Week #86 - Give the church your time!

So I can't believe it's already been a transfer since I've been in Windermere, transfers become so precious when you are getting close to the end of your mission... Well, my companion is getting transferred! We were both pretty bummed but it's gonna be alright haha :) So some awesome things have happened this week, we had to finally transfer Chris to his new area and we were super super sad about that, we taught and helped him move then at the end in his pray he said, "If it wasn't for these guys I wouldn't be coming back to church, please bless them because they are angels" man I almost cried like 3 times in that prayer haha he has changed so much and is way dedicated, he wants to go to institute, get baptized, and get married in the temple, like he is super pumped. As well, Theresa will be baptized soon and we are excited for that haha she is super awesome and ready, we went into her house and took all of her coffee and tea out and threw it away, then there was a half full thing of vodka that was her nephews and we just grabbed it and chucked it bahaha he's gonna hate us but whatever. Now we are waiting on like 4 people to get baptized so while we are waiting for them we need to FIND! :) pray for them though: 

Cecilia Mufalo, Cristian Bernadin, Vicky Victor, Todd Carson. 

Guys I had a member that knows the Fuchs family so he looked them up on Facebook, so while he found Leo's page I browsed and saw myself at prom junior year and man have I gotten pale and chubby or what?!?! Freak! I was pretty shocked haha so I am committed to run everyday and workout with my weights...this is not acceptable! 

Anyways, some food for thought real quick. If you ever catch yourself saying, "I need to read my scriptures or pray or go to church" and then catch yourself saying, "I don't have time" if you do then imagine me wringing your neck and shaking you back and forth because I HATE THAT, and it's a LIE. Here's some examples from each case:

Scriptures study for 1 hour everyday/week and you sleep a good 8 hours plus work an 8-5 job, it would still only take up 14% of your time in a given week, but luckily a lot don't use that much of their time so it would really be under 10% of your time for anyone and that's really for an hour!! Just read for like 15 minutes and that's enough! 

Then church only takes up about 5% or less of your time. So go to church, and here's the real quicker for you who don't pray, if you prayed 5 times a day for 1-2 minutes each prayer it would only take up about 1-2% of your time, so pray. Stop being lazy and do the things you know you're suppose to be doing, he really never asks for more than just our time and attention and at that he only asks for so little, let's be grateful and take advantage of the blessings he has given us. 

Love you guys :) 

Week #85 - Pray for me, I'm CHUBBBY haha

So, I don't know where to start this week besides the fact that everything is going super great and smooth! We are working hard to keep things going and still preparing people to be baptized just need to keep finding!! We've literally sent over 40 referrals to other missionaries this transfer and its sucked! We have YSA and spanish missionaries that cover the stake so everytime we find a young person or Spanish we have to pass them off. So this week we found 5 new investigators for the YSA sisters so that worked out great hah ;) we even had to pass off a guy on date last week but we are going to start teaching him again because of some complications, so we need to baptize him real quick :)

I really don't know what to say but that I have made an awesome workout plan to start using each day so I can start being not so chubby haha (LEO FUCHS CALLED ME CHUBBY #hateyou) jk I know but dang it's so hard to workout out here, but I thought in my mind the other day, "Elder Godinet if you can't do it now what makes you think you'll do it during other busy times, like when you're married". So since I never want to plump up, I've committed myself so pray for me ;)

My boy Elder Ashworth went home and man am I gonna miss that kid or what! He's my favorite companion that wasn't my companion haha (his words). Good luck at home man!

Well, not to much to say today besides, I love you guys and I hope to hear from you today and throughout the week :)

Ashworth, Me, Olsen

Ashworth, Hernandez, Olsen

 Some person's house that they made into "The Colleyseum"

Week #84 - "I lied, I'm not Christian"

Well this week was a different one haha :)

I'll start off by saying that I was homesick at the beginning slash middle of the week but then forgot about myself and it got better so do the same other missionaries!!! Anyways, we met this guy name Vicky Victor. The Spanish sisters passed him off to us. So, he is Indian and has just been here from India not too long and so we started sharing the message with him and he says he is Catholic but that seemed strange so we started talking about the atonement which he didn't know about, the sisters were trying to share with him the restoration but as we were teaching I could tell that is not what he needed. So I tried to input a lot of God is our Heavenly Father and this gospel blesses us and it intrigued him and he said yes I want good things in my life. Well, long story short we taught him and then he had to catch his 9 o clock bus for work and so he headed to the bus but as we were talking to the sisters about him he came walking back with sorrow in his face, he just said guys I lied to you....I'm not Christian, I'm Hindu. Then he just went off and said how he thought we wouldn't teach him if he wasn't Christian and I just gave him a giant hug and we laughed and just told him how awesome he is! He said I want Christianity and I want this! So we told him we loved him and everything and how we are only here to help him and then he felt better and ran to the next bus. He's been awesome! We see him all the time and he came to church even after working all night long. 

We had to pass off Christopher Bohrer to YSA but he is loving every minute of it, reading praying and church he loves it and is super committed! Then this week we baptized, confirmed, and gave the priesthood to Jean Jacques before he goes back to Haiti and man was that awesome. His baptism was extremely powerful, one of the most powerful for me. After I pulled him out of the water he just bowed his head and prayed and we stood in the water for a bit and it was incredible. Also, there's this lady named Teresa that we have been teaching and she is the sweetest most humble lady ever! And we weren't 100% sure if she was accountable but we have been giving her commitments and she totally is and can remember everything she reads and just loves it. Well, we were suppose to get her to church and so she woke up at 6:30 and waited until 9:30 then went and sat outside til 10:30 when her ride was suppose to be there but then the ride bailed....I was super super pissed off, I sat in sacrament meeting and literally almost cried, it was breaking my heart to imagine how sad Teresa was because she really wanted to go to church. She has A LOT of just childlike innocence and the Light of Christ. It was very hard for me but luckily we got to go see her and set her up to go to night sacrament and she got to that and it was awesome!!!!! She said, She loved it and wanted it to be longer and talk to more people. She also said she wanted to be like us (the missionaries) and the rest of us (Latter-Day Saints) HAPPY AND ALWAYS LIKE SUNSHINE! Wow what a compliment :) 

P.S. SUPER FUNNY STORY, So we also went to the temple for baptisms for the dead and afterwards one of the ladies we took locked her keys in her car just down the road by some stores. So her window was down a little so we wanted a metal hangar to pop the lock but no one was selling them, so I was like well shoot that blows but then I saw a hair and wig place and for some reason thought they might have one so I went in. Well, I walk in and the cashier (Muslim kid) and the customer (blonde woman) look at me super confused and are like oh...hey...do you need something and I was like ya but was gonna wait till their transaction was through but then the guys was like what can I help you with and I told him our predicament. I was still confused at why they were like staring at me so weird. In my mind I was confused at why the Muslim kid was there, I understood why she was there but not him, like why are you working at a hair and wig place?! But then I looked to my right and cabinets just full of cigars and then I was like oh...then I looked at the other walls and just BAM, TONS of bongs everywhere haha I started laughing and realized I was in a smoke shop hahahah long story shorter, the Muslim kid was dope and helped us a lot and I got a picture with him in the smoke shop and he's holding a card of Jesus because #TeachEverywhere 

Love you guys :)

Temple service/Temple with recent convert Trey 

Baptism of Jean Jacques 

 MORE PICS TO COME LATER TODAY :)

Also last week we went to an appreciation banquet and I got asked to model, but told him I couldn't til I go home, it was awesome though

Week #83 - Let us do all we can to love everyone

Well this week was pretty fantastic!!!

Jean Jacques passed his interview so he will be baptized on the 16th and that just makes me the happiest person ever!!! Such a dope story. As well Chris Hall Jr. Is pretty set for the 30th of July as of now so we are really excited about that :) and Chris Bohrer came to sacrament meeting with us last night and man did he love it or what!! He wants to start a dog company so we made him promise on his dog company that he would go to church and he did, he loved it and we just had a great time. He said to me at the end, "hey you better not leave now, I promised I'd come and I did so you better not leave!" I felt bad because we found out he is in the YSA range so we need to pass him off, and I feel bad now :( but I love the guy, his story is cool because we called him when I first got here and set up an appointment to see him and my companion was hesitant then I was on exchanges so my companion went and I asked him later how it went and he said not good. He said that he had no desire and just wasn't going anywhere but said he told him that us as missionaries would call and see how his reading went. Well long story short, my companion didn't want to call him and said he had zero faith in him so I said, no we need to call him and insisted on us doing it. So we did and when he answered he apologized for his rudeness in the lesson and then said he wanted to come to church! Well he did and he's on date to be baptized, moral of the story follow the spirit and don't give up on people so fast. I've had way to many people that I've found who have been dropped as investigators or put on a DNC list for members because missionaries or members were to quick to judge. Maybe if we stopped and put ourselves in these people's shoes, maybe they are having a bad day or maybe it's just the fact that they are awkward people or that WE'RE awkward as crap haha trust me I've been with some AWWWKKKKKWAAARRDDD missionaries and they think it's everyone else's fault. Let us do all we can to love everyone and continue to try and pursue and help our brothers and sisters. 

Love you guy!!!!! :) 

P.S. I totally fought off a snake with a giant pool rod in an apartment complex the other day it was hilarious bahah we were walking to see a less active and there was a snake so we through some wood chips at home so he would move from our path but as we were doing so he slithered away until he was right in front of the door we needed to knock. So, I walked to the pool and grabbed a HUGE pool cleaning rod and people were like what the heck hah but eventually we slid him down the hallway. Didn't get bit #ihatesquirrels <---

No pics this week, they I'll come next week. I couldn't send them when I sent this email. There will be pictures of us at temple service and then us at a appreciation banquet for some service stuff we have been doing. I got asked to model for a shoe company called sole men.

My companion & the new Mission President & his wife.

Week #82 - Happy 4th of July!!

Hey I just love you guys so much! Happy 4th of July!!!

Guys, I miss you all so much and I just hope everything is going swell with all of you! We've had so many miracles here, we have been finding and teaching tons of people and we have Jean Jacques preparing to be baptized on the 16th he is awesome! He's actually a political refugee and was almost killed but came here and now wants to be baptized. He's so humble and sincere, we went over the word of wisdom and in broken English after we asked if he would live it, he said " I drink alcohol and sometimes coffee but now that I go to church....not anymore!!" He straight up dropped everything and it was awesome!! He's legit we also have Christian Bernadin who needs to be baptized but is waiting for permission so pray for him and Cecilia Mufalo who is getting a new job then she wants to get baptized! As well another kid named Ethan Carson and Silvio so we are pumped for all of them, keep them in your prayers so they have no hold ups!! Here's my new address for this area:

ELDER GODINET

4712 olive branch rd #403

Orlando Florida 32811

Man I love this work! All the sisters that have come out with me have left and it's making me sad, I realize more and more I don't want the mission to end because it's so awesome haha you can never do this again! But anyway, it's been so amazing because not only are my companion and I super in sync and having a blast but we got wifi in our apartment and got a legit bench press with a rack and up to 305 lbs. it's so sweet!! Looks like six months to sexy is a go! More like 5 months to fit haha:) 

CONGRATULATIONS TO JOEY AND RICEY THATS SO AWESOME!!!! AS WELL TO WYATT CALDWELL AND NOLAN PADILLA!! Everyone is just growing up so fast and getting married left and right :) ALSO I HAVE A NEW NEPHEW!!!! CONGRATS BRO I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE BABY MANOAH :)

I love you all email me if you need to know anything :) and I heard someone felt like they didn't want to email me because it's a burden to me or bugs me, definitely not true, it makes me so so happy haha so please email me whatever :) 

The new Mission President, President Clark & Sister Clark with my comp Elder Acevedo!

(pic will come later sorry camera is being dumb haha)

The Jolley's & Kelley's

 At a Surf Shop :)

Week #81 - Baptizing Tiger Woods?

Hey!

Well I got transferred and I'm in Orlando south right now, my area over here is Windermere. It's a very wealthy area so I'm just preparing to baptize Tiger Woods and Shaq, don't know if they have a jumpsuit big enough for my boy o'neal but we can make it work bahaha ;)

Anyways my comp is Elder Acevedo he is great, he has a real drive to get the work done. He's almost been out a year so he's at that point in the mission where you just want to do so much haha It's a much different kind of work over here than it was in Viera so it's kinda weird, instead of a lot of old people and gated communities we have just a huge assortment of people down here. We have A LOT of Portuguese work down here so that's dope, but what's even cooler is all the Polynesians that are down here! This Ward has a ton of Polynesians, mostly Tongans but there are some Samoans scattered about #manycalledbutfewareCHOSEN ;) it's been a lot of fun though!

There's just a lot of work here to be done and I just want to share some cool stories on how I know that each one of us is so needed. So I usually don't say how certain people are found because of myself or others because the glory truly is to God, but he does have his instruments and what I saw this week was really cool to realize, again, the personal need for us as individuals. So, it's the first couple days in the area and I do missionary very differently than the missionaries that were previously in this area. They liked tracting and all that and I love using the tools I've been giving and following the spirit on certain people to drop by and teach. So it's like my 4th day here and I was organized the area book and studied all the records by now and I saw a family I wanted to go visit. So, i was following elder Acevedo for a bit because I'm still so fresh to the area but since I had just read all the records I knew the formers. So, I said elder Acevedo I have somewhere I would like to go and he said ok, so we went to this family. As we were pulling up I said well this is it and even if their not here I know God leads us to who we need to meet, like that family right there. (Family sitting on a bench in front of the apartments). We got out and immediately went to talk with them and the the guy said are you guys Mormon? And we said yes, then he said (in some rougher English) I want to go to that church! Then we talked about it and he said but you have to promise me that if I go I can talk to the bishop. So he came to church and talked to the bishop and after his meeting I asked how he liked church and he said I liked it, with a huge smile and then said, I'm going to be a member soon! Wow don't say that to a missionary ;) so we sat down and talked with him and put him on date to be baptized on July 16th!! It was so awesome!!! I just wanted to share though how cool is the way the Lord uses us, I know that we wouldn't have found this man without me, because the missionaries were doing work a different way to find. So I knew I was needed, and there were 3 people baptized in this area before I came that I knew wouldn't have been found with me.....because they were found through tracting. The Lord needs everyone's different talents and abilities at the right times and it's amazing to see how he truly needs us. He knows us and he knows what choices we are likely to make with who we are and he LOVES helping his children through guiding his other children.

More pictures to come next week, I just couldn't connect to wifi to send them from my camera. They will be pictures of more families from Viera and my new comp!!! :)

Some more families

Exchanges with Elder Baxter