Monday, February 20, 2017

February 20, 2017

Hey everybody! This was an awesome week. We play basketball Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings with these old guys and it's pretty fun. We get up at 5:30 to go play at 6:00, so we are usually zombies at first, but after you wake up it's super fun. So on Wednesday morning, we were playing and I got the ball across from this guy who always tries to steal the ball and reaches in super far, and so of course he tries to steal it from me. So I'm like "Aight bet" and I put a nasty cross on him and got the bucket. But in the process, when I went past him, we hit heads which somehow resulted in me getting a black eye. It wasn't bad and it didn't even really hurt, I just got hit in the eye and it pinched my skin weird and swelled up, and when the swelling went down it got all bruised looking. But it's ok because ball is life! 

So it has continued to rain here and it has been for like a month. And on Friday, it was pouring rain and the Woodland Park Elders had like 5 appointments and they are on bikes and we have a car and only had one appointment and didn't have a dinner, so we traded. So Elder Larsen and I rode bikes in the rain to Mountain View and it was actually kind of fun, but we got decently wet. Since we didn't have a dinner to go to, we stopped at Panera on the way to our appointment to eat. So we are standing there trying to decide what to order, and this couple walks in and we let them go ahead of us because we weren't ready yet. So they go and order and then the guy turns around and tells us that he's going to pay for us too because he was a member that I guess just moved there to the area this week. So that was super cool and we ate and talked with them for a while and they were super chill. So they finished eating before us because they didn't get much, and they get up and leave and we shake his hand and say thanks and everything and as he was walking away he dropped a bill into Elder Larsens shoulder bag because it was just sitting there open in the seat next to us and gives us a nod and walks off. So in my head I was like "Oh, he gave us another 20 bucks, that was really nice." because that's all I really expected it to be, but then we look in the bag like a few minutes later and he gave us 100 dollars! I couldn't really believe it at first and we were freaking out. So I guess we got extra blessings for giving up the car and biking 3-4 miles in the rain. 

One of our investigators is this old guy named Hannibal from Columbia, who is the father of a member family in our ward who I've been teaching since I got here. He is really awesome and super humble, but he is going back to Columbia and will be there for a couple of months and then come back to get residency here. But we talked with him and he wants to get baptized when he gets back which is really awesome. But I won't be here for that so I hope that it happens with whatever Elders are serving in this area when he comes back because he's really awesome. But it was really good to teach him everything about the gospel and see him progress. 

We also had stake conference which was really cool because Elder Acosta from the 70 came and spoke and did a special meeting with our ward all in Spanish. He is really cool and I got to meet him. He spoke about a couple of things, but we one thing that we talked about was the importance of future generations and what we can do to help continue to establish the church. 

So we technically lost an investigator, but we got 4 new investigators this week which was really awesome and we taught a lot of lessons. This past week was one of our best weeks so far and things have been going really well. I hope that everyone is doing well back home though and I love and miss you guys. I look forward to hearing from you all! 

-Elder Godwin 

Monday, February 13, 2017

February 13, 2017

Hello everybody, 
This week was a little slow because we had a ton of appointments that fell through. We set up a really good week and it slowly crumbled and fell apart as the week went on. We had Zone Conference though which was good. They are always uplifting and edifying. We still got some stuff done but plans don't always go as expected. There's always next week though!
So the Woodland Park Elders that we work pretty close with got a Costco card and we've been shopping there with them and using it. They also found a waffle maker for $5 so we got a huge bag of waffle batter and make a bunch of waffles like every other day. We also got 50 packs of ramen noodles. I discovered that ramen is pretty good with siracha sauce as well. Oh and everybody in California has orange trees and they've been growing a lot and so people always give their extra oranges to the missionaries. So we got like 3 huge bags of oranges this past week. So overall we are basically dining like kings. 
So we picked up the Woodland Park Elders from Microsoft the other day and they have this robot in their parking lot that roams around that we discovered. It basically goes around and scans license plates and takes pictures. I guess that each employee's plate is in their system so they can see if there is anybody there that isn't supposed to be. It also does facial recognition too I think. But we befriended it and briefly tried to share the gospel with it but it ran away. Oh well.
We went to the mall earlier and we went to the Footlocker House of Hoops which is essentially heaven. I love that place. We also found a Gucci flip flop for $240 lol. It's hilarious. We just finished mini golfing and we got to go for free because the owner is a member so that was pretty fun. The weather was actually good today, it's been raining a ton. Which sucks when we have time set aside for contacting because nobody goes outside. So far there have been just as many (if not more) rainy days as there have been sunny days which has been an interesting first experience in California. But I don't mind the rain too much, I just wish that it would actually thunder storm instead of just rain. I miss thunderstorms. 
But anyways, things have been going just fine, the weeks have been moving really fast and I don't know where the time goes. It's kind of a freaky feeling whenever it's already Monday again. But I love you all and hope that you are all doing well, I love hearing from everybody and it sounds like everyone is doing fine. Until next week, 
-Elder Godwin 



Monday, February 6, 2017

February 6, 2017

Hello Everyone, 
Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! I love you guys. Nothing too new has happened other than my birthday. I ate with the Cruz family on my birthday and they got me a cake which was really nice, they are awesome. And people in the Spanish program make cakes with fruits and a lot of whipped cream instead of just cake and frosting which is pretty cool too. They are also very into the whole smashing your face into the cake thing which was a new experience for me LOL. The members in my ward are really great and they are all like a big family. I just got back from Santana Row with some birthday money and bought an Oakley Sweater for 60% off and it's super nice. We looked around in Gucci and the ties there are $200 dollars a piece. And I picked up a belt that was $420 LOL. It might be the most ridiculous store that I've ever seen. Zone conference is this week which should be really good. My companion and I have been getting along really well too. I don't have a ton more to say but I'm doing really well and love it out here, and I was happy to hear from everyone this past week too. Love you guys and miss you all. 
-Elder Godwin