November 2, 2011

Hello everybody for the one last time from the Canada Calgary mission! I still don't think it has really hit me yet that I am actually coming home... I still feel like I am going to be out her for forever! Maybe subconsciously I know and I am really nervous about coming home... either that or I got food poisoning. I got really sick last night and was losing a lot of liquids. haha. sad eh? I am really hoping I can start feeling better soon so I can actually eat the good food they give us in the mission home tomorrow. Anyway, sorry for the too much information. We had a really good week this week. I went on exchanges on Wednesday with the other Elders in our district. I went with Elder Perez who has only been out for 6 weeks now. We had a lot of fun. A member from one of my last areas, Sis Tredinnick took us to the Calgary Tower for lunch! That was sweet! I was glad I was able to get up there once before I left. Then we were finally able to get in with our investigator Robin again. We met with her at 6, but our priesthood didn't show up and we only had like 15 mins so we just talked to her at the door. It was good though and she came to church for the first time this month which was sweet! We taught a lesson during Sunday School and I just threw down on her and said that I was going home and the one thing I wanted her to know was that this is the only way she can be ready for the last days, because she worries about those a lot. I think it was really good. It definitely made her think. I just don't know what is holding her back from baptism... it's kind of frustrating really. She will get there eventually. Then on Friday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders and I went with Elder Gelwix. He came out with me and we were together for our two year mark. It was sweet. We had a lot of fun together. A member here named Chris took us to lunch to Tony Roma's and then these two sweet kids took us to a place called Moxies. It was fun. One of the Elders in our district was sick so we went to a couple lessons with the one that was feeling good that they had set up in their area. So that was sweet as well. Then Sunday was a lot of fun. We had this house of girls sign up on the dinner calendar for Halloween but we have to be in our apartment by six on Halloween so they switched it to Sunday. We had a big Halloween party and they even got a pumpkin that they had us carve. It was sweet. They are a really fun group of people. I am actually getting pretty sad to leave this area and to leave Canada. I have loved my mission and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I have no regrets here. I could've worked harder at times for sure but I have made so many memories and so many friends that I will never forget! The mission really has taught me so much and it feels weird that it is ending. I know it has blessed me in my life and I hope it has blessed those I love. I pray for you all everyday! Well, this is my last email. I spend today with the zone for Pday and then tomorrow I spend the day in the mission home and then I'll be home for lunch on Thursday! I love you all and I can't wait to see you!

I'M COMING HOME!!!

Love
Elder Townsend

October 24, 2011

Hello everyone! How was your week? We had an OK week here. It was another really slow week. Pday was fun though. We spent a lot of time playing sports. I threw out my arm and now it won't stop twitching though. It's driving me insane! haha. Wednesday we had a training from the zone leaders with our district. It was all about faith and having faith in our baptismal goal of baptizing a stake before the temple is completed. It was good. I like our zone leaders a lot. We had a specialized training on Friday which was a really good training. My mission president is really excited. Apparently we are a more obedient mission then we have been in the past so instead of having to talk about obedience they can give training's on other things. This one was on goal setting and having faith in them. We talked a lot about the goal that we set as a mission of baptizing 2600 people before the completion of the Calgary temple. It was good though. Also they had me and Elder Gelwix, a missionary who came out with me, give our farewell testimonies. Each transfer at something like that they have all the missionaries going home bear their testimonies. It was weird. I never thought that time would come for me and I wasn't expecting to do that on Friday. It was good though. Also Sis Archibald told me I need a haircut but nobody in the ward knows how to cut hair and I'm not spending $20 on a haircut so I'm getting an RM to do it. He cut his comps hair on the mission. So if I come off the plane without any hair I'm sorry. haha. Then Friday night we went on exchanges with our zone leaders. So I went with Elder Henrie for 24 hours. It was a lot of fun. He's sweet. I wish I served around him more on my mission. We worked hard and had a lot of fun together. That's how a mission should be. It makes time go by faster and helps you to just be happy while you are out here.

Sadly we weren't able to meet with any of our investigators and we weren't able to meet with very many less actives or recent converts. But we did get some really good lessons with members. This ward seems to be more and more missionary minded each week. I can't wait to see what happens my last couple of weeks here.

Thank you all for everything! I love you and appreciate your support while I am out here!

Love,
Elder Townsend

October 17, 2011

Hello everyone! How was your week? We had an OK week here. It was another really slow week. Pday was fun though. We spent a lot of time playing sports. I threw out my arm and now it won't stop twitching though. It's driving me insane! haha. Wednesday we had a training from the zone leaders with our district. It was all about faith and having faith in our baptismal goal of baptizing a stake before the temple is completed. It was good. I like our zone leaders a lot. We had a specialized training on Friday which was a really good training. My mission president is really excited. Apparently we are a more obedient mission then we have been in the past so instead of having to talk about obedience they can give training's on other things. This one was on goal setting and having faith in them. We talked a lot about the goal that we set as a mission of baptizing 2600 people before the completion of the Calgary temple. It was good though. Also they had me and Elder Gelwix, a missionary who came out with me, give our farewell testimonies. Each transfer at something like that they have all the missionaries going home bear their testimonies. It was weird. I never thought that time would come for me and I wasn't expecting to do that on Friday. It was good though. Also Sis Archibald told me I need a haircut but nobody in the ward knows how to cut hair and I'm not spending $20 on a haircut so I'm getting an RM to do it. He cut his comps hair on the mission. So if I come off the plane without any hair I'm sorry. haha. Then Friday night we went on exchanges with our zone leaders. So I went with Elder Henrie for 24 hours. It was a lot of fun. He's sweet. I wish I served around him more on my mission. We worked hard and had a lot of fun together. That's how a mission should be. It makes time go by faster and helps you to just be happy while you are out here.

Sadly we weren't able to meet with any of our investigators and we weren't able to meet with very many less actives or recent converts. But we did get some really good lessons with members. This ward seems to be more and more missionary minded each week. I can't wait to see what happens my last couple of weeks here.

Thank you all for everything! I love you and appreciate your support while I am out here!

Love,
Elder Townsend

October 11, 2011

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everybody! Well, it was actually yesterday, which is why I didn't get to email yesterday. So here I am! haha We had a pretty good week here. Actually it was really sad. We had an appointment with Robin on Thursday but she went to Okatokes for the weekend to be with family for thanksgiving so we couldn't meet with her and she didn't get to come to church. So that was sad. Also, we had two lessons with two other non members but they both fell through as well. They were both people that other missionaries had found and gave to us, but when we called them to confirm an appointment they wouldn't answer and then they never showed up to the appointment that we did have. So that was sad. It was really hard to find people to teach this week because it was thanksgiving weekend and all the YSA kids were all going back home to be with family for the weekend. So we actually had a really slow week and a lot of cancellations. So it was pretty sad. We still had a pretty fun week though. We had a pretty sweet FHE. We ate salad with random utensils and had to eat spaghetti while our hands were tied to the hands of the people next to us. It was sweet. Sadly they canceled FHE yesterday though... again. Nobody was here because it was thanksgiving. sad... Then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday all of our appointments in the evening fell trough. So that was sad. Luckily we were able to find a couple sweet people at home we could stop by and share a message with. We only had one dinner this week since we couldn't pass around the dinner calendar last Sunday because it was conference. So that was sad. Although our dinner was on Wednesday and it was a really good one. Kole Moore took us to all you can eat beef ribs at Tony Roma. It was delicious. I had no idea beef ribs were so huge though. It was sweet. I ate way too much beef though. I could barely move the rest of the night, haha. Then Sunday was a pretty good day. The bishopric all had a big thanksgiving dinner and invited all the people who didn't have family around to go to so we went to Bishop's house and there was about eleven of us there. It was pretty sweet. It was really good food and it was a lot of fun. We had some pretty good conversations. I love this ward and I really like Bishop Kroeker. He's a lot of fun. Then yesterday for Pday we just played a lot of sports and I am really sore from it. It was fun though. It's weird to think that I only have three more Pday out here. I'm going to have to make the best of the time I have left. Hopefully we can see some success here before I leave! Thank you all for everything! I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Townsend

October 8, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? We had a pretty good week here. It started pretty sweet. For Pday we went to a lake down in south east Calgary and we played beach volleyball and football. It was fun. It started really late because we were waiting for people to show up so that was kind of sad though. Then we had a lot of pretty good lessons with members and such. On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Perez for the day. He has only been out for two weeks now. It was interesting. We didn't have a lot to do so we just spent a lot of time tracting. He was actually pretty good at it. I was impressed. Then on Thursday we met with Robin again. That was sweet. We took our newly called ward mission leader, Ryan Pinchack with us. That was interesting. He was a very interesting teacher. He laughed at Robin and said she needed to stop fighting what she knows to be true. So that was interesting. Not really the path I would have taken but I guess it works. It was a pretty good lesson. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how she will come to know these things are true. She is to the point where she knows everything pretty much. Now she just needs to start keeping our commitments. So hopefully she starts doing that. She came to the Saturday morning conference and she really enjoyed it so that was good. She said she was going to watch the rest online so let's hope that she did. I think there were a lot of really good talks that she would enjoy and that would help her.
I really enjoyed conference. It was really good and I've decided I love going to the church to watch it because I pay a lot more attention when I do. They make us go there as missionaries in case non members show up. So it's pretty sweet. How did you all like conference? I think my favorite talks were Pres Uchtdorf's in Saturday morning or Elder Holland in priesthood or Pres Monson in priesthood. Although I also liked Elder Carl Cook Saturday afternoon. Oh man it was sweet. I love conference. It's such a testimony that the church is true. I go with questions in mind. I go hoping they will say something that will help my investigators or help me with my investigators and they say exactly what we need to hear. I love the church. I really do!
That's pretty much the highlights of my week though. Sorry this email is so short... I love you all though! Thank you for everything and for the love and support you have given me on my mission! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

September 26, 2011

Hello everyone! We had a pretty fun week here. It was transfers so its always crazy with packing and getting a new companion and unpacking and trying to get the new guy to understand the area and what we do here. It's been crazy. It was really good though. Wednesday we spent a lot of time at transfers because I was waiting for my new comp to come in from Trail BC. That was fun. He is an interesting fellow. He has been on his mission for one year and is a short soccer player. He doesn't really talk much but when he does it seems like he's yelling at you. He is fun though. I think we are going to have a good transfer together. There seems to be a lot of work coming up which is great news! Thursday we met with Robin again. That was sweet. We talked a lot about the atonement and how it helps everyone and why we focus so much on Jesus Christ still even though he already did everything and how we need to accept him and follow his teachings and then we talked a lot about how the Book of Mormon is really the only way she can come to know that these things are all true for herself. She told us she hadn't actually been reading or praying, but she said she would this time, so hopefully she does. She wasn't able to make it to church this week which was sad. She was in BC with some friends, but she knows about conference and she seems really interested in watching some of it. So that will be sweet. Then on Sunday night we met with this man named Eamon (pronounced "a-men"). He was sweet. We ran into him when we were stopping by some less active on our record and he lived there instead. He was with a friend named Steve but he wasn't too interested so he wasn't there last night. It was definitely an interesting lesson. We spent some time answering some questions at the beginning of us being there and one came up about how in Alma 7:8-9 it says Jesus will be born in Jerusalem.... but he was born in Bethlehem.... so if anyone can answer that let me know. haha. Then we went on and shared the first lesson with him. It went pretty good. At the end he said that he knew that one of us was wrong and if he was wrong he wanted to be helped and if we were wrong he wanted to help us. So we told him to read and pray and find out for himself who was wrong so he accepted to do that and he said he would get baptized depending on the answer that he got. So that was sweet. It was a cool lesson. It's going to be hard to meet with him though because he doesn't want to set up anything in advance but he said he would call us when he had free time but probably not with too much notice. So here's hoping that he actually does call and we are available. He did say he wanted to come to church though and he said conference would be something he would like to watch. So hopefully he will come to one of the sessions. That is pretty much the highlights of our week though. I'm looking forward to this transfer. There are some weird and very new missionaries around me now so that might be interesting but I think there is a lot for me to do here still. I just have to find what it is. Thank you all for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Moore, Hansen and me

Some of my favorite missionaries. Hatfield, Heap, Hurley and Fowler. Hurley and Fowler are home now and Hatfield comes home with me.

me and Farnsworth

September 21, 2011

Hello everybody! We had a good week here. Me and Elder Farnsworth had a lot of fun. So it is transfers and we found out that Elder Farnsworth is going zone leader in the west zone and I am staying here and getting Elder Loveland. I don't know anything about him really. That makes 8 of my companions that have eventually made it to zone leader after I have served with them. So either president needs to keep me with good missionaries that can keep me in line or I am really good at preparing missionaries to be in leadership. haha. Who knows. But I am really looking forward to this next transfer. It should be a lot of fun and I think there is a lot of work to be done here in Edworthy Park Ward.

Last Tuesday we went to see a referral from the office that we got. That was interesting. It was for a man named Luke who was 21. When we got there it was a whole house of YSA guys and we sat down with three of them. Luke, Andrew and Jordan. One of the first things they told us was they were all going to Mount Royal studying religion and they just wanted to learn more... great... bashers. haha. So we talked to them for a while and apparently missionaries had been going by about a year ago but then stopped and two of them knew quite a bit. Jordan and Luke. Luke seemed more interesting and willing to listen to us. Jordan just asked a lot of leading questions to get weird topics on the subject. Andrew was really quiet the whole time. We did get through the first lesson which surprised me. Although it took an hour and a half and we had a lot of huge random tangents. We have another lesson with them this week. I don't really want to go, but we will. It might be our last time. The ward remembered them from last year and told us the last missionaries dropped them because all they wanted to do was bash with them. So I don't see this going very far. It was kind of fun though. A very interesting lesson, but not really one I ever want to have to go through again! haha. Then on Wednesday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders so Elder Kirklin came into our area with me and we spent a lot of time walking around downtown and talking to people. Nobody really listens to us downtown though. I don't really know why. Then we stopped by a bunch of people and talked to a bunch of people on the street as we went and we actually got a referral for us and one for the other elders in our district. So that was sweet. Then we had a lesson with a recent returned missionary. It was cool to talk to him. He lived with his parents in the sisters area and the sisters dropped by as well so there were four missionaries in the house. I hadn't had that happen before. It was funny. We shared a good lesson with him and he had a couple people in mind that he could work with. So it was sweet. I love recent RM's because they are still in the missionary mode. haha. Then on Friday we had a lesson with Nicole, a recent convert, who has been struggling recently. That went alright. She hasn't come to church in a while so that is what we are really working on with her. Then that night some other elders in the stake had two gator lessons to go to and they needed us to go so I went on exchanges with Elder Leany who has been out for like two months and we taught these two people they hoped to pick up as new investigators. It was a really weird lesson though. They were only there because they didn't want to say no to their friend who asked them to listen to us. They weren't really open to learning. They shut down pretty much every commitment that we gave them and it was seriously one of the worst lessons I have taught in my whole mission... and we didn't get a return appointment... but I guess we planted a seed in them. So that's good at least! haha.
That was pretty much the highlights of our week. We had a lot of fun. I'll miss Elder Farnsworth. But I'm looking forward to this next transfer. I'll let you all know how it is going next week! I love you all!

Love
Elder Townsend

Downtown

I'm the king of New York!... or Calgary...

Another dog from Tubby Dog. "the red fox" 1/3 lb dog wrapped in bacon and topped with deli mustard, bacon bits, sauteed onions and baked swiss cheese then topped with jalepenos

it was SOOOO good I love that place

September 12, 2011

Hello everyone! We had an OK week here this week. Nothing really too exciting. We didn't get to have too many lessons this week which means a lot of walking around downtown. Which is starting to not be as exciting anymore. haha. We did have some really cool lessons though. We had one with Addison, a guy who is coming back into activity. It was a really good one. He had us over for dinner with his family and then afterwards we had a lesson with just him where he talked about how he was going through some hard times in his life and some difficult changes and he thought that he would be devastated through it all, but he said that for some reason when it all happened he decided to start doing things more faithfully like reading his scriptures and praying more and coming to all three hours of church and he has noticed that even though all this is happening to him he just seems happy and everything seems to be going ok. Which was awesome. So we talked to him about obedience and sacrifice and how they both bring so many blessings into your life. That is so true. That is one thing I have definitely learned a lot about on my mission. Life may be hard but as long as you are keeping up on the basics of life then everything will turn out for the good. So it was awesome to hear Addison talk about that. We had another cool experience towards the end of the week. The other elders in our district had three baptisms this weekend and my comp did the baptismal interview for two of them. Then we were able to go to the baptisms. It was cool. I love going to baptisms. The Spirit that is always there is so strong. It's when I feel most relaxed as a missionary. It really is a huge reward seeing people go into the waters of baptism. I didn't even help with any of these but, it was still fun to be there. One of them was named Owen. He is like... 23 I think and just got married. Apparently he doesn't get excited very easily, which I can kind of relate to. haha, but we asked him after the baptismal interview if he was excited and he was all... eh not really. When we asked if he was happy and he said "yes". I thought that was really cool. Anyway. That was one thing that stood out to me this week.

Other then that nothing too exciting happened this week. Which means I also don't have any pictures this week... sorry mom. The sad part about this week was that we had a lesson with our investigator named Robin on Tuesday but she canceled and rescheduled for Thursday and then Thursday she canceled and told us she was going to BC for the weekend so she wouldn't be at church either. We have another lesson with her on Tuesday so hopefully that goes well. oh! Also, last Monday we were walking in the mall and a girl came up to us and started talking to us and turns out she is a less active member and she said she wanted to come back to church. We found out she was in our ward so we told her where and when church was so she could come but before we got a chance to get her last name or phone number she had to get back to work. So we were just hoping she would come on Sunday... and she did! It was sweet. Then we talked to her and got her phone number and she said to call her tonight and we could set up a time to go over to her house and meet with her. So that was sweet. I wish there was a number we could report for less actives to church. I've been pretty darn good at that in my mission but I get no recognition for it! haha. Anyway, that is pretty much my week though. I hope you are all happy and healthy. Thank you for everything! Next week is my last transfer so I will let you know if I am getting moved one more time or not. I love you all! Until next week.

Love
Elder Townsend

September 7, 2011

Hello everyone! We had an OK week here this week. It was kind of a slower week lesson wise but we still got work done which was good. Nothing too exciting happened though. I wasn't able to go to Heather Jaremko's funeral, but I hear it was nice and I wrote a letter to her husband. Tuesday we had a specialized training from the assistants and Pres Archibald about the second lesson. It was good. They are going over each of the lessons and helping make sure we can teach them simply and clearly. Which is good but it means a lot of role playing for us which I am not the biggest fan of... it was good though. I learned a lot. Then we had a dinner with Sariah Seaborn. She's sweet. She made some really good food and it's cool to talk to her and hear the changes she is making in her life to come closer to our Savior and to see how much it is blessing her life. The church really is true. haha. Then Wednesday we had our district meetings because the special training was when we would normally have them on Tuesday. After that we had a lot of lessons. We had four. They were all with members but they were all really good. Then Thursday we did our weekly planning and then went downtown and talked to people down there. There are some crazy people in this city! haha. Then we stopped by a bunch of people and then had dinner with a guy named Geordie. He's hilarious. I love him. He's kind of a redneck and is in the rodeo and stuff. He's really nice and really outgoing and is a good person for us to talk to when someone needs a friend. I want to be more like him. We got ice cream from DQ and then he threw it at us and it got all over our suits and ties... it was some kind of weird redneck joke... I didn't like it... haha. Just kidding. He didn't really mean to throw it at us. It was funny though. He was freaking out but I was just laughing the whole time. You can't get mad at Geordie and besides we are missionaries our clothes are destroyed anyway. haha. Then Friday we had a lesson with a girl named Jodi. She moved to Canada a couple years ago and hasn't been to church since but we got a referral from SLC telling us her mom wanted us to stop by so we set up an appointment. It was cool. She is a lot of fun and has a pretty good testimony from what I can tell. We just need to get her out to church. She has a social anxiety I think so we will have to work on that. Hopefully we will teach her again this week though. Then Saturday and Sunday we had a couple of lessons but nothing too exciting happened.

I got what they call my "trunky papers" this week. It's telling me my flights and time I'll be home and stuff. It was weird. It's weird to think I'm that close to coming home. It seems way too close but don't worry! I'm going to work my butt off for the rest of the time I am here! No excuses, do the work! haha. Thank you all for everything! I love you all! I hope you had a great week and a fantastic Labor Day!

Love
Elder Townsend

me and my comp

me and my trunky papers... Don't worry, I'm not trunky or at least I'm trying my best not to be! hahadowntown from our apartment window

August 29, 2011

Hey everyone! We had a pretty good week here. It was a little slower in terms of lessons and the numbers we turned in at the end of the week but it ended pretty well. Monday we had FHE but we weren't allowed to go because they went to the temple site and that isn't in our zone. That was sad. So we spent all night dropping by less actives since the whole ward was at the temple. haha Then, Tuesday was pretty sweet. We had mission tour that happens every six months or so. Elder Baxter of the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was really good. They talked about being more consecrated to the Lord and to the work and I think that was something that was really good for the mission and they talked a lot about something else that I know was really good for the mission. They talked about personal contacting and talking to people on the street and what we should say and how we should act on the streets and stuff. It was good. That is definitely something this mission can work on. Myself included. I'm still horrible at talking to people and talking to everyone on the street. I don't really know why but, it's something I am working on. Then we had a really good dinner after the meeting. We went with this member named Jared who drives a sweet old VW beetle. He took us to this Columbian restaurant. It was actually really good. I've never had Columbian food before but that was delicious! Then Wednesday Thursday an Friday were pretty slow days. We stopped by a lot of less actives and potential investigators and former investigators and spent a lot of time walking around downtown talking to people, which I am still really bad at. It seems like all the lessons we had set up this week just kept falling through. Friday night we did meet with Robin again. That went really well. She knows this girl from another YSA ward that she went to high school with so we took her and Jeff Blackford with us to the lesson. It went really well. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and its roll and how it can answer your prayers and questions and we talked a lot about faith and how she needs to exercise her faith and make those steps that are by faith and she will see the blessings that come. She knows that it is all true and she knows she feels the Spirit whenever she meets with us or comes to church. She won't accept a date to be baptized though because she wants to learn more about our culture and get to know more people first. I guess we can work with that. She will get baptized. It will happen and I hope I can be here to see it happen. Then Saturday and Sunday were alright. Slower days. Saturday there was a BBQ at the church that the ESL class put on and they invited us to come along so that we could have conversations in English with the students there. That was sweet. And Sunday was cool because Robin came to church! YEA! She could only stay for Sacrament meeting but that was ok. She's solid. She really enjoyed the talks and stuff. So it was good. That was pretty much the best part of my week though.

I found out something kind of sad this week though. Do you all remember Heather Jaremko from Rockyview ward? She was someone I taught and baptized about a year and a half ago. Well, I got a call from the missionaries there and the mission office saying that she had suddenly gotten sick and was in the hospital and then passed away on Tuesday. I was shocked. It happened pretty suddenly. They think it was some kind of cancer. I was really sad when I heard about that, but then I started to think about how as missionaries we are here to teach people how they can come closer to our savior Jesus Christ in this life. We are here to warn them and to prepare them for the life to come. And I was able to help in that process with Heather. She is in a better place. I know she is and I know she is happy. I'm so glad that I am here serving a mission and helping people in any way that I can. I love my mission and I love being out here in Canada and I truly do love the people here. I cant wait to see who else I can help in the next couple of months. Heather's funeral is tomorrow and I am really hoping that I will get a chance to go to that. I would send a picture of Heather so you could see her, but I forgot my camera today... my bad. next week :)

Thank you all for everything. I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Townsend

(link to post about Heather's baptism here)

August 23, 2011

Hello everyone! We had a pretty good week here. We didn't get a chance to teach too many lessons but the lessons we did have were great! On Monday we went over to Jeff and Dallas' house for dinner and then went to FHE where we drew sections of pictures and then put them together to make one big one. It was interesting. I'm not very artistic at all. Good thing the rest of my group was. haha. Then Tuesday was sweet. We had district meetings and then after that we went and drove to a place called McKenzie in the south east. There is this man named Jake who has been going to the YSA ward in the south stake for a couple of weeks and the missionaries there finally set up a time to teach him but he lives in our area so we went and taught him. It went really well though. His friend Elliot was there too and he just came back into activity I think and he was a lot of help in the lesson. We taught the restoration and answered a lot of their questions. It was really cool. Jake was really willing to learn and accepted it really well. He wouldn't accept a date to get baptized though because he feels like he needs to do a lot to change his life and thinks he needs some time to do that. So we will work on that, but he is solid. He will definitely get baptized it's just a matter of time. If we could have I think we would have been able to teach him all the lessons right then. He was very interested and very into the lesson. It was sweet. We are meeting with him tomorrow again. Hopefuly that goes well. Then Wednesday was a really good day. We taught five lessons which was sweet. We went and taught Chris McClure which was interesting. It is always interesting going over there. Then Jeff called us and wanted to go out with us to some lessons so we went and picked him up and then went and taught Addison Gough. That was sweet. Addison is making a lot of really good choices in his life recently and it's cool to see. Then we went and stopped by Andrea Arellano and dropped off her pan that she gave us last Sunday with shepherds pie in it and shared a message there and then we had a really good dinner and then went and taught Robin Roberts. That went really well too. She hadn't come to church in two weeks because she was out of town but she said he would come this week but she didn't which was sad. We had a really good lesson with her. We taught lesson three which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She really liked it and agreed with it, but she says she is too comfortable in her lifestyle right now to make any drastic changes like coming to church, which was sad to hear. We can work with that. As long as she continues to meet with us and come to church and reads the Book of Mormon the Spirit will work on her and she will come to know that it is true and that she can be so much happier when she makes that covenant with our Heavenly Father.

Then Thursday was a lot of fun. Jon Cummings came and picked me and my companion up and took us out to lunch to this sweet place called Saltlick. It was delicious. I got this huge steak. It was ginormous and really good. Then we got this delicious cake for dessert. I was in heaven. haha. It was sweet to talk to him and hear about life back home. Then we went to a special training from the assistants and Pres Archibald. That was good. They focused on how we can teach the third lesson efficiently and make it understandable. It was actually pretty good. I learned a lot. Then we had a dinner and then a lesson with Sariah Seabourn. That went really well too. It's sweet to see the changes she is making and how she really is doing it all on her own. She knows she is happier in the church so she is doing everything she can to make it happen. It's cool to watch. Then Friday was really slow. We didn't have a lot to do so we stopped by a lot of people and not a lot of people were home. The same thing happened on Saturday. It was way too nice of a day for people to be home. They all went floating down the river instead! I wish I could do that... it sounds nice when your burning up in a suit. Then Sunday was actually really fun. We went and did some home teaching with Jeff and then we took him with us to our dinner with Lachele and Carrie. That was sweet. I gave them the funfetti cake you sent me for my birthday and they made it for me and it was delicious. They are awesome. Also Mom, they were wondering if you could send more funfetti cake because it is delicious and you can't get it here in Alberta... sad. I really enjoyed this week. We didn't have a lot to do but we made the things we did have to do a lot of fun! Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

I don't know if I've sent these pictures yet or not...

The zone last transfer

Me and my A-Bomb from Tubby DogMe and my Tubby Dog shirtThis is what I got from Carrie and Lachele for my birthday! :)

August 15, 2011

Hello everyone! This week was a pretty good week I guess. I was really sad to see Elder Worthington go to Medicine Hat. I was hoping that we would stay together for another transfer. I guess the Lord knows what is best for everyone. Elder Farnsworth is good as well though. He is a great missionary and a good worker so maybe we can get some work going this transfer. This week was actually pretty slow. We didn't get a chance to get too many lessons but the lessons that we did get were awesome. Tuesday night was really just Worthington saying goodbye. It was sweet though. We had some members take us out to dinner which was awesome. I've decided though that I have spent way too much money on food already this month haha. It was sweet though and our waiter was hilarious! Then Wednesday we had to go to transfer station at 8:30 and then Elder Worthington hopped on the bus down to Medicine Hat. Then I went with Elders Moore and Hansen as I was waiting for my new companion to get up here from Vulcan. (yes that is actually a town in southern Alberta haha) We taught a couple lessons and then went back and picked up my new comp, Elder Farnsworth. Then we went and shopped for groceries and unpacked and then we had a dinner with Aaron Nelson which was him just dropping off a huge sub from Safeway. It was funny, but it was actually pretty good. Then Thursday was kind of exciting. We had weekly planning which is always freaking long and I had to explain the whole area to Elder Farnsworth as well as I could, which I am really bad at and I don't really like doing. I think it went well. Then we had a dinner and then a lesson with a less active girl. She's sweet. She made the choice to come back all on her own. We didn't even have her records here. She wants to change and is making some really good progress in her life, which is awesome to watch. We will be meeting with her this week as well. Her name is Sarah Seaborn. She's sweet. Then Friday Saturday and Sunday we had a couple lessons as well, nothing too exciting though. Just with some sweet members. Sunday was sweet because a member named Spencer Wenzel brought a non member friend to church and then after church we went and had lunch with both of them and talked to the friend for a while. His name is Dante. He's hilarious and he did accept to hear the lessons so we set up a time to teach him this week. We are going to teach him during Sunday school next Sunday. Which is better then nothing! Then we had a dinner dropped off to us and it was this huge thing of shepherds pie and a freaking delicious chocolate cake. It was soooo good. Andrea Arellano made it and she made it for my birthday so she even had a sweet candle to put on it. haha. It was a lot of food though so we took it over to Jeff Blackford's house and shared it with him. He's freaking hilarious and is a huge help to us when we need Priesthood for lessons or dinners. So we thought we would pay him back a little bit. OK, so, Saturday was my birthday and it was the best birthday ever! It was sweet. We had a meeting with our zone leaders in the morning and then we went to tubby dog for lunch. It's this gourmet hot dog place that is freaking delicious and has some crazy hotdogs. It's freaking good though. Then the other missionaries, Moore and Hansen, told us to come to their house and they had decorated their apartment and we had a big surprise birthday party!! OK... so it wasn't that big... we are missionaries. It was awesome though. Then they drew all over our car while we were there too. It was funny. Those two are funny. Then we didn't have all that much to do until Jeff Blackford took us out to dinner to Five Guys. That was freaking delicious! I love Jeff and then he bought me a tie for my birthday as well. He is the man. Then we went and had a lesson with Lachele Wickens and Carrie Pickering and it actually ended up being at Dairy Queen so we could party for my birthday haha. and when I got there they had a bunch of presents for me as well. It was freaking awesome. They had a wicked sweet birthday card for me that they personalized and everything. It was hilarious. It was sweet. though. I freaking loved my birthday! People were way too nice to me but I guess I can't complain. And I got to spend the evening with my favorite guy in the ward Jeff and my two besties Lachele and Carrie. haha. Thank you all for the love and support and the birthday wishes! I love you all!

Love
Elder Townsend

Tubby Dog. 1/3lb dog with pb&j and captain crunch on it "the captains dog" (freaking delicious by the way) and freaking huge onion rings

Happy birthday to me! :)

Our car

Nobody honked.... I was sad

Birthday cake from Andrea :)

August 9, 2011

Hello everyone! it's transfers! And to my surprise I am staying here. I was pretty darn sure that I was leaving. That means that I might actually end my mission in this area. The sad part is that my companion Elder Worthington is leaving. When he was getting transferred here I never thought I would be sad to see him go, but we have had a lot of fun together and have actually gotten along really well. It is sad that he is leaving but, he got called up to be a zone leader, so good for him. It means that I am getting a new companion. This one is Elder Farnsworth. I might have talked about him a little bit before. He was my district leader for my last transfer in Pincher Creek. I am excited for him to come. It should be fun. I am curious to see if he drives me crazy but, then again, that's what I thought about Elder Worthington too and he turned out being one of my favorite companions and we actually had a lot of fun together. So I'm just going to go into it with a positive mind. so we will see what all happens. It will be interesting to see if I end my mission here or end in a one transfer area. Anyway... don't need to be thinking about that. I still have a lot of time to do a lot of good.

Anyway. I hope you all had a great week! I did. I had a blast. We had a chance to have a couple of really good lessons with members and less actives. We got a couple of referrals that we are hoping we can start teaching soon. It wasn't a very good week for losing things though. I lost my planner and I forgot my camera at a member's house so I won't be able to send pictures home today... sad. We had a lot of really good lessons. This ward is awesome. I love it. It has had some interesting missionaries in the past and they were kind of done with missionaries when I came in but me and Elder Worthington worked our tails off to change that and it has really worked well. This ward is awesome and a lot of them are actually letting us come over and teach them and help them in their missionary work. It's really cool to watch a ward progress like that. It is also really satisfying to watch. Sadly we don't have too many investigators to teach, but we are working on that. The one that we do have, Robin Roberts, went out of town last Wednesday and won't be back till later this week. We were supposed to meet with her on Tuesday, but she said she had to pack and was too busy. So we are hoping to meet with her this week when she returns. The work here is really progressing and I hope it continues. The thing I am not looking forward to is having to tell Elder Farnsworth all about this area. It's probably the least favorite part pf my mission. haha. It will be good though. I will let you all know how this next week goes. Thank you all for everything! I love you all so much!

Love
Elder Townsend

August 2, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? I had a pretty good week here and I hope you all had a great one as well. This week was kind of a slower one, but we had some really good lessons. We were able to teach Robin Roberts twice and she came to church! It was awesome! I haven't had an investigator come to church in so long I almost forgot what it feels like! It was great. The ward was actually really good at friend shipping her. She felt really welcome and our Relief Society Pres Holly Spackman did a great job and took her to class and to the third hour. It was kind of an interesting Sunday for her to come. It was a lot about missionary work. We had a missionary farewell and the 5th Sunday lesson was on missionary work as well and they had us talk about finding and how members could help us... it's just not really the best topic that we could have had for an investigators first time to church. But I think she still liked it and she liked knowing a little more about what we are doing out here and that we are here to help her. It was cool. We taught her the plan of salvation and read Alma 32 with her for the lesson and that went really well. She really feels the Spirit and knows that she does and she even said that she knew baptism was a beautiful thing and that it was something that she wanted. I think she doesn't know if she wants to make these changes in her life because of what other people will think about her. Every time we meet with her she tells us stories and how she is surprised by how much people don't like us and think we are all weird. So that's kind of sad but, it is something that is very easily overcome. So, I think she is going to be baptized really soon. It would be really sad if I got transferred away from this area next week and couldn't watch it happen.

Other than that we had an alright week. Elder Worthington had to go to what they call leadership training meetings on Wednesday from 9-6 so I went with the family ward missionaries into their area for the day and then on Friday we were supposed to go on exchanges with the zone leaders but one of them got called up to be trained to be our next assistant to the president so we only have one zone leader so me and Elder Worthington just went with him into his area which was sad because we had to cancel some appointments with people in our area. So we didn't have the most effective week in our area and we didn't get as much done as we would have liked, but it was still a really good week and we had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to this week. It should be a lot of fun. Although I am a little nervous about transfers. Mostly because I have no idea what will happen to me. I would be really sad to leave but then again I would just go to a new area and find cool members and work to do there so I guess it's just whatever the Lord wants for me! So I will let you all know on Tuesday where I am going or if I am staying! I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

We didnt take any pictures this week and I dont know what all I have sent home.. so here are a couple random pictures enjoy! :)

Me playing chess with an old guy

Gorilla..... I dont know why I actually sent this one... I just thought you would enjoy it.Elder Moore.... isnt he beautiful? ladies... he is single haha

July 26, 2011

Hey everyone! How is it going? I hope you all had a great week! and for all those that were at the lake I hope that was fun as well! I had the urge to go wake boarding all week... it was sad. haha. Anyway. Our week here was kind of slow. We find ways to make it fun. Monday we went golfing and it was sweet! Oh man it was fun. It was a really nice golf course. There are members that own it and so they let us in for free. There were 8 of us missionaries that went and we totaled it up and for all 8 of us and clubs and carts and balls it was like $1200. That's a lot of money. It was a beautiful course though. I'm not very good at golfing though. I shot 101, but played best ball at times... I did get a drive of 270 yards though. That was exciting. I ended on two legit pars. It made me feel really good about myself. haha. It made me really miss golfing though. It also made me wish I was good at it. Oh and it was probably the warmest day I've felt in Canada. It was 30C and I was sweating like non other! haha Then for FHE we played fugitive...again. Running in a suit, not so good when its really warm! haha. Then Tuesday we had a couple lessons and one was with a girl who has been less active for three years but has been coming back the past two weeks so that was sweet. She is really nice and has a non member boyfriend who came to church yesterday and told her he would come every other week. So we asked her to ask him if he would want to listen to us and she said she would ask. So hopefully we can start teaching him soon! That would be sweet. Oh and our other investigator we just picked up. We haven't taught her again yet. I don't really know what is going on with her. I think she just doesn't understand what we are teaching. I think she is just curious to learn and she is quick to forget what the Spirit feels like. She felt it really strong when we taught her but she hasn't really felt it since and without feeling it she doesn't have any desire to continue to learn. I don't know... hopefully we can teach her again soon and get her out to church. So we will see. We continue to teach Nicole Wilson. She is the recent convert who has been having a lot of struggles in her life since her baptism and I don't really know what else to do with her. She knows everything and even tells us she knows it is true. She just has to get the desire to live it and we can't force that on her. She has to get that for herself. So we will see what happens there. Other than that nothing too exciting happened here this week. It was my companions birthday on Saturday. So Friday and Saturday we had members from his old areas take us out to lunch. So that was sweet! And we had my two favorite groups of people from our ward feed us dinner those days. Friday was Jeff Blackford and Dallas Ausmus. They are sweet! They are sweet and are down to earth and know that we are normal people and they are hilarious and still missionary minded. They served together in the Las Vegas West Mission. They are awesome. I hope to be like them when I get home. haha. Then Saturday we had dinner with Lachele Wickens and Carrie Pickering. They're sweet and kind of missionary minded. More then a lot of people in the ward. They took us out to Mexican a place called Los Chilitos... probably the worst Mexican food I have ever had. I can't wait to come back to Tucson for good Mexican food. haha. That was pretty much our week. Thanks for everything! I love you all so much! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Golfing. My drives were REALLY bad that day.

We spent a lot of time in the sand...Luckily some of my best shots were coming out of it! hahaOur golfing group (Kuettel, me, Worthington, Tulane)

ps. We all got fried! My comps legs are still bright red. haha

July 18, 2011

Hello everyone! How was your week? We had a pretty good week here. Things are starting to improve here which is awesome! Monday was pretty sweet. I don't remember if I told you about the three really weird looking guys that came to church on Sunday but on Monday for FHE we had a big Stampede pancake breakfast and they came to that as well and then performed for us. It was pretty sweet. The band is called Behind Sapphire. It's actually pretty cool music but the singer is really funny to watch while he sings. haha. Then we had a really good day on Tuesday. We had lessons with three less active members. They were all nice to us and let us in and one even had signed up on the dinner calendar. I like working with less active members. I have done it a lot on my mission and it is just as fulfilling if not more so to bring them back then to baptize people. It's sweet. But speaking of baptizing people! We found a new investigator on Tuesday!!! OK... we didn't really find her. She was a referral from missionaries in Okotoks (suburb if Calgary) She is awesome though. Her name is Robin Roberts and she is going to be baptized! She didn't accept a baptismal date yet but she got really emotional and said she would think about it. So I know she will. She just has family pressure I think. We are teaching her again this next week. Hopefully that goes well. She was going to come to church but she is unemployed and someone gave her a job for the day on Sunday so she couldn't come. We are going to have her talk to the ward employment specialist sometime too. That should be good. Anyway, she is amazing and freaking solid and she WILL be baptized. I am excited.

Then Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president. Those went really well. I really enjoyed it. It's the first time that Pres Archibald really just talked to me instead of giving some pre thought about little training. It was sweet. Then we had a couple lessons as well and then Thursday wasn't all that exciting. We are running pretty low on kilometers already so we walked around a lot that day and got a couple lessons in and then Friday we had a special training about how and why we should be keeping daily contact with our investigators. So that was good. But they did take three hours to explain something they could have taught us in one hour. It was still good. A lot of graphs and statistics as always. Then we had a couple lessons after that then Saturday we helped this one girl move. Her name is Lachele Wickens. She's sweet. Probably one of my favorite people in the ward. Luckily she moved within the ward still. Then she took everyone out for pizza that helped move. Always delicious. Then we had a couple lessons that night as well. Then Sunday was pretty uneventful. We went to church which was good and then went to choir, I don't know why because neither of us can sing. Then had dinner with the Bishop and a lesson after that. It was good but, Bishop lives really far away so we had to use a lot more kilometers then we would have liked. We are going golfing today so I am excited! A member owns a really nice golf course called Elbow Springs. I am excited to go golfing. But it is a really nice one and they say you have to be good or people behind you will get mad... I haven't golfed in a really really long time. I don't even think I went that often the year before I came out if even at all... so hopefully I wont suck enough to get people mad at me. Wish me luck! haha.

Well, I hope you all have a great week! I know I will try to have a good one here. And to all of you Townsend's and family I hope you have a blast up in Bear Lake! Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Devin

4th of July celabrations haha

Me and Elder WorthingtonPancake breakfast!

The crowd at the breakfast. Well one side of it. We were in the middle of it all.

Waffles on a stickThe place where we got waffles on a stick :)

July 11, 2011

Howdy folks! How y'all doing today? Happy Stampede! Yee haw! haha. Sorry, I'm in the cowboy mood. The Calgary Stampede started on Friday. It's pretty intense. Apparently its the biggest outdoor show on earth. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to go to any of it, maybe I'll come back sometime to go see it. It sounds like it's pretty fun. Just a huge fair. The stampede grounds are in our area and it has been getting pretty crazy around here. I am really enjoying it. And, yes, the royal couple have been around lately as well. They went to the Stampede and the zoo and such. So because of each of those things it has been crazy and crowded downtown. haha. It's fun for us though because we spend a lot of time walking around downtown and talking to people. Especially since we only have half the use of our car this month. Probably the best part of Stampede is the free food! It is everywhere! There is a free pancake breakfast and BBQ lunch somewhere in Calgary everyday. It's sweet. Missionaries love free food. They are just put on by random companies and stores. Like Henninger Toyota had a freaking good lunch and The Source had a breakfast that was waffles on a stick put on by Vans and those were freaking good. The city of Calgary puts on a couple as well. It's pretty sweet. My dream of my mission was to be in downtown during the Stampede and I never thought it would happen. I'm so happy... :') haha. But don't worry. We are getting a lot of missionary work done as well. Well... not a lot but we are trying! It's hard to find times when people are actually home during all of this craziness, but we still manage to get a decent amount of lessons. We have been calling a whole bunch of the less actives and do not contacts just trying to see if they are still there or interested at all and it's actually been pretty good. We have had three of the do not contact people say that we could come by. One canceled on us though. We have been getting a hold of some less actives as well. It's been pretty good actually. So funny story from that though. We called a guy named Vincent Penny and when we called an older lady answered so I asked if she new a Vincent Penny and she was all, "no but I live with a Vicki Penny." and I was all "well is she related to Vincent. Do you have a phone number for him?" and she was all "no there isn't a Vincent just a Vicki." "Right so do you know of any Vincent?" "I don't think you understand. Vincent Penny is now Vicki Penny." "...oh... welp... is there anything we can do for you?" haha, oh man. It was pretty funny. Anyway, that was one of the highlights of the week. Another one would probably be the waffles on a stick and the free hat and stickers we got from Vans. That was pretty cool as well.

We were also able to teach a girl named Laura Halley. That was cool. She has been less active for years and called a guy that was in Elder Worthington's last area who is basically her father and she lives in our area and she wanted a blessing and a blessing on the home. It was pretty cool. Then we got this girl named Lachele to go and pick her up and bring her to FHE. That went really well. She was really scared she wouldn't know anyone there but she really enjoyed it and the Ward members were pretty good at fellow shipping her. It helps that Lachele is freaking amazing. She can get along with anyone. So hopefully we can continue to work with Laura and get her out to church and stuff. She didn't feel comfortable enough to come to church this Sunday but she will get there. Another cool story was a guy named Addison Gough. He's pretty sweet. He's kind of less active but he was thinking about going on a mission and then his girlfriend got cancer so he waited and now he is 22 and doesn't want to be 24 when he comes home. So he didn't want to go so we just taught him and told him that a mission is great and he would probably still really enjoy it. Then on Sunday the Bishop pulled us aside and said that he had just had a meeting with him and his girlfriend and something that we said in that lesson made it so that he was now seriously thinking about a mission. That was so sweet! He came up to us and signed up on the dinner calendar for this week so I am looking forward to meeting with him again.

Well, I hope y'all had a great week, I sure did. I hope all goes well this week for you. I'll keep you updated on the free food next week. haha. The Stampede goes until next Sunday so it should still be pretty crazy up here this week. Almost every night they have fireworks for the Stampede and we can watch them from our apartment balcony. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, have a great week! I'll let you know if anything exciting happens this week! Thanks for everything! I love you all!

love,
Elder Townsend

July 4, 2011

Hello everyone! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!! Hurray for the United States of America! haha. I hope you all had a great week! We had a pretty slow one here. It was still pretty good though. It is officially half click month. So we only have half of our kilometers for our car. We only have 900 and we cover a whole stake. Which so far is not working out so well. Especially since I still don't really know anyone in the area who we can stop by. At least in family wards when you can't drive you can walk and stop by some people but when you are in a YSA ward nobody really lives close together so that doesn't work for meeting with as many people as you can. But we are still managing. We have spent the greater part of a lot of days just walking around downtown and talking to as many people as we can. It's actually a lot of fun. I like talking to people on the street a lot more then tracting and you get to meet a lot more fun people. Friday was Canada day and we walked around downtown for a while in the morning and we walked down Stephen Avenue which is a pretty happening little place. Especially on Canada Day. It was sweet. My favorite person we talked to was "the whistler" he won whistler of the year award. He was on the street asking for money. He was actually really good and when he saw us he pulled us over and said I've got a song you will recognize and he started to whistle "We Thank Thee oh God for a Prophet. It was sweet. Then we talked to him for a while. He is a member of the church or at least was in 79 and 80 but he said he didn't want any religion to have claim on him as their whistler. So he didn't go to any specific church. He was fun though. He even whistled the Star Spangled Banner for us. haha. I was going to get a picture with him but my camera ran out of battery. That was sad. As we were walking around there we ran into two members of our ward and they invited us to their BBQ they were having that night so that was sweet because we didn't have a dinner. Canada definitely doesn't know how to celebrate like the States do. It was sad. That was pretty much the highlight of our week. We have spent more time talking to people on the street this week than I have in a long time! I've walked more then I have in a long time as well. I'm so sore! haha. It is a lot of fun and we get to meet awesome people. We talked to this gay guy and a really drunk girl that were together and the gay guy was hitting on my comp and the drunk chick was hitting on me. That was fun. haha. We do meet people that actually do want to listen as well. We have given the Mandarin missionaries two return appointments and the sisters one and the other elders in our district five potential investigators from it. So that's sweet. Now we just need to find YSA age people. It will happen! We had a return appointment with someone who was 26 but when we got there he said "Oh I thought I said NEXT Saturday. Well next Saturday doesn't work either so just don't worry about it." and then closed the door... that was sad. We really need to find more investigators and I was hoping he would be one.

Well, I don't really know how half click month is going to work out. I'll keep you posted. I hope you all have a great week! I am going to continue to try my hardest to find people to teach! As for now our zone is having a big Fourth of July BBQ so I am excited for that! It should be fun. It's in the south zone so there goes a bunch of our kilometers... dang it. Anyway, I hope you guys are doing great! Thank you all for everything! I love you guys!

Love
Elder Townsend

Hepworth, Moore, Kuettel, me

Hepworth and myself

Downtown!

June 28, 2011

Hello! How is everything going for all of you? Well, I am getting a new companion and staying in this area. My new comp is Elder Worthington. From what I know of him it should be an interesting transfer. But I am going to try my hardest to make it the best I can. This week was pretty slow for us. We actually had a pretty good number of lessons but most of them were with members. We are still trying our hardest to find some investigators to teach. We had a couple potentials we were hoping to teach but one got kicked out of his apartment for drug use and loud music and moved to the West Stake and the other ones name is Anti Tom... he's anti. So I don't think that will be working so well. haha. But the main person we are working on right now is Nicole Wilson. She is a recent convert who is going through some hard times in her life. She is slowly but surely coming back and is improving in all the best ways.

Probably the highlight of our week though is the fact that we are dying of black mold poisoning. We found a bunch of black mold under our kitchen sink. There was a leak that we called in and they fixed it but they left the cleaning to us. So we went to work with soap and bleach. I think it's pretty much all gone but I think I am definitely showing signs of breathing it in. Coughing, headaches and loss of attention span. But I called Sister Archibald about it and she said my body will just take care of it on its own. So hopefully that doesn't last too long.

Well, I don't have all that much time to write this week. There really isn't much left to write about. Thank you all for everything! I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Cleaning black moldCalgary

June 20, 2011

Alright, So I am getting pretty sick of the rain. I hear other parts of the world need it, so what can I do to send it to you all? haha. I think it has rained here every day for the past three weeks. Apparently I just might never see a summer while I am in Canada. We didn't have much of one last year either. Anyway, besides all the rain, we had a pretty good week here. Nothing too exciting. We had a couple really good lessons with less active members of the ward. We had a lesson with Mathew Wishart and his mom. They are both less active. But we had a really good lesson with them and they committed to come to church on Sunday, but they didn't come. sad. But we hope to get in to their house again. They are very nice welcoming people. Then we had a lesson with Matt Haase. He was baptized last year, but he was baptized into another ward because the missionaries there didn't want to hand him off to the missionaries here, but now that he is here he doesn't have any friends so he doesn't like coming. But he is doing pretty well. He is a really fun guy, he didn't come to church either, but he comes every now and then. And we had a lesson with Nicole Wilson. She was baptized in February and has had some really big ups and downs but she is coming out of a pretty big down and actually came to church for the first time since I have been here and she brought her 12 year old sister who wants to be baptized as well. So that is pretty cool. We can't teach her though since she is 12... and she doesn't live in our zone. She is pretty sad about that. So is Nicole. But that's still pretty sweet.

On Wednesday we had a special training from president and the assistants. That was pretty cool. They talked about what they want us to do nowadays when we invite members of our ward to find someone for us to teach in seven days. We've been doing that a lot and they have changed how we do it. Now we teach a ten minute first lesson before and have the members pretend they are investigators and then ask them who the Spirit brought to their minds. It's pretty cool. So far it hasn't worked out too well. People get really distracted and off topic and it takes longer then I think most people expect to have us over. It's still pretty cool. We have had some pretty cool experiences with the seven day challenge in this ward so far. Some of the members actually do it and have some cool experiences. Nothing resulting in people we can teach though. Those will come with time and persistence.

Other than that we had a pretty slow week. Think the rain makes people go into hiding anyway. Well, I hope you have all had a great week and I hope all of you fathers had an amazing fathers day! You are all amazing and have a huge role in your families lives! Thank You to all of you!

I love you all! Thanks for everything!

Love
Elder Townsend

June 13, 2011

Well, this week was pretty slow for us. It started out kind of fun. We went to the zoo last Pday. I've decided it wasn't worth it though. I'm not a big fan of paying $22 to walk around and look at animals. But it was OK. Then we had a couple lessons with members this week. Not too many dinners. But we were able to get a few lessons with less actives and recent converts. So that was good. We met with Chris McClure. He is a recent convert and is trying to work on getting the Melchizedek priesthood. So that's cool. The lessons with him are getting better. Less random tangents in the lesson. It doesn't help when your companion can't even keep focused ever. haha. We also met with Nicole Wilson. She is a recent convert that has been trying to decide if she is in the right church. I'm pretty sure she knows that she is but she decided that living all our commandments is just too hard. But she has been improving. Elder Hepworth is actually a really good missionary and knows his scriptures inside and out and can resolve her concerns pretty easily. It is still just up to her to decide to come back. I hope she does and I can see her progressing towards that since I have been here. So that's good. Other then those two none of the lessons were really that exciting. We are still looking for someone to teach in our area. Hopefully it happens soon.

We had a pretty exciting Sunday though. We got to church and a less active we taught, Russell, came and brought his non member roommate. That was sweet. It looked pretty funny with Russell wearing baggy shorts and a rock band t shirt and sunglasses and his roommate wearing a huge sweatshirt and a huge eyebrow piercing and a hat that said eye (showed a picture of an eye) <3 (heart) beer. It was pretty funny, but hey, it doesn't matter what you wear as long as you are there! So that was sweet! There was another non member there who "knows everything about Mormons" and has some things he doesn't believe and wasn't very interested in meeting with us at all, but he said he would probably be back to church sometime so we could say "hi" to him then. It was kind of sad that he wouldn't let us talk to him, but hey, if he's coming to church then that's awesome! The Spirit will work on him eventually.

That is pretty much our week though. Nothing too eventful. To make things all worse Elder Velinga, the car czar, called this morning and told me I got a photo cop ticket in a play ground zone. I hate play ground zones. There are little tiny signs on the side of the roads that tell you it's a play ground zone and you need to go 30kph (which is freaking slow by the way) and it is effective from 8:30am till one hour after sunset, which sucks when the sun is going down at like 10:30pm nowadays. But I was going 41 in a 30 so now I owe $60. Which really isn't that bad. So I guess that's good. Darn Canada.

Well regardless. It wasn't a horrible week. But I do hope that more exciting things happen in the upcoming week. We have a special training on Wednesday which could be fun. Well I hope all is going well for you all! I hope you all have an awesome week! Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Are you my mother?

Missionaries are weird....Red panda.... cute....

REACH!!!