Weekly Email - January 28th

Hey family,

This has been a colder and slower week. On Monday we went to Schindlers Factory. However, by the time we got there it had closed. But we were able to go to the giftshop and buy a replica cup of the cups they used to make there. We will go back again this week but go out earlier.

I went on exchanges with Elder H in Katowice. I took a bus out there and it was good to see Elder H again. Tuesday was an awesome day. We got a call and were reminded that there was a branch get-together in the evening. Katowice has a pretty big branch. The senior couple were being transferred so they were having a party to see them off.  So we made a bunch a calls to invite people to the get-together. We did some contacting for a while without much success. After that we went to a lesson with K, who is a recent convert. We taught him about family history and showed him familysearch.org. After that we did some more contacting. In the evening we had the branch get-together.  The branch members were really neat. The branch president seems awesome. They have such a nice branch there. We had an investigator that showed up and we taught him an impromptu lesson. Elder H and I worked so well together and we were able to very naturally go back and forth during the lesson. It was a really fun exchange. That was pretty much it for the exchange since I returned to Krakow on Wednesday.

On Wednesday after I got back we had English. We had our 2 usual students show up. They have really good English and we do a lot of conversation practice. We also reviewed numbers. M stayed after the class and we had pretty good conversation with him.

Thursday we went to do our service project for SA. We shoveled snow and cut wood. We also shared a message with him. Can you believe that I Elder Brian Godwin your son shoveled snow. I’m proud of it too! After we left there we did some contacting.

Friday we had weekly planning. We have some good things planned for this next week. We also have been going through the area book and I have good feelings about that. We also went to the chapel to meet with SW. We read together out of 2 Nephi 31. We discussed baptism and he is planning on being baptized in February. So we are working on preparing him for this.

On Saturday it was way cold outside. So we decided to go through our area book. We decided to call on the contacts that were in the book. So that is what we have been working on yesterday and today. We have also done some more contacting on the streets.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any investigators at church this week. I was a little sad about that since we had 4 investigators last week. Next week should be better though because one of our investigators were out of town this week but should be back by next week.

Elder S gave a talk at church today about the Priesthood. President K also gave a talk. It was also a very good talk. He talked about how we have to prepare ourselves, and those around us for the future. He talked about how we live in a difficult time, and that we as members have to rise above what’s going on in the world. We also had branch council and we were informed that we have a boy who is turning 8 and is going to be baptized. So we are supposed to go and teach him and get him ready for baptism. That will be really cool! We will share some of our favorite scriptures with him. So hopefully we will have 2 baptisms in February, which will be really neat. After church we made more calls from the area book and set up some appointments.

We had dinner with the U family again and President K was there too. We have dinner with them most Sundays. It was really nice and we shared a spiritual message with them. I will share that with you too.

Alma 19

This is when Ammon is with the Lamanites and he is speaking to their king. The king is in the process of being converted. Ammon is speaking with great power. The King and His wife the Queen and all that are listening go in to a trans as if they were dead. All except for a woman that had already been converted because of her dad her name was Abish.

Verses 16 & 17

 16 And it came to pass that they did call on the name of the Lord, in their might, even until they had all fallen to the earth, save it were one of the Lamanitish ^awomen, whose name was Abish, she having been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father—

 17 Thus, having been converted to the Lord, and never having made it ^aknown, therefore, when she saw that all the servants of Lamoni had ^bfallen to the earth, and also her mistress, the queen, and the king, and Ammon lay ^cprostrate upon the earth, she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would ^dcause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people.

Abish having seen this miracle she wanted to share what she had seen. She went from house to house inviting everyone to see what had happened. Then Ammon got the opportunity to teach these people that Abish had brought. And many listened and were converted. So my message is to not be afraid to share the gospel with the people that are around you. You know that the Gospel has blessed your lives, I know the gospel has blessed my life. So share it with others so that they will be blessed by the gospel. The missionaries have been set apart to share the gospel so introduce them to your friends and let them share the gospel with them.

President K. shared a message with me. He said that we can just go about life doing average work. We can do our thing, but that is not going to get us celestial glory. There are 3 different kingdoms of glory and they are all kingdoms of glory. Not everyone is going to reach celestial kingdom. God expects things out of us and he expects us to change and grow. The hardest part is not just doing the easy stuff. You have to learn to listen to the spirit because it will tell you what more you need to do.

Anyway, I got to go. Love you all!

Elder Godwin

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman,
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.
In the sun he melted, melted, melted.
In the sun he melted, small, small, small.

 Elder Godwin shoveling snow. And this is how you do it if you are from Arizona.

 Not sure if that is what the shovel looked like before he got there or if that is what happened to it after Elder Godwin was done.

 Elder Godwin is looking pretty happy to be in Poland. He is having fun and enjoying the work. 

Read this, sombering quote from a Jew in the Ghetto which was fenced around by a wall that was built to resemble tombstones. "What a contrast! In some apartments in the ghetto - the prayers, the cry and the moans of the orphaned, and right across the wall - the music, the vodka, the intemperance without restraint. 'It is going to be our turn in only a few hours from now.' the participants think. 'The OD-men will drag us out to the optima yard. Let them at least drag us out dazed with alcohol, with a sense of having our basic lust satisfied. For what can we accomplish with our bare hands? What can we do faced with a sea of evil?'"

We can do a lot with our bare hands, and even more with the Lord on our side. The people in the Book of Mosiah were encircled about be Lamanites, told they couldn't pray to their God under penalty of death. They prayed in their hearts and minds, with faith in Christ and were able to escape the clutches of the drunken Lamanites with all of their own senses and clarity of thought intact. There is never a reason to give up the fight. As King David said before challenging the great Goliath "Is there not a cause?". It may appear at times that there is a "sea of evil", but the Lord sees the big picture. He knows that there is one outcome, only one victor no matter how it looks in the moment. It is our job to look forward with a steadfastness in Christ, nothing waivering. Not every battle will end without casualty like the strippling warriors. Christ will not save us from death in this mortal journey. I know that he is waiting on the other side though, to welcome those who have been faithful and followed his word and example. We must be ready to "bear the crosses of the world" and walk that burdened path that he walked, some have less obstacles in their way, maybe they wouldn't be able to handle the challenges, maybe they don't need the challenges to prove themselves. All I know is that it is how we deal with OUR obstacles that matters...

Love you all, bye!!