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!