Weekly Email - May 20th

Hi Family,

This week was pretty neat. President Nielson came to Szczecin for some special missionary training. He even sat in on a lesson with us and our recently baptized member S. That was way fun. I went on exchange with Elder Mikolyski and he taught me a bunch and one of the things I have learned most over the week was just being casual with people, just calming down and having fun conversations with people. That was a lesson that I wish I would have had a long time ago.

One of the highlights of the week was when we stopped a girl named S on the street. She is not from Szczecin , but she was willing to talk with us as she waited for her bus. She said that she believed in God and that he created us and the world and everything in it, but that he stopped caring about us and that we are just on our own now. She said there is too much evil in the world for God to care. We told her about God's plan, the Plan of Salvation, and that he does care, and he gave everyone free-will to make choices. We told her that He has given us his plan through prophets and scripture and we introduced her to the Book of Mormon. We bore testimony and had a good chat. Then she said that as we talked she felt like everything we were saying just made sense. She felt like we were just telling her a truth that she already knew deep down, but that we were just helping her remember. That is the first time on my mission so far that I have ever heard anyone say anything like that. We invited her to read and pray and then she would know that what we were saying was true. That was a really powerful experience. We had some good conversations with other people over the week too. Sister Nielson even dropped us off with that man in the picture that we are talking to.

Everything else is going well. I am eating a lot of healthy food and trying to keep up on my yoga routine with Elder K, I feel better than ever. We are having a lot of fun and we just got clearance to visit a cool war museum during our lunch hour on Saturday so we will probably stop by this week. We have an awesome cemetery to visit, we have neat buildings and scenery. The food is as good as ever. We are just having a good time here. Hope all is going equally well for everyone back home.

Love you all,
Elder Godwin

Here is a picture of Polish Graffiti. Pretty fancy, huh!

Repost from Sister Nielson's Blog

Yesterday I spent the day stalking Sister Nielson's blog. I knew they had gone to Szczecin for a special training and if there is one thing we can always count on is Sister Nielson and her wonderful blogging skills.

As I was going to bed I checked the blog one more time and YES, she had posted a post from Szczecin. Yay!

Here are some pictures from her blog.

 Here are all the missionaries in the district. Elder Godwin is sitting right next to his companion Elder K on the front row over to the right.

 Here are the missionaries representing the Valley of the Sun. Elder W. from Queen Creek, Elder Caskey from Glendale, Elder Godwin from Phoenix, and President Nielson from Mesa. The President is from Mesa, but has been living in Nevada for many years.

 Here is the zone celebrating Elder K's birthday with a Magnum Ice Cream Bar.

 President Nielson sat in on a new member lesson with Elder Godwin and Elder K. Elder Godwin feels so blessed to have been able to be part of S' conversion and is really enjoying getting to know her better and being able to share the gospel with her. I understand she is an amazing young lady.

Elders K and Godwin were busy doing contacts before their meetings started. They are hardworking Elders and are enjoying working together.

Laser Tagging in Szczecin

Elder Godwin and the other Elders had a chance to go Laser Tagging. He has been watching them build this place and they finally opened it up and off they went on P-Day to check it out. As it turned out the Laser Tag place was taking pictures of all the groups that came through and are having a competition to get free tickets to go back. These Elders are really hoping to win the tickets.

Fingers crossed! They need a fun and free activity for P-Day. Good Luck Elders

Weekly Email - May 13th

Hey all,

This was an amazing week in Poland. We have been finding all sorts of cool people to talk to on the streets, and that has been nice. The branch is running very smoothly out here. Elder M. is doing a great job as branch president. We also had a baptism on Saturday. One of our investigators, S was baptized and confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ, it was amazing to see that. She is great and super spiritual and she has taught us how to be better missionaries as we have taught her the gospel. Elder K (my companion) and I are rocking it up here. We just smile at all of the Poles and they don't know what to do with themselves. The food here is amazing as always. I LOVE kebabs and naleśniki so much. Elder K has been teaching me some yoga and we have been stretching daily and getting some good chi flowing, that has been nice and relaxing. I got to talk to my family on Sunday night and wish my dear mother a happy mothers day (love you mom, thanks for raising me to be who I am). Everyone was there, my sister Hannah even got "conferenced" into the phone call from Utah (isn't technology amazing?). It was a great experience and now I just have to wait until Christmas for my next phone call. Until then, I hope that I have many more amazing experiences to share, many more people to teach and talk to, and much more good food. I am loving my time here, and I think this will be another great week. I have an exchange today with Elder M. then President Nielson is coming to Szczecin for a branch conference, that should be amazing. I gave a talk in church on Sunday about baptism and enduring to the end in the gospel, and so I no longer have to stress about writing that talk. Polish is still crazy and I am learning a ton every day, but the language just has so many aspects and is so unpredictable, we will see how it goes from here.

Love you,
Elder Godwin

 Elder Godwin and his buddy from home Elder Caskey.

 Elder Godwin's and Elder K at the Baptism of S. Happy Day!

Weekly Email - May 6th

Hey all,

Things in Szczecin have been great. I have been called to stay here for the next 2 months, and Elder K moved from the other side of town to be my companion. We are having a great time so far. Elders M and W are the two new Elders in Szczecin. Elder M is our District Leader and just got called to be Branch President as well, so he has a lot on his plate. There is a whole new spirit here in Szczecin, and overall we are doing amazing. In the last couple of days I have seen a new spirit and as much success as two weeks would have brought just a little bit ago. It is amazing to be able to teach S. She is our investigator. She is so amazing, just 2 months ago she had never even heard of God, and she is going to be baptized next week. She is such a spiritual person and it has been a blessing to be able to teach her for even just a few days. She is also our new branch pianist because no one here knows how to play piano. So that has been a miracle. The rest of the work has picked up as well. We were able to teach a lot of lessons to people on the street, we were able to share the Book of Mormon with a lot of people as well. We even talked to a man from Canada, he teaches English here and he was very interesting and had never heard our message before. He said he was interested in us because he had never thought of the concept of a modern prophet before. We told him that just like in the times of Moses, Abraham and Noah, God called men to be prophets and prophets revealed what men had to do to be saved. We need prophets in our day to do the same, nothing has changed. If you believe in the Prophecies and writings of the Bible, then you should see why a prophet would be so important. He was fun to talk to and we are hoping to see him again. All else is well, I hope all is going well for people back home and around the world. This is an amazing work that we are able to participate in and I am glad I get to work here in Szczecin and learn this crazy hard language and work work work...

Love you all,
Elder Godwin

 Here are some of the members in Szczecin.

Weekly Email - April 29th

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!!!

 Elder Godwin out tracting in an apartment complex.

 One of the member's dog wearing Elder Godwin's name tag.

 One of the branch member's with her cute dog.

 Elder Godwin eating a Kebab that instantly got him sick. Yuck!

 I guess you can buy these monkeys at the pet store for 6,500zl. I hope Hailey is not checking the blog. :)

 This was the color of the water for a week. Not good!

 Elder Godwin is still smiling though. Love the tie!

 More of the wonderful food he is eating in Poland.

 His apartment, pretty nice I must say!

 More advertising with the same girl Anya!

 A picture down the street of his apartment.

Repost from Sister Nielson's Blog.

The Interview trip moves on to....POZNAN!

 We arrived in Poznan Monday night.....just in time for Family Home Evening at the chapel. It's a great way for the members to enjoy each other's company as they study the gospel, play games and have refreshments. (LtoR): Marian, Marta, Natalie, Grzegorz, Jola and the Sheleys.
The next morning (Tuesday) we were up early and heading to the chapel....it was going to be a full day.

 We were greeted by the Szczecin Elders who had come in for interviews and Zone Training Meeting.

Elder Cieslak (District Leader) and Elder Kotter... both excited to be in Szczecin and serving the Lord.

 Elder Saltmarsh and Elder Godwin.  Our second set of missionaries in Szczecin who are just are great as any companionship we have in Poland.

 Our Poznan Elders, Elder Tingey (District Leader) and Elder Ciaskey, were there to open the building and make sure everything was perfect for the day's activities.

 The Sisters were hurrying to update the Branch Bulletin board....showing pictures of members and Branch activities...before the meeting started.

 They did stop, however, when I brought out the mail....and they had much to smile about! Sister Bezdjian and Sister Bown are teaching some great people....including a wonderful family!

 Our Senior couple, Elder and Sister Sheley, are wonderful and support the Branch in every way....including being the Branch President! Bringing something special for lunch, going out with missionaries to teach lessons and finding inactives are only a few of their many duties....we just love their enthusiasm for the work.

 The Bydgoszcz Zone Leaders, Elder Bokinsky and Elder Gudnason, are here in Poznan to teach and instruct what was discussed at Zone Leader Council the week before.  This is their opportunity to make sure the "water gets to the end of the row".  They did a great job of leading the discussion today.

Zone Training in this part of the Zone. (Tomorrow the Zone Leaders meet with the Bydgoszcz and Gdansk Districts in Bydgoszcz).  Front row:  Elders Gudnason, Bokinsky, Tingey and Caskey.  Middle row:  Elders Saltmarsh, Kotter, Cieslak and Godwin.  Back row:  Sisters Bezdjian and Bown.

 Sidenote: It was also a reunion for the "Valley of the Sun" Elders.  Elders Caskey and Godwin were friends in Phoenix before their missions.  They knew each other in High School and in College.  When Elder Godwin got his call, Elder Caskey came over to congratulate him and said, "It would be so cool to go to Poland on a mission".  Well, a few months later Elder Caskey's wish came true!

 A quick lunch before some headed back out to 'Find and Teach' and some headed to the train station (to do the same thing!) A train is a great place to talk to everyone you see.  It was a great day and now to apply the things we learned.  For President and me, it's on to the next city...

As we have traveled under this bridge so many many times, I couldn't help take one more picture of this colorful site.  We appropriately call this the "rainbow bridge" (not to be confused with another Rainbow Bridge that we love).

 Every once in a while you will come across something like this.  'The arches' connecting both sides of the road.   Today with the snow, the colors just jumped out.  I don't know why I took this picture... just another memory for President and me. So....where are we headed next?

Even though the car wants to veer to the left.....we have more work to do. Lodz is our next stop, and we are excited to visit with our missionaries there.