. Like it says in 2 Nephi, God has created 2 things, things that act and things that are to be acted upon. We are to act.

The scriptures contain important personal guidance for each and every one of us. I know it definitely does for me. If we look for those bits of guidance Heavenly Father has placed in there for us, we will find them. And we will come to know Him and His Son as close friends. Our desire to follow the Gospel will increase and our minds will be illuminated by the Holy Ghost as we face challenges or difficulties.

In a book I'm reading, Mother Teresa was told that there was no possible way she could even put a dent in the worldwide problems of hunger, heartache, broken homes, depression. So why even try? She was asked. Her response, "God doesn't ask that I succeed, he just asks that I put forth my best effort."

Another cool book I'm reading that talks about the difference of believing in Christ and believing Christ. I'd like to share with you all something from that book. It was written by a bishop and teacher at BYU. A guy came into his office once and said, "I'm just not Celestial kingdom material. There's no way I can live all those laws and qualify for that glory." The bishop responded to him by saying, "John, why don't you just admit your real problem. You don't believe Christ." The man was at first offended. But the author went on to write saying that even though we cannot make ourselves Celestial kingdom quality, Jesus Christ can. If we say we can't do it, it is as though we don't believe that Jesus Christ can cover for our shortcomings, sins, and mistakes. But if we faithfully and sincerely honor our covenants contained in His Gospel, He will make us Celestial kingdom material.

Another sweet example from that same book, the author took his 2 twin daughters out swimming for a family home evening. He was planning on teaching them how to swim. His daughter is 3 feet tall and he started wading out with her and they got to 3 and a half feet deep and as soon as his daughter couldn't feel the bottom, she panicked and got very frantic and scared. In the author's words, "She was completely unteachable." He grabbed her and told her this, "Don't worry. I love you. I'm your dad. I wouldn't ever let anything happen to you. Trust me." She calmed down and trust her dad and he was able to instruct her on how to swim. "Alright, now start kicking." He said that's how it is with our sins sometimes. At times, we get all fretted about things we have done or fall every once in a while and start getting frantic and scared. But Jesus Christ is always mindful and just wants us to trust Him. He loves us. He wouldn't ever let anything happen to us. If we truly trust Him, we will be able to overcome anything. Because He has already experienced every possible trial, temptation, sin, feeling that can happen to us.

Anyways, so I guess that's my sermon for the week....haha. I haven't given one of those for a while in my e-mail but I figured I'd do one today. Now just a few happenings in the area.

We had the stake conference over the weekend. I was drug into the choir. I don't know if I'm going to tell my next area that I play the piano because I get bombarded......no I will, just joshing. It was really pretty. We played child's prayer and I Know that My Redeemer Lives. I don't know if I can hear out of my right ear anymore because there was a flute player that played with me and I think she may have exploded a lung she blew so hard. It was pretty, but she played right in my ear. OW! President and Sister Veirs talked in the Conference.

In the zone, we are going to have a super baptism this weekend. Well, I won't be here, but everyone else will. We should have 25+ baptisms in the zone. We have been planning it since last week. In our area alone, there are 5 possibilities. One woman who was baptized 3 weeks ago mentioned to us the following, "I was baptized when I was 15, but I don't remember them giving me the Holy Ghost. I really want it. Can you check and see if I got it?" She was pretty sincere and frantic about it, but we told the secretaries to check and she's not registered as a member. So we may end up baptizing her again.

I have been really blessed ever since day 1 in my service as a missionary with endless support, packages, and letters. In the MTC, let me tell you about our trips to the mailroom. The district leader is the only one who knows the code and there's a little window that lets you see all the letters inside. All the elders in my district would get there running and with glimmers of hope because they saw so many letters and after all, if there were so many letters, there had to be at least one for each of them. The district leader would proudly pull out the stack of letters and start calling the name of the missionary's who got mail. Here's what was heard in my district when we got mail, "Goodwin, Goodwin, Goodwin, Goodwin, Petersen, Goodwin (moans of disgust from the other Elders), Goodwin(Another one? That's like 8), Durfee, Goodwin(Lets not tell Goodwin anymore when we go and get the mail), Goodwin, Larkin, Goodwin(OK, I'm not even going to bother going through the rest of these letters I'll just give them all to Goodwin). Hahahahaha, but I really do want to thank you all for your support.

OK family, good week. Love you all a lot.

Elder Goodwin

02.14.11

Hey Family,

Well, another week has come and gone. I played basketball again today. In the rain. It was really fun. I lit up the 3-point line. It was pretty hilarious because Elder Sorenson would be all up in my face and I would just drain it. He's like, "How is that possible?" But I guess when you're good, you're just good....haha. We played a five game series and he ended up go out on top 3-2. I'm choosing to be pretty angry at my computer right now, it is not writing my sentences until about 5 or 1 seconds after I type them. AHHHHHH!

So this e-mail might be kind of short again because of my ridiculous computer. But like the subject of this e-mail states, we had a baptism on Saturday. She was going to get baptized last week, but she got really sick and they took her to the clinic. But she has a testimony and really likes the church. I baptized her.

Another cool thing that happened was that I did splits with a new elder named Elder Kapple. He is really cool. He played football and basketball so we got along really good. We put a baptismal date in his area together. We also put a goal date for the 26 for another investigator they were teaching.

There's a lady in our area who no longer goes to church because she was offended by a member and we are working with her and he family. The whole family is inactive. But, I think that they will be able to become re-activated. The husband went to the baptism we had so that is really good. We started teaching them the lessons over again just like any other investigator.

We are still working with many families who just need their papers. We had 14 investigators at the sacrament meeting. We are going to be working with them.

The work moves forward.

Love you so much. We are the masters of our own destiny. A cool quote, "A man who has a clean, beautiful vision of his aspirations and goals will one day realize them." Another cool quote, "Reap a thought, sow an act, reap an act sow a habit, reap a habit sow a character, reap a character sow an eternal destination." I love you all so much and I know that we can be partakers of the fullness of the blessing Jesus Christ has to offer us because we are members of His church and therefore have the right to do so. According to how we decide to use our agency. It's always easier to give in to temptations or stray off the straight and narrow path, but we sacrifice many blessings in doing so. Eternal blessings and blessings we can obtain right now.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Goodwin