Elder Justin Michael Goodale: Tough and Joyful Times

Elder Goodale's P-day this week got moved to Tuesday, so we just got his weekly update today. The "moving to Germany" reference is that Justin has heard that I interviewed in Germany. NO... we would not be relocating to Germany (I've explained that to Justin in a letter this week, which he hasn't received yet). Rather, if I get that job, I would continue to travel quite a bit between the U.S. and Asia.

For the fun of it, I'm posting a MTC photo of Justin, with he and his MTC companion (Elder Philips) pointing to where they're going (and where Justin is now). We look forward to speaking to Justin on Christmas day!!! His e-mail from today is below:

Hey everybody! So are you all moving to Germany? You keep hinting at this job but nobody's ever said anything for sure yet. I need to know what's going on! That would be way crazy if you had to move out there. Sounds like a good job though. Yeah everything worked out with my wallet. Hopefully I get my card soon! And yes I got Grandma's packages. Yesterday I just got your package too. Sorry I couldn't email you yesterday, the President came down for interviews so we had to move our preparation day to Tuesday. Things are still going well here. We aren't having quite as much success as when we first got here. It's a poor area, so everyone is really humble and willing to listen, but they've also all been on welfare their whole life and so they're lazy and won't keep commitments or change anything in their life. That's not everyone though. There have been some frustrating one's like that, but there are alot of really awesome people here too. Like Francis! Things are going so well with him! We're totally setting a baptismal date with him tomorrow. We have a couple of other awesome investigators too that are really progressing. As I'm sure you could tell this week's been alot harder then the last couple. Since we were the first missionaries here in awhile all we were doing at first was seeing less active and part-member families and spending alot of time trying to find people to teach, and it's been alot harder this week seeing people choose to reject it and trying to help those new investigators progress. It's been been alot more frustrating and sometimes kind of discouraging seeing these people who seemed so awesome when they first let us in choosing to reject it. As I've been teaching the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone I meet (dozens of times a week) my testimony of it's importance and my love for this gospel have grown so much, and it's really hard when people choose not to accept it. We're still having alot of success though and I am really really enjoying things out here. It totally makes up for all of that when we get someone like Francis or Kathy who feels the spirit and responds to it and is so willing to accept things. I really am loving everything out here. I'm eating really well (sometimes too well. I've already gained 5 pounds...) and people here are so nice and I'm really loving it. I can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas!