Weekly Email - December 30th

Here are some pictures of Elder Godwin during our Christmas phone conversation. 

It was better than amazing to speak to him.

 

So, not much is new since we last spoke. We have all gotten over our various illnesses. I feel a lot better and only have a little bit of excess mucus right now. The stomach bug finally passed over and we are all back to the old grind. This week will be a normal week again except for New Years Eve we go inside at 6:00 for safety.

I have been setting some goals for the New Year, and my 6 month left goals as well. I am trying not to go overkill, because when I set too many goals (even if they are all good and achievable), I end up doing none of them. I already need to readjust from my original 6 month goal ideas. It is a good process though. President Edgren also challenged us to take one Christ-like attribute from PMG chapter 6 to focus on and to "make it our own". I thought it was a great goal, I will probably do one every month, since I feel like one a week is too fast to really develop a trait like that. I guess I am just trying to really refrain from trying to take on the world and hitting a brick wall.

My comp and I are doing great. We are trying to figure out what is going to happen at transfers, but we can't decide. The general consensus seems to be either we both stay, or Elder K leaves and I stay. I don't know if that is really how it is going to go down, but we shall see. President Edgren has done a very good job at being completely unpredictable since he came in. I kinda like it, it keeps us on our toes.

I don't really have a lot more to say, I feel like I have been rambling, I will try to gather some more pictures to send. Love you all, I will talk to you again in a week. Bye

Weekly Email - December 25th

Elder Godwin and his companion are in a town with 2 sister missionaries. As it turned out the four of them were sick for Christmas. So they spent the day at the chapel e-mailing and calling their families. Here are some of the pictures from the days leading up to Christmas.

One of the sisters emailing her family while prepared since she is not feeling good. That's no way to spend Christmas. :(

4 Sad Sicklings, that just want their families pitty for a second.

Not really they assured me they really were making the best out of the day.

We have a tradition in our family that each year we paint new stockings. It is really a fun Family Home Evening thing to do. Elder Godwin has got to do it both these last Christmases with his companions. I think they turned out pretty good.

Weekly Email - December 9th

Well, you already all know what happened all the way to Wednesday. From that point, most of the week was busy preparing a baptism for T. She is an investigator that the sisters have been teaching. I was fortunate enough to get to interview her for baptism which is in and of itself a neat experience. She was just super prepared and had a solid testimony so she passed with flying colors. She was baptized on Saturday and Confirmed a member of the church on Sunday by President C. That was certainly the highlight of the week without a doubt. The rest of the week has actually been a bit slower than usual, we are going to really pick up the pace this week and find some new people to teach. Finding for me is always such a daunting task, I feel confident in everything else besides finding, but as Preach My Gospel says "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach". So I have to get working on that.

Elder K and I are doing great, I think we have plans today to go shopping around some used clothing stores in Wrocław to see what kind of treasures we can find. We are working well together though and he is still amazing at what he does.

Love
Starszy Godwin

Weekly Email - December 4th

Hey, so this week was pretty good. Sorry, I am a little crunched for time since we are doing this on lunch break, but I wanted to just say I am doing great and my comp is as well. Elder Caskey says hi to everyone and he is doing well.

We had a great time touring Auschwitz with the whole zone. Unfortunately President didn't make it, but he came to Katowice to watch and join our carroling and finding activity. It was a blast, we just sung our Christmas songs and when someone would stop nearby, a missionary could split off and go talk to them. We got a lot of people's contact and a lot of people stopped. I got to spend some quality time with Elder Caskey and even contact with him for a few minutes. I think we would make great companions personally. His companion, Elder A, is great. His dad is in the military and has been stationed in Arizona for some time, he says it is his favorite place in the world. He loves his guns, so we got some quality time too.

We had zone training and that was a wonderfully spiritual meeting about how to feel the spirit and how to help investigators recognize the spirit. Then we had a testimony meeting, I love missionary testimony meetings. I think one of the greatest blessings of my mission is I have pretty much gotten over my fear of public speaking. I still have a lot of public speaking skills to develope, but the imediate fear is gone. I feel like it is such an amazing oportunity and a great teaching and learning experience to get together as missionaries and share testimonies. We had a safe trip back and are now home in Wroclaw. I am going to have to cut this short. I hope everyone is doing great and that you have a great week.

Love you all,

Starszy Godwin

Elders Caskey and Godwin at Auschwitz.