Week 6 Beeville, Texas (ONE LAST TIME)

Mom,

Here it is, my last email as a missionary. Man, these 2 years have flown by. It has been super fun and I have learned a lot. 

We got transfer calls last night and the surprise was that Elder Morera is leaving as well. So they are moving 2 new missionaries into our area. Morera is going to Corpus Christi and me, well obviously I'm going home. 

We had Stake Conference so it was good. I got to see some members from Flour Bluff which was super cool. 

Becuase of Stake Conference we didn't watch the broadcast during church but we decided to watch it later in the day. It was really good. It will be interesting to see how the new program goes. 

Aside from that I have been packing. I shipped my bike off this morning and got that taken care of. Pretty much all my stuff is packed so today I just get to chill.

I have really enjoyed these past 2 years, I have learned a lot and grown a lot. I am excited to start the next chapter in my life. 

The sisters talked us into doing facemasks last night so we did. The other picture is our district at Stake Conference. 

I'll see you on Wednesday, and I'll fill you in on these past 2 years.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Facemasks courtesy of the Sisters in Beeville!

Elder Goodbaudy with his companion and the Sisters in his District.

Week 5 Beeville, Texas

Mom,

Things are good here. It is still hot but oh well. We had a confirmation for Margarita, the lady we baptized last Sunday. It was pretty close because she had to go to the ER for her foot Saturday night but the confirmation happened so we are good.

Church was really small which was kind of surprising because we had the primary program but a lot of people were out of town.

Honestly that is about it. I will be home in 9 days so not much to talk about.

I hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy 

Week 4 Beeville, Texas

Mom,

So I know we only talked for about 10 minutes on the phone and I said I would write a long email to make up for it, however... We had an activity today in a town about an hour away with some other missionaries to play basketball and stuff and I ended up driving back. So I couldn't email because I was driving. So needless to say this one will be short. Oops.

This week Margarita got baptized which was super cool becuase there were honestly times where we didn't think she would fully commit all the way, but she did. So that was cool. 

Other than that we did the usual. Just missionary work and staying busy. The biking is keeping me in shape, kind of sort of. We watched the YSA devotional last night and that was pretty good. 

I can't think of anything else that happened. Church was the usual, I got to see Brother and Sister Robins (they were in my ward in Flour Bluff) they spoke since Brother Robins is on the high council so I got to see them again which was really nice. 

Time is up so I got to go. 

Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

                                       Margarita's Baptism

Week 3 Beeville, Texas

Mom,

The week was good, however this will be another short one since we have been out and about all day looking at stores. 

The week was good. Yesterday a guy the sisters are teaching invited us and them over for dinner, it was smoked ribs and deer sausage. Delicious. 

Also this week we biked in the heat as usual. We talked to a lot of people and stayed busy. 

Church was good, the stake President joined us and we had a lot of people we were teaching show up which was good. Also after church we had a linger longer with some really good food. We had some good conversation and all in all it was a good time. 

I can't really think of anything else that happened. Sister Parker got her Visa so she went to Peru on sunday. Now we have a new sister named Sister Dray who is with us in Beeville. 

I'm just enjoying my time here before I wrap up in 3 weeks. 

Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 2 Beeville, Texas

Mom,

It is crazy. Time has gone by super fast. 

Church was good, it was pretty empty. Testimony meeting was just a lot of stories. This branch is a little interesting but it is full of nice people who always keep you on your toes. We didn't end up helping out, we just got to enjoy the ride. 

Not a lot of people live super close to the actual city of Beeville so we don't get fed a lot because most people live an hour away from Beeville. There is one lady that feeds us every Wednesday which is nice. 

Things are good here. Today we had to drive to Corpus to fix Elder Morera's bike so we spent the day looking around and shopping. We got his bike fixed, had lunch at Jack in the Box and then we went to a bunch of stores to do some shopping. I got all the new clothes I need so that makes me happy. 

This email will be quite a bit longer than the previous ones because we are just driving back to Beeville (which is about an hour drive) so I have nothing to do but write emails. 

This week was good. I'm trying to think of some highlights. 

We had zone conference on Thursday which was good. We talked about being consecrated and sacrifice. I also bore my testimony in front of everyone since it will be my last zone conference. So that was crazy. I also just have to say that I love President and Sister Ocampo, they are amazing. 

Fun little story for the week was that on Saturday evening we were walking around a little neighborhood 5 miles out of Beeville called Blueberry hill. We walked around and a small dog started following us around for about 2 miles. Then we got on our bikes and started heading home because it was late. The dog still followed us. (Elder Morera named him Milo) He then followed us for the whole 5 mile bike ride back to our apartment. We can't have pets and so we left him outside with some water and a piece of meat. We said a prayer and in the prayer we asked God to help Milo either go home or get somewhere safe. Minutes later a lady knocked on our door and asked whose dog Milo was. We told her the story and she said she would take him in for the night and ask around at the animal shelter if anyone knew who the dog belonged to. She also said that if no owner was found she would keep him because she was thinking about adopting a dog that was the same breed as Milo. So that was pretty cool.

Also on Sunday a guy came to church and asked us to visit his friend who is a less active member who lives an hour away. We went by and he ended up inviting us to dinner at an Italian place in Beeville. So we went to dinner, and it was super good. 

I can't think of any other highlights. That was pretty much it. 

Hope all is well. Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 1 Beeville, Texas

Mom,

The week was good. The branch is pretty small but it is fun.  I gave a talk about the atonement so that was cool. 

Beeville has about 12,000 people so it is very small. So that is pretty interesting. Also it is just us and a set of sisters here and the nearest missionaries are an hour away.

Sorry I saved this till' the end of the day so this will be a short one. 

We did some service this week which was cool, it is always nice to get out of a white shirt and tie. 

Glad to hear all is well at home. 

Here is a picture of our district by a cotton field because that's all there is out here. 

Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 24 McAllen, Texas

Mom,

It has been a long day. We played lots of basketball so we are worn out. 

We got transfer calls and I am leaving off to Beeville. That's 3 hours up North so that should be a fun adventure. 

Nothing crazy happened at church. Just the usual church stuff. 

We didn't do a whole lot this week, normal missionary work. 

This one will be short since it has been a busy day. 

Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 23 McAllen, Texas

Mom,

My birthday was good. Sorry we have been busy today playing soccer and basketball so this one will be short again because I don't have tons of time. 

Yeah so on Saturday Elder Roper and I went with Elder Theel and his companion to Costa Messa for dinner. It is a super nice Mexican restaurant and the food was so amazing. (Elder Theel and Elder Goodbaudy share an August 10th birthday.)

This week was pretty normal. In church yesterday we helped out in the primary with singing time. When the Primary kids sang well they got to put stickers on us and give us 'measles' so that was fun. The kids enjoyed it a lot. Whatever helps them sing I guess. 

Things have been pretty normal here. We have transfers next week so we will see where i end up for my final transfer, 2 years has flown by too fast. 

Also I just want to state for the record that I type these emails on my phone and since the screen is not as wide as a computer screen I feel like I write a lot and then when you see it on a computer the paragraphs aren't as long. So I feel like I write quite a bit but that's just me. 

Anyway, that's all. Just had to add something to feel like I wrote a big email. 

Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 22 McAllen, Texas

Mom,

Sorry we got a late start today so this will be very short. Basically Roper tripped and broke a wall so we had to spend the morning fixing it. 

So yeah. The week was good. We learned how to make authentic flour tortillas, they are delicious.

So yeah. That's that. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of us fixing the wall. 

Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

                                         The damage.

                                         The repair.

                                          The finishing touches.

Week 21 McAllen, Texas

Mom,

Glad to hear all is well there. It is still hot so we are just trying to survive. 

This day has flown by so I don't have a ton of time. Long story short this week was good. We had a baptism on Saturday for Mikayla, so that was good. Other than that we have been trying to talk to people and stay busy. 

Time is flying by, I'm just staying busy and sprinting to the finish. 

Hope you have a great week and we will talk next week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy

Week 20 McAllen, Texas

Mom,

Sorry this will be another short one. Things have been busy. 

It hasn't been too terribly hot so we are surviving.

McAllen is good. Church was pretty empty again but it was still good. 

We are just chilling out here. Things have been good.

We are staying busy and working hard. 

Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Goodbaudy