Letter #83 . . . Browns and Bodines!

Hey fam!

It's been awesome being able to serve in the Liberty Stake. Liberty Jail is in another ward, but is about 10 minutes away, the temple is in our ward, and is ten minutes away. Our stake center/ the church building we go to is right next to the temple, like a 1 minute walk away. We are double covering 2 wards and the mission home is in our ward. President Love is technically in our ward but he's always going to other wards. 

 

Elder T and Elder SandKamp at Brown's house!

Life has been crazy this last week. Turns out being a zone leader means you do a lot of paperwork and deal with getting people rides places and all that fun stuff. So much of that's been going on, I've hardly met any of the people we're teaching... We're trying to get all caught up tho. We had some cool moments meeting ward members this week! I met Jordan & Lauren Brown! He's the assistant ward mission leader/ gospel principles teacher. They're awesome. We're 3rd Cousins. Haha pretty sweet. She said she's met grandpa before! She just went out to Utah and said her Grandma was talking about Grandpa Mike a bit! I feel bad for her, she's having a big jaw surgery and will be in Utah for over a month!!

Another cool story, we met Jared & April Bodine in our ward. They are a young, 25 year old couple. He's in med school. They're super awesome. He was asking all about me, my life and my mission. About 20 mins into talking to them I realized I'd seen him somewhere. As he was talking, it clicked in my head the days prior to my mission, like a few days before I left, there was a YouTube video (Click here to watch the video) I kept turning back to and watching over and over again to get in the Spirit. It was a video of some missionaries sharing their cool experiences and testimonies of their mission. He was telling a story of his mission in that video. He gave the most powerful story of his experience converting a young punk drug dealer in Mexico. I seriously remember that video vividly, and you know how bad my memory is! That's how much of an impact that video made on me! I cried as I watched that video. It was such an awesome, random thing. I shared with him how that video impacted me, and I couldn't help but get choked up as I told him that and shared my testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was such a tender mercy, one I really needed that night. Such a cool moment. 

I love this gospel. Til' next week! :) 

- Tan

Letter #82 . . . new comp, new area, new calling and Elder Christofferson!

Brief update . . . 

 I left Whitmer, left Elder Fallon, and am now serving with Elder Sandkamp! I'm super excited. He's from Minnesota. He's deaf in his right ear and is an ASL missionary! He's awesome. We're Zone leaders in the Liberty Stake and double covering two areas, North Kansas City Ward and Shoal Creek Valley Ward! Some cool stuff! There are lots of young couples in our area! The temple and mission home are in our area too! 

Elder Christofferson came and spoke to us at an all mission conference! We got to shake his hand! I sang "Lord I Would Follow Thee" with a little missionary choir of about 16 people at the conference! Elder Christofferson is such a spiritual giant. I loved that conference. I loved his testimony of the Book of Mormon. That's probably what stood out the most was his emphasis he put on the Book of Mormon. He said if that is true, it's all true, and that we don't need to do the convincing, because the Book of Mormon will do it and stand all on its own... Got to see the new mission home! It used to be in Raytown, now it's in Liberty! 

I'm in 3rd Nephi 23 in my BOM study. Lovin it!

- Elder Townsend 

New comp, Elder Sandkamp from Minnesota

All zone conference with Elder Christofferson!

Saying goodbye to Bruce Dunlop . . . helped him on his farm!

Saying goodbye to the Bridges . . . "most amazing people ever!"

Bishop Dial

Letter #81 . . . comforting assurance has come line upon line!

This week has been good! I'm guessing I'll probably be leaving this
week, but I'm not sure! Just cause I've never stayed in an area more
than 4 and a half months! But I don't know . . . we'll see!

His trainer, Elder Amosa, sent him this cool tie!

Saturday we had the David Whitmer family reunion/community celebration of his life here in Richmond!! It was pretty awesome! Most of David's
descendants are not LDS. A lot of them spoke and it was amazing to hear of their testimonies that the Book of Mormon is true, even tho they aren't members of the church!! A lot of the family was under the impression coming in that our church taught against David Whitmer. But judging by the fact that our Ward was named, "The Whitmer Ward" I don't think that's the case. All their minds were changed and their hearts were softened toward us. :) Me and Elder Fallon gave the family a tour of the "Mormon Room" in the Ray County Museum, which displays the significance of the role that David Whitmer played in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and in the early church. Although David Whitmer left the church because of disagreements with Joseph Smith, he stood true to the fact up to death that he saw the angel Moroni with his own eyes that showed him and the other 3 witnesses the Plates. David's 
descendants in the tour were pretty impressed by 
that, and a few of them took Book of Mormons to read!

This week I have felt the Spirit strong, and my conviction of the reality of Jesus Christ & the reality of His Restored Gospel has been
strengthened. I feel such a comforting assurance these days. That feeling hasn't come suddenly, but slowly, line upon line! It's happened as I've humbled myself more and more, and grown more and more in my faith in Christ. This morning I studied the testimonies of the Book of Mormon of early church converts. It was so cool reading about these people whose lives were changed by reading it, as mine was. They dropped everything and dedicated their time, talents, and everything to their God. I was humbly amazed reading of the sacrifices of those saints! It may seem like a sacrifice, but it's really not... How amazing the peace that comes to a man, in this often lonely and dreary world, who studies the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!? How was I so lucky to have ended up born into the situation I was, with the amazing people I've been surrounded by? How did I get lucky enough to have a peace that comes from knowing that God loves me and has a plan for me, and has given me the path to happiness in this life and in the life to come?! How amazing is it to know that the all powerful Heavenly Father loves me enough to never give up on me, and continually forgives me of my persistent weaknesses! To know that I don't need to define myself by my weaknesses, but by my strengths!

Love y'all!

- Elder Townsend
 

Broken glasses :(

Letter #80 . . . temple session and time is flying!

Hey y'all!

It's only been a few days since my last email! Nothing really huge happened! Going to the temple last Wednesday was my highlight. I got to do a session and do sealings for the first time! Pretty awesome! I love the temple so much.

With Barbie!

We're going to have to push Bob's baptism date back a few weeks. He needs to come to church twice and he hasn't been able to yet. His health is getting better and better! He says he feels great!
 
I bet Brady nailed it in his homecoming! Send me a recording if you can find one, will ya? :) 

Time is flying too fast here. I'm going to enjoy every moment I have left! :)

Love,
Elder Townsend

Everyone is into doTerra! 

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Letter #79 . . . ECLIPSE and 18 months!

Familia and friends!

Things are good here in the Whitmer Ward with Elder Fallon! I really
love this Ward, and don't want to leave! Transfers are on the 7th of
September, hopefully I stay!

Eclipse, 2017

That's awesome that Luke's home! Miss all those guys. Can't wait to see em. Thanks for the update mama with everyone! 

August 21st . . . Eclipse watching party

Some highlights of the week: We went to the temple with Barbie and did baptisms for her first time! She said she liked it. There was a cool Spirit there. There always is! We were able to be witnesses and do the 
confirmations for her too. I love Barbie so much. Pray for her, she's going through some challenges with the family...
Went to the Temple later in the week and did a session with the Bridges, I hadn't done a session for months!

Brought Cheyanne and Nicolas Gunn to the Visitors Center! They are the cutest little family. Their two kids are adorable. The VC sisters took us through the "God's Plan" tour with them. They're solid! I feel she will be baptized soon.

Hit my 18 month mark... that's equivalent to having two babies FYI :)

Bob Gordon is currently on date for the 9th of September! Sheri wants to continue reading and praying before she decides to be baptized. We had an awesome lesson with Bob and Sheri! They told us about a phone call they just had with Bob's sister, who happens to be active in the LDS faith, and lives out of state. She told the Gordon's she has been praying for them to be able to have some help in their lives to get through the burden of possibly losing  Bob to cancer. As Bob's sister told the Sheri Gordon's about that prayer,  Sheri started to cry, and let her know, "You'll never believe this, but a few weeks back, some MORMON missionaries showed up and gave us a blessing of healing, andcame back a couple times with their Ward to help out on the farm...and Bob is almost cancer free!!" They both cried and cried on the phone she said, God answered her prayer through other people!! Just so happens that 'those people' were the Mormons who just so happened to have the fullness of the gospel, to bring the fullness of happiness
and truth into their life. God loves his children ladies and gents. ;)

ECLIPSE NEWS. Haha this Eclipse has brought so much madness to Missouri. It was awesome, don't get me wrong. The whole sky turning dark for two minutes and all.. super beautiful. It's just sad how overhyped it was. We went and helped out a person who was expecting thousands of people to show up to watch on their property because they were in the prime spot of Lathrop Missouri... NASA was even in Lathrop!! They bought PALETTES AND PALLETES OF soda, chips, and just about everything else. They were expecting it to be a huge success. But only like 200 people came, and they ended up 100,000 dollars in the hole. :/ Here are a few videos that Tanner sent from watching the eclipse . . . #1 "Take a little gander up there!", 
#2 Sped up version of the eclipse! 
 
President and Sister Love gave their first Zone conference! It was one of my faves of my whole mission. They focused on using our talents to make creative ways to find new investigators. A quote that they said, that I think applies to everything in life. It's been on my mind all day. "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." If you're not getting the result you want in your life, CHANGE THINGS UP, do something different than you have in the past! :)

First zone conference with President and Sister Love

Love y'all.

- Elder Townsend
 
PS.  Here is one more video Tanner sent of him driving . . . probably right after a big storm.  Driving after a storm  , , , , hope he didn't ruin the car.  :)

Letter #78 . . . dodgeball with the youth and darts with the old folks!

Hey fam! 

Miss ya. Thinks are good out here! Shout out to Parker for
killin it with Full time filmmaker. Word around town is that things
are growing like crazy! He's at over 100k YouTube subscribers, and is
shooting to have 250k by the time I'm home!! Shoutout to Lex for being
the mama to the cutest little baby Kirt. (Kira) :) Also, I heard
Parker Thompson and Jaydra got engaged!! That's so awesome. I love
both of them!

Some highlights of the week: we had a lesson with Cheyenne and Nic! Nic is a less active member, Cheyenne is not a member, and we've been teaching her! Normally it's super chaotic with the kids in their house, but this time, the kids were just calm enough to have the parents focus on us the whole time. We taught the simplest restoration lesson I've ever taught. The spirit was very strong. We're going to the Visitor Center with them tomorrow.

We've been reading the Book of Mormon with Barbie a few times a week with her at her work. Her family is super against her joining the church. It's been hard for her, but her faith is amazing, she's pushing through all the persecution she's facing. We're going to go to the temple Wednesday with Barbie! That'll be super cool. Ryan, the other guy who was just baptized is ready to go to the temple as well.

We are working with this girl named Jessica, her husband is a member, they both have a smoking problem. Jessica has just recently quit smoking, and has been cigarette free for a month!! She's been coming to church, and asked if we could teach her the lessons so she could be baptized in the next month or two!! happy happy happy!

We threw darts with the residents at Barbies work! :) Haha flippen
awesome huh? We also had our Missionary youth activity, which was
awesome this week. We had like 30 people show up to play dodgeball. We
had a few non members there as well. Good times!

Arthur Embry is living in Orem now!! I told him to go visit you guys. I think he'd like to come to the MTC!! I'll tell him! You should call him.
 
Love you all,
- Elder Townsend

Letter #77 . . . Rain, Arthur, Barbie, interviews and BOM!

Hey fam bam! 

Love and miss y'all. Thanks for the letter mom, loved it. We had one of the few rainstorms of the summer this past couple days! It's been awesome. It's felt nice, and I love the rain. Totally beats the hot weather. 

In Jail at the Ray County Museum

Cool stuff from the week, Arthur the country singing dude who's my best pal is moving to Provo tomorrow! Had another Bingo Meet and Greet with all the new missionaries in our zone and all the cute ol' residents at Barbie's work. Had a Bible study, Arthur and I jammed out afterward for everyone! 

We had Interviews with President and Sister Love this week! Love them lots. 

Eclipse glasses!

So it's pretty sweet. I don't know if you all have heard about the eclipse that's happening on the 21st of this month, but it's like a once in a lifetime thing, the moon is going to go in front of the sun and the sky is going to turn dark... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY... for like 3 minutes! It's gonna be sweet. We have some special glasses to see it and everything. :) 

This week we went to the visitors center with Barbie in Independence. We had taken her there for a tour on the top floor, but we took her on a tour of the bottom floor, which is basically just learning about the history of the saints being kicked out of Missouri. It was awesome. We've started reading the Book of Mormon with her a few times a week at member's houses because her husband does not like her reading it at home.

I'm in Helaman 15 of the Book of Mormon by the way. Love it. These last couple chapters have been amazing. I'll send some more pics as soon as I can! Love ya!

 

Tan