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

Letter #10 . . . new comp this week!

Hey all! 

New companion, Elder Torrico

 My new companion is awesome! He has been out 20 months, he was a zone leader for a few transfers, and is now the district leader. He went home midway through to get his gall bladder removed. He is super chill, smart, and sensitive. He's from Layton. His dad's from Bolivia tho. He was in choir! He's a pretty good singer. 

Saying goodbye to Elder Amosa

Today I was playing piano for the district and for some of the zone! They were just throwin' out songs. It was fun.

Sounds like the fam is doing good! I miss all of you. Things are good lately. Elder Torrico has worked a lot with the members during his mission. We have been filling our free time teaching members about the 'Pick A Date' talk by Elder Ballard. The members choose a date to have someone ready for us to teach. So we're hoping we can start getting some solid investigators through that.
We went to Liberty Jail with Shawn Chestnut, our investigator, and his wife. It was super cool. The Brights also came. There was a really cool spirit there.
 
We've noticed the ward is getting more excited about missionary work. It's awesome!

Love ya all,
Elder Townsend

Last day as companions, April 21, 2016

First Sunday with Elder Torrico, April 24, 2016

Liberty Jail with Shawn, his wife, and the Brights

Letter #9 from Elder Tan Man in Kansas . . . a funeral?

Hey all!

I've been out here two months. It seems like just about two months
haha. Not longer or shorter.

Elder Townsend and Elder Amosa

Transfers are this week. We don't know who is going where until Thursday tho. I hope I stay with Elder Amosa another transfer just cause we get along well, and have fun along the way. 

Most of the work is less actives, or referrals, a lot of faulty referrals. This area is really hard. It's known as the hardest area in the mission. And Sister Moore said it teaches missionaries patience, long suffering etc. haha.

We had an awesome lesson with Shawn last week, our best one yet. We did a lot of testifying, which brought the spirit a lot. He is getting to the point where he can say that this is the true church. We are taking it slow and steady with him. I'll let you know how things go with him. My favorite thing to do out here is have a spirit filled lesson with someone, and see the gospel changing them, and seeing someone develop a testimony of the perfect Book of Mormon. The most dreadful part to get through are the times when we aren't 
working as hard as we should be. Then I start feeling anxious 
about how long I'm going to be out here.

District lunch at the Moore's

We have district meetings every Wednesday. Me and Amosa have done a few musical numbers for those. Our district leader is leaving in a few days to go home, so we had a funeral for him. Hahah I'll send you the
video. There are some cool people out here, that pic u saw was of some of them in our district, and our district leader eating at our place.
 
President and Sister Vest are just nice great people. He knows I play music, and always is encouraging me to sing in sacrament. WHICH WE DID YESTERDAY! We sang "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go". I'll attach the
video. Sister Moore played the piano.

"Funeral" for Elder Midgley going home this week!

I'll let you know when I need more clothes, I'm good for now. Please send lots more Claire videos. Love you lots.
 
The sacrament singing is too long to send, but I know how. I will send it to you this week.
 
- Tan

PS. Click here for Video of funeral services for Elder Midgley going home! :)

Leawood, Kansas

Short letter #8 . . . and video singing a hymn!

Hi, this is Tanner's Mom . . . we received a very short, 10 line email from Tanner today, basically just commenting on my letter and answering a few questions. He apologized and said "sorry for the short letter but I don't have much time today! Love you all!"

He said they have taught their investigator Shawn "a few more times and he is progressing in every way. But when we bring up baptism, he says he isn't ready to denounce his baptism in his other church. We'll see how it goes!

Tanner also said he went to eat at Laura McMaster Neiderhauser's again, a gal we went to high school with, and it looks like he had a grand old time finding old photos of Matt and I from our yearbooks at her house! ☺️

Here is a fun little video Tanner sent of him and his comp, Elder Amosa, singing "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go". Click on the link just below and enjoy! 

Video of Tanner and Elder Amosa singing a hymn! 

"I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" 

Tanner's zone bein' crazy . . .

And serious!

 

Week #7 . . . first General Conference in the field!

April 4, 2106
 
Hey All!

Pretty jealous you all are in St. George without me. Don't have too much fun ....☺️ hope all is well and everyone's happy. I miss everyone.

Elder Amosa and Tanner singing for Bishop Schow and family

Me and Elder Amosa sing a hymn everyday we have dinner with the members as part of our spiritual message. My go to message to share
has been the Testimony of The Book of Mormon by Jeffrey R. Holland Mormon message. It is so powerful. One of my favorite Mormon Messages.

We had our meetings with President and Sister Vest last week. They went great. I love them.

We got a new investigator named Shawn Chestnut. His wife is a member, she was the one I talked about toward the beginning of the month in my journal entry about the lady that came up to me in the hall after my testimony. This guy is rare, he is so humble, and the best thing is, the more content and info you give him, the stronger his testimony gets. He is a sponge. He read the Book of Mormon on his own before we ever met him, loves it, and agreed to take the discussions. Our ward mission leader set that all up. We did the first lesson last week, and we have another one tomorrow. He is also is reading two Joseph Smith Biographies, and according to his wife, can't stop talking about how cool Joseph Smith is. He also watched conference yesterday!☺️

Lunch between Saturday conference sessions?

Conference was really good. There were a ton of good talks. Uchtdorf, Mervyn Arnold, Steven Owen, Eyring, and many many more. I really liked the topics this year. My favorite was Holland. I love every apostle equally. Yet Jeffrey R. Holland has a keen understanding and different level of sensitivity to the specific, complicated emotions and feelings toward the gospel that a lot of members of the church have. His talks always address and ease my complicated mind more than anyone else. His talk was one of the most vulnerable, sensitive, simple, and powerful talks I've ever heard. It's been on my mind since, and addressed so many things I have been thinking about. Dad, there were a lot of mind-body-spirit talks this conference you probably loved. I like how Holland talked about how we get back into our minds so easily after spiritual highs. The advice, and comfort he gave to help was awesome. "The number one law of heaven is to love God with all your heart, might, and strength. But the number one TRUTH we tend to forget is God loves US with all HIS heart, might, and strength always, and he wants you to be happy."

Keep reading the Book of Mormon. Love you all.

- Elder Townsend