If you want an adventure or to learn something new....you just have to open your mouth.

Hey family:) Life is good. My favorite local, mentally handicapped man is sitting next to me right now and he is showing me things on his computer every other second, haha so sorry if this letter is a little scatter brained. Also, I want time to reply to all your individual emails, so here are this week's quick deets!:

I got to explore St. Helens! We had district meeting, and we played some serious chair football with Elders Clark and Lee. They are both pretty rad. I have missed chill, 4 man district meetings. Bro time.

On the train ride back (2 flippin hours!) something crazy good happened. So I was sitting by myself and when we pulled up to a stop, a saw this super hippe looking kid my age with a bodacious beard and groovy tunic shirt waiting to get on. I just visualized in my brain, him getting on and sitting right next to me, then me saying "hey I like your shirt". And...it happened exactly like that. As soon as I said, "hey I like your shirt", we instantly connected. Turns our he was actually on his way to...Glastonbury!!!!! I have always wanted to go there, and when he mentioned that Jack White, the Pixies and Arcade Fire and many many others were playing there this year...we both exploded. It turned into a furious talk about music.  So that was only the first good part. He ended up asking me the classic "so why are you here" question, and before I could answer, a lady sitting across from us spoke up and said "you are a Mormon missionary!" Turns out, she lived in the States for 14 years and knew all about us. She was super nice, and it came out that she was a world traveling backpacker. I was just like...what?!? Then the hippie kid was like...yeah I just got back from a European back-packing trip with my girlfriend....and I was like....what?!?!?!? So for the next hour, the three of us had an awesome discussion about music and traveling, and it eventually lead into a spiritual and philosophical discussion. We were firm in our beliefs, me being a devote but open minded Mormon, hippie kid being on open free spirit but mostly atheist, and the lady being a scientific but spiritual psychotherapist. It was incredible to be open and share all of our ideas, and I was so grateful for that chance to learn so much and bond with new ideas and people. So, moral of the story...if you want an adventure or to learn something new....you just have to open your mouth.

President Preston's farewell...incredibly sad. I will

miss that man. He was one of the ultimate examples of living the gospel and understanding and loving people, and I have learned so much from him.

I was on British National television! They made a super cruddy documentary called Meet The Mormons, following Elder Fields serving in the England Leads Mission. He was in my MTC group, so I was in a lot of the footage from the MTC! "I'm a pretty big deal...people know me" (Ron Burgandy voice)

Yesterday I met a serious hunting/gun enthusiast, and I got to handle his shotguns, so that was pretty sweet.

There has been a dip in missionary enthusiasm in the ward...so Elder Frandsen and I totally spiced up the missionary board in church. Pic included.

Well other than that, nothing too much out of the routine happened. Our teaching pool is pretty low besides a mountain of less-actives, so I made a fun weekly focus for the district this week. Everyday, we have to dare our companion to do something totally out of their comfort zone in a finding situation. Haha this should be fun. I will let you know the stories next week.

I love you all. Go enjoy the waves for me. I will continue on here being a monk.

Peace out!

Elder Goodman

p.s. if you are bored...don't buy a venus fly trap. They take 3 years to grow! flippin lame