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