Week #6 . . . havin' a grand ol' time!

Dear All,

I'm having a grand ol' time out here. The weather is crazy. One minute it's
snowing, next minute perfect weather. It's been pretty rainy lately
tho. I've been in Leawood Kansas the whole time. I don't know if you
remember but right before I opened my call, I said, "I just don't want
to go somewhere lame like Kansas." I then opened it and was pleased to
be in the Missouri Mission. Not Kansas! But I somehow ended up in
Kansas hahahaha 😂 It's okay tho. The area I'm in is just like Draper.
I feel weird cause I have friends in the Philippines, in Russia, in
Argentina, Mexico, all living in pretty crappy living situations. I'm
in the basement of a multi million dollar home. I'm lucky. But my
friends in those countries are surrounded by humble people, and have
had baptisms because the people in their poorer areas are very
accepting of the gospel. They have lots of success with their message.
My area is full of lots of prideful people who are not interested in
our message. People have called the cops in our neighborhood on past
missionaries for "soliciting." Just about everyone pulls the "I'm a
strong Catholic" excuse. When they really only go to church maybe once a year.
I'll probably be in the area at least another transfer so I'll make
the best of it!  

There are lots of times when I feel anxious. Not about being gone or
living on my own or anything, but just about meeting new people, and
seeing how weird missionaries look to the rest of the world. Knocking
on strangers doors and trying to convey in 20 seconds, the incredible
gospel we have is tough. Most people don't last ten seconds before
closing the door, and it's tough cause I can see things from their
perspective. Two smiley 19 year olds in suits are kind of a turn off,
and are pretty intimidating. We look like the freaking FBI.
 
I'm slowly learning that I need to learn to take advantage of every
moment I have here. To go give it my all and not be disappointed by
strangers slamming doors in our face. It's my sensitivity that makes
that so tough. But we just found a guy named Matt, who is a Methodist,
and is so open to the gospel. It makes it all worth it.
I feel like I'm the same, in every way, haven't changed very much. but
one thing I'm starting to do is really take advantage of Prayer. It's
so easy to take it for granted, but it is real, he listens to us! I
love that.
 
I'm reading the Book of Mormon again, I just finished Alma. I'm
picking up things I didn't notice the first time. Y'all need to read.
It brings people so close to Christ. The Book of Mormon is amazing. It
calms all anxiety when I study it. You should totally go read Alma
again. It's my fave part of the BOM. Alma 1-35. All of it is
incredible. I also read 130 pages of Jesus the Christ. Loving it.

- Tan

Week #5 . . . It's a roller coaster out there!

Hey Everybody! 

I'm doing alright! This week was good. We got two new investigators!

How does one month feel? Well ... it feels like I got a lot of months left! Haha the weeks go by pretty fast tho. 

Cutest little gal in their ward who "wanted a pic" !

I've been getting closer to God everyday. I've been reading a lot of Book of Mormon lately. I'm at Alma 29. Alma is amazing. That book is so true. It amazes me more and more every time I read it. The hardest times here (and there are a lot of hard times) are when the spirit isn't with me. I get down on myself, I wonder what I'm doing out here. Then I get back in the spirit, and feel peaceful with everything, immediately. It's a flippin roller coaster. Up and down spiritually every day. Yet I've seen that the things I have the strongest testimonies about are the things that I'm so bad at. Because I empathize with people who are the same way. Every time I share a message, I testify all we need to do is try to just get back in the spirit. I'm so bad at it, so I become good at understanding it. So many people out here struggle with their testimonies, and get shaken up by the littlest things. Yet they haven't read the Book of Mormon with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Which would immediately humble them like they've never been humbled. I would not be here if this church didn't have the Book of Mormon. If I was a Catholic, I wouldn't give two years to a my church because it's just a 'good' organization. I wouldn't be a Mormon missionary if there was no Book of Mormon. Although I may just because I love God, the Book of Mormon has created and built my love for God. This gospel is real. 100% real. So I am here, and am staying. For the Savior! Nobody else.

Love, 

Elder Townsend

Week #4 in the mission . . Birthday week!

"Oh Hey Mom!"(In funny Hey mom voice and face I do) 

Thank you so much for the packages!!! My birthday was great! I forgot about it until that morning when Sister (I think he meant to say Sister Moore here) came down and gave me a package. Haha. Yeah I got both of them. (I only sent one package, so not sure what other package he is referring here?) Thanks so much! The emails made my day. Also I hung up the pic of Grandma on my wall. :) (I told him Grandma Merrilee is his guardian angel while he is on his mission!)

Things are good. We are teaching that family that sent you the baby pic. She is an inactive member, and he isn't a member. It's going well. Haha yeah everyone is like lemme take a pic of you so I can send it to your mom!! It's funny. 

We heard from Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Twelve. It was cool. We all got to shake his hand. On his way out we were all standing up in respect, and he was just waving to everyone. I was sitting right next to the door on the end of the row. As he passed me, he grabbed my arm, patted my back and winked at me. No big deal. I'm never washing my body again.

Conference hearing Elder Stevenson speak, March 12th

Miss all you guys. Send pics of all my bros together, I wanna see how big everyone is getting. How are they liking school, student gov? Little boys, send me the details on the Warriors record and anything crazy Steph is doing. Also let me know when Spence gets more than peach fuzz under his arms, and when his voice starts to drop....

Ahhhh that vid you sent me of Claire ... I have watched it 100 times. Send me all the cute ones from the past, and all future new cute ones. Those things get me through the day!! For sure just send the video file through email, so I can download it straight from there, not a YouTube link. We can't get on YouTube here. 

This is Tanner's response when I asked him how it was going having to do all his own wash and cooking and cleaning etc, and how he was getting along with his trainer . . . 

It's good. Easy. Yeah I've been switching out everything but my suit... I'll start wearing the other one. A lot of times I'll accidentally wake up like 30 minutes late, and he's already dressed and everything. He's too nice to wake me up 'early.' Haha I'll get better at that. Elder Amosa is an awesome missionary, and he's exactly obedient, but is still able to be himself. You CAN be obedient without having a stick up your butt ladies and gents!! 🏻

In Tanner's apartment with a few more elders!

I heard the family that lives upstairs had a missionary come home. What is he like?  

His name is Landon Moore. He is a stud. He's a lot like Jake. He had an awesome homecoming talk. It was his testimony of obedience. As he and the apostle both talked about that, I am slowly starting to gain a true testimony of obedience. That is something I didn't have before coming out here, but I'm slowly learning it here. 

Yesterday my testimony of Joseph Smith grew so much. Nothing big happened but I just got reading the testimonies of Joseph Smith from past prophets, and I read the essay on the church website of how the Book of Mormon was translated, and I also read Joseph Smith history yesterday. I just did a lot of thinking about it. It really is such a miracle. It is so true, and that story is an example of how real and powerful prayer can be. Prayer is so easy to take for granted. 

We hear Parker, the 17 year old playing piano every night. He's super good. I go up there every once in a while and sit and listen to him and talk to their awesome family. Yeah I am enjoying having a nice place to stay, but at the same time, the missionaries throughout the mission all claim we are in the hardest area. There are lots of doctors and lawyers here, and lots of hard hearts in these rich parts of town. We can't even knock doors in any of the neighborhoods near our house because people will, and have, called the cops on missionaries. But I don't let anyone's opinion shape mine. There are people everywhere that need the gospel ya know?!?! I will probably be here another transfer with Elder Amosa by the way, (so I hear...)

With recently returned missionary, Elder Hamrick

!

Well I hadn't heard from many people until those birthday emails. Lately I've heard from Chandler and Coleman and some friends, and I was super excited to hear from Manda Heaps too!! She's so sweet to everyone. Miss her! She's gonna be a great missionary. 

There haven't been many downers! Me and Elder Amosa get along great. We sing lots of songs and sing glorious harmonies while we are going to sleep, while we eat, while we vacuum, while we ride our bikes, etc. (We switch off with bikes and a car every week) Hahahaha His voice is seriously perfect, most the time I just stay quiet and listen, it's so beautiful. We are going to put together a hymn to sing soon.🏻

Thanks and love you. Just send infinity more videos of Claire please.

Love you so much! 

- Elder Tan Man 

Great first week in Kansas! #3

March 7th, 2016 . . . . First letter from the Mission Field . . . Leawood, Kansas . . . 

Elder Amosa, Tan, Laura and Scott Neiderhauser

Hey All!
Things are great here. Elder Amosa and I get along so well. He has an amazing voice!! Like for reals amazing... We are in the Redbridge Ward in Leawood, Kansas. The house we are staying in is the nicest in the mission field. It's a multi million dollar house ... We're so lucky haha. We live in the basement. There's a 78 inch flat screen down there. The Moore's are the family we are staying with. They have a 17 year old who is a lot like I was -- kind of going through a hard stage when it comes to going to church and stuff. He is super good at piano too. I just sit and listen to him and we get along.

Mission office on the day of arrival?

Also, we went to the Neiderhausers for dinner, and the mother went to Highland High, and was in your stake growing up, Mom! She freaked out when she heard I was Matt and Mardi's son. I'll send a pic. 

Sunday was really cool. The bishop had me share my testimony in Sacrament. I basically just gave a short version of my farewell talk. It was really cool. A lady came up to me in the hall and broke down, saying how her son has fallen away from the church, and my testimony struck a chord with her. I talked to her for probably ten minutes and comforted her about her inactive husband and son, telling her their conversion will happen in the Lord's time. 

Elder Amosa has been here in Leawood for 6 months, and I've been lucky enough to to see a couple cool experiences already that he hasn't seen his whole mission. It's been great here.

Tanner and trainer, Elder Amosa at their new abode

The iPads are great. We don't ever have wifi besides being in a restaurant or a church tho. I've only played the Moore's piano twice. We have gone to the relief society room and jammed a couple times tho. Elder Amosa is so chill. It's been great. Mom, I would just send my package to where we are living. I hear if u send it to the office it'll take a lot longer.

Brenden Bytheway is visiting his bro here! We are meeting up for dinner tonight. So awesome!! (photos below)

That's awesome to hear about dad and the boys. Sounds like a busy time. Love and miss all of you!! 

Ahhhh Claire looks so big!! I miss her squishy face. Send me so many pics and cute vids!

XOXOXO

Elder Townsend

I'm assuming this is the AP's with the newbies!

 

At Applebees with Brenden, March 7, 2016