Letter #45 . . . mostly photos . . after the Christmas call!

Hi! 

I loved talking to y'all too! I'm sorry I was a little off, but I was starting to feel sick! Had a little stomach bug all day which was no fun... I feel better today tho! 

Yeah I'd love to talk to Grandma and Grandpa next time!! 
 
It's been a good week. Christmas as a missionary was awesome!!

Just a short letter today. Here are some pics from the week!

Elder Townsend 

And a few photos from our phone call with Tanner . . . we couldn't get our Skype to work on our tv and so Matt's phone had to do . . it was fun talking to him! 

Letter #44 . . . missions are good for you!

Hey hey!

Missions are good for you. That's what I'm learning. Even in tough
days my testimony is growing. We talk to a lot of people, and a lot of
them are really nice and you think the gospel would just make so much
sense to them. But then most of these people don't accept, and
sometimes even make you feel like the one in the wrong for believing
in these things. But man oh man, I know this gospel is true. I used to
have doubts about the Book of Mormon creep into my head every now and
then, but now I never do. I know what I've felt while reading that
book is the Spirit testifying and giving me peace that the simple
truths and promises in it are true. Read it people. Just read it!

Tanner and Elder Reber in Independence, Dec. 2016

Highlight of the week was our lesson with our RLDS investigator Matt Boyd. Brought President Cato with us, and it went amazing. Most powerful lesson of my whole mission. Very short version of president Cato's story is this . . he was a Pastor of a congregation of 350 people in one of the few RLDS branches. Their church started going way off the path and becoming very political. His family went on a trip to Utah at that point without him and found the Mormon church to be true. They were all baptized except for him. His friends that helped him lead the congregation accused him of teaching Mormon Doctrine, even tho he didn't even know what that really was. He told his 
congregation that he needed to take a break and do a little soul 
searching for a while. His best friend that was his counselor on the 
stand, then walked up to the pulpit, and in front of the whole congregation 
said, "Dennis Cato is under the influence of Satan." From that point on, he's 
never been back. Matt really was impacted by his conversion story, and 
related very well to it. President Cato seemed to say everything he needed 
to hear to help him take that leap of faith that has been tough to do as he's 
met with missionaries over the years. President helped him realize he 
already has gotten his witness 

Making cookies with some members!

that it's true, and that he now has a responsibility to act on that witness. President Cato promised him that God has great things in store for him and his wife and two cute little girls. Matt whole-heartedly agreed to everything he was saying. President committed him to pray with his wife and have a date he wants to be baptized by our next visit. We gave him a Priesthood blessing of comfort and guidance as well to be able to tell his mother about his decision without her freaking out. He listened and seemed to feel something like he never had before.
Finished Ballard's book, Our Search for Happiness. It's a good one for
sure! We've been getting in with a crazy amount of less actives. We're
taking advantage of the fact that they feel bad for us walking around
in the 5 degree weather haha. We met with a less active named Lindsey,
who just recently quit smoking for her daughter. We shared Alma 36:
12-21 with her. These are up there for some of my favorite scriptures
in the entire Book of Mormon. It was so powerful reading these things,
about the power of His Atonement, and the infinite reach of his love.
I invite all of you to read those verses!  She got emotional and
shared how she wants that peace back in her life but feels she's
messed up too much. Some of my favorite opportunities on my mission
are testifying to people that they CAN get that peace back. Whenever
they want it, if they come to Him. I love that promise, I've felt it
countless times in my life.

Visiting during an Ice Storm!

Played and sang "Be Still My Soul" at our zone conference! After the meeting we all walked across the street to the temple and did a session! That was my 4th time going, 3rd time here. It was probably my favorite session. I wasn't worried about messing up or anything, but I decided to just focus on just listening and feeling the spirit. I got far more out of it by doing that.

We met this kid Ryan at Thanksgiving dinner, he was really into film and knew of devinsupertramp and Parker. That was cool to be able to talk to him! He wasn't planning on a mission, but we were able to talk to him about how the mission is the greatest thing you can do for your life at this time, and all those other things will be there  =when you get home. We got a call from his Aunt that's in our ward, and she said in tears that he's working on his papers, and that our conversation with him was pivotal. He's an awesome kid.

Mom, the weather seems to be pretty similar to Utah out here. Only
difference is we get ice storms, that make EVERYTHING shut down.
Including missionaries. President told us to stay in and not drive
because of the ice. My clothes are keeping me nice and warm! I have
not opened your package yet!! Dang. I was thinking you wanted me to open it
on Christmas!! 
 
I'll be praying for the Parkinson's. Wow, that's tough...
 
Dang, dad was the best Gospel Doctrine teacher alive. His lessons are
what kept me at church haha.

Love you all,

- Elder Townsend

PS.  Two random videos that Tanner sent this week:
Tanner test driving a guy's wheelchair and
Elder Reber throwing a rock into the water? 

Letter #43 . . . Nativities and Caroling!

Hello!

Some highlights of the week . . . finished the Book of Mormon again!
Seriously, the happiest moments of my life have been when I finish
reading that book. It's true!! It's so so so true! So much peace can
come into life by reading that book. 

Week #43 in Independence

It snowed for the first time, I'm loving my winter jacket!! It's so cold now!
Our Stake President had a big event/dinner for missionary dinner, and I sang Silent night there! I'm also playin and singin at a zone conference coming up. President Cato shared his conversion story. He was pretty high up in the RLDS church and then joined our church!! It was so awesome. We have an appointment scheduled with our RLDS investigator Matt this week, and President Cato is coming! 

We finally talked to this solid lady in our area book named Beth! She 
is super open to the church, has a few Mormon friends and is really 
interested in learning! The only problem is, her father in law still lives 
with them, he is on hospice right now, but is extremely anti Mormon 
and they are waiting for him to pass before she starts the lessons... It's 
sad. Haha we don't know what to do tho!! I'm not sure how I feel about 
praying that somebody will die... 😭 We'll see what ends up happening haha!

Joseph Smith's grandson's grave stone!

We got some sweet Christmas ties and we're wearing them every day this month. The missionaries in our ward have been dropping off pieces of nativity sets every day this week to our investigators and less actives we are working with! The whole ward has been involved, and the last day we delivered the last piece, baby Jesus, and a ton of people from the ward came and sang some songs on their door step. It was pretty sweet! Nativity and caroling.

Mom, no I haven't gotten sick much out here. I've been lucky! But I feel like I will this December because a bunch of sickness is going around everywhere! 

I really don't need that much stuff Mom. Maybe just a sweatshirt.. don't worry about sending tons of stuff! I'll be happy with anything.

Love you!

Elder Townsend 

PS. Here a few videos that Tanner sent this week . . . click on the links below.
1. Having a little fun while serving! in the fall leaves
2. Elder Reber taking requests

Joseph Smith's grandson was the former prophet of the RLDS church

Letter #42 . . . life is good out here in ol' Misery!

Hey fam!

This week has flown by! Reber and I have been on bike week this week!
It's gotten super chilly outside, so we whipped out the big winter
jackets for the first time! We have been raking people's leaves in the
morning, and hauling around these giant rakes on our bikes. We look
pretty special haha... We are trying hard to find some new people to
teach. We've tried every potential in the Area book and haven't seen
much success. We are trying harder to find by the spirit! We met a lot
of cool people this last week. One dude we talked to named Tony that
looked like Lil' Wayne, and owns a studio.  Pretty sure we bout to
convert Lil Wayne nbd... We've also been running into quite a few RLDS
people, and it's really tough with them, because you basically have to
throw out half of preach my gospel because they ALREADY believe in the
Book of Mormon and Restoration.  They just don't see the importance of
a Prophet and Apostles with proper priesthood authority leading a
church. It's definitely one of the difficult aspects the Independence
mission has to offer.  We're having our Stake President come out with
us on one of the lessons to this Matt Boyd guy we're teaching.
President is a former RLDS member and is willing to drop everything
for missionaries!

We also had a cool experience with a less active named Lori who's been
less active for 20 years. We knocked on her door and she was nice but not
very interested. She closed the door and as we got back on our bikes
to ride away, she came running out and asked if we actually had time
right then to share a message with her and her husband! We shared the
Light The World video and testified of the peace that's come in our
lives from turning to our loving Heavenly Father. It was a rare
experience! I've never had someone do that.

Time is weird thing... I can't believe it's December already! Time
flies a lot faster when you're working hard and trying to push
yourself. I feel like I've been doing that these last few transfers
especially! I'm growing a lot spiritually! Life is good out here in
ol' Misery.'

Independence Visitor's Center

On Saturday, I was asked to play 5 songs for the Christmas Musical Night at the Independence Visitor's Center! It was me and another sister that played songs! I played Come Thou Fount, Glorious, Silent Night, Be Still My Soul, and Mary Did You Know! Just sang two of them. There was an awesome turn out of about 100 people. Reber cheers me on . . he's schweeet!!
Click here to hear Silent Night!
Click here to hear Be Still My Soul!

The fam is looking good! Everyone's gettin big! Britt, miss you bro. You look bigger than me!! Josh, your basketball vid is sweet. You've got perfect shooting form man. ;) Claire is getting more and more adorable! Sarah and Brade your killing it, keep it up with all you're doing! Jake luv you man, I'm sorry I haven't responded to you. I will. I want to send u back something good! I'm jealous y'all went to the Jazz game! Dad I'm hoping the new website turns out awesome!
Mama I luv you lots.

Till next week.

- Tan

I don't really have many photos from this week. The vids that bishop
sent can count for those!! :)

Sent from Zion

Letter #41 . . . Light the World with 25 things in 25 days!

Hey peeps! 

Thanksgiving dinner, 2016 with the Ah Mu Family!

How are y'all?! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving over here in Independence. :D We got to ball it up in the Turkey Bowl. I had 4 touchdowns, cause I'd always be pretty open because Reber was being double teamed because he's the football player haha. We had the missionaries and the Lamb family vs the rest of the ward! Later that day we had dinner with the Ah Mu family! Dinner was super good. How was Thanksgiving down in St George?! I miss you guys! I was just thinking back to the time we ate Denny's for Thanksgiving that one year in St. George when all the other restaurants were closed. Haha best meal ever. 

Turkey Bowl with the Lambs and the ward!

This week was tough with investigators and finding. You'd think people would be generally nicer during the holiday season, but after intensive research, we found the opposite to be true lol. Most people really did not appreciate a knock at the door this week, especially cuz the weather is freezing. Which is weird cuz we're so cute and fun and stuff..? :) We did have some lessons with investigators and members tho. We had dinner with this family who had a bunch of non members over. One of them was this guy named James who is incredible on the cello. We listened to him play some sweet songs, then they pulled out their ukuleles and I sang and jammed out with all of them! Click here to view!

The new zone!

Our zone is now super different with all the people transferred out and the new peeps coming in. Sister Sarah Farnsworth, who I knew a bit before the mission is in our zone! She's super awesome... Fun fact for ya, she got a 36 on the ACT!

The church came out with this sweet new Christmas video/ Initiative. If you haven't seen it yet go check it out on LDS.org . . . it's called Light The World! With the vid, they came out with a list of 25 things we can do in 25 days to be a light to the world. The church is getting so good with their websites, social media, and videos!! It's so awesome. Check out Mormon.org. They updated their website. It's so clean and simple!! 

Love you all. Until next week!! 

- Elder Townsend

Letter #40 . . . starting to see the fruits of it all!

That was a sad email mama! Sounds like a lot of sad stuff happening...
Hope you guys are doing alright tho.That is so sad about the kids at
Corner Canyon. That has made me feel sick all day. I can't imagine
what their families are going through. Same with Britt...  Life is way
too fragile. We all gotta be careful, and not take anyone for granted.
I loved the article you wrote mom. Made me all teary.

With the Valentine's in Independence!

As far as the work over here. . . We are working really hard, and are slowly starting to see the fruits of it all! We have a new investigator named Angela that is super cool. I'll keep you updated on her. We have a bunch of appointments with members set up for this week too! It should be good.

Also it just got cold overnight... We are not huge fans of the cold. Probably going to be busting out that winter jacket soon.

Other stuff that went on this week... Well, our church starts at flippen 2:00 pm... and there is literally a church on every single corner. Soooo we may have gone into the Calvary Baptist Church Sunday Morning to check it out hahaha. It was interesting, and a good thing to experience. They were super friendly! EVERYONE is religious and goes to some church out here. So we are just trying some different churches
to learn what it's like! :)

Zone in Independence

Today we went bowling.. Again.. with my old companion Elder Kirkham and my MTC comp elder Fowlks! Today I got a 143 and am pretty proud of myself. We said bye to our two best pals Elder Parker and Corpuz this past week for transfers. We got super close with them and are bummed to see them go. They are the ones in the rap I sent you haha. I taught Reber how to play Viva la Vida on the piano today. I just found out Reber's good friend Mckenna Breinholt is roommates with Lauren O.!! That was super awesome to see a pic of the two of them... Small World!

Love you all, talk to you next week.

- Elder Townsend

Letter #39 . . . tough and so rewarding at the same time!

Family and friends!! 

Bowling with the zone . . November 14, 2016

Life is good over here in Missouri. We went bowling with some of the zone today! I won both games. No big deal. :D I'll send some pics. Transfers are this week, I am guessing I'll stay in Independence with Reber! We work hard and have lots of fun. 

Tanner and Elder Reber!

That makes me sick about Annie Schmidt. I can't imagine what they're feeling like, I'm praying for their family for sure. Life is way too fragile... 

Yeah send me screenshots of Dad's new website! I wish I could have made the date night!! I miss the fam, Gramps, the boys and all! I hope they're doing good, and know I'm happy out here. I love hearin about what the bros are up to! Britt, that dance looks fun. She looks like a cutie! Mom, I'd love for ya'll to come pick me up!! Is there any way we could go to New York again too and see those sites?? 

Stuff that happened this week . . . it was bike week and my brakes were broken, and an older guy we were talking to on the street said he called himself the "neighborhood fixer upper" and said he could fix it. We brought it into his garage, in which the toxic fumes let us know he was definitely on crack. We decided, eh, well he couldn't make it any worse. (Lol) He worked on it for a solid minute, and managed to clamp the brake with pliers and snap them in half, braking it even more. Why thank you kind sir. Also, this week we helped these awesome members, the Wilkes, put up some Christmas lights. Makes me sad we never went all out with lights haha!

Went on exchanges with the District leader and met with Jesus and Roberto M. Roberto is 18 and was just baptized. He has an awesome testimony. We were able to go through and teach them the lessons for a second time. We taught lesson three, the gospel of Jesus Christ. We then ate lunch with John Davies, the organist of the COC! 

Bowling poses!

Our investigator Matt B. is RLDS, and we had awesome lesson with him. He really is progressing super well! We are helping him gain of testimony of prophets and apostles! We brought this sweet kid Dallan C. with us, who's about to go to Raynosa Mexico on his mission, and he was able to come out of his shell a bit and bear a strong testimony of the Savior at the end. It was AWESOME. 

My testimony is growing every single day. I am learning so many things about myself. It's tough, and so rewarding all at the same time. 

Love y'all! 

- Elder Townsend

Sent from Zion

Letter #38 . . . organ playing at Community of Christ auditorium!

P-day fun!

Hellooooo!

Halloween was great last P - Day, . . . it's interesting as a missionary. President told us not to go out! So we stayed in and played games in our apartment!  It was a good week, some notable things from this week, we stood in on two blessings the bishop gave to this young couple. Their 21 month old son passed away unexpectedly the night before. So sad. The Spirit was so strong in the room, knowing that they'll be with him again.

We ran into a guy named Justin A at Subway.  He was baptized a few years ago and fell away from the church, but has felt like he needs the gospel back in his life. He said he's been looking for our number everywhere and couldn't find it. He was shocked when we walked into subway!

We met with this guy named Matt who is RLDS, (we've been talking to a ton of them lately) that may as well be Mormon!! Haha He talked forever about how much he loves everything about the Mormon church, and is disappointed with the direction and emptiness his church offers. But he feels like he hasn't got a spiritual confirmation to change churches. We'll see what happens with him!

We did a lot of service this week. We planted flowers like the gardening prodigy I am. Dangerously hacked down a tree with an axe hahaha. President doesn't let us use a chainsaw for "safety" reasons, but lemme tell ya, that chainsaw would have been a million times safer than swinging a dull 30 pound axe 1000 times. Just about cut off our legs a couple times!

At Zone training at the Independence Visitors Center this week, we got to see an early showing of the New Christmas video the church comes out with every year around this time. It was sooooo good!! I'm pumped for you guys to see it!

We were able to meet with a couple investigators we haven't been able to reach forever!! They both have little kids, and we do this awesome object lesson that we call the Fire Atonement where we draw a little stick figure, and draw chains on him with a magic pen, then show how Jesus can remove the chains with his atonement. We then hold a flame to the paper, and the chains disappear! Kids minds are blown and it's so fun. #magicpens.

Community of Christ auditorium

This P- Day we toured the Community of Christ auditorium with John Davies, the organist of their church, who I've gotten pretty close with, and a bunch of missionaries from our zone. The auditorium is pretty amazing. John has been RLDS his whole life, and played the organ for them almost his whole life, and he is now a member of the LDS church, and has been for a little over a year! (Even tho he feels like he's been a member his whole life) I was able to jam out on the organ with him in there. Click here to watch the short clip! (Sorry it's a little blurry!)  I think the auditorium is the second biggest in the United States, just behind the conference center! Also got to play on an amazing Steinway and Sons Grand piano that belonged to the great grand daughter of Joseph Smith! 

The large auditorium!

Love y'all!

Elder Townsend 

Sent from Zion

Letter #36 from Tanner . . . SWEET members everywhere!

Hellooooo!

Mom, I got your package!!! It made my day, thank you. I'm jealous I
can't be with y'all on vacation!! This week was good, but tough. Reber
and I were on bikes this week, and biked over 15 miles a day, visiting
everyone we could in the area book, and talking on the street with a
ton of people. We laugh and generally have a good time doing it, and
the weather has been amazing this week... So many people in Missouri
are just kinda rude haha! Like it's honestly rare these days to run
into someone who treats us like actual human beings and show any hint
of kindness, and not annoying salesman. It's hard not to feel down
after a long day of work with no success. But that's mission life out
here. Still trying to get used to it.

We did some service just about every day this week. We picked up tons of giant, rotten walnuts (see video here) off this lady with cancer's yard, we laid some bricks in a members garden, planted some flowers, moved some fat TV's, "raked 1 billion leaves" (See the video here), and helped cut down a tree. I'll attach some pics and vids we took there! :)

So, our teaching pool is almost non existent. Work is TOUGH these days. Our super solid dude Ryan just now wants us to come over to 'help' us really get on the right path. (He wants to bible bash) He says he feels bad that we've been led astray in this religion...

We visited a part member family where the wife is an inactive member, and the husband is an RLDS dude. They're so sweet! We have been meeting with them a bunch, and teaching him the lessons. We've been visiting active and less active member's homes during the evening and getting to know them, and sharing spiritual messages with them. We've had some pretty awesome spiritual moments with some of these peeps. One of my favorite things about the mission is seeing how there's just sweet members EVERYWHERE you go in the world.

This week at district meeting, I gave a training on the story of Christ asking Peter three times, lovest thou me? I love it. Go watch the Bible video, Feed My Sheep.

I love you all, until next weeeeeek.

- Elder Townsend

Letter #37 . . . funny and cool things that happened this week!

 Hello Fam and Friends!

I'm jealous of your trip to Costa Rica!! The pictures looked awesome. Love how you're keeping me up to date with what's going on with the boys. I miss those dudes. Also, the Annie Schmidt thing puts a pit in
my stomach. I can't imagine what their family is going through. I've been praying for them.


Some funny things that happened this week . . . We have a member of our ward who is a carbohydrate Nazi and gets very heated and riled up as we ask him lots of questions throughout the week about what things have carbs or not. :)

 We judged the Chili Cook-off and had to try 20 different chili's and pick the best one. It was quite the experience. 

We met a man named Joseph from the Community of Christ Church, who had a super long gray beard, and wrote a book about evidences of the Book of Mormon. 

We went to a member's house for dinner and found out that the first meal the Elders have over there HAS to be eaten with their hands with latex gloves... We had spaghetti. It was amazing. haha 

Also, we made a sweet missionary rap with some other elders. 

Some cool moments this week . . one day we were street contacting and
walked past a construction site. A worker named Jeffrey was sitting in
his car, we passed and he said, "Are ya'll Jehovah's Witnesses?" We
explained who we were and he told us he's been wanting to find a church.
We were able to talk about the gospel with him, and have appointments
to meet with him next week! As we were driving away, we saw him
reading the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet in his car, and when he saw us,
he quickly put it down acting like he wasn't hahaha. This week we had
lots of awesome street contacts meeting new potential investigators.
They are solid!! I'm excited to be able to start meeting with them! We
have 6 or 7 new potentials we're working with!   

Short and sweet this week.
 
Love you all,
Elder Townsend

PS.  haha

Letter #35 . . . "Be Still My Soul"

"Oh Hey Mom ..." (In that one voice :)) 
 

Tanner and Elder Reber

I loved the letter. I love hearing about all the stuff happening at home!

This week was pretty sweet. Elder Reber is awesome. In our mission there's no such thing as the 'senior companion.' President hates that label haha. I feel like we're still both learning from each other! Reber and I have been focusing on finding some more solid people to teach. This week we did a lot of knocking on potential's doors, and random ones. We found a few solid people but most wanted nothing to do with us. We met some nice people, met some hardcore bible bashers etc. There are lots of 'born again' fanatics out here, who think to be saved you confess Jesus to be your Lord, then do whatever the poop you
want the rest of your life. This week was pretty exhausting, but it felt good to work and was fun at the same time. Reber and I get a long great and have fun with each other!

This week we got a new shipment of Book of Mormons, so we decided to give them out to as many people as we could. Some of the highlights:
We gave one to the ice cream man named Jarome, one Spanish one to a
cleaning lady in a hotel, and one Vietnamese one for a random  
Vietnamese family! It was pretty sweet.

This week I focused on trying to get better at talking with everyone.
A lot of times I miss opportunities to share with someone because I
feel like it'd be weird to stop them and talk. I could see some
improvement in myself this week, and had many cool experiences that I
wouldn't have if I didn't go out of my comfort zone a little.

Beautiful Independence sunset!

Yesterday I sang and played "Be Still My Soul" in Sacrament meeting with a girl in the ward named Remi Lamb! She's awesome. She has a recording of it that I'll try to get to y'all. But until then I'll send you a version we did just practicing at her house!  (Here is the link)  It went great tho! 
 
I was also able to play the piano in a member's home for our dinner 
message. They have some cute and energetic kids with a 2 second attention span, so we thought it'd help to play a song. They listened through the whole thing!

Ryan Matthews, that awesome guy I've talked about, finally got back to us and let us come over for a lesson. He's a super genuine guy, but he loves his Bible stuff, and is one of the born again fanatics I talked about. When we sat down, he pulled out a bunch of notes he had taken about issues he had with the church that he found on iffy websites. He had a bunch of out of context statements from the journal of flippen discourses that went against one specific verse in the bible.., it was tough. We just testified that we know the Book of Mormon is true, and if he'll read it with an open heart he will see that it doesn't contradict the Bible at all. He's an awesome guy, super nice to us, but he's got a lot of stumbling blocks causing him to be blind to what we're trying to share. Sooooo hopefully he'll give the Book of Mormon a chance, because that book is perfect!

Love y'all, stay schweeet.

Elder Townsend

Sent from Zion