Letter #92 . . . Community ensemble and awesome people!

Hey all!

Sounds like y'all had a sweet week and Stake Conference! Wish I
could've seen it! Guess what? Me and Lauritsen are in a community
Orchestra/Chorus Ensemble that's performing for a Christmas Program in
the community! Our investigator Bill is a violinist in it, and invited
Lauritsen to come play cello! He has very limited time to meet
with us, but we are able to be around him all the time and chat with
him now that we're in this orchestra haha. They have me singing in the
choir. Turns out the songs they're doing are impossibly hard, we are
talking like flight of the bumblebee, flipping impossible level... for
reals. We were kinda shocked, thinking "what did we get ourselves
into" after the first practice hahaha. We will see if we stick with
it. Probably don't have the time to commit to it!!

New Zone shirts and bowling!

Missionaries in the Liberty Ward, November 2017

We met a few awesome people out on the streets this week! One lady Vicky is going through a super rough time with divorce, her son's in jail, etc. and she is the nicest, most open hearted, faithful lady. We came back the next day and raked her leaves, it was awesome... We met a lady named Maria who is very sweet, doesn't speak much English but found the words to explain how grateful she is for our church helping out with all of the natural disasters! We have a ton of awesome med students in their 20's in our ward who all speak Spanish, so we're going to bring them so they can teach her in Spanish!

Al, this non member that comes to church every week is FINALLY on date! He's almost done with the Book of Mormon, and he wants to finish before his baptism! That's on December 16th!

That's all for this week! Love ya.

Tan

Letter #91 . . . Zone Conference and "Kengolfa"! :)

Familia and friends! 

How ya doin? Love ya miss ya lots. It's funny! We've been finding some solid people, then it gets real tough to get in contact with them! I guess that's just how life goes. I'm happy tho! Life is good. 

Zone Conference with the Liberty Zone and half of the Independence Zones . . November 10, 2017

Yayyy I'm happy you met Staheli! He's such a good dude. I loved being with him. I have heard about his girlfriend! Apparently they're getting married the 24th, which is the day after I get back! I still don't know if I feel old enough to be getting married... Craziness! 

Dad sounds busy too! I love hearin him speak. That is so true, he will make ya pee your pants and in tears because you're laughing so hard one minute, then the next minute you're in even more tears crying cause you're feeling the spirit so strong. All in the same minute! It's amazing. My dad's a Superhero! :)

Sounds like everyone's staying busy! Hope Grandma Carolyn's doing alright. I love her lots. Same with Grandpa Mike. Can't wait to see them! Russell M Nelson is coming to your stake conference?! No way! Could you voice record his talk??? I'd die to hear that!!!

Love you lots. 

Tan

 

PS.  Here is a fun video that Tanner a few other missionaries created on this last p-day . . . Playing a new game called "Kengolfa" (instead of Kendama . . . get it?:)) Click here to play!

Letter #90 . . . two cool miracles in the same day!

Hey hey hey!
I've loved my time serving with Elder Lauritsen! He's been one of my
fave companions. We made t-shirts for our Zone and they're sweet!
Claire looked so dang cute in her Halloween costume! She's getting so
big!

Hey, it's the temple! :)

It's been pretty awesome with smartphones and social media. I really think this is going to be the way the church starts to explode as a
whole... we saw some pretty cool miracles in the past few days.  Started Saturday morning. We decided to go play basketball at the church, which is random because we've only done that once or twice this whole transfer. After we were done shooting, a guy named Bill Steele walks in, he was there for an orchestra practice they just so happened to be doing at the Mormon church. He's a super nice baptist guy that believes the Mormon church to be the closest to Christ's original church! Later that night we went and checked out his violin shop where he repairs violins for a living at his house. We were there for a few hours, getting to know him, playing violins and guitars, and teaching him about the restoration of the church! It was such a cool experience.  He's this 73 year old dude with the purest heart ever. What's cool too is that he's been going to his baptist church for his whole life, and that church's preacher just left.  His church vanished because of it, so now he's looking for a new church, and we happened to meet him at this time. He promised us that he'd read the Book of Mormon! Also he gave me a nice guitar, TO KEEP! And he gave Lauritsen a cello!!!

Another amazing thing that happened on THE SAME DAY, we received a
call from a lady named Frances who needed help moving a bookcase. We
went and talked to her and came to find she too had been looking for
another church, and was really touched by all the Mormon friends she's
had over the years. That's what triggered her interest in the church.
She said, before we even taught her the restoration, that she was at
the point where she knew that the Mormon church was where she needed
to be! We taught her about the Restoration. It was one of the coolest
lessons of my whole mission. She looked like she was listening so
intently. Such a cool experience. The mission is awesome. That lady
was in another area tho, so we referred her over to some sister
missionaries in that area.
 
Hahaha Dad's vids had me dying. That dude is hilarious.
 
Love y'all
 
Tan

PS.  Some member's sent me some videos of some of Tanner's music experiences this past week . . .   An original song at a member's house and A little jam session with Elder Lauritsen and members!

Letter #89 . . . thing I'll prob miss the most!

Selfie time with Elder Lauritsen and a few sisters!

Hey all!

We had a cool little experience this week!  We spent a good portion of the morning and afternoon one day leveling out some concrete for a trail. The whole time there was this dude who we got to talk to, who is looking for a new religion, and is the most faithful guy. We are going to start teaching him through FACEBOOK! Sweetest thing ever, he is in a "KISS" tribute band. Hahaha it's the greatest thing ever. We're excited! 

I'm loving being with Elder Lauritsen! That's funny you talked to his mom! We're keeping pretty busy these days. Some fun stuff . . we judged TWO chili cookoffs this week! Sadly I always chose the one that tasted most like canned chili hahahaha. I'm not the greatest judge. Other fun stuff, we're writing songs for all the peeps in the Zone, trying to get em pumped up to do some work! Click here to listen to 1838 at the Jailhouse! and Click here to hear a song for the YSA! Also making Zone t-shirts!

Thing I'll probs miss most on the mission is the opportunity we have to just help others feel of the peace that comes from following Christ. I know that sounds super missionary cheesy but man it's the best. That peace is real. So so so real.

Claire is so dang cute it kills me! Keep sending vids of her talkin' and stuff! Joshie, that's sweet! Hope that team is fun!! And yes the 25th of February will work for my homecoming.

- Elder Townsend