May 17, 2011

Well this week was amazing! I actually had a lot of fun. It was a great week to be my last in Pincher Creek. yep. I'm getting transferred. I am going back up to Calgary. I'm going to a Young Single Adult ward in downtown Calgary. Edworthy Park YSA. It should be fun. I am excited to go back up to the city, but I have decided that it will be sad to leave this ward. There are great members here. I don't know how I feel about going to a YSA ward. I like family wards too much. Maybe they won't feed us as much and I can loose some weight before I get home. haha. I'm going to be with Elder Hepworth. He came out with me and he was in my district when I was in Cochrane. So that should be interesting. He is a funny guy. Funny as in humorous AND funny as in kind of weird. So I will let you know how that is going next week. I am going back to the south zone. This will be the third time I have been in that zone. I never thought I would go back but I am excited to do it. I love that zone.

Anyway, so back to my awesome week. Tuesday was alright. After emails we went and helped a family, the Ludwig's, with some yard work. It was fun. I got a little burned though. haha. Then that night we had a lesson with Rob. That was sweet. Rob is amazing. I'm really sad that I am leaving him. He actually just got the priesthood on Sunday and he was going to pass the sacrament in two weeks. That would have been cool to see, but I am glad that he is progressing so well still. We are trying to get the Elders Quorum more involved with him though. He's mostly just friends with the high priests now. It was a really good lesson. He really knows a lot. It's awesome. Then Wednesday we did service at the museum. That was fun. We tore apart this old chicken coup. It was kind of nasty with poop and stuff everywhere! It was fun though. Then we built this huge wood rack thing. A place they can put their lumber without it being on the ground. That was fun. Then that night we had a really good dinner with the Ball family. They are sweet. She works at Walmart, he is an umpire and they have a bunch of little kids. I love going over there. She made us Navajo tacos. I've decided that those are delicious! haha. Then Thursday my comps stomach was hurting him again so we didn't do much in the morning. Then we got a call from Bro Piepgrass and he took us to the Vanloons house. They are a less active native family. Well it's a grandma and two granddaughters, who are like 14 and 15, living in town. She wanted a blessing and a blessing on her home and when we got there she had her two grandchildren there and a sister and they all wanted blessings so we spent a while doing that. It was really good though. Then this Sunday the whole family showed up to church. So that was awesome. I hope they continue to come. They are a really nice family. Friday was good too. We had a couple lessons with the older people in our ward and we had a lesson with Scott and Sheryl Cameron, but they weren't home... sad... I don't really know what to do with them two. Luckily, I don't have to worry about that because I am leaving but I hope that they do come around sometime. Then we had a dinner with the Malmberg's. They are sweet. We helped them a lot last week with their yard so they had us for dinner. They are hilarious.

Then Saturday, oh what a day. So we got a call Friday night from Bro Westrup who owns a farm outside of Pincher. He asked us if we wanted to help him brand his calves.... HECK YES I DO! So Saturday morning we drove out there. It was so much fun! We had to separate the moms from the calves which was an interesting experience. They like their moms and as soon as we did that from then on none of them would shut up. haha. Then we chased the calves into a squeeze chute and then into this little gadget thing that had a bar you squeeze their neck in and one for their stomach and then you tied a rope to one of their back legs so it couldn't kick you then you flipped it onto it's side (which was actually before you tied its leg) then Bro Westrup stuck three hot irons onto the cows butt. It was fun. Smelled horrible though. Like burning hair. Then if they had horns we had to cut them off. They said they usually did that earlier but it was too cold before. That was pretty nasty at times. Some of them wouldn't stop bleeding. This one was quite literally squirting everywhere! It was nasty! They had this chemical stuff that was supposed to burn it and this powder stuff that was supposed to clot it, but that didn't work so Bro Westrup eventually just stuck his branding iron on it. It was pretty event. Then after we had done all of those (there were over 100 of them) we had to chase them into the fields and chase the moms into the squeeze chute to get some anti flea stuff. That was exciting and scary at times. When a bunch of huge cows are barreling toward you, your life flashes before your eyes. haha. It was a lot of fun though. We basically spent all day chasing cows around and getting manure and blood all over us. haha. I really enjoyed it. If there is anyone in Tucson that needs some help when they are branding cattle. I would love to! haha.

We also had a lesson with Bro Yellowhorn that afternoon so we left branding for a bit and went out there but he wasn't home. We stopped by a couple more people but they weren't home either. So we went back to branding. It was a good day. I think my neck and arms are getting a little tan again. haha.

Then Sunday was good. Church and Rob getting the priesthood. Then we had lunch with the Oliver's and then dinner with the Hall's. It was a pretty good day. A lot of food though. Then Monday we didn't have much to do so we drove out to the pass. That was fun. We ate 7-11 chicken for lunch, delicious and we stopped by a couple of families. We actually got in with two less actives and one active family. Which was awesome. That was more than we ever saw when we spent two days out there. Then we stopped by the guy who is kind of in charge of us going out there. Self appointed to be so at least. I think he's pretty frustrated that we haven't gone out there at all this transfer. It wasn't our fault though. We always had training or zone conference when we were planning on going out there. I don't really know what to do with the pass. There isn't much to do out there. Especially now that Dani isn't talking to us. But they get really mad and complain to the stake when we don't come. Luckily, I don't have to deal with that anymore either. haha.

So that was my week. It was pretty darn eventful for a week in Pincher and it was a great way to end my time here. I think I will miss being here, but I am excited to go somewhere else. Hopefully with more missionary work in the area. I'll let you know next week how that is going. Thank you so much for everything! I love you all!

Love
Elder Townsend

Branding!

The dinglehopper

Mountain sheep in the pass

The pass

May 10, 2011

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and future mothers out there! How was everyone's week? Our's was good here. I just wrote on Thursday so there weren't too many days between then and now so not much really happened. But it was still a good couple of days. Thursday after we emailed we had a lesson with Scott and Sheryl. That went ok. We started to teach about the plan of salvation and were trying to emphasize families but it was a little awkward and then Scott asked us a question that was something like, "Why can't we as a church group take away the power that one of our members had? And I was really confused. Scott is a little not all there. But we figured out that he was having some legal issues with a member of the church in Raymond which is why they moved back here. They wanted to get away from all of that. Now he isn't sure if he wants to join the church that that guy belongs to. So we tried talking to him a little bit about it, but I don't think it helped him at all. So I don't really know what else to tell him. We are meeting with them again this Friday so we will see what we can come up with before then. Sheryl is pretty solid though. She is always really happy to see us and knows a lot about the church and is wanting to learn more. She hasn't come to church since she has been back though. So I don't know what is up with that. I hope that we can continue to work with them. I think the church could really help them in their lives.

That was pretty much the highlight of the week missionary work wise. Friday was good as well. We went and helped a younger couple with some yard work which was a lot of fun. I helped trimmed this giant tree. I don't think I've ever trimmed a tree before but they said it looked pretty good. haha. Then we went on exchanges. The mission just came out with 24 hour exchanges again. They haven't happened since I have been on my mission. So this is the first one I've been on. It was good. I was with Elder Hansen who took Elder Fowler's spot last week. We had a good dinner that night with the Sheens. They are a little crazy, but pretty fun to be around. Then we stopped by a couple more people. Saturday we went and helped Bishop Oliver move his non member parents into the ward. That was fun. They didn't have much to move, but hopefully we will be able to get in and meet with them sometime. They said they would have us over for lunch or something since we helped them so that would be sweet. Then we went back to the Malmbergs. The couple we helped with yard work the day before and helped clean up the mess we made the day before. Then we exchanged back. It was pretty fun and a nice break from the normal life here in Pincher.

Then Sunday was sweet. We went to church and Rob Frost came, it was supposed to be his week to work, but he came anyway... I don't know how. But he was sustained?... as a Priest in Sacrament meeting. I think he might have had to leave before he could actually be given the priesthood. It was still cool though. We had two less actives in church, Bro Yellowhorn. Remember him? We were going out there pretty regularly for a while but he went on a trip to the Ukraine and we hadn't seen him since. Then this other couple I hadn't met before. So that was sweet! We are going out to the reserve to teach Bro Yellowhorn this Saturday. So that will be cool.

Then we went back to our apartment and had our phone calls home! whoo hoo. It was really nice to hear your voices Mom and Dad! Thanks for all the love and encouragement! It's weird to think that it was my last phone call home. But don't worry. I'm not getting trunky. I'm still out here working hard! haha. That was pretty much our week though. I hope your week was good as well! Thanks again for everything! I can't wait to talk to you guys next week and let you know what is going on with transfers! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Cardston temple

Windmill!

May 5, 2011

Hey everyone! Sorry I'm a couple days late! Long story but here it goes. So this week was pretty decent. Nothing too special missionary work wise. We had a new member lesson with Rob Frost and that went really well. We taught about the priesthood because he should be getting it the next time he can come to church. So that should be cool to see. He really is a great guy. I have really enjoyed teaching him and watching him grow. It has been quite the experience. We also have had an old investigator move back into town. Scott and Sheryl. They were taking the lessons but then moved to Raymond where she got baptized and he didn't but they moved back because he was having health problems that started up again two days before his baptism. So we are having a lesson with him this afternoon. So that should be interesting. I hope all goes well there as well.

The exciting thing that happened this week is that last Thursday I hit my 18 month mark. Anyone know what that means?... it means I get to burn some pants! haha. Don't worry mom. I didn't burn any of the expensive pants I have out here. Well. I was going to do it tomorrow because I was going to go on exchanges with Elder Fowler and he turned 18 last transfer and hadn't burned his yet, but Friday night Elder Fowler told me he was getting special transferred up to Calgary so we had to move it up a little bit so we did it this week. It was sweet. We did it in the back yard of the member they live with in Ft Macleod. So yea! I'm 18 months! haha.

Then this last Monday we had Pday which was kind of fun. There wasn't much to do which was kind of sad though. My companion started not to feel so good that night though so we couldn't go out and do stuff that night. Then Tuesday we woke up early and went to zone conference in Lethbridge. That was fun. It was our zone, Lethbridge zone and Medicine Hat zone. So it was fun to see all those missionaries and the training was pretty good too. They are trying to teach us a new way of thinking and teaching during our lessons and it's really confusing. I'm not very good at it yet. But it will come with time. Towards the end my companion's stomach was really acting up so Sis Archibald sent us to the doctor and he put my comp on some drugs that reduce the amount of acid his stomach is producing. I think that's been helping which is good. Then we went back to the church right as the zone conference was ending. Then we drove back here and then it was evening and we had a lesson with Rob. So that meant that we didn't have time to email that day. Then yesterday we went and helped at the museum and we raked more leaves and helped build a couple more walls and then when we were done with that we went over to the library to email and it was closed... I don't know why... so we are emailing today... after weekly planning. So sorry for the mix up.

That is pretty much my week here though. This next week should be short since it's Thursday already. haha. We have a phone call home on Sunday so that should be fun. It will be my last phone call home which will be weird. Thanks for everything though! I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Me and Fowler with our pants
burn baby burn!I'm so happy :')

Fowler's

Ya... that's all I took pictures of this week...

April 19. 2011

This week was A-mazing!! Oh man. So Tuesday we had district meetings that went really well. Then that night we had our lesson with Rob Frost. That went well too. We went over the baptismal interview questions and made sure he was ready for Friday and then answered a couple of his questions. It went really well. He is amazing! Then we had the baptismal interview on Friday and Rob and Elder Farnsworth were in there for a while but they came out and he was ready So that was exciting. Then we had the baptism at eleven the next morning. That went really well too. It was cool because he is a volunteer on the fire dept in Pincher Creek so we had Sis Brasnett give a talk and Bro Earle played the piano and a musical number. Then Bro Westrup baptized him, he was the one that introduced him to the church. Bro Russell confirmed him there because we didn't have Sacrament meeting on Sunday.

Then after the baptism we went and had Stake Conference in Fort Macleod and Richard G Scott was there. That was awesome. They had the adult session at 6 and that went really well. It was a little interesting because he talked to us for a while about marriage and stuff, similar to his talk in conference, and then he had a big question and answer thing at the end of it but nobody really had any questions to ask him. He talked a lot about Elder Hales an how he is doing since we didn't see him at conference. Then he ended 30 mins early and shook everyone's hand that was there and the four of us missionaries were standing there and he came up to us and talked to us for a while and then we asked if we could get a picture with him so we did! That was awesome! I love Elder Scott! He is so loving and caring and funny and a lot shorter then I thought... but it was really good. Then Sunday morning at 830 he had a meeting where he invited all the recent converts and serious investigators and recently reactivated members. So that was awesome. We went as well. And yes Rob Frost made it to. That was awesome. Rob met an apostle his first full day of being a member of the church! Lucky. haha. It was a really good meeting though. A lot of question and answer there as well and he even asked a lot of questions. He asked Rob what brought him to the church and Rob talked a lot about Satan and his dark influence and how he loves the church because now he can escape that. It was awesome. Then at 10:30 he had the everyone meeting and that went really well too. Pretty similar to the other meetings. Questions. Again though nobody had too many questions. So we ended early that one too. It was really cool though. I love seeing and meeting and hearing from apostles of the Lord. I had a very strong feeling when I was there that he really is an apostle of the Lord. I love him. And I was even in the priesthood choir that they had at Stake Conference that was good too. Even though I can't sing very well and my companion dragged me into it. It was a cool experience and it gave me a good sweat. haha.

Then on Monday we all got together as a mission again in Calgary and Elder Scott met with us as well. It meant another two hour drive there at 6:00 in the morning though. But it was really good. He talked to us an so did Elder Brimhall of the 70 that came with him. (he was at stake conference too by the way) He talked a lot about how we should begin teaching people and he got a couple companionships up to role play with him. And then he asked if we had any questions so we asked him questions for a while. Some questions were actually really good but some were kind of interesting or didn't even make any sense. Then he had to take off to get to his flight so he didn't shake our hands. Luckily I already had like four times. haha. It was a really good weekend though. I loved it and to top it all off we just went to the temple today! Since we went to Calgary yesterday Pday was moved to today. So now we are still in Cardston and we are going to go play basketball with the rest of our zone. It should be good.

Oh, also. It's cold and snowy again here. It snowed six inches Saturday night which made for an interesting drive Sunday morning. Someone forgot to tell the weather that it was Spring and not Christmas... it's not to bad though. I've gotten pretty used to it. And mom, I'm learning how to drive in the snow just because you told me to! haha

Well I hope you guys had an awesome week as well. I loved mine. Hope this week is as good as the last one. Thanks for everything you guys do for me and I hope you all know how much I love and appreciate you! Thanks again!

Love,
Elder Townsend

Me, Bob Westrup, ROBERT FROST, Brighton

Brighton, Me, ELDER RICHARD G. SCOTT, Farnsworth, FowlerFarnsworth, Fowler, Me, Brighton

April 12, 2011

Como Esta? I feel kind of left out speaking English on my mission. Reading Eric's email made me wish I was speaking Spanish. So I thought I would throw a little in this week. haha. We had a pretty good week here. Nothing too exciting. We had transfers on Wednesday. Neither of us are getting transferred but one of the missionaries from Fort Macleod, Elder Grace, was going home so when the bus picked him up that would have left Elder Fowler alone so they had us go up there so he wasn't. That took most of the day because the missionaries coming from BC got caught in traffic on the way in so that slowed everything down. Then the rest of the week was pretty slow. We got some member lessons in which was good. I really do like this ward. I guess it won't be too bad staying here another six weeks.

Then we taught Rob Frost again on Friday night. That went really well. We taught lesson 4 which is basically all of the commandments. We throw a couple of them in the other lessons when we can so we didn't have too many left to teach. Then we talked about his baptism and he is still excited and ready to be baptized this Saturday! Woot! So that should be awesome. Then we went over the program for his baptism and who he wanted to give talks and baptize him and stuff. He is having Bro Westrup baptize him. He's the one that introduced him to the church. It was actually really cool. We had dinner with the Westrup's on Sunday and they invited Rob as well and it was their son in laws birthday on so they had a bunch of people over dinner. There was a time when it was just me and Bro Westrup and Rob at the table, my comp was getting more food, and Rob was talking to Bro Westrup about his baptism and then he got a little awkward as he was building up the courage to ask him and then he did and Bro Westrup said he would be honored and then there was kind of an awkward silence and then the conversation just kept going. It was awesome though. It was really cool to see the very spiritual experience between these two guys. Oh Man. I am excited for Rob. It is going to be a great day for him! Then he gets to see an apostle of the Lord the same day because Elder Scott is coming to stake conference here! and Elder Scott wants to meet with all of the investigators and recent converts and recently reactivated members in the stake on Sunday morning at 830. So that should be sweet as well. (we are going to try to sneak in there as well. they cant really say no to missionaries can they? haha)

So this next week should be a good week as well. Tomorrow we are having our interviews with President Archibald and car inspections and then we are going to the pass Thursday and Friday and then we are coming back Friday night for Rob's baptismal interview and then Saturday at eleven is the baptism and then we have Stake Conference at three and six on Saturday and then Sunday at 10 and hopefully 830 and then Monday Elder Scott wants to meet with the missionaries. So the whole mission is going up to Calgary again to hear from him and then they are moving Pday to Tuesday. So eventful. I can't wait. It's going to be awesome.

That is pretty much it from me this week though. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Love
Elder Townsend

Cajun fish and baked potato and zuchini (No i did not make this myself. My comp really likes to cook...)


Brighton, Mott, Farnsworth, Shupe and Fowler making waffles after district meetings today. Remember Mott? He was my companion for four days in Cochrane. Now he is my zone leader. weird.

April 8, 2011

Hey everyone! Dont worry, I am still alive out here! We had transfers yesterday and me and Elder Brighton are staying so I get to be here when Elder Scott comes for stake conference and when Rob Frost gets baptized so that should be good. I am looking forward to it. But I didn't get a chance to email yesterday because we went to the temple. Monday night my companion found out there were some missionaries going to the temple in the morning so we decided to go with them. I'm pretty sure my comp would have killed me in my sleep if we hadn't gone. He was so excited to go and was rather pushy about it. I was hesitant because of the kilometers to get there but we went. It was like seeing a kid on Christmas morning. He was sitting in the seat beside me freaking out for the whole hour it took to drive there and then was so excited to be there it was ridiculous! haha. It was a great experience though. We went with four other missionaries. Elders Hatfield, Heap, Moore and Reese. Hatfield was in my district in the MTC and Reese was my companion for three months a while ago. It was good to go to the temple, I loved it. Especially after conference. It made for a great end to the weekend. Conference was great as well! I love conference. It's the only vacation we get as missionaries because we get to just sit and relax and listen to people teach us for a change. And those people are teaching us exactly what we need in our lives to be happy! It's awesome! Oh man, even if this time was a lot about marriage and I can't get married so it didn't really apply to me. But it was still great!

The rest of this week was good too. Kind of slower but not bad. We helped a less active family finish moving. We moved them a couple weeks ago but they still had a little bit in the garage so we helped with that. That was on Wednesday and then Thursday we helped a lady from Iran move. We moved her a while ago into a trailer and then we just moved her into a little town house on Main Street. That was interesting. Apparently she used to have slaves so she wouldn't do anything and was rather bossy. But it was still a lot of fun. The Bishop was there and he is hilarious. He reminds me a lot of you, dad, only a lot more random. Like we loaded two couches onto a pick up and then she asked if we could put some chairs from her dining room set on as well to save some trips (the dining room set costs more then her house) and Bishop was all... sure... so he put them on top of the couch and when she saw that she was freaking out they might fall off and Bishop Oliver just said "yea they might fall off and crash onto the ground and break everywhere... but it was your idea!" Anyway, funnier in person. But I love this ward. There isn't much to do here in terms of non members but I am really excited to work with the members here. They are all amazing! We also went out to the pass on Thursday and Friday. That was good too. Dani still doesn't want to meet with us. So we didn't have much to do. But it was still fun. That was pretty much our week though. I cant wait to see what this week has in store. Thanks for everything guys! I love you all!

Love
Elder Townsend

Cardston, Alberta temple... I like it. It is beautiful.

Me at the temple. We didn't get a picture of the six of us that went though... we should have...District leader Elder Grace. My district leader here and my companion in Cochrane. He and like 20 other guys are going home tomorrow... weird... sad...

March 30, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? We had a pretty good week out here in Pincher Creek. It started out pretty slow but ended on a great note! We had a pretty good day on Tuesday. We had district meetings which are always fun and awesome. Then we went out to a Chinese buffet for lunch. Then we went and had a couple lessons that night and did some service for an older guy in the ward. Then Tuesday night I was up all night feeling like I was going to vomit so in the morning I called Sis Archibald and we were pretty sure I got food poisoning from the Chinese food. So I was home sick all of Wednesday. I always feel bad doing that though because it leaves my companion home all day with nothing to do. But I couldn't help it. I would have much rather been out working. Then Thursday I was feeling a little better and we had our weekly planning so I still had a little time to recover and then we had dinner drop off food to us... guess what it was... Chinese from the same place! haha. yea... I didn't eat it. haha. But we went out and had a couple good lessons that night. Then Friday we had a special training in Lethbridge. That was fun. It meant a nice road trip out there. The special training took from 9 to noon and it was on the 7 day challenge and how we can be implementing it better into our lessons. It was interesting. It was nice to see other missionaries though because we had it with the Lethbrigde zone as well. So that was sweet. Then we went to Five Guys for lunch and then came back here and had a couple lessons here. Then Saturday was the highlight to our week. We had a lesson that night with Rob Frost at our ward mission leaders home. It had been a while since we had taught him but the last time we did he basically asked what being baptized would require so we were going to go over baptism again and then a couple of the main commandments. So we sat down and just talked to him for a while and it was Bro Dietze and Elder Brightons first time being in a lesson with him so we talked about why he started looking into the church and reading the Book of Mormon and stuff. He basically said that he was starting to realize he needed to change his life and he noticed that the church and what we were teaching were helping him change and feel the change in his life. Then we started talking about baptism and what it means and what leads up to it and such and Bro Dietze was giving a lot of really good input. He is a High School teacher and he is really good at just talking to people and helping them understand and after a while Bro Dietze was all just "well do you feel like baptism is a step you need in your life?" and Rob sat there and thought about it for a while and then just said, "yes". Yes! haha! So then we talked to him about that and we talked about the 9th of April but he was working so we went for the next week on the 16th. And he said he would prepare for that date so that is awesome! That is going to be a great day if I am still here, because its also Stake conference and Elder Scott is coming to our Stake conference! So that will be sweet. That's if I am still here. We are having transfers next week and I haven't decided if I want to stay here or not. So I guess I will leave it up to the Lord and what he thinks is best for me. So we will see what happens next week. That is pretty much it from here. Thanks for everything guys! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend

March 22, 2011

Hey guys! How is it going? We had a pretty good week here. Slower but good. We didn't get too many lessons in. This ward is kind of off and on in letting us come into their house. We did have a dinner every night though. And we were able to get in with one less active couple. So that was good. Thursday and Friday we went up to the pass and worked up there again and spent the night up there. That was fun. We stopped by the Hall's, a less active family. They own a thrift store up there so we stopped by the store and talked to them for a while and shared a message at the end. That was good and we were able to get in with a couple of members. A couple of people had us for lunch or dinner. On Thursday night they had a branch pot luck. That was fun. It was all Mexican food and they had some games they played like "guess the Spanish word" and they had a pinata for the kids and stuff. It was actually a pretty fun night. There were a lot of people out of town so there weren't many people there. But they said it was a great turn out... I guess I just don't know how many people usually come. It looked pretty sparse to me. haha. We stopped by pretty much all the less actives and potentials we had out there and not too many were home. But it was pretty hard to stay busy out there. No wonder they don't have missionaries just out there. But I like going. It's something new and exciting to do every other week. Also a really sad thing that happened in the pass. We called Dani earlier in the week asking if we could come by and she just said, "I think I am alright for now."..... dang it. But she did still want a bible so we went and dropped that off to her on Thursday and we talked to her for a little bit on the door step and it sounds like life is just getting really busy for her. So we are going to try again and then see if we should just give her some room for a while. That was really sad though. That was pretty much the only investigator we have anymore and now she didn't want to meet with us. I hate when that happens.

Also Thursday was St Patricks Day, but you would have never guessed it up here. They still celebrate it. People recognize it. They saw me wearing my green tie and thought it was fun. But nobody really cares about it up here. There aren't any decorations in the stores. Nobody wears green. It's just weird. Darn Canadians. haha

Then Saturday we did service for a less active guy pretty much all day. We didn't think it would turn out that way, but it did. We went over thinking we were going to move furniture for him, but we built flower boxes for his mother in law. They live in a trailer park and she has a railing up to her house and we built boxes all the way along that railing. Then right when we were done it started snowing like crazy. Which was really sad because it had been getting warmer and the snow was melting and then it snowed. And it didn't stop until last night. So there is snow everywhere again! haha Then Sunday was alright. We went to church and there weren't many people there and we didn't get anyone out that we were hoping to, less active or non member. But it was still fun. I really like this ward and the Elders quorum is hilarious. I look forward to that every week. Then Monday was P day and we went and played games and basketball with the rest of the zone and we went to Raymond and some kids came out and played basketball with us as well. It was ridiculous. I haven't worked out that much in like two years! haha. And now I'm freaking sore. I could barely get out of bed this morning. It's sad really. The mission is getting me really out of shape. It's probably those twenty extra pounds that weren't there before my mission.

Anyway, that is pretty much my week here in Pincher Creek. It's really slow here and there isn't much to keep us busy, but I am trying. I really am. And even though I don't feel like I am getting much accomplished here I know that the Lord put me here for a reason and I hope to be able to find that reason before I leave. Thank you all for the support you have given me. I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Townsend

Chinook Arch (happens when a chinook comes in)


Branch party

Festive eh?

Canadian car :)

March 15, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? I hope you all had a great week. We had a pretty slow one here. It was sad. We had a couple of dinners and a couple of lessons which all went really well. We have great members here. I love this little ward and town. There just isn't anything to do missionary wise. We tried meeting with Rob Frost, but he volunteers at the fire house so he was busy all week. We didn't get a chance to find a time that worked to teach Dani. We had a lesson with a native couple we have been teaching off and on, but they canceled the morning of. Bro Yellowhorn, a less active native, hasn't been answering our calls lately. So we didn't get any lessons with non members or less actives this week. We did get the chance to do some service at the museum though. Every Wednesday morning we go and help out there. So we got there and they had us shovel snow. They didn't tell us when to stop so we just kept going. We shoveled off all the sidewalks that went around the museum. It was ridiculous. There were a whole bunch of drifts as well, huge ones and drifts suck to shovel. They get so packed down its like breaking away at ice. So we did that from 10 to around one, then took lunch and at the end of lunch got a call from Bro Mallard. He lives out in Lundbreck, a tiny town, and asked us to come help shovel at his house because he thought his house was going to flood. It has been really warm around here, which has been really nice. All the snow is melting and I don't have to wear a jacket anymore. But that means that there is water EVERYWHERE!!! So we got to his house and he has a HUGE drift covering his entire garage door and on the side of the garage is a huge drift covering almost the entire side entry door and neither are really weather proofed at all and the garage leads right to the basement so they figured if they didn't move it the basement would die! So we get there and for the rest of the day, until 6 or so, we were hacking away at this mound with pick axes and shovels and eventually got to the point where we could open all the doors. But then we had to go to dinner. That was the most exhausting day ever and it didn't seem like we got too much accomplished. We were going to go back the next day to help again, but they found someone with a bobcat to come help with the rest of it. So that was nice haha.

But the most exciting part of the week started Friday night. Friday night around 930 the missionaries from Trail BC came and spent the night with us and then at 3 in the morning we got ready and left at 430 to make it to Fort MacLeod at 515 to catch the tour bus to take us to Calgary. The mission had a bus pick everyone up from Lethbridge and Medicine Hat and then came here and picked us up and then drove to Calgary. That was fun. Things go crazy when you get a tour bus full of missionaries that haven't seen each other in a while. haha. But we got to the Sundance chapel around 700 and then we all sat down and sang until about 745 when Elder Todd Christofferson and Elder Real (pronounced ree-ahl) from the seventy came in. That was so sweet. I love apostles. They are amazing. Elder Real spoke for a little bit and then Elder Christofferson talked to us for about 2 hours. It was awesome. He was hilarious. He was real with us. He joked around and quoted a random beer commercial and when an Elder quoted him, Elder Christofferson asked Pres Archibald if he had a cookie for him. haha. He was just funny and he didn't chastise us for being horrible missionaries. He just told us some things that some missionaries forget to do and told us that we should work on it. Like planning around a commitment instead of planning a lesson and then sticking in a commitment randomly. Anyway, it was a great experience! (even though I was really tired, haha) I left feeling great and like I wanted to go out and do missionary work. Not like a lot of times when I leave meetings just feeling like a horrible missionary. It was a great feeling. Then we took the long ride back and got home around 3. So that was a pretty good day. It's never a bad day when you get to shake hands with an apostle. It's awesome.

Then Sunday we didn't get any of our investigators out to church, but I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about the Holy Ghost. I don't know how well it went with not getting much sleep that night and then losing an hour of sleep Saturday night from daylight savings time. But people said it was good. It made sense in my mind. I talked about how the Holy Ghost helps our investigators and how the Holy Ghost can feel to people and then I talked about the blessings we can have from having the Holy Ghost in our lives, whether they be emotional, physical or spiritual. And I love that. I love the feelings of peace or happiness or joy that can come from the Holy Ghost. Our Father in heaven loves us so much and wants us to be happy. So he sends us the Holy Ghost to help us. Sure we are going to still have hard times and struggles, but that is how we learn and grow. This is when we need to turn to our Father in heaven most and look for those subtle prompting's or feelings of the Holy Ghost telling us that everything will turn out the way that we want it to. Prayer is a wonderful thing and I pray for you guys everyday. Thank you all for everything you do for me. I love you so much!

Love,
Elder Townsend

PS... I wore a different suit to district meetings today and we came straight to the library after them and I left my camera in my other suit... so no pictures today. I'm sorry. I'll send some next week I promise. :)

March 7, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? We had an allright week here this week. It's been freezing! Apparently this is the coldest, snowiest, windiest winter they have had in years... yippee... there is snow everywhere. They have been working the last two days with big dump trucks and stuff to move all the giant piles of snow from the side of the roads to an empty field. (unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that mom. So you won't get to see that). When it's this cold it's hard to find things to do as missionaries. We try to stay inside if we can. Do some service at the library or visit the older people who don't work anymore. But every now and then we are forced to be outside. But having a car isn't too bad. You can go in there and warm up for a while every now and then.

This week was pretty slow for lessons. We didn't have anyone signed up on the dinner calendar so we lost those seven lessons and a lot of people just weren't home or available. But, we were able to go out to the pass on Thursday and spend the night out there. That was good. We were able to meet with pretty much every active member out there (there isn't too many of them) and a couple of less active families as well. I found out why there is a branch out there with their own building though. Back when the mines were open there would be like 150 -200 people there every week. But then the mines closed and now there are like 20 that show up. Everyone was forced to move for a job. So that's sad. They are pretty close up there though. It's a good little branch and I enjoyed being out there. It was fun. We met new people. It was a change in pace and we were able to meet with Dani each day. That went pretty well. She seems to be coming along. Although she did tell us that she wants to look into other churches to see all of her options. I guess thats good. But it means things will probably move slower then they would otherwise.

The Crowsnest pass really is a beautiful place. It could be a place I would come back and visit. Probably more in the summer though. I bet that place looks awesome in the summer.

Then on Sunday Rob Frost came and the other Iranian lady that we have been moving a lot were there. That was cool. I don't know if I have told you about the Romanian lady. She came to church once and then we helped move all of her stuff into a trailer. She just moved from Calgary. It was a whole bunch of really expensive stuff into a tiny trailer. I think she's planning on buying a house later. But that place is packed now. And she keeps calling Bishop "pastor" and I can't help but laugh to myself every time she does. Anyway... that's pretty much my week. Nothing too exciting. Don't worry, we have a couple dinners here this week. So that's good. Elder Christofferson is coming on Saturday up in Calgary so we get to take a road trip up there. That should be cool. I am excited for that.

Thanks for everything guys! I love you! Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Townsend

The pass. There are like six little towns in the pass. This is one of them... it might be Coleman... I can't remember
driving through the pass.

we might have gone out of our area to take this... we aren't entirely sure... I don't think so though. haha

March 1, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? I hope all is going well for you guys. We definitely had a slower week here. We weren't able to meet with Rob Frost again and we had lessons with Danyelle last Friday, but she called us that morning and said she was too sick to have us over. We didn't get a chance to go to Bro Yellowhorn, a less active in the reserve. Those are the three people that we are really working with. So that was sad. But this week hopefully we can get in with them again. We are going to go out to the Pass on Thursday and spend the night out there and work Friday too. So hopefully we can get in with Danyelle both days and get in with some less actives and part members out there. President Archibald is kind of sceptical about that. Apparently missionaries have tried it before and didn't find much to do out there. But the high priest group leader is pretty excited for us to go and is trying to plan out both the days. So we will see how that goes. If nothing happens I don't think we'll be able to do it again. So I hope it goes well. Even if not much comes out of it though it will still be nice. Something to change up the routine a little bit. I have only been here for 8 weeks now, but I am already running out of things to do here. I don't know what I am going to do if I stay here too long.

I think the most exciting thing that happened this week is that we helped a less active older couple move across town. It was kind of fun. It was FREEZING. They started it on Friday night at six and we loaded up a little Uhaul truck and a couple of pick ups and headed over to the other house and halfway there the Uhaul breaks down... so Bishop got his half ton and towed it the rest of the way. I was actually really impressed with that little Ford F150. haha. Then when we got there we unloaded it all. It was amazing how much stuff they had in that little house. A whole bunch of furniture and a ton of boxes. It was getting really dark so we couldn't see much in the Uhaul so we got a car to shine its lights in it for us. I've never had to do that before haha. Then we went back for the last little bit of it. Just a couple more pick ups since the Uhaul was dead. And the last thing we moved in were the washer and dryer. That was exciting... I was carrying the washer in and I was the one walking backwards and on the driveway was this big snow drift I hadn't seen before.... and as my foot hit that it just slid right off of it and I went down and the dryer came on top of me... luckily, the snow absorbed most of it... I think... I don't really know what happened all I know is it didn't hurt me at all. I think it landed mostly beside me. But of course, nobody cared about the missionary on the ground they just ran to the washer and made sure I didn't break it! haha. Don't worry... I didn't.

That's pretty much our week though. Oh and we found out that Elder Christofferson (i don't know if I spelled that right...) is coming to talk to us all next Saturday. So that will be exciting. And it also means a really long, early road trip for us up to Calgary. That should be fun.

Oh, I guess I'll tell you a little about my companion, Elder Brighton. He is from Roosevelt Utah, a tiny town east of Provo. He is a nurse assistant or something. He started in high school and then went to a year of college and then did nurse stuff for a while. He came out when he was 20. He is at his year mark this up coming week. He is really good at playing the piano. He's been playing it for twelve years now. He is kind of awkward. Doesn't say too much. Tells the same stories over and over again. He really likes having everything really clean and he is the healthiest eating missionary I have ever seen. He has made homemade bread and this weird zucchini casserole and he bought a bunch of fruit and potatoes and stuff. It was ridiculous. (mom, I'm not doing that. I like making something really fast and then taking my nap for the rest of my lunch break. haha) He is a pretty good companion though. We seem to be getting along pretty well. It's kind of nice to have someone who is excited to do work here again and someone with new ideas of how to do work here. So that is good. Hopefully we can start having this area pick up more.

That's it from me this week though. Nothing too exciting. I'll let you guys know how next week goes. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Love
Elder Townsend

Darn Canadians and their weird sports...


My last district. Roberts, Lafond, me, Malagamaalii (aka m), Fowler and Grace

Februrary 22, 2011

Hey everyone! Happy Family Week!... Apparently it's some Canadian thing. The kids all have this week off of school... apparently they like families more up here or something. haha. Today is transfers though... and for the first time in FOREVER I am not going anywhere! haha. I am getting a new companion though. We will see how that goes. His name is Elder Brighton. He was in the west when I was there. He never really said anything and he was just kind of shy. Other missionaries said he's pretty fun and easy to get along with though. So hopefully that is true. He is a male nurse from Utah. So I will let you know how that is going next week. It should be exciting. It's been like 6 transfers since I have been the one that has been in the area the longest... so we will see how that goes. haha. I'm sure it will be fine. I'm looking forward to it.

Other then that the week was pretty average. We got new windows in our apartment last week. That was exciting. So Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday morning we couldn't leave our apartment because there were guys in there putting our windows together. So that was boring... and Thursday I got sick anyway so we didn't leave our apartment because I didn't want to get too far away from a bathroom, just in case, and Sister Archibald told me that I should get some rest. So I did. I felt better the next morning though. But I felt bad for making my companion stay in the whole day. He didn't have much to do. He just did crossword puzzles all day. It was sad.

Other then that this week we just taught a bunch of members and tried getting in with less actives, but they never let us in. This is a pretty good ward though. There are some good members here. It's a small ward but they are all very close. I guess the highlight of our week was on Wednesday we went and taught Dannyelle up in Coleman. That was exciting. We just talked about how the stop smoking program was going. She hasn't gone a day without a smoke, but she says she is improving. So I guess taht's good. It's hard for her though since her mom and her mom's boyfriend still smoke. And then we talked about the three pillars of a testimony, scripture study, prayer and going to church. that went well. She still didn't come to church on Sunday though. We are going to try to start going out to the pass for two days every other week and spending the night out there. So we will work with some new people we don't get to see much of out there. President Archibald is pretty skeptical about us keeping busy enough out there, so we will see how long he lets us go out there. It should be fun though. We are going on Thursday and Friday this week.

Other then that nothing really happened this week. So I will let you know how this week goes. Thanks for everything! I love you all!

love,
Elder Townsend

There are deer everywhere in Pincher



Pincher Creek is one of the first places they put up windmills. And there are TONS of them!

The piggy bank again

February 15, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? This week was alright for me. We were going to teach Dannyelle on Wednesday, but she called that morning and said "personal things" came up and she couldn't anymore. So that was sad. But we still had a pretty good day that day. Nothing too exciting just a lot of lessons with members. We helped Bro Barfus move 14 huge filing cabinets around in his office. that was fun. then Thursday we taught the Buffalo family. A native family out on the reserve who have been taught for a while, but it was my first time meeting them. It went good. They like to talk a lot so we didn't get to say much, but we did get a lesson in and she wants to come to church, he doesn't, but she doesn't have a ride out there and we can't find one for her. So that is actually really sad. Then Friday we got another lesson with Danyelle so we went out there and taught her. We did the 7 day stop smoking program with her. I don't know if I've told you guys about that. It's these 15 steps that if they follow them everyday will make it so they have no more desire for nicotine at all. It completely eliminates that, but the "cool" factor will still be there. We can't seem to get rid of that... but the lesson went really well. She was really excited to follow it, which is awesome. I hope she can quit! Unfortunately we called her Sunday morning and she wasn't going to be able to come to church. That was sad. And while we were talking to her she told us that she had slipped up on smoking... dang it. So she had to start the seven days over again, but she still had a really good attitude about it. She new that she slipped up and that she could try again and do better next time. That was sweet to hear her say that! (ya, that's right. I'm an awesome teacher. Just kidding. But seriously... I am. haha) So hopefully she can do that.

Then we taught this old lady. Like mid 80's. It was ridiculous. She said she knew like everything about our church and had a Book of Mormon and all that. She had me go grab it from this shelf that was full of every religious books ever! OK... maybe not, but a lot of them. So we were talking about the restoration and stuff and she seemed to like it. Answered any question we gave her and it was pretty sweet. Then we came to the first vision and she asked where in the bible that was so she could look it up... and we asked her if she wanted to be baptized on March 5th and she said "yea, I could come to that" and wrote it in the cover of her bible and then we asked if she would want to come to church and she said "oh no, of course not. I have my own church." So... I don't know how much she got out of the lesson... but the Spirit was there! haha. Then we talked to a lady in our ward Sis Le Pard and she just told us that we shouldn't continue. The old ladies family would get mad at us if they found out we were there. So in a space of less then 24 hours we got a new investigator, set her with a baptismal date and then dropped her. haha. It was weird. My companion still put it all on our numbers for the week. haha.

Elder Lafond is interesting. He is a fun guy, really weird at times though. Sometimes I am just embarrassed to be around him. I can't really not like him though. I think our personalities are just ones that don't really go well together... at all. Is it bad to pray for him to get transferred next week? I thought about doing that but then I thought if I did then he would stay for sure... I'm in a bit of a dilemma here. haha. But whatever happens next week at transfers is supposed to happen. Maybe there is something I am supposed to learn from him... I hope not, but maybe. haha.

Thanks for everything! You guys are the best! Thanks for all the love and support you give me! I love and miss you guys!

Love,
Elder Townsend

PS. Mom I got the package from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bill. I got it today, but that means it probably got to the mission like two or three weeks ago. haha.

Random little town in the pass... apparently the best water in Alberta... tastes like water to me!

Februrary 8, 2011

Hey! What is up? How is the party in the states going? I hear "it's a party in the USA" haha. Well, I had a little bit of a party here in Canada. Good old Pincher Creek. Actually it kind of sucks here. It is cold and it's snowing A LOT! More then they have seen here in like 5 years. And it's freaking windy! I hate the wind... its official. I ran out of money last month so I couldn't buy stamps to send mail to you guys so I got money this month went and spent $20 on stamps to hopefully last me a while and what happens? We open the door to the car and the wind sends all of them flying!! So that sucked. I wasn't too happy. So all of you waiting on mail from me... (especially Michael) I'm sorry. I'm trying... hopefully I'll have some in the mail today though. Speaking of mail. Another reason why I don't like Pincher Creek is I haven't gotten mail in forever! We were supposed to get it at zone conference but the assistants forgot to bring it... darn assistants. So I won't get mail until transfers probably. So that sucks. Why can't I just go back to Calgary where I get it like once or twice a week? haha.

Anyway. I really did have a little bit of a party here I promise. We were able to teach Danyelle again. That went pretty well. We taught lesson three and set a date for her to be baptized on the 19th. So that was sweet. That was on Saturday. We also got her to commit to coming to church. So Sunday morning we got up and called her to make sure she was still planning on coming before we drove all the way out to the pass to be with her. She said she was coming but she also said that she thought the 19th was too soon to be baptized. So we have to work on that again. Then we got to church and I realized we forgot to tell her church was three hours long so she wasn't too happy. Her kid was hungry and tired the whole time. So she was busy with him the whole time. I don't know how much she got out of it. She left early so we didn't get to talk to her about it. Then Monday we called her and all she really said about it was that it was too long. We are teaching her again tomorrow and she wants to do the seven day stop smoking program so she must not be too mad at us. haha.

So we were in the pass on Sunday. Which was weird. There were only 20 people in church and it was sacrament meeting. The only people that bore their testimony were us and Pres Hummell and another guy. Then they ended sacrament 20 mins early. So that was weird. Especially for being the first sacrament meeting an investigator came to. The members love us out there. They don't get to see us too often. So someone invited us over for lunch so we went there. That was fun. He is the high priest group leader and they live in this fun little mobile home that they turned into a log cabin looking place. It was sweet. Then we stopped by some part member families and less actives and then someone had us for dinner and then we drove home. A nice full day in the Crows Nest Pass. We are trying to find a way to get out there more. Maybe stay at a members house out there overnight or something because it kills our kilometers driving out there too much.

Then Monday was sweet. The Wright's took us out snowshoeing. It was awesome. The Wrights are really fun and they took their dog with us. So they take us out to Beauvais Lake and we start up this trail and we are trying to get up to a peak they haven't been to before. so we start out on this "trail" if you can even call it that. We were walking through trees and following orange signs that were nailed to trees. The snow came up to our knees even with snow shoes on. The dog disappeared when it jumped in. haha. It was really fun though. Then the trail ended and we started to make our own trail. It got really steep with a lot of snow. We crawled for parts of it. It was well worth it though. The view from the summit was definitely worth the effort. Coming back down the steep part took us 15 mins... it took us an hour to get up it. haha. It was a pretty fun Pday though. I am freaking tired and sore now, but it was awesome. I loved it. They want to do it again in a couple of weeks and since there isn't anything else to do here in Pincher, I'm looking forward to it! haha. It helps that the Wright's are awesome. He is an RCMP and she is a hair dresser and they are hilarious! I love going over there.

That was pretty much my week though. Pretty exciting. A party if I do say so myself. Thanks for everything! I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Townsend

snow shoeing

the "trail" haha

the summit

the wrights

Februrary 4, 2011

Hey! How is it going? This week was pretty good for me. A lot of times there wasn't much to do but we still got a lot done! haha. Last Tuesday we were walking around after emails and we saw a lady who was scrapping ice off her sidewalk so we went and helped her and after she invited us into her house for some hot chocolate. Turns out she lived with her older sister and her mom and the mom is kind of less active and the daughters are very less active. So we talked to them for a while and they said we could come back if we could find a time that worked. They are a busy little family. But that was sweet. Apparently they haven't talked to missionaries in forever.

Then we had a couple days of not much to do. A lot of walking around trying to find someone to talk to or something to do. But then Friday was a great day. We had a lesson with Danyelle at noon. So we drove out there and had this older lady from the branch come with us so we could have a member there. She was the only one that was available then. The lesson went really well. We watched The Restoration and talked about Joseph Smith a little bit more and we started to talk about baptism and found out that she hasn't been baptized but that she had a name and a blessing when she was a baby. So she said she would be willing to be baptized. We weren't able to set a date and we told her that it would be good for her to come to church and the lady from the branch offered a ride and to sit by her during church. She didn't come because she didn't feel like she was ready. I think she'll make it there eventually. Then we stopped by a couple of people and headed home.

Then we had a dinner with a family. Elder Lafond said it might be weird because every time he had talked to them they didn't really like the missionaries. So we got there and they were all happy and a fun family. They even told us that we were the first missionaries they have had over in years because they didn't like any of the other ones. But apparently they like us. So that's cool. It was really weird when I walked in though because they had some pictures on their fridge of people I knew from BYU. Apparently their daughter went there and got married and was friends with Allison Slater and Morgan Thorup and there were some pictures of them at her wedding. So that was cool. They talked about that for a while. It's weird to see people that know people I know. I guess I'm not really that far from home even though it feels like it, haha.

Then after dinner Bro Westrup called us and said that we could teach his friend, Rob Frost, at the church at 8. So we went there and taught him a little about the restoration and we talked to him and found out that he wants to be baptized but not for a while. He wants to read the Book of Mormon and the Bible in a year and he thinks that he will be able to make the decision to get baptized after he does that. Which I guess is good and it's good that he will be reading. Once he starts to read and think about it the Spirit will get working on him.

Saturday we went on exchanges. I was with Elder Fowler here and we didn't really have all that much to do. We had a lesson in the morning. Our dinner canceled and we had a lesson in the native reserve in the afternoon but it was snowing too much to make it out there. So we spent a lot of time walking around and shoveling snow. We seem to do that a lot in this mission. haha.

Sunday we called this lady named Stacy who we had talked to on the street once and seemed nice and gave us her phone number. We called and she said we could come over later so we went around five with Bro Barffus and that actually went really well. There were three little kids there. Two where her own. So beside all the distractions and times where we had to stop because of crying kids it went really well. We taught a first lesson and she seemed to accept it. She said she wanted to get baptized but we couldn't set an exact date. She grew up Christian and kind of fell away but she wanted to get back into it. That's the only reason she talked to us on the street which is awesome. (she did think that we were from another church... but that's irrelevant. haha) Her dad seems to know a lot. She said that her dad always tries to talk to her and teach her and she doesn't really listen. So I hope that he doesn't start to anti her. I think that will be the only obstacle in her life and maybe smoking. But we can fix that. Easy peezy lemon squeezy. haha

Then Pday was pretty fun. The district all came here and we just played some games and stuff and then went to the really good Mexican food out in the middle of nowhere. So that was exciting. So it was a pretty good week. We got two new people to teach. I hope we get somewhere with them. But if not then we did our best. Thanks for everything guys! I love you!

Love
Elder Townsend

So Coleman (where Danyelle lives) is really close to the BC border. And the BC border is the border for our area. so we were going to go there and get a picture next to it. But we got there and it had snowed too much to get any closer then this...I tried

Trying......

Failed

January 25, 2011

Hello everyone! How is it going? It's going pretty good here. We actually had a pretty good week. We set a goal of having eight new investigators this transfer and having at least three of those with a baptismal date and up until Saturday not much was happening to help us in that goal. But on Saturday afternoon we didn't have much to do so we decided we would go out to the little town of Coleman and see if we could stop by some part members or such out there. We don't get the chance to get out there too often. But we went out there and stopped by some people. Nobody was home and we tracted a little bit. Nobody was interested. We did get one older guy to talk to us for a while at his door. But in the end he said he wasn't interested at all. He was nice though. I enjoyed talking to him. Then we tried stopping by another part member family. Nobody was home so we started back to the car. But as we were walking down their steps a lady pulled up in her car with her 9 month old son. Her name is Danyelle and her son is Destin. We ended up talking to her for a while and we asked if there was a time we could come back and so we set up a time for Sunday at 2:30. So Sunday we went to the Crows Nest Pass branch that we also cover because Brome, who got baptized last week, was getting the priesthood out there. (that's where his girlfriends family is and her dad is the Branch Pres and he did the ordination. That is also the branch that has Coleman in it. So after the ordination we got one of the members from there to come with us out to Danyelle's house and teach her. That went really well. She was really receptive and seemed very interested and then at the end I asked her to be baptized and the conversation went a little something like this, "...we are holding a baptismal service on Feb 19th will you prepare yourself for that date?" "Does it matter if I have already been baptized?" "...like into our church?" "yea" "um... yes. Well, I guess we can skip that step... I don't really know what to do now... this hasn't ever happened to me before..." haha so apparently her grandma took her to church in BC when she was little. And when she told her mom Saturday night that we had stopped over and were coming back her mom asked her if she told us that she was baptized and she was all... no... I didn't know I was. Apparently she got baptized when she was really little. I'm a little hesitant about that though because she doesn't remember it at all. She didn't know anything about Joseph Smith or prophets or anything. So we got her name and birth date and the branch clerk is trying to find her records. We are going back on Friday though. So either way it's someone to teach! haha.

Also on Sunday we went to the first two hours of Pincher Creek ward before we went to the pass and Bro Westrup has been bringing a friend to church. This was his second week there. He was in gospel essentials which we were teaching and we taught about the Holy Ghost and it went well and we asked him to be baptized and!!!... he said no... but he did say we could come by and teach him sometime but we didn't get an exact appointment. He said to make it through Bro Westrup. So we are trying to do that. Also we got a referral from the Kirtland Historic visitors center and we contacted him and he said he wanted to learn more but his girlfriend wasn't interested at all so he would call us with a time we could go by when he was home but his girlfriend isn't. He also lives in the middle of nowhere. In a little town called Frank. Where a big rock slide happened a long time ago and covered most of Frank so now it's a really small town. haha. I'm excited though. That's a lot of good happening. I can't wait to see how it all pans out.

The rest of the week was alright. Nothing too exciting. We had interviews with President Archibald on Wednesday and that took pretty much all day. It was up in Raymond which is a two hour drive for us and then we had interviews and training from the assistants and the zone leaders and Sis Archibald talked to each of us for a while and then we drove home. By the time we got back it was like 7:30. We did stop in Lethbridge for dinner with our district at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which is actually pretty good.

That is pretty much our week though. It was a lot of fun and a lot of good things happening. I can't wait to tell you guys all about the ending of these stories! I hope I am here for them. Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Townsend





World's most photographed tree...

World's smallest chapel

There are only four rows of those pews

Good old Pincher :)