Elder "Starszy" Godwin in Poland: Weekly Email

From Mom:

It's been a while since I update the blog and I apologize for that. Life has been pretty hectic lately but good. Elder Godwin has been working in the Szczecin area since March. Szczecin is a small and remote town in the mission. However, he shares that it is pretty and they have a very nice apartment. The work there has been slow, but they are enjoying working with the small branch that is there. He has really enjoyed working with his current companion. They have gotten along really well and he shares that they tend to stress about the same things.

The weather has finally warmed up. For a week there their water was all rusty and their heater didn't work. Of course, it also happened to be on one of the coldest weeks. Now their temperatures are ranging on the low range between mid 30ºF to high 40ºF, and the highs are between the very high 50ºF to high 60ºF. This is a very welcomed change. As of April they no longer have to wear suits, they can wear white shirts and dress pants which Elder Godwin is very much enjoying.

He is still taking us on a culinary tour through his mission. A lot of his pictures are of the food he eats. Those Kebabs are still his favorite.

Below is part of his email from this morning, enjoy!

Hey family,

So I will start off by saying, I got called by President Nielson (the mission president) last night. I will be staying in Szczecin for another 2 months, and my companion will be Elder K (he was one of the four Elders here in Szczecin over the past 2 months). He will come over and live with me and we will get to continue to teach his current investigator. She is Chinese and studies music here in Szczecin and speaks English and Chinese. It will be weird teaching someone in English for once, I am excited for all of that to start.

This week was really odd. It was the LEAST successful week I have had on my whole mission as far as finding people to teach and sharing the gospel. There were some amazingly rewarding experiences though. We taught a member of our small branch. We teach her about once a week and we usually just share a spiritual. This time we did the same thing, but as we finished with our lesson, she had some questions like "what are the 12 tribes of Israel?", "why are they important?" "what does it mean when the Bible says that 'Israel will be gathered' and that we can be adopted into the tribes of Israel?". Then we suddenly realized that in such a small branch they don't really have someone that can teach these things. Elder S and I knew what we had to do. We went home and I did about 3 days of personal study just studying the Bible from the creation all the way to Jesus Christ. I drew up a nifty bible map that explained the sequence of events and everything that happened to Israel, it explained when the Book of Mormon Prophets (Lehi, Jared and his Brother, and Mulek) left Israel and went to America by boat. And we went on to explain some other concepts to her like how she can pray to know that these things are true and how she should write down answers to her prayers, how she should write promptings from the Holy Ghost and study these things. She has her Patriarchal blessing which is rare for someone in Poland since they don't have their own Patriarch, but she was confused clarification. We were able to explain that Abraham received a blessing from the Lord that his descendants would bless all the nations of the world, and they would be blessed. This was promised to Abraham by a loving God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, so the promise must still exist today. We know that we can take part in this promise that was given to Abraham and when we are baptized and follow Jesus Christ, then that promise is given to us as we are "adopted into Israel".

That was way cool, she thanked us for actually teaching her something new. I guess that is why a good teacher needs to listen to those that they teach and really respond to their needs and study out and answer their questions.

We have planned a "Spiritual Fireside" tonight for our branch for Family Home evening. All four of the missionaries and 3 of our members have talks or musical numbers, or different parts of the program. It should be a lot of fun.

I am excited to continue working in this city, I love the city. The work is harder here than anywhere else I have served, but it is also very rewarding. I get to talk to some of the coolest Poles and serve around some of the best missionaries in the world, and I am grateful for that. Hope all is well on the homefront, I miss you all and wish you all the best and a happy May!!!