May 31, 2011

How is it going? That is crazy about all the tornados down there. It's hard to see all that happening, but we knew stuff like this would happen and it is great to know that we have the gospel and know that this life isn't the end. Just like Isaiah says and Nephi quotes, after all the destruction in the world his (talking about Jesus Christ) hand is stretched out still. All we have to do is turn to Him and grab His hand and He will help us. Just as Peter did when he walked on water. I hope everything works out OK for everyone.

As for me. I had a pretty good week here. We don't really have any investigators, but we are working on that. We do have a couple recent converts that we are working on. Most of them were baptized and then moved here. But it is good that we at least have them to work with. We are slowly having the area pick up. On Wednesday I went with Elders Moore and Kuettel into their area for the day and we taught a girl that was a referral from the office. Turns out she is YSA so maybe we can start teaching her. She seemed really interested and willing to learn, but whenever we asked her to do anything like read or pray or come to church she just said, I'll think about it. Which is sad. We are going to call her again this week and hopefully we can get in with her again. Then on Friday we had some baptismal interviews we went to for other missionaries in our district and during one of them we were sitting in the church and this guy walked up to the door and we let him in and talked to him and turns out he wasn't a member. He had been in the building two years ago for a funeral and he had been having a hard life this year and so he just stopped by to see if we could help him. So we talked about Jesus Christ and how He can help everyone in their lives and talked about the Book of Mormon and gave him one. He seemed really interested and such and we asked him how old he was... 31.... One year too old! ahh!!! haha. It was still a really sweet experience though. I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately we had to pass him off to the sisters.

Then on Sunday at church we had three really good talks about missionary work from converts. That was cool. Then after church we had a lesson with a recent convert who had another friend from another church over as well. Apparently she is church shopping now and wants to know which one is right for her. So Elder Hepworth really wanted to be there to talk to her other friend so he convinced her to let us over. So we came with Cody, the ward mission leader, so we could have priesthood and we talked about the different religions. I think we should have taught a first lesson really quick, but we didn't. It was still a really good meeting and I think it helped Nicole, the recent convert. But I think it could have been a little better.

That was pretty much my week here though. Thank you for everything you guys do for me! I love and miss you all! I hope you all have a safe and happy week! Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Townsend

The view from our balcony

This is what we are driving around in all day... I've never been in the heart of a big city like this and I have to drive because my comp was in an accident and the mission won't let him drive anymore.