Week #14 . . . "I ain't no scrawny twig no mo!" :)

Hola friends and familia!

I miss you all. The mission is tough. Just trying to live in the
moment is super tough at times, but I'm learning a lot and I know it
will shape me into the person God needs me to be. Whenever I'm having
hard times, I go into my photos, into the album titled
'Clairenebumbuh' and watch a slideshow of her cuteness. She is getting
so big!! Keep sending me lots more videos!! I miss her so much. 

I haven't got the package yet. 

Tanner and Elder Torrico

Well, this week we didn't have a car. We are on a 3 weeks on, 1 week off schedule and it just so happened that this week it was pouring rain most of the time! So yay. So we had to get creative with how to spend our time. Since we try to avoid proselyting in our filthy rich neighborhood cause they call the cops on us and are mostly prideful people who apparently don't need salvation, we did a lot of walking to the northern end of our ward boundary. Haha Sorry that was way rude. We've been walking forty blocks away from our house. We went and tracked more around Matt Clardy, our investigator's house. We didn't have much success. My feet are awful, and after walking on them for a good 5 or so miles, it feels like the muscles in my feet are tearing more and more every step. It doesn't help that Elder Torrico can't fathom what it feels like to not have perfect feet.  He ran a flippin marathon this morning hahahah. Seriously tho. 26.3 miles. So that's been a highlight this week. I have been working out every day. Just been lifting, chest and back workouts, push-ups, sit-ups. I guess you could say I ain't no scrawny twig no mo'... Watch out Parker Walbeck, you're gonna look tiny next to me when I get home. :) 

District Meeting!

Apparently the housing situation isn't as urgent as we thought. So we're taking our time finding an apartment. We got a new bishop yesterday. His name is Brother Ward. Brother Pace (him and his family are my favorite family in the ward) is the first counselor! So that's cool. 

I gave a couple blessings this week to 2 different older ladies we know really well in the hospital. They were both comfort blessings before they went into surgery. I feel so bad for both of them. I also just barely got my driving card in the mail, which means I can drive now! Wahoo!
Elder Torrico is awesome and super fun to be with. Transfers are 
in two weeks. I'm not sure if we'll stay together. We'll see! He's 
funny, he gets all dressed up and takes a selfie every day.  He's awesome. 
He is an awesome teacher and is a great missionary!! Yet he is so trunky
(ready to go home) so that makes things kinda tough. Especially while
you're being trained... When he has 3 months left, and I've been out 3
months, it's kind of overwhelming to see him get stressed about how
much time he has left hahah. 

Usually my favorite part of the week is meeting with the investigators. None of them could this week tho. So I spent a lot of time reading, studying, and highlighting the Book of Mormon. I read all of Mosiah on Saturday, and understood what was going on so much more than the other two times I've read it for some reason. I am highlighting in different colors: doctrine, principles, natural man, unfulfilled prophesy, fulfilled prophecy, missionary work etc. Its been awesome so far. I love that book so much. It is TRUE.

Oh man. I'm so excited for Manda Heaps! SWEDEN?! That's awesome. We should get home the same week, if not same day haha. I've been writing her a bit, She is going to be amazing. Also Jenna I listened to your farewell talk!! So good! I wish I could have been there. You're going to be a great missionary!! L.A will love you I just know it!
 
Love you guys. Church is true. :)

Elder Townsend

Letter #13 . . . a little dry humor, looking for new digs, and doing awesome!

Hey hey!

How's life treating errrrybody?! I miss my amazing family and friends
back in the 801. What's new?! Life is good out here. I feel grateful
to have the opportunity to be a missionary, and bring the peace this
gospel brings so immensely to my life, to others.

I started reading this book called "The Book of Mormon" again for the
third time. Not sure if you've heard of it. Great read, four stars,
highly recommend it. If I were to try and describe it, I would say
it's almost like weirdly, strangely identical to that action thriller,
"hunger gamez, by Jennifer Aniston" except for just the characters and 
story are pretty different at parts and you know when u really start to 
think about it, the plots are not alike in the slightest way, shape, or form. 
So nevermind.

(Take notes kids, that was a prime example of an #EffectiveMetaphor) 👆

... sorry I just felt this urge to say somethin stupid real quick. My
humor is just getting dryer and dryer out here. Hahahaha nah for reals
tho, I read from the introduction all the way to Enos in two days. I'm
highlighting it like crazayyy. Speaking of crazy, It's crazy  how
confused this world is. People have no flippin idea how incredible
that little $2 book is... That's a heck of a deal you're getting for 2
measly little dollar bills, or not even that, for free most of the
time!! What does it include you ask? Oh nothin too big, just the tools
for eternal salvation, the formula for peace and lasting happiness in
this life, and the path we can follow to be able to live with, and
become like our Savior. That book is priceless, and it only costs a
few quarters. Meanwhile, I'm chillin at McDonald's, glance up at the TV, 
and a flippin plastic mop cost $49.99. 🤔👏👏 Then i looked at the tv again
and Fox News was on. Watched for a solid 20 seconds and wanted to go
live under a rock for eternity. Hahaha the Media is so dramatic about
the dumbest things. Glad to be away from all that great stuff. I do
miss Trump tho. Classy guy, four stars, highly recommend him.
#Trump2016

We have an awesome teaching pool right now. We met with the Clardys,
and she was super excited to tell me about her convo with Al Van Der
Beek of ThePianoGuys. (He's an old friend of hers) She had written him
tellin him they were being taught by me and stuff, Al wrote back and
said that she should check out my YouTube vids! Which they did, He 
then wrote this amazing, super long message about his conversion and 
testimony, inviting her to truly put our message to the test with full 
purpose of heart. She read it out loud and we were all tearing up. 
It was amazing. Thank you Al, for following the spirit!! They are loving 
the lessons, loving the Book of Mormon. Such great people. Can 
someone find his email I want to write him. That man is a spiritual legend. 
(The genius behind ThePianoGuys as well) #idol 🙏 It really was a miracle. 
How random is that? God works in the coolest ways!

Our other investigator, Christian Salazar, is amazing. He and Madison
aren't married, and have a cute little boy. We talked about the atonement
and the commandments today. Taught about chastity, which we were
dreading. But oh man! He ate it all up! He was all for it, and was
even testifying of its importance back to us. He loves the church, the
gospel, everything we teach him, you can just see the spirit enlighten
his mind. They came to the first two hours of church, they've been at
sacrament the last four weeks! They're not married and have a kid, but
they will be in August. They asked if we would set up a time they
could meet with the Bishop ASAP! Madison wants to meet one on one with
the bishop first, and then they want to both meet with him. Ahhhh
That's good news... :) 
 
We teach the gospel principles class because the assigned teacher is inactive, 
and usually it's just us teaching this one sweet 70 year old recent convert .. 
but since Madison and Christian were coming today,  we hurried and texted 
a bunch of people in sacrament and had like 15 awesome members come to 
the class and the spirit was super strong. We talked about obedience. It was 
awesome. Both The Clardys and Christian will be baptized soon. I know it.

Life is good. The mission is tough. There are ups and downs, but I'm
learning how to get through anxiety by praying for help. It works. I
promise you.

Turns out the Moores are having family move in, so we are finding
another place to live. 
 
A thought that's been on my mind from my favorite song Saturn by
Sleeping At Last: 
 
"How rare, and beautiful it truly is that we exist." - Ryan O'Neal

Love you all

Elder Townsend

Sent from Zion

Song videos and audio recently sent by Tanner!

Here are a few videos and an audio that Tanner has recently sent home . . . 


Here is Tanner and Elder Amosa playing and singing 
"Nearer My God To Thee" at a District Meeting in April, 2016:
Tanner and Elder Amosa at District Meeting 

Here is a small segment of Tanner playing his EFY song 
at a member's house:
"I Can Do All Things" 

Here is an audio of Tanner and Elder Amosa singing 
"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" in Sacrament Meeting in April, 2016. . . 
accompanied by Sister Moore:
"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" in Sacrament Meeting  

Letter #12 . . . Mother's Day phone call!

Hey!!

So good talking to you guys yesterday!!

This week I finished the Book of Mormon again. Some of the happiest
moments of my life have come as I read that book, especially when I
get to the end. I have felt closer to Christ than I have in a while. Last
time through I would just highlight any cool scripture yellow. I'm now
re-reading it, but this time I'm wanting to highlight, as I've seen
some other people do, by marking specific areas of the gospel in
different colors, like scriptures about faith yellow, fulfilled
prophesy green, Character of Christ Red etc... I can't quite decide
what categories to break it up into. Dad, (or anyone) how do you
effectively highlight The Book of Mormon? Email me if you have any
ideas people! :)

This week was a little tough, not gonna lie. It's amazing how quickly our minds can shift from just feeling incredible after reading the
Book of Mormon, to immediately losing and forgetting those feelings, which then brings stress and anxiety. This is the biggest struggle of my life, and I'm sure, a lot of people's lives. That's why Jeffrey R. Holland's talk hit me so hard this past conference. He described the feeling as 'Post-Illumination affliction.' The purpose of this existence is to first, be converted unto Him, and feel that sweet perfect love that Christ has for us personally, and then second, endure to the end. That enduring means to continually strive, seek, and pray for those feelings again. That enduring means that we will recognize the absence of that spirit in our lives, and truly turn to God to partake of it again and again. I  know in those tough times, by praying to Heavenly Father, the spirit will come once again into our lives, and our character will begin to strengthen and gifts of the spirit will flow more abundantly. 

We met with Christian and Madison. It went awesome! We taught the
gospel of Jesus Christ lesson 3 with 3rd Nephi 11. We read through the
chapter with them, and he began to look at the scriptures like he hadn't
before. He was impacted by the BOM! We taught about baptism, and asked
if he would be baptized. He said yes, but that he wants to learn more
first! :) He's great. He even wants us to send some missionaries to
teach his Mom in California. They've been to church for the last month
and even brought his Mom yesterday!

Shawn's out of town still. We meet with him on May 10th. He is trying
to gain a testimony with his intellect. With proof. Pray his heart
will be softened a bit! We met with the Clardy family Saturday. We
taught The Plan of Salvation.

We had a cool zone training on Friday! My companion is a district
leader so we have to do exchanges with the whole district by the end
of this transfer. We've done a couple of those. They are fun! A big
thing we've been doing lately is working with the members. We extend
them the invitation from Elder Ballard's "Write Down A Date" talk,
where they pick a date, in which they will have someone ready to hear
the gospel discussions from us. It's been great. Hopefully we get some
solid people to teach from it.

After we finish doing BINGO with our oldie friends a couple times a
week, we push the ones in wheelchairs back to their rooms. Last week
I pushed a lady to her room . . this lady was new and I hadn't seen her before.
As I was pushin, she said very very quietly, "Are you from the Church of
Jesus Christ?" I stopped and knelt down and put my ear like 6 inches
away from her mouth to hear what she was saying. I told her who we
were and what we do as missionaries. She told me as she got
emotional, the tenderness in her heart she has for Jesus Christ. She
said that she can't wait for the day where the Lord wraps her up in
his arms and takes her out of this place to be with him. She said she
toured Temple Square once and knew without a doubt the temple was the
Lord's house. It was a super touching moment to see this lady bear her
testimony of the Savior. I assured her that she will indeed have that
moment one day, and that all the physical and mental pains and worries
will cease as he holds us. She smiled and held my hand. Couldn't help
but get emotional, as I saw how much The Lord loves her.

I love this gospel. Love all my friends. Love my family. :)

- Elder Townsend

Tanner on p-day at the church, May 9, 2016

Claire chattin' with her Uncle Tan! :)

He looks happy!

So fun talking to Elder T!

Letter #11 . . . great letter!

Hey hey!!

It's been a great week! We had 4 investigators at church on Sunday.
They all stayed the 3 hours. That is huge for this ward, so that was
awesome! 

Ran into missionary at Walmart that he did splits with in SLC!

I'm almost done reading The Book of Mormon for the second time. I'm in Ether. That book is true. I can promise you that. I promise that if you will read it, with an open heart, you will feel a peace like you've never felt, you will become more patient and loving, you will become happier than you've ever felt, and as you read, ponder, and pray about it, you will feel content. Truly, fully content with life. My weak mind forgets the feelings I feel while reading it, until I open it up again. Continually study it! It will bless you immensely. Jesus Christ has a plan for us all. Joseph Smith was in all reality a prophet of God.

We just met with that Matt Clardy guy again on Saturday, 
(the Methodist guy.) His last name is pronounced like Claire-dee. 
We have casually stopped by a couple times but never had met 
his wife or actually gotten in and sat down and taught a lesson. 
I've been nervous his wife was not going to be as open as he was. 
Turns out she had the same openness he does. If not more so. 
His wife answered the door, and was SO nice and welcoming. 
She is the youngest of 8 kids, in a Catholic family, and is from 
Salt Lake. They're in their mid 40's probably. They finally invited 
us in, and we got chatting, then taught the restoration lesson. 
They loved it!! They have like 5 kids, but only one at home. 
Her boyfriend in high school was Al Van Der Beek of
The Piano Guys!! Haha They are friends and even keep in frequent
contact to this day. She was showing us her text convo they had a bit
ago. Her name is Nikki Clardy. Parker, go tell Al at Church or when
you see him that his friend Nikki's family is being taught by Elder
Townsend! SMALL WORLD.

We taught them the Restoration and bore testimony of the Book of
Mormon. Spirit was strong, they are so golden. They are the elect we
are here to find. They love Jesus Christ and they are eager to read
the Book of Mormon to see if this is the true church. 😍😍 I'm so
excited, because I know they will find their answer because they are
in the perfect mindset to be led by the spirit. Give it a little time,
I really feel like they will be baptized. It's kind of a miracle, we
don't tract that often, but this was a family Amosa and I found by
deciding to drive to the very opposite end of our area, like 50 blocks
away, to get out of our filthy rich area to go tract a bit in the less
prideful wealthy people territory. This family was the VERY first
door we knocked on. I feel this was a tender mercy, and a very rare
circumstance. I feel the Lord gave me a good experience in tracting so
that I will not avoid it throughout my mission! The Lord is giving me
a little extra push and motivation to go find his children ready to
accept this gospel.

On Wednesday we met with Christian Salazar and Madison Alston, the
ones who sent you the pic of me and the baby on my birthday. (They
were at church on Sunday too!) She's been inactive forever, he's not a
member, and we taught the second lesson, they are so awesome. Such
great people. They believe in the restoration and Joseph Smith, and
already have great testimonies. I believe they will be baptized as
well. It may be tougher, because they are not married, just moved in
to a new place together, and aren't getting married until August. :/
Torrico said we could maybe do a Bishop's Ceremony so they'd be
officially married so they could get baptized earlier? There's no
rush. I don't know. They're great tho. :)

Shawn Chestnut, our other investigator is out of town. He really liked
Liberty Jail! We meet with him on the 10th. Pray for him as well!

Tell Parker Thompson's dad thank you for the awesome mail!!! I'm
not getting any emails of friends. Mom, can you work on getting my
email on all of their lists? Ask Parker's dad for the list of all the
missionaries he sent me. I want to get their mail!

I'll call dad's skype account around 10:00 am before church on Sunday.
So 9 o'clock your time .  
 
That's awesome for Jenna! Ahhh that's so exciting!! She is so awesome. 
Have her write me!!

I've been lifting weights and doing push-ups. I'm 147 right now.
Gained like 13 pounds! We usually have meals every night. We do cook,
I cook a lot of ramen. Haha. It's good. Laundry is fine too. :) I've
attached a video of us driving alongside one of the many Lamborghini's
we see all the time in Leawood. Hahaha This place is crazy rich. Also
I've attached me playing bingo with the oldies, giving you a taste of
what I'm doing out here. We do it multiple times a week haha. 
Click here to watch BINGO clip :)

Mom, being at the Assisted Living around these people all the time who 
are slightly losing their minds reminds me of Grandma, in a good way. 
I have great memories of her with her mind, and very sweet ones toward 
the end of her life as well. She has an amazing spirit. She is up there 
cheering me on, and is so proud of us down here. We will see her again  
soon. That is the truth. Think about how amazing that is!! ☺️😘

Love all of you and so excited to talk to all of you. Send me more squishy
Claire videos please. Haha I'm like an addict. I'm needing more and more 
Claire to be satisfied. I loved the piano one!! :)

Elder Townsend