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