October 25, 2010

Hello everyone! How is it going? This week was pretty good for me. I moved into my new area. The Queensland and Parkland wards and am back in the zone that I started my mission in. In fact I am even in the same district as Chapparal. Which is pretty awesome. I've been able to see some of the members from there already and it has been awesome to see them. My new companion, Elder Hurley, is awesome. I love being around him. He is a hard worker but also knows how to have fun and enjoy himself. I can tell already that this is going to be a great transfer. I was really sad to leave my last area, especially since both of us were leaving. I was afraid that all the work I put into that area and all the progress I had would be lost, but Elder Barber who went in there with his greenie seems like a great missionary and I am sure that area is in good hands.

I have been able to have a lot of fun in this area already though. We carved pumpkins with some of the other missionaries. We helped a member get rid of his 100 year old piano. And by get rid of it I mean that we put it in the back of his truck, went to a big parking lot and he went in reverse really fast and then hit the brakes and the piano went flying out the back and got destroyed! Don't worry... we cleaned it all up. Nobody would ever know that we were ever there. But it was definitely the best service I have ever done. I have a feeling I am going to love it here.

We have an investigator named Angie who has a date for November 27th. That's awesome. We had a lesson with her and her excommunicated husband who is also working on coming back. The lesson was sweet. We went over Alma 36 and just talked to her about it. She had some concerns about getting baptized but we were able to resolve them pretty easily. She is ready for baptism. She really is. I don't know if I am going to help her towards it at all, but I hope I do. I hope that I was put here for a reason. And maybe that reason was to help her to overcome some problem that hasn't come out yet. Or maybe the reason I am here is for someone else. An investigator we don't have yet. We were walking around one day and found this guy named Christopher. Well he kind of found us. He saw us and walked up to us and asked if we were Mormon. And he said he had just moved there and was a born again Christian and was looking for a church he could go to and asked if visitors were allowed in our church so we told him when it started and he said he might be there and we set up an appointment to go visit him yesterday but he wasn't home. We were walking up to the house and the guy came out and said. We aren't interested... it wasn't Christopher though so we went up and he came back out and he said Christopher lived in the basement so we went around back and knocked on his door and he didn't answer. I thought that might happen though. he seemed like a kind of sketchy guy. But we are going to try back again soon to see if he is there. He didn't come to church which is sad, but maybe he will show up some Sunday.

I am really loving this area and Elder Hurley and I am excited to see what good I can do here. Thank you all for everything! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love
Elder Townsend

The girls at Cochrane Home Treasures

Me, Elder Crowe, Elder McFarland and Elder Hurley

Our room... I haven't unpacked yet because we are moving

ps. So... I forgot to tell you all that when I got to the area Elder Hurley told me that the member we are living with is really frustrated with missionaries in his house and wants us gone... so we spent a lot of the week looking for a new place to live. We went to a lot of members but President Archibald wants us out of there as soon as possible and we couldn't find a member that could house us that soon so we are going to be moving into an appartment this week sometime. I don't know if that will be a good thing or not. I think it will be nice, but I have really enjoyed being with members so far on my mission. But it could be a nice change. I always feel like we are getting in the way of the members we are living with. So that will be something fun to tell you guys about next week!

love you all!