Another tenure in Barrow.

 11 months of walking......

Hello everyone! Je t'aime.
Well as you already know, I'm stickin it out in Barrow for another 6 weeks. After the transfer call, I was a bit despondent, but that feeling was quickly replaced with an "alright, lets do this". Lately, I have been praying really hard that I could have more love for the people here. It's taken a bit of time, but the days leading up to the transfer call, I have literally felt more love for the people here...which only added to my thoughts of "yeah, I'm staying another transfer". Haha I was right. Luckily though, I'm happy to keep on living with the good people here. I am getting to understand and love a lot more people here, especially the Kents. The Kents are by far my favorite family in the entire mission, and I just feel at home when we chill there on a Sunday night. They are crazy, and I love them.

I also got some support from President Preston, who personally called me after the transfer calls. Basically, he told me that he needs me in Barrow. This area needs a lot of hard work and a lot of love. I also have the responsibility of helping the senior missionary couple when they get here at the end of February. They need help in getting to know the area and getting to know all the relationships within the ward. With this new insight, and especially in an area where I know I am needed, I am just happy to serve. We will see what new adventures are waiting for me next transfer. My adventure spirit is getting itchy.

Well thats the juicy news, but other than that my week has actually been pretty good. Here's the deets:

We had a good meeting down in Preston, and basically spent all day traveling. Trains are where you find the most interesting people. I think I met a pirate.

IT SNOWED IN BARROW! This week has been freezing, and while we were teaching Connie, it started beating down hail, then barfed down a layer of snow. It was pretty cool.
Oh yeah, Connie is in the hospital. Pray for her.

Since we have only a couple investigators in our teaching pool, we have been having to do some hardcore finding. Finding in the pouring rain all day makes it even more hardcore. People look at us wierd as are dripping wet and standing in their doorways, telling them we have a message about Jesus. No typical success whatsoever, unless you count success as making people laugh. My mentality= Even if people want nothing to do with religion...If I clearly preach the gospel, bear my testimony and leave them with a smile, I feel successful.

We have the best landlord in the entire mission. His name is Ray, and he is crazy and crazy funny. He is the most energetic 67 year old man I have ever met, and always blurts out "Crikey!" or "blimey!". And he also thinks Arizona is a place where everyone has two revolvers strapped to their hips and shoot everyone. Dang right.

I got to explore the coasts near Askam in Furness. Mountains+ocean= my moonrise kingdom.

Well everyone, I love you all. If there is one thing I have learned on my mission, its how to love people. People are what get us through the rough times, and people are what make the happy times even happier. Keep on having adventuers and staying tight with one another, and you cant go wrong.
Till next time, peace out!

Elder Goodman
BA
HotTuna

 Furness Abbey

askam-in-furness

Jedi Warrior B.A.

Guten Tag!! Wie geht's?? (I had a very german week). First off, I love you all. "The sun is shining, the weather is sweet, makes me want to move, my dancing feet". Good old Bob Marley. But anyways, that's pretty much how I feel right now. The sun is brilliant outside, I just read all your lovely words, and I'm happy. Thank you mum for the valentines day delivery. Nutella and bacon. You know me too well. My man-soul is happy.

Randi....BYU Hawaii....seriously??? What the flip. I am so jealous and so stoked for you! You bet your bottom dollar that I am coming to visit you. Take notes from the surfing classes, I am going to be mega rusty and pasty.

 

Well I am still exiled here in Barrow. "Missionary" work has been really slow. Sometimes I just want to karate chop people in the head. Nothing drives me more crazy than close-minded people. We pretty much dropped all of our "investigators" simply because no one was progressing whatsoever....so we are pretty much rebooting the area. Starting from scratch will be hard, but its what this area needs. A lot, a lot of finding. We are getting a senior missionary couple here towards the end of february, so hopefully they will be able to help us and the ward out a bit. We just need somethingnew here, because I am seriously getting burnt out.

 

However, we are still having a good time.

 

First off, Elder Diederich bought companionship knives. Watch out

 

After district meeting last week in Kendal, we got some of the members in Kendal and we played mud football for 2 straight hours. It was so much fun, and by the end of it, everyone was head-to-toe covered in mud and beat up. I dont think I have ever been this sore in my entire mission. So that was super rad, and we went straight into an exchange. My good german friend Elder Werner and I cleaned up and made our journey back to Barrow (2 hour bus ride. Since most of my clothes were muddy, I had to borrow some of his. I basically looked like an elegant chav. Sweatpants and dress shoes. Classy).

 

Together, we taught our german investigator Rita. She is going back to Germany on wednesday, so we taught her as much as possible over our exchange. She had so many crazy questions still, but we could totally see some good progress. We just hope that she hooks up with the missionaries over there. As of now, she still wants to get baptized when she come back to England later this year. Our hopes are high.

 

We did some much needed service for Connie. She had on old house with a ton of junk inside, so we ordered a skip and basically got rid of everything so that she could sell the house. It was fun destroying cabinets and mirrors and such. And, we also found some treasures that she said we could keep, aka lightsabers. Pics included.

 

On Saturday, I got to go down to Lancaster for a District Leader's Council meeting. Basically what I learned from it...most of the leaders in the mission right now are going home in the summer...the same time the new mission president is coming. Which means, a lot of these leaders are going to be released so that younger missionaries will have an earlier start and be more experienced leaders for the new mission president. So...I will either be released, or become Zone Leader...which I want no part of whatsoever. I like being the district leader/foot-soldier. I have avoided mission drama most of my mission so far...and being Zone Leader would put me in the dead heat of it all, especially in this mission. Please pray for me...that I can stay below the radar. Thank you

 

In a ward with only 25-35 regular people, including children, you earn the priviledge of speaking nearly every other Sunday. It's weird, because I actually enjoy it. It helps my focus of "It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is grand and mysterious in itself, and unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it". Especially with a ward that has the intelliengce level of a squirrel, it is really good practice.

 

Well everyone, I love you. Keep on having adventures, everyday if you can. This life is not meant to be boring.

Till next time, peace out.

 

Elder Bryant Goodman

BA

HotTuna

 

p.s. wisdom from President Preston from our recent health training

 

Chocolate comes from cocoa

Which comes out of tree

That makes it a plant

Therefore, chocolate counts as salad

 

Jedi Warriors:

Companionship knives: A blanket from Heather, Tie and Beanie from Mom

 

The Elements were having a hormone disorder.

Hello all my lovely people. Greetings from the Furness peninsula. I love you all. This week, I think the elements were having a hormone disorder. Seriously, the wind, rain, hail and psuedo-snow never stopped. It makes missionary life interesting. I could go on and on about the weather, but I don't want to fall into the typical Englishman stereotype. So anyways, even though I want to get out and move on from this flippin area, I am happy. Sometimes we have to choose to be happy. That's ok though, it builds character.

 

This week's deets:

 

Monday was a pretty good birthday. We traveled out to Cartmel and got the famous sticky toffee pudding....and its easily in my top 3 favorite desserts ever. It was way good. The little cottage/restaurant that it was in was pretty rad too. The second story floor was totally lop-sided and slanted, and the walls were far from straight, and the natural wood beams were showing, so it had this really cool vintage, harry potter vibe to it. I will definitely be going back there again in the future.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. I finally got ke-baptized. Kebabs are proper nice, at least for the first 30 minutes. The rest of the day we relaxed and I played ukulele and picked up my sketch pad again. It felt good to get the creative juices flowing.

 

We had a Zone Leader Blitz in Barrow! Our good friends Elders Wirtala and Peterson came up and we spent the whole day destroying Barrow. Ultimately, Barrow and the frigid wind ended up destroying us, and most of our appointments fell through. Lame. However we did end up finding a couple potentials to start teaching. Elder Peterson and I spent the entire day working on Walney island, tracking down all the less-actives, tracting street after street and talking to nearly everything living on the street. The happiest moment of our day: This super old man on this scooter thing (it looked like a Harley Davidson motorcycle and an old man scooter had a baby. It was pretty rad) gave us a big ol' toothless smile and pulled over and started talking to us. It was probably the best religious converstion that we had all day, and in mid sentence, he bowed his head and started saying a very humble and thankful and heartfelt prayer. It was incredibly on the spot, but a very gentle spirit could be felt from this man as he thanked God for us and what we do. It totally brightened up my day. Even though his wife wants nothing to do with us, I hope that we can see that man again.

 

In the evening after our Taco feast  (thank you mum for the ingredients), we all packed up and headed to Lancaster and stayed in the Zone Leaders flat because of early interviews the next morning. It was fun, even though I ended having to sleep on the hard ground with only my love blanket (thank you heather) and a stuffed penguin as a pillow. It was a rough night, but the following interviews with president in the morning were good. I love President Preston, and it will be sad to see him go. After interviews, we had a specialized zone training, so it was good to see some of my other brochachos again. Oh yeah, there are some flippin weird new missionaries now. I am beginning to feel old. There is also this new Russian elder who freaks the crap out of me. I dont know if its his supreme unibrow, or him doing tricep dips on the chairs off in the corner by himself. I hope we can become friends.

 

I just typed something here about the working and weather conditions here in Barrow, but I just deleted because it sounded like I was a sour-patch. Its my goal to be more positive and to just love what comes. I hope I get the flip out of here soon, but I will continue to work and fulfil my purpose here in Barrow, whatever that may be. I have no idea at the minute. But I want you all to know, I love you. I pray for you all every night, and I am incredibly grateful for all that you have done for me. Keep on being cool. Till next time, peace out!

 

Elder Bryant Goodman

aka BA

HotTuna

 

p.s. thank you for the birthday package!!!! I dig the beanie. My ears are warm and happy

 

 

my medieval mug

windermere

Barrow blitz at sunset

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding:

Who's throwing rocks at our window? Oh, it's hail.

Elder B.A.'s Birthday!!!

Hello all my loved ones! Greetings from the land of spontaneous hail storms, chav herds and a crazy lady giving us "non-alcoholic" sparkling grape juice. This week has been good in Barrow...but first off I want to thank you all for all the birthday lovin! The hand-written lovin makes it feel like it hasnt been too long since I have seen you all, and the birthday grocery delivery was pretty much the best thing ever! I never thought food would make me so happy. Online shopping at TESCO is one of the greatest inventions of all man-kind. No doubt. Anyways, my birthday has been going pretty good so far! It's a bit weird but adventurous to be spending it in a foreign land, but I swear when I woke up this morning...my beard got the memo and grew in thicker. That, along with the zone singing to me over a conference call and fresh delivery of food, life is good. Since there is not much to do here in Barrow, my plan to spend my birthday is to chill, head over to Cartmel for their world famous sticky toffee pudding, then coming back to the flat, listening to music and ordering kebabs and more chillaxing. Good day in the life of a missionary.

 

This week was pretty chill, but here's the deets:

 

Elder Hamblin, my fellow AZ brother, came to Barrow for an exchange. We went to Pizza Hut as a district and had the all-you-could-eat lunch buffett before my district meeting, and....Elder Hamblin set the Barrow record. 28 slices of pizza. That.boy.can.eat. Luckily, the exchange went really well, he didnt throw up at all, and we ended up finding a new, dread-locked lady investigator from Africa! She is so solid and loves her Bible. Hopefully it all works out.

Exchange quotes, "Justwingit" and "come what may and love it".

 

More tracting in the pouring rain. Soaked to the bone. Zero doors interested. A couple slams. A couple laughs. Overall, good time.

 

We had a really good lesson with Robert and Rita. I really wish I could speak German fluently, it would make these lessons so much easier. Luckily, the spirit fills in the gaps. We also had the opportunity to give Robert a much needed priesthood blessing. Good news, he is still alive and healthy! The priesthood power is real.

 

I bought some new kicks finally. Classy mocassin style slip-ons.

 

Elizabeth is crazy. I love her, but this time she offered us alcoholic sparkling grape juice. She kept saying "do you trust me?", "come on, trust me", "its not alcoholic, trust me". So I trusted her and took a sip....yeah it was alcoholic.

 

Other than that, the week has been full of teaching and finding, just plain old missionary work. I really hope that I can get out of Barrow soon, but for now, I will keep on working here in this gloomy down and try to bring in some sunshine. I love you all, and once again, thank you all for all the birthday lovin. You are rad.

Till next week, peace out!

 

Elder Goodman

BA

HotTuna

 

 

Connie's Baptism.

Hello everyone! So right as I was about to leave my flat, a fat stack of letters came through the door, all from this rad family! I haven't gotten the chance to read them yet, but I am stoked to hear all your lovely words. Thank you for all the love and support. This family is incredible. I love you all.

So anyways, life is good here in Barrow! Here is a sneak peak of my week:

 

Haha so on monday...we had a bit of an adventure. After emailing and p-day chilling and such, my companion and I hit up the skate shop (I could have stayed in there for hours. It was legit), and we also browsed all around the music store right next door. It was basically a mini Guitar Center and my heart was insanely happy to be in there. I miss playing so much. So....I bought a ukulele!! I talked for a long time with the Scottish store manager for a long time about Scotland, hiking, and life in general, and finally...what is the best travel ukulele to buy. Long story short, I came out of that store with a brand new musical baby.

Continuing on with the monday adventure, our WML George took us out to a carvery to eat. It was all good until the journey back home. George pulled out of the car lot and a car almost hit us, so that was a bit sketch, but we were making fun of him for being "drunk". After that, we were going around a round-about and then while trying to avoid a cyclist on the left side...George ended up running over one of the central road medians, blowing out both tires on the right side. It wouldn't have been so bad, but....he didnt have any spares, and we had a car loaded with our groceries, and it was raining, and we were stuck on Barrow island. Haha so he called a recovery truck to come pick us up. It took over an hour for them to reach us...so, I busted out the ukulele and played in the car the entire time and made a qwirky song about how the universe was not on our side tonight. Haha it made time pass on quickly, and finally a grumpy man in a truck came and loaded up the car, and we all headed home. It spiced up our usual monday night for sure.

 

Ah snap, I dont have too much time today. Well, here are the important bits.

 

I finally got the explore the coasts on Walney island!

 

Working in the rain=major wife points.

 

We found a new investigator on Walney, and I learned a very important lesson to never ever judge. Stacy is a young mother of 3, and her yard was totally thrashed and filled with rubbish and initially I thought "woah, whoever lives here is such white trash". Turns out, Stacy is going through a lot of struggles, and her neighbors are absolutely horrible and verbally abuse her, tried to run her over several times while she was pregnant, and dump all their rubbish into her yard. She is living in a horrible situation, so I desperately hope that we can help her out anyway that we can.

 

Connie was baptized!!!! Saturday was such a good day. Not that many people showed up, but it was perfect because the spirit was strongly there, and Connie had such a good experience. She is still the same old witty/semi-crude lady that she was, only with a new added light about her. We are all so happy for her. Convert baptisms are incredible, especially here in England when there are so few and far in between. I love this work, and I know that even though we are very far from perfect, as long as we make our best effort with a strong heart...Heavenly Father will take care of the rest. We will be alright. It's as simple as that.

 

Well my loved ones, I hope all is well with you. I am so happy that Brien and you all could see inside the Gilbert Temple!!! One day.

I love you all. Keep on having radventures, and always make sure family is the tight-knit center. Till next time, peace out!

 

Elder Bryant Goodman

BA

HotTuna

 

Connie.

Oceanic stance of power

 

graffiti seaside bunker

 

 

Ocotpus Bunker

Brochachos

"We are still making a difference here, however small it may be."

Hello family:) I love you all. All is well in the land of Barrow-in-Furness. Things are going pretty well. We havent been swept away in the floods, we havent been attacked by chavs, our ward is still intact, and we managed to escape from Elizabeth's home without being too weirded out (recent convert....completely crazy and touchy but lovable...but crazy). I am getting much more settled here, even though the people here take so much longer to becomes friends with. It's all pretty chill now, and once again I have that good feeling of "being a part of the ward". It took some work. Working with the ward council and giving a talk for the past 3 sundays have really helped.

So anyways (nacho voice)....this week was pretty chill, but had some adventure and travel and interesting people all thrown in.

We had our final zone meeting of the transfer down in Preston, which made us set our alarms for 5 o' clock in the morning to get our butts out of bed. No bueno. But the travel energy soon got pumping in me, and after the series of trains, buses and walking, we finally got to the Preston chapel. Even though we didnt like our past robotic zone leaders, the meeting was pretty good. Haha I met a very good, new friend. Elder O'brien. He is a big ol' boy from New Zealand, and yes....he has the exact same accent and humor as Germaine!!! Haha I dont think I have ever laughed so hard in a Zone meeting before. For all of our small group teaching role-plays, I was with Elder O'brien, and it seriously felt like Flight of the Conchords sketch. Living in New Zealand for a bit is still playing in my mind. I love those people.

This week, we got 3 referrals! That never ever happens in Barrow. One of the referrals was from a 20 year old chick who referred herself on mormon.org, but after our first visit...being real....it was mostly just a flirt.  Her housemate was a hardcore death metal chick who worshipped Satan. So, that referral was pretty bogus, but the other 2 took us over to the land on Walney Island! The island was suprisingly beautiful, compared to the rest of Barrow. Not only that, the super strong smell of salt water filled my nostrils, and it immediately brought back memories of beach camping in Carlsbad. I miss that so much. You better save me a spot after I get back!!! K sweet. Anyways, the ocean makes me happy, which helped me have a good attitude as we walked and worked in the rain for 5 straight hours. Tired feet, happy heart.

Major happiness points= I found a super rad skate shop....and a huge music shop right next to eachother!!!!!!! I am going to go hit them up today.

Well my family, the work is doing well. Connie's baptism is still full go for Saturday, so we will be preparing for that. We are slowly gaining more people to teach, and even though the numbers are pretty low at the moment, I still feel happy that we are making a difference here, however small it may be. I have a testimony, that as we use our talents, personalities, passions, humor and attitudes towards building up 'the kingdom of God', Heavenly Father, the happiest of all, will share that joy with us. I love you all, and I hope you savor every moment and vibe and sense as you go in and see the Gilbert temple for the first time. I can't wait to see it for myself one day! And to eventually be married in those walls. I'm stoked that my brother Brien can come along with you too, that news made me so happy to hear! Until next time, may your adventures never cease, and may your days be filled with peace. Haha, that rhymed...peace out!!!!!

Elder Bryant Goodman

BA

HotTuna

p.s. birthday present request....hand written letters from everyone!

Bridge to Walney at low tide

best road name ever

zone leaders 

hooligan tag

road to Kendal

Juicy Lucy's

my biscuit stache

crazy Isla Kent

new Years Eve

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what it's built for"

Hello everyone! This week has flown by with New Years and such, and my memory of you all skyping is still fresh. Life is good, even though it's the usual chilly and windy weather outside. Winter is setting in, along with the damp "bones" weather. It seems to seep right through everything. But hey, as long as there is no cold sauce on the ground or flooding, it isnt too bad. Our friends up in Workington are stuck there because flooding is convering a lot of the train rails. I just hope that doesnt happen to us! We joke around and already feel exiled as it is!!

 

Oh yeah, first bit of news....we got our transfer call and Elder Diederich and I are both staying another transfer in "beautiful" Barrow! I'm stoked, because even though this area is super dead and the ward is decaying and we are here alone to take on this depressed town....I will be here for Connie's baptism! We have been working so hard with her, and she is seriously one of the only glimmers of hope that we have right now. We are hoping that this baptism will create a spark for the rest of the ward to pump up some enthusiasm and hope. Only 29 people showed up to church yesterday, and if the rate continues the way that it is going....this ward is going to crumble and shut down. This.cannot.happen. Luckily, Elder Diederich and I are super good friends and work well together, which will make this responsibilty a bit easier to handle. Haha not going to lie, this point in my mission (missionary work wise) feels a bit like Josephs time in Liberty jail. It's a big test to keep my spirits high.

 

But anyways, we are still having some good times here. On Tuesday I gave a district meeting with the zone leaders there which went pretty well...but at 4 o clock, we got New Years Eve off! So my companion and I went over to George's house and we just chilled and watched Netflix. After that, we got back pretty late, stayed up till midnight, I watched fireworks and drunk people from my flat window, then I crashed in bed. Party on. We got to sleep in, and after chilling in the morning and listening to some rad tuneage, we went over to George's again and watched more Netflix. There really isnt much to do in Barrow on a rainy day, I would have killed to go on a hike or something in the Lake District, but instead we treated ourselves to NACHOOOOOOOOOOO LIBRE. Haha good times.

So Saturday morning was flippin hectic. We had to be in Lancaster for a district leader's council meeting by 10:30. So we were just leaving to catch our train, but then we got the transfer calls. Worst timing ever!!!! So we were walking to the train station in the crazy wind and couldnt hear squat on the phone (zone transfer calls are the highlights of the transfer. Its a huge conference call with everyone and everyone gets stoked!) So this time was a bit frustrating because we couldnt hear much. We finally got to the train station....only to see our train fly by without stopping! What the flip. We then found out that was the only train to come by in the next hour or so, so that was our only hope to make it to the meeting on time. There was only one other woman with us, and she was freaking out too because that was the train she needed as well. So we talked a bit and she said "come on!!! lets drive and try to catch the same train in Dalton!!" So we ran with her to her car, hopped in, drove fast to Dalton...only to find that we missed the train there as well. AHHHH this morning was super frustrating. We ended up begging George to give us the hour long lift to Lancaster, which would barely get us there in time. He kindly drove us, and we listened to a rad Scottish soundtrack all along the way through the beautiful countryside. It was good, because I would have been way grumpy at the meeting. That man deserves major blessings, and some chocolate.

 

Other than that, our week has been pretty chill. I am trying to turn my brain from holiday mode back to working mode still, because its 2014 and time to get back to the grind. This year should be good, and I have a feeling its going to fly by. I will keep you updated on all my new adventures this year. I love you all, and till next week, peace out!!

 

Elder Goodman

BA

HotTuna

 

p.s. I love the quote

 

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what it's built for"