Letter #31 from Tanner . . . mission is an emotional rollercoaster!

Hey hey!

7 months down. Yeah sometimes it seems like a lot shorter.
But it equally as much feels like time goes very slow out here haha!

That Mormon.org thing sounds sweet! How did you get
involved with that? You'll have to download it and send me a vid of
it. I may not even be able to go on Mormon.org... But just send the
link too anyway and I'll try it.

Also, I did get the package mama! Thank you thank you! I guess
you can go ahead and activate that card. Thanks for updating me on
everyone! I'm praying for all of you every day.

This week, God, by a miracle, led us to a lost sheep Richard Karner. So
we went over to this Motel 6 to meet with Steve that we met smoking
outside of there. He wasn't home, but he lives with his father, who
was home, and answered the door. He invited us in, and we had an
absolutely amazing conversation. This man is 61 years old, and
heavyset with a long white beard. Turns out he was baptized into the
church in New Mexico a few years ago, and has read the Book of Mormon
twice. He loves it and knows it's true. He's been waiting to come in
contact with missionaries again because it's been a while. He is
amazing. It was amazing. Here we are on the 3rd floor of this random
hotel with hundreds of rooms, somehow sitting on the bed of this lost
sheep. It was a miracle that we somehow ended up there. Us & Richard
couldn't deny God led us there for a reason. He has health issues,
he's blind in his left eye, and needs to be hooked up to oxygen. He
wants so badly to come back to church because he loved it. So as soon
as he gets portable oxygen, he will be there he says! :) We read and
studied the tree of life with him, and you could see the peace flow
into his eyes.

Tanner in his sister's new Piano Studio t-shirt!

The Sister Missionaries in our Ward called and asked if we could give a blessing to this lady in the Ward. She has been in tons of pain lately, and has tried everything to help, but nothing seemed to work, so she wanted a blessing. The spirit was so strong during the blessing. She told the sisters later that it was the most powerful blessing she's ever had. Good job following the spirit Ellsworth! ;)

We also had an awesome district meeting with my comp as the district leader. It's fun, I get to play lots of piano, I play the prelude and hymns in almost every meeting!

We were able to visit with this woman we've been trying to reach out to for a while. Her name is Madelyn. A couple months ago the missionaries were able to have an amazing lesson on the Plan of Salvation, that she loved, and got super emotional. 4 months ago her 25 year old son was shot during a robbery and passed away tragically, and this past week a man attempted to rob her at gunpoint while she was working her job as a bank teller... So, she's had a lot going on. I know this gospel can give her the peace she needs to get through these challenges in her life.

This week was full of some very tough times. This whole mission is an
emotional roller coaster. But that being said, I felt God's love for
me stronger than I have in a long time. Being on a mission, you start
to see more dramatically what your weaknesses are. Constantly, every
second of every day, you are finding things you need to work on. Satan
is really good at distracting me from feeling the spirit by making me
feel overwhelmed and hopeless with all the things I need to change.
But I've learned, Christ isn't asking us to master all of our weaknesses
over night. He does not want us to run faster than we have strength.
He wants us to take it one thing at a time, and through our faith, his
grace and peace is available to us to help us along the way.

I'm at Alma 15 in the Book of Mormon. That book seriously brings so
much peace.

Love you,

- Elder Townsend


Sent from Zion

PS. Attached is a selfie in my awesome new Piano Place shirt!