February 9, 2010

Hey guys! so... I think I may have forgotten to tell you guys that it was transfers this week... my bad... but today is P day so here is a letter from me! haha. The pictures will come a little later. like in 5 mins. I have to borrow someone's cord to connect my camera to the computer. I forgot mine.

Well transfers are going to be interesting this week. There is a lot of changes in my district. Elder Miller is going home. I don't know if I told you guys that yet either. But he has been sleepwalking and Pres found out so he called SLC to see if he could stay out and then an apostle called him back and said that if anyone sleepwalks they have to be sent home. So he is leaving with this transfer. That is pretty sad. He was awesome. He has been out 13 months so he still served a pretty good mission. Elder Byington is getting transferred down to Medicine Hat and this guy named Elder Glick is going to be my companion. Elder M is getting transferred to down town Calgary. He is the Polynesian Elder in Cranston, he was hilarious and a lot of fun to be around. So all of the senior companions in my district are gone. That leaves me and Elder R, he's hilarious but very strange and Elder Norman, he's well... he's pretty annoying and gets mad really easily about anything you try to tell him. So hopefully the people coming in are pretty fun. Our district these last two transfers has been pretty fun and I am going to miss them a lot, but I am going to try my hardest to do what I can to make this new district just as fun. My new companion, Elder Glick sounds like a good missionary. People say he is a really hard worker and has a very military attitude towards things. So that will be good. At least he is someone that will be a hard worker. We'll find out tomorrow though after he comes here. I'm pretty excited for the new adventure though. It should be a good transfer and our investigators are coming along pretty well.

We still are trying to get in with Jason. We stopped by a couple of times and talked to him on his porch. I am kind of starting to get the feeling that he is just talking to us just to be nice and doesn't really want to take the next step of taking the discussions. But we will keep going until he comes out and tells us to stop coming, because you never know. He might just be waiting for the right time. He may just be waiting for Elder Glick to come in. Who knows. Chris Burrows is doing great. We still haven't really taught him an official lesson but we were able to sit down with him and talk to him for a while. When we talk with him we really just talk about life and stuff and we tie beliefs into a lot of what we talk about. He is really nice and fun and has started joking around with us about getting baptized so at least he isn't afraid to talk about that subject. But on a more exciting note we were able to get in and have another discussion with Jeanette on Thursday. That went really well. We were there for quite a while and most of it was spent answering a lot of really good questions she had. Then we figured we should leave with some kind of a lesson so Elder Byington talked about faith for a while. Then she had a couple more questions that we answered. Then she basically asked what it would take for her to be baptized and how long it would take. So we just told her it was up to her and how she was feeling but we asked if she would work on being ready for baptism on the 20th of February and she said that she would love to. So that is so awesome!! Dang that was fun. She is really solid and loves everything that we have taught her so far and she loved church, even though she said three hours was pretty long. But she is definitely going to be baptized sometime and hopefully on the 20th. Elder Byington won't be here for it though. But lucky for Elder Glick. He is going to have a baptism right when he gets here.

This week has been a lot of fun though. We spent a lot of time with the district and being around each other. We have been working at this lady's house for a while. The Sundance Elders baptized her and are still working on her husband. But we have been over there a lot doing random service for them. But this last week we have been finishing their basement for them. We have been putting up drywall and fixing the framing of walls that were completely off and putting down some carpet. It has been pretty fun. I have decided I really like dry walling. But it has been fun to be able to be around the district and be able to get service done too.

We have been having some really good church tours lately. We have been able to get a lot of members out to them and they love them. It is an amazing way to automatically bring the spirit into peoples lives while teaching them about the restoration as well. Everyone that has been on one absolutely loves them. We challenge everyone to bring a non member friend to one the next week and everyone always seems really excited to go and ask people to come. But so far we haven't really had anyone do it. But that seems like the normal thing in this area. Everyone always gets excited to do missionary work when we are talking about it but they seem to just forget about it as soon as we leave. That's what happens in ward council too. Bishop has been getting really into missionary work and it is awesome. During ward council meetings he tries really hard to get the rest of them that excited too. And it works, they get really excited but then throughout the week nothing happens... we are going to work as hard as we can to change that though and hopefully we can get them to act on their plans.

I am excited to be out here doing missionary work and to be serving the Lord and the people here in Calgary. Thank you all so much for everything that you do for me and the love and support you give me. I love you all and I cant wait to talk to you again next week!

Love

Elder Townsend

February 3, 2010

Hey Guys!

How is it going? It is going pretty good up here in Canada. It's been getting a little colder but it is still not all that bad. It started snowing again this week so we have some fresh snow on the ground. It was weird before that though. Almost all the snow was gone. They are saying that this is a pretty mild winter this year. Spring doesn't usually come until April or something. It will probably get cold again though. They say that last year in February it was -40 for a month straight. That would not be fun. I've decided that Canadians have short term memory though because everyone here is still saying that this is like the worst winter in ten years, except for the mission office people that told me it wasn't. haha.

This week was pretty fun though. We had zone conference on Thursday. That took up most of the day. It was pretty sweet though. It was all on planning and finding, which seems to be what a lot of our training are on... but it was pretty sweet. Pres and his wife talked and the AP's talked and gave a training and our zone leaders gave a training too. Then they chose a couple of missionaries to come and talk about planning or finding. They told us we were going to have to do that and told everyone to prepare 5 min talks but didn't say who would give them, but naturally I was the first person they called. Luckily I had made a semi-plan for a talk so I had some things to say, but I got really nervous and shaky and I don't think I really made all that much sense, but people said they liked it... but can they really say other wise? I think it was horrible. haha. But it did go for 5 mins and hopefully I won't have to talk at the next one now. haha.

Then on Friday we taught Jeanette again. That went amazingly! She is so awesome! haha. We taught her lesson three and she asked really good questions and basically said she already believed everything we were telling her. So that is good! Hopefully we can keep that going! We are hoping to see her again on Thursday. We also had her daughter sit in on the lesson. And she actually sat in on the whole thing and was pretty interested too. That was kind of surprising to me but it was awesome! Hopefully she can continue to be excited as well!

Then Saturday we went over to Laura Knights house in Sundance to do some more service for her. The Sundance missionaries are still trying to convert her husband and she keeps having stuff for us to do so we keep going over there. haha. She had us start clearing and organizing her basement because she wants to start to finish it and drywall it. So we spent that day doing that and then we went back on Tuesday and helped her again. She had the drywall for us and we got the ceiling of one of the rooms mostly done. That was awesome! I've decided that I really like dry walling after helping brother Lacusta in his basement and doing this as well, haha.

Sunday the most amazing this happened though! We had our first investigator come to church! Jeanette came! We had invited like four people but she was the only one to come. It was awesome! She had to be a little late because she was volunteering at a soup kitchen downtown so she got there at the end of sacrament. She was there for all the talks and then stayed for Sunday school and combined Relief Society and Priesthood. She loved it! She was getting all into the lessons and was even answering some questions and when she left she was so happy. You could just tell that she loved it there. So hopefully she will continue to come! We introduced her to some people too so she knows people in our ward now. Maybe that will help.

That is pretty much it for this week though. Although so far today has been pretty exciting as well. Yesterday I may or may not have put my jeans in the washer with our cell phone in the pocket... so we went and got a new one from the office this morning. Luckily they had an extra one so I didn't have to pay for the new one! But yesterday we also got a call from Elder Lambert, the senior missionary in charge of cars, and he told us to come in to the office to exchange our car again. He said they were going to sell our 07 Malibu. So we went in and they gave us a 2010 Malibu. Holy Cow, that is a nice car. It's huge and awesome. It only has four cylinders so it isn't as fast as our old one, but it is still pretty sweet. They said that we have been taking care of our car really well so they trusted us with this new one. It is quite literally brand new. It only had 60 km on it when we got in it. So that was pretty exciting. A new phone and new car all in one day. not bad eh?

Well thank you guys so much for all that you do for me while I am out here! I love you guys so much!

love, Elder Townsend

Hey guys!

So this week was pretty fun! On Thursday we went and taught an investigator that we have. Her name is Jeanette. She has been going to the Sundance Ward because she has some friends over there. So the Sundance missionaries taught her a first lesson and got her out to a church tour. But then they gave her over to us because she lives in our area. That was so awesome! The lesson went really well and she asked some really good questions! I didn't really know how to answer them myself but Elder Byington and the younger Bro Ady were there and they did a really good job of answering her questions. We are going to see her on Friday again and we hope to ask her to be baptized this time. That will be pretty exciting! And we also are going to try to get her daughter to sit in on this next one. She seemed pretty interested the last time we were there. So that will be awesome!

Then Friday was full of a lot of service again. We went over to Laura Knights house again and did the stuff that she always has for us to do. I painted a room and her bathroom for her. It was pretty fun. And she always feeds us pretty good when we go over there. Then Saturday the Ady's that we live with had us over... well up. For breakfast. That was awesome. Sis Ady cooked a bunch of pancakes and sausage. It was good. And they actually talked to us so that was good! Then after breakfast they had us clean the basement and she came down to make sure it was all good down there. We passed! haha. Then we helped them move some new couches into their theater room. That was pretty fun. And they are really nice people! Bro Ady is kind of grumpy whenever we see him but I think that is just what he is like. So that was pretty exciting! Things are going a little better with them.

Monday was Elder Byington's birthday! That was pretty exciting. I woke up before he did and decorated the apartment a bit. Just with some stuff that his family sent me to put up. And then we went and bought doughnuts with some money his parents sent and then we went and had our meetings. It was a pretty fun day. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to my birthday out here though. I think it is just going to be really weird not being home. haha.

It is getting pretty cold here again. Not too bad though. And it has started to snow again so that is fun. It means we spend a lot of time shoveling for people. Which is awesome! It is a really good way to fill our day time hours since we can't find much to do usually because everybody is at work. So that is nice. I've decided I don't mind the cold all that much though. I think I could actually live in a place like this. I like wearing winter clothes. But I definitely do not like Canada. I couldn't live here. It's so different. haha.

This morning me and Byington had to take a trip up to northern Calgary to get some medicine that his mom sent him because the Canadian border took it out of his package and then sent it to some weird building that felt like a DMV... not a very fun place to be. But they made him come and get it and they charged him for having to store it. And if he didn't come and pick it up they were going to charge him like $200 to destroy it. Anyway, Canada is just weird. It made for a pretty fun little road trip though. haha. I went to a place I hadn't been yet so it was fun!

Well, that is pretty much it for me this week... things are still going really well! Me and Byington are doing great and keeping ourselves busy and entertained. We could always use more people to teach though! haha. Well, I love and miss you guys all so much! I can't wait to talk to you again next week! Sorry this one is a little short... the road trip made us late to getting to the library and Byington is anxious to go and play some soccer. haha

I love you guys!

love
Elder Townsend

Me and Byington

Our district

downtown Calgary!

Byingtons birthday!

Whore frost. (yeah, I don't know why it is called that....it looks really cool though! It gets over everything!)

January 20, 2010

Hey guys!

Well not all that much happened this week. We stayed pretty busy teaching members and visiting with them. We even got to see a couple of our investigators! We haven't been able to go see Chris Burrows since he called last week and told us he was reading in the Book of Mormon. He has been pretty busy with another surgery apparently. But we hope to be able to talk with him and set something up for the beginning of this week. So hopefully we can. We stopped by Jason too. He still seems really excited about the church and wants to learn more. He is always open to learning more but he never really has any motivation to learn more. Whenever we try to make an appointment with him he never really wants to set anything in stone. He always just tells us to keep popping by. But those kinds of visits don't ever go anywhere! So hopefully we can get in with him sometime or get him out to a church tour.

But we were able to teach the Olsen Family. They are the ones that had gone to church before for a while and had taken all the lessons but when the topic of baptism came up she just slowly stopped coming to things. But she wants to have the lessons again because she wants her kids to know about the church. So we were able to get in and teach her and her kids a first discussion. That was amazing! It was my first experience teaching a non member family. The lesson went really well and we have another appointment with her on Monday. We hope to get her out to a church tour that day so hopefully she can. That would be awesome!

Well, the weather here has been really nice lately. A lot warmer then it is supposed to be and it has been really nice! Whenever we go out to do service I don't even have to wear a sweatshirt! haha. We do a lot of service though. That has been what we have been staying busy with a lot this week during the afternoon. We helped the Sundance missionaries one day and tore up the carpet and sub flooring in one of their investigators houses. That was awesome and a lot of fun! And we helped move a couple of people. And every Monday and Friday we are going to go to Laura Knights house and help her. She is absolutely crazy! She is a recent convert in the Sundance ward. But she is so funny! She always has the most random things to do for her. I swear she just breaks stuff so we can come over and fix it... but she is always very grateful and it fills our days so its a good thing to be doing. I've been eating a lot of pizza lately too. It seems like every time we help someone they buy pizza for us. It's awesome. You can never have too much pizza. Especially when it is free!

Elder Byington is doing better. We still have a lot of fun together and staying busy has made him happier lately. So that is good. And it is his birthday on Monday. So that is exciting. His family sent me a bunch of stuff for his birthday. Like signs to put up and balloons to fill for the night before. That was pretty awesome. I actually got really close to not having mail on Monday, but I got that from them. That would have been really sad! It was almost the first time that the zone leaders got the mail and I didn't have any! Luckily it didn't happen and my streak is still going! haha.

Anyway... that is pretty much it from me this week... I know it isn't much but not much exciting happened this week. Although we did say pretty busy so it went by really fast. I also didn't get too many pictures this week either... my bad...

Well, thank you all for everything you do for me and I cant wait to talk to you all again next week! I love you guys!

Love

Elder Townsend

Ketchup flavored potato chips anybody?

Overlooking Calgary

January 13, 2010

Hey guys!

How is it going? I hope this email finds you all in good health! I haven't been feeling all that good lately. Yesterday morning I woke up and did not feel very good at all. They say that Chinooks will do that to people though. The dramatic and fast change in air pressure can mess people up. So hopefully that will go away soon. It's nice to be warmer but not so nice to be sick. All the snow is melting so it isn't the best walking conditions either. There is slush and muck everywhere! haha And, yes, we do have a car in our area so I don't have to walk all that much. But we only get 1000 kilometers a month so our district thought we would save on clicks and walk to DDM's. So we started walking there pretty early in the morning and it only took us an hour to make it. But we were still late and I was in pain, haha. It's been a while since I've walked that far and it didn't help that I was wearing huge boots! Like I was saying it was all slushy and stuff so I wore my boots. But I just borrowed them from someone in the ward, so they are a little big for me so that didn't help the walk very much. And it sucked that each boot weighed like ten pounds each! haha. But we made the walk home a lot more fun. We weren't in such a hurry so we stopped at the welcome center of Fish Creek Park (the place we walked through to get to the church we went to) and we walked around there a bit and saw the Indian artifacts and stuff they had there. And we had some snow ball fights as we were walking and we took some pictures of our district. So it was a pretty fun morning/afternoon. Our district is pretty sweet this transfer.

But the main reason we walked there was to save clicks because we had already drove all the way out there for interviews earlier in the week so we had used more then we usually do. Interviews were pretty fun though. Sis Archibald always brings us some kind of food for breakfast so we had muffins. And she always talks to us about something, this time it was planning, and then we talk to her about whatever we want to while everyone is in their interviews. The companionships all go to meet with the zone leaders and they talk about whatever. That is always fun. Elder Crippen and Elder Rice are our zone leaders and they are hilarious! It is always fun to talk to them. And we also go individually to talk to Pres Archibald. That is always a thrill. He is really nice and fun. But my interviews haven't been very long so far. Some people are in there for like 15 mins or something but mine only last like 2 or 3. I don't know if that is a good thing or not though... Let's just say its a good thing. It will make me feel better about myself haha.

So we have started being a little more busy. We've been teaching lot of members and such which keeps us busy but is not nearly as nice as it would be to have investigators to teach. But we are getting there! It has been a while since we have seen Jason. He's been sick or gone a lot so hopefully we can stop by him sometime. When we talk to him he always seems excited to talk to us and learn more still, so that is good! And Chris Burrows is coming along pretty good! On New Years Eve we stopped by and gave him a Book of Mormon. And the other night we called him to make an appointment to see him and we made one for Thursday. But he talked to me about how he was reading in the Book of Mormon and how he could see where it came from and stuff and he was excited to talk about it more when we see him on Thursday! So that is awesome! Hopefully we can get in and teach him the lessons soon. We also stopped by Jodi and Ashley Olsen. They were in our area book. We had been trying to see them a lot since I've been here but we never really had seen them until like last week. and we had an appointment to teach them on Monday but they moved it to tonight so hopefully we can get in tonight. We are wanting to get these people to church tours too. We have been doing a couple of church tours lately. It was something we have been told to do by Pres for a while but we haven't ever had keys to the church but we have started borrowing them so we can do them. Church tours are awesome. We basically teach a first discussion and use the rooms of the church for different parts of
the lesson. They are pretty sweet. So far we have only done two and they have only been with members but they have been amazing! It is a wonderful way for people to get comfortable in the church and to be able to feel the Spirit! There is a room we call the Christ room where there are pictures of Christ and his ministry and everything all over the room and scriptures opened on tables. And there is music playing and we let the people walk around a read them and look at the pictures and just ponder. It is basically a guarantee to feeling the Spirit. Every time we have walked into that room it has basically been like walking into a wall of the Spirit. It is so awesome! So hopefully we can get some of our "investigators" that aren't really investigators yet to a church tour and let them feel of the Spirit and hopefully they will want to learn more. That is our main goal for right now.

So hopefully we can do that. Other then that everything is going great here! It's a blast! It's so warm here and it is definitely not usually like this at this time of year. They say this is when it is supposed to be the coldest. So hopefully we just skipped over the cold instead of just delaying it, eh? haha. Well I cant wait to talk to you guys again next week! I miss you all so much and I appreciate all the love and support you give me while I am out here!

love,
Elder Townsend

The sunrise from our new porch

a back view of our giant house (the brown one)

This is our laundry room/kitchen. If you look close enough you can see

instructions for the washer and dryer on the wall above them. and you can see our toaster, skillet and industrial sink on the counter and in the bottom right is our mini fridge and microwave. It might be smallish and only one person can fit there but at least we can eat, eh?

Our big bed room that is the size of our entire old apartment. And that is the table we are allowed to eat at. The only one. Because they put extra carpet down just in case we make a mess. haha

Our living room. That is where we study and I am standing next to a fire place with couches in front of it. Not bad eh?

I don't know if you guys have seen Elder Miller yet. Here he is. Yep. He's the

english one haha

Us walking through fish creek park

January 6, 2010

Hey Peeps!!

This week was pretty fun. It seemed like it took forever though since our last P- day was on Tuesday. They say all the first weeks of transfers take forever though. It's kinda nice not being the youngest missionary out here anymore! We have a couple of greenies in our zone so its pretty fun. They seem like really nice guys so I think our zone is going to be pretty cool this transfer. Elder Byington seems like he is a little more excited to still be here. I think he has decided that if he stays busy he will be happy.

That is basically what our zone leaders told us at our meetings on Monday. They have really wanted to start cracking down on the plan that our mission has of getting at least 20 member lessons a week. The ward mission leader is supposed to set all of those up though but ours doesn't really. He's a really cool guy though. But we have to set most of ours up ourselves. This week we have actually been doing pretty good with the lessons. We figure if we get at least three a night then we will be able to reach our goal of 20 a week. This week is the first time we might actually get that. We have had at least three every night so far. It's been really nice. We stay really busy and it makes time go by really fast. So I think Elder Byington is getting more into being here so that will be nice. It will be nice to be busy and doing stuff. I think this transfer is going to be good.

This week was also pretty fun because of New Years. It was a very different New Years for me... We had to be in our apartment by six o'clock New Years Eve so that was kind of a bummer. There isn't really much to do for 4 and a half hours with just you and your companion. So we just caught up on our sleep that night. But before that at like 5 we went over to Chris Burrows house just to visit him. We talked for a while about life and stuff and then we talked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and stuff and we gave him a book and he had us write our testimonies in it. So that was really awesome! Hopefully that can progress and we can eventually get in to teach him. It's kind of funny but I think wanting to teach him is the first time that I have wanted to teach him so that he can have this gospel in his life and the happiness in his life rather then me wanting to teach him just so we have somebody to teach. It's pretty awesome and I hope that sometime we can actually teach him!

Anyway, that was pretty sweet. Then Saturday we moved into our new place. It took a lot longer then we expected. We just planned to do it for a couple of hours in the morning but we started at ten and we took our first load of stuff over to their house. Yes, we had to take more then one load because the day before we moved they took our truck away from us and gave us a 07 gold Malibu. sweet.... anyway. So we took our first load over there and when we got there the Ady's had a whole thing that they gave us and they took us around and showed us what we could touch and what we couldn't and stuff like that. That took a while. Then we had to go get the rest of our stuff. Then we put together the "kitchen" we have, which is a microwave, toaster, electric skillet and a mini fridge. We put all of that into their laundry room that has a big industrial sink in it. So that is pretty... fun. Kind of small but it works right? haha. Then we unpacked and got everything organized and that basically took up our whole day. It wasn't a very fun day... but it had to be done sometime, right? haha

But yea, this week so far has been good with the teaching and stuff. Two nights ago it snowed pretty good so yesterday morning and afternoon we spent shoveling for people. That was awesome. It gave us something to do in the day time and it made the day go be quickly and it was actually pretty fun. We met up with the Sundance missionaries, Miller (the hilarious english guy) and Norman (he just got transferred in but he seems really nice), and we helped them shovel in their ward and they helped us. And having more Elders made it even more fun. So that was pretty awesome. Our district has pretty fun Elders in it. I've gotten to know Elder Miller better lately and he is hilarious! Everything he says makes me laugh pretty much. I love English accents. I've decided I need more English friends back home. (and Polynesian friends too. haha.)

Anyway. Taht was pretty much it for our week. We have been looking for places to do regular service in the week to give us something to do during the days. But there aren't very many places in our area so we haven't had much luck. But hopefully we can find some. That would make the day time a lot better. It's hard to find stuff to do during the day because everyone here works or isn't home. So hopefully we can find service.

Well, thank you all so much for the awesome gifts and support you gave me for Christmas. It made my first Christmas away from home a little better. I hope you all are enjoying the new year and are having a wonderful time with family and what-not. Thank you all for everything!

Love
Elder Townsend

December 29, 2009

Hey Everyone!

This week was a pretty awesome one I'm not going to lie! Thursday was Christmas Eve! It was a lot of fun. We had our weekly planning session for the whole morning but then we went out and saw some people that we could. We ended up only being able to see a couple of people but it was pretty awesome! We stopped by Laura Hummell, the lady that is less active and just had a baby, she was so nice and so excited we could come over. We talked to her for a while and then Elder Byington gave a sweet thought about the three births of Jesus Christ. It made me really excited for Christmas and got me in the right spirit of Christmas even more! Then that night we went to the Davis's for dinner. It was pretty fun. They had her sister over and her non member husband. So that was awesome! We had steaks and twice baked potatoes. It was pretty good. And then we played some Christmas songs on some metal chime things they had. It was lot of fun. Then we went over to the French's house, the family with the kids we baptized, and they had a family night thing where they acted out the nativity and had some musical numbers. It was so awesome! Jordan, one of the girls that we baptized, is an amazing singer. It was so fun to hear her sing! Then we stopped by the Hawkes. We were going to go there for a first dinner but Brother Hawkes got sick so we just stopped by before we went home for the night and we talked to them for a bit. It was a pretty awesome Christmas eve!

Then Christmas day was pretty sweet too! we woke up and opened our presents. It was awesome! Being on a mission I didn't really need anything but I got things I could use like 12 ties, haha. and I got a lot of candy! Oh man... too much candy... I've given most of it away to people haha. But then we went and picked up some presents that Santa had forgotten to give to a less fortunate family in our ward and we went and delivered those for him. That was such an awesome way to start my Christmas day. They were so grateful for the presents and the kids were so happy to see them when we brought them in. It made me so excited that I could be a part of that wonderful thing and to see it all happen.

Then we had our Christmas calls! Oh man that was sweet! It was so nice to hear my family's voices! We only had 45 mins so we didn't get long but it was definitely amazing. But then after I was done while Elder Byington was talking to his family I went and made pancakes to keep my mind off of home. And yes dad, I did put salt in them this time. haha. But I didn't make syrup... and what we had wasn't very good... so it wasn't as good as I hoped haha. But it was still fun.

Then we went over to the Selways and we talked to them for a while and they fed us a little lunch before they went to their family. They are a really fun family and their kids are hilarious! Then we went over to the Lacustas for dinner. They has a couple family members over. We had an awesome Christmas dinner. They had a whole bunch of turkey and potatoes and stuffing and corn. It was pretty darn good! And the dessert was alright too. Not the biggest fan of it though. But then we played bingo for a while and then they gave us some presents to open and they opened some presents to each other. It was pretty sweet. They are such a fun family. And they are really nice to us since they have a son on a mission. It seems like that helps people be nicer to the missionaries around them haha. Then we played some more games. We probably stayed to long, but it's not like we would have been able to do much else. Everyone else was doing their own Christmas stuff.

Then Saturday was boxing day!! And no... there are not just a bunch of people fighting each other on that day... yes, I was disappointed too. haha. It's just a big day of a lot of sales. It started out as a day you would box up to things you didn't want or need and give it to the poor but it basically just turned into a big black Friday type thing. But since everyone was out shopping we didn't do much. We spent all morning and afternoon trying to find people at home. But nobody was home. So that was kind of a slow day. But the night was pretty good. We went over to Jason's and invited him to church. He didn't end up coming... but he still seems really excited to take the lessons. We just can't seem to find a time that ever works. He works a lot. And his family isn't all that into it. So hopefully we can start doing that.

Speaking of church. In Priesthood we had a very interesting lesson... Alan Dickson, a very strange man whenever I have talked to him, gave the lesson. But he basically just talked about the Masons the whole time. He is a Free Mason himself so he thought he would enlighten us. haha. It was so weird and definitely not a church lesson... and he definitely told us things that he wasn't supposed to say. Not really about our church but about them. I can't even really explain it but it was definitely weird. And he asked for questions and he never really answered them... like Bro Gardner asked him why he was a Mason since there wasn't and benefit for him and he was just all... I don't know. My family was just in it. And some one else asked something and he just said... ya I don't know. And then went of on a big tangent about something. I don't really know what he was doing. But he is pretty high up on the food chain in their organization. He said he is Master of the Lodge. But even he couldn't answer our questions... It was definitely weird. Made me happy that we didn't have any investigators there... not that we have any investigators anyway haha.

Well that was pretty much it for this week. But we found out who is getting transferred today. We thought a lot of our zone was going to leave and get split up. But most of us stayed. I'm staying and Elder Byington is too. He is not very excited about that though. He was all ready to leave. He has been here since July and we are in the smallest area in the mission so there isn't much to do that he hasn't done yet. He was pretty sure he was leaving. His bags are packed and everything. So we'll see how well he does this transfer. I am going to try my hardest to keep him motivated and try to find new things for us to do. But I have a feeling it is going to be rough. I am going to pray a lot and try my hardest so hopefully everything works out.

This transfer has kind of shown us that Gods ways are higher then our ways. So me and Elder Byington are here for a reason still. So I know that if we continue to try our hardest that God will bless us and hopefully well see some more good come out of this area!

Well, I am excited and nervous for the things to come. But I am ready for them to come. I am so thankful for all of you and the support that you give me. I love and miss you all so much and can't wait to hear from you again next week!

love

Elder Townsend