April 24, 2017

Monday- The day we went to go see Elder Nelson. It was so great. But man the days we have to travel like that become the longest days of my life. So exhausting, but I guess you could say spiritually rewarding

Tuesday- Today I had to do divisions and go to another area. We had a pretty great day. Nothing too crazy happened. I was with an Elder Markle from Texas. It was super cool and funny because he is super close to a girl that grew up with him in his ward and that girl is one of my super close friends from BYU. The world of mormons is way too small sometimes.

Wednesday- Luckily I was back in my area today and we were able to get a lot done. Today I realized that in this new ward I am in every member family has this weird obsessions with Star Wars haha. It is kinda freaking me out. Before I came here I had never even heard anyone talk about it before. The member family we ate with today almost started to cry when I told them I hadn't seen the last two movies that came out...

Thursday- Today was a pretty great way. We visited with a lot of people and did a lot of walking... but I guess that is just everyday haha... It is fun being out in the streets so much because people just say the weirdest things sometimes. It is too entertaining. At night tonight it was a little hectic though because all missionaries when we get back home to our apartments at night are always suppose to send a message or call to let people know we got home safe. But tonight we couldn't contact a few missionaries because their phones weren't working but we didn't know that so yeah you can imagine the slight craziness of everything.

Friday- Today I had to do divisions again and go to another area. We had a good day. The only thing is every time I have to travel like this I always forget my coat and I seriously get so cold out in the street at night. My body just really struggles handling the cold. Its pretty bad.

Saturday- Today was a great day because we had the best lunch every with the sweetest old member lady!! Everything she made was seriously so good!!! She even made us lemon pie! It was super cute because she made all four of us missionaries promise we would only marry people that know how to cook haha 

Sunday- The ward I am in is so funny. In the Elders quorum today for various reasons I had to bite my tongue from laughing so hard. It was just a huge mix of a blind teacher, apostasy, crazy recent converts, angry less active members, false doctrine, and this crazy guy that would not stop trying to sneak tithing envelopes into my bag haha. Man I love this ward so much haha.... At night today though things got a little crazy because we were in the street of a more sketchy part of our area and the power went off. Things probably got more spooky than my grandmas house at Halloween. Shouting, weird noises, people riding horses, etc... The things I would do to have to have camera in the street.

Well I hope everyone has a great week

Elder Townsend

I wasn't going to send this video from a few months back when I went to the zoo but I feel bad because I don't have very many pictures to send this week so...

April 17, 2017

It was an awesome first week here in my new area Arco Irsis! 

So just to give a few details of my new area;

-I am living in an apartment of 4 missionaries

-The ward here seems great. They have an attendance of about 100 each Sunday but there are about 700 members in the directory

- We have lunch about every day with members! 

-My new companion is named Elder Cobb and he is from Utah

Both my new companion and I don't know the area so this week we had sooooo much learning to do. It was fantastic. We met so many people!

Yeah so this area... how do I put this... is not a place I would bring my family or loved ones to to visit and come see. If that makes sense? haha. I guess you can say Im not in Kansas anymore.

But its great because with my area being a lot more humble and sketchy the missionary work here is awesome! I feel like Moses walking through the streets down here!!! I can seriously almost smooth talk my way into entering any house I want haha... but no, I don't do that haha.... 

This area is not a bike area so I am glad to be back walking. And oh boy did we walk this week haha. We had so much to do and so many people to meet we just walked for hours and hours getting to everyone and getting things organized. We didn't even really have time to sit down and teach.

So basically this week was a pretty big blur. But some pretty crazy stuff happened today... and for that reason I am emailing a little later than usual today...

Last night we had to travel to the offices of our mission. We got there and I then had to travel again to the apartment of one of my old areas Santos Lugares! It was seriously so cool to go back there! It was already late when I got there though so we couldn't go out and say hi to anyone:( but anyway I spent the night there sleeping on the floor and then we got up super early today in the morning and headed to the a chapel in the city center of buenos aires because THE APOSTLE ELDER NELSON AND HIS WIFE CAME TO TALK TO MY MISSION!!!! it was super awesome! I got to shake both of their hands!!! He even looked at me and asked, ´how's it going Elder Townsend?´!!! I was kinda freaked out at first but then I realized I was wearing a my name tag like always haha. But anyways that was a super special experience and we just barely got back to our area a few hours ago. It has been a super great day!!

Yeah so that has been my week! This next week should be pretty great to. I have already got so many stories to tell from this area. Being a missionary is an adventure haha

I hope everyone enjoys the spring!!!

April 10, 2017

Yeah so it was a pretty interesting week. But first off...

TRANSFERS! SO I am leaving this area and headed back to the zone of Marcos Paz to open an area called Arco Iris. I am pretty excited because I have heard great things about the work there but I have also heard it is very... hood-ish haha Ill just say I am sure a lot of good stories will come from my time there...

Monday-  So some things happened in the night and its a long story but basically we ended up going into the hospital here with a member to quickly see another member lady that is sick. Yeah so that was my first time in a hospital here and lets just say I struggled to sleep later that night haha. I felt like I was in a apocalyptic movie. 

Tuesday- Today I did divisions! It was a super great day. For lunch as a group of missionaries we went to a pizza buffet!! I still haven't decided if I like the pizza here more or the pizza in the sates. I guess I just don't really like pizza all that much in general but whatever haha. 

Wednesday- Today we did some traveling and a ton of finding! It was awesome! We got a lot done. The highlight of the day was definitely during a contact I got nailed in the head by a soccer ball some kids kicked haha.

Thursday- SO here is where my week got interesting... In the morning I started to feel kinda funny but it was nothing that called my attention too much. But then we had lunch with some members and on our walk back to our apartment to study I was kinda struggling and I guess you could say I almost fainted. So we finally got home and felt like my body was shutting down in a way so I checked my temperature and it was 104 degrees. Yeah so that seemed pretty high to me so we had to call our mission nurse (who is just a young, girl missionary assigned to be a nurse that received a medical degree). So the rest of the day I was just suffering in bed and my companion was doing everything the nurse told him to do.

Friday- We stayed inside all day. It was awful and painful. I think I had the nurse pretty nervous and worried haha. But man there was no way I was going to let her send me to a hospital, especially after seeing the one I saw on Monday haha...Oh and to top things off, I embarrassed myself big time haha. So I was talking with the nurse on the phone and at the end of the conversation I asked, ¨so I will just call you tonight?¨, then there was a pause, and without even thinking I muttered and thought out-loud ¨man, it´s been a really long time since I have said that to a girl¨.... Super unprofessional and not ok. At least the nurse is chill and just thought it was funny.

Saturday- Same thing but I started to feel better at the end of the day

Sunday- I was able to go to church today!!! We also did some proselyting at night! The Lord truly does work miracles because I thought I was done for it haha. Definitely was a combination of medication and priesthood blessing haha

Well so now I am doing pretty well! But man it was a long, exhausting week.

I hope my family doesnt freak out about me telling all this. Normally I dont share stuff like this, and I actually wasnt planning to write about it today, but I literally had nothing else to write about this week haha... but dont worry mom, I am fine now:)

I hope everyone has a great week!

April 3, 2017

It was a pretty decent week!

Monday- Living in an apartment of 4 is always entertaining on P-days haha. In our apartment right now we are all missionaries who have a little more time on the mission. After all four of us write home its basically just a comedy show sharing about what is going on back home; friends´s wedding announcements, pop culture we don't understand, weird emails from old friends etc... Proselyting in the night though was a total bummer because we got a text at 6:45 about our lesson plans at 7:00 falling through... The constant struggle. Frustration

Tuesday- Today I did divisions and went to another area. We had a pretty great day! We basically just taught a bunch of young single moms haha. I don't understand what was going on but today for some reason the missionary I was with and I got so many cheek kisses. SO many. I will explain: Instead of giving handshakes down here, a lot of times they will give a kiss on the cheek that shows a little more closeness and friendship. As missionaries we can accept cheek kisses from guys (yes, I know, gross) but we are suppose to avoid as much as possible cheek kisses from women, especially younger women... But like seriously every girl we talked to today sneak attacked us! They would just like come up from behind and grab our faces eliminating any chance of escape! So frustrating!!!

Wednesday- Today we had a training so that was pretty awesome! Everyone in our zone came to our chapel so we were put in charge of getting lunch organized for about the 30 missionaries that were suppose to come. ahhh it was very enjoyable to have so much power haha. With the money the offices gave us we ordered these huge sandwiches that were literally a piece of heaven. And of course after the meeting there were a few left over so we took care of them:)

Thursday- Today we taught Laura! She is doing so well. It is a struggle because she is gaining such a strong testimony but she works on the weekends in a resort spa in the center of Buenos Aires so she can't always come to church. It is so great though because she totally she realizes she is not happy there and wants to change jobs. We talked a little in our lesson today about eternal families and in our discussion she just paused, looked up, then said with tears in her eyes, ¨now I just see the family isn't perfect unless its made with God¨. She is seriously so great.

Friday- Today we did some service in the morning cutting grass! I find it very entertaining how relaxing doing stuff like that is for me now haha. Its kinda pathetic haha. Then in the afternoon we did some traveling and worked in a smaller town called Jaurgeui. I like to call it Zion;)

Saturday and Sunday- Conference!!!!! It was so great! All of us American missionaries got to watch it in english in a separate room! The spirit of general conference is always so great. My favorite talks were definitely from Elder Rasband and Joaquin Costa. Look them up. You won't be disappointed:)

Well so I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend