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