called to serve Calgary: May 26, 2010

Hey everyone! How is it going? Hope all is well. This week for me was alright. Can't really complain... going through it it felt like we weren't able to get much done, but looking back it wasn't too bad of a week. We were able to get in a good number of member lessons even though we had a lot of our dinner appointments cancel and lessons cancel. A lot of people were "sick" this week. Even our investigators canceled on us this week. Mitch called us the day of and told us that it "just wasn't a good day for him" and then Sam texted us and said he wasn't going to be there. He didn't even call. He just text us. I am kind of worried about what is going on with him. Ever since he finally said he was going to read the Book of Mormon we haven't seen him. That was four or five weeks ago. He keeps canceling on us and that isn't really like him. Missionaries have met with him every Tuesday at 730 for the last nine months and up until this happened he had only missed one day. So I don't know what is going on there but hopefully it stops and we can meet with him next week. Elder Reese hasn't even met him yet. But some good news with the investigators. Mitch and his daughter, Savanna, came to church! Only for sacrament though because they had a BBQ to go to. But it was still awesome! It was the first time Savanna has made it out to church and it was actually her idea to go. She said she felt guilty about not ever going. Which is awesome! She is only ten and is an amazingly smart girl. I'm pretty sure they are both going to get baptized eventually. I just hope it is sooner then later.

We were able to do a lot of service this week as well. We are working with this guy named Duncan Badger and he has this whole giant thing he started with making a giant garden in the neighborhood. He says in ten years it is going to be one of the biggest in Canada. It is pretty big and nice looking. And he got the city to plant over 7000 trees in it, which they called the birthplace forest. It's pretty sweet looking. And it is a lot of fun to work there and see it grow all the time. There are 15 or so people that help plant and stuff for it and most are non members so it is a good missionary opportunity as well. Duncan is getting pretty comfortable around us. In fact one day him and his wife had us over for lunch when we were working with them so that was awesome! Anyway, it's a pretty cool thing to be doing and I am getting my tan back! Even if it is a really bad farmers tan... haha

Other then that not too much exciting had happened this week. We had a really cool experience were we stopped in just to say hello to one of the Haitian families in our ward. They are so happy and so positive. It's so sweet to see. We could tell he was pretty stressed out right now. He doesn't have a job and he might get sent to Haiti for 6 months to help rebuild and have to leave his family. So we had him read Proverbs 3:3-7 with us and it was awesome. He said it was exactly what he needed and was so happy that he let us in and so amazed that we could come up with exactly what he needed in his life. So that was actually a really cool experience for me to see. I love the Haitian families in our ward. They are so fun to be around. They are always so happy and positive. I want to be like them when I am older.

That is pretty much it from me this week though... we did a lot of walking around and I started having some fun with my camera at times. So that was fun. I can't send all the pictures though. That would be way too many and take too long, haha. I hope you guys all have an awesome week though! I love you!

Love
Elder Townsend

Look! I'm eating healthy! I love pears! haha