August 8, 2016

Super crazy great week!

We have been so busy everyday running around to lessons and meeting new people its been great. I dont really know where to begin explaining everything that happened but I will do my best. 

Well on Tuesday I recieved my new companion. His name is Elder Copeland. He is from Alaska. He is a great guy. Honestly its been kinda a struggle to talk in English because that last three months I had been only talking in Spanish with my Brazilian companion. But its been great to learn my native language again haha. 

On Wednesday we had a full day running around to lots of lessons. It was great. We also met some new families we are going to start working with.

Thursday was awesome as well. We had an awesome lesson with a Lady named Maxima. She is a member that hasnt been going to church for a while. Last year her

husband died and it has been so hard for her. We have been starting to work with her and now she is doing so well! She has been coming to church and we are helping her get everything ready so she can have the work done for her husband in the temple and they can be sealed together as a family forever. We are really happy for her. The rest of the day we spent having some great visits too.

Friday was a great day but also a trial of faith haha. I woke up with a bit of a cold which isnt fun. And then in the morning we walked over to a members house to do some service. While we were walking there some punks thought it would be funny to shoot a rock at me with there sling shot. Then when we got to his house to do the service it started to rain. For the service we had haul these heavy beams made of cement to this guys back yard to make a roof. My companion wasnt feeling well so I ended up having to carry all of them. Then for lunch an older member of our ward gave us a tuper of liver and onions.... So lets just say the day started out rougher than normal but at night we had some great lessons so it was all worth it.

On Saturday we had another great day. Our last lesson of the day was with Silvia, the lady we recently baptized, and her son, Jony who is 18 who we are working with to be baptized in the next few weeks. It was such a great lesson. They are both so awesome. After every lesson with them i cant even explain how happy I am. They have both grown and changed show much and there is no greater joy as a missionary to know you are making a difference in someones´ life.

Sunday was a super crazy day too. We learned about several families that have a lot of interest and we are going to start working with them.

Well i hope everyone has a great week and is enjoying the olympics!

Elder Townsend

August 1, 2016

Well we had our baptisms this week! Our investigators Silvia and Thomas both got baptized and it was awesome. Another kid whose family are members got baptized with our investigators as well so that was cool too. My companion this week also finished his mission so you can imagine it was a 

pretty crazy and hectic week!

I dont have a lot of time to write this week and explain everything in detail but everything went so well. The baptisms were such a great experience for both Silvia and Thomas. We also had a great week full of wonderful lessons with some great investigators we are working with.

Oh and today is the start of the new transfer cycle. I will be staying in my area and recieve a new companion so thats pretty awesome too!

Take care

Elder Townsend


July 25, 2016

This past week was a week in my mission I will never forget haha.

I dont exactly know the best way to describe everything that happened so I will just tell the story from the beginning.

Last Monday night a member in our ward gave us some cheese and ham that see had bought in the farmers market. My companion and I thought we were super smart and that night decided to make ham and cheese empanadas. We were pretty content because they tasted really good. The next day we had a great day but in the night we started to feel a little wierd.... To keep the story short lets just say both my companion and I were up that night super sick. Like really, really sick haha. The next day, Wednesday, we spent suffering rolling around in pain and discomfort in our beds. It was probably the most miserable I have been in all of my life I am not going to lie haha. Especially becasue as missionaries we couldnt do anything besides enjoy our suffering listening to church music....On Thursday we already started to feel better and we were able to start doing some missionary work. And now, both me and my companion feel great.... I REPEAT (for my mom) I AM FINE NOW and we are back to working as normal.

But surely it was an unforgettable experience. And I pray with all my heart and soul it never happens again, expecially for the rest of my mission haha. I guess it was just a sign that I should stay out of the kitchen...

On the bright side Silvia and our other investigator Thomas both had their interviews this week and passed! Their baptisms will be this Saturday and we are so excited! Its going to be so awesome! 

The rest of the work in our area is going well too! We are working hard and now enjoying every second of being healthy!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend



July 18, 2016

Another great, busy week!

I am not going to lie, it is getting so hard to write these weekly letters haha. Everything is just a blur now. Sometimes I feel like my brain is starting to turn into jello as a missionary. I cant really remember anything funny or super interesting that happened this week so i guess I will just give an update on Silvia and her son Johnathan! They are both doing so great!! This week we had two lessons with them and the both went so well. Silvia is progressing on track and will defintely be getting baptized the 30th of July! Her son Johnathan is progressing super great as well but we have been teaching him only for a short while and he needs a bit more time before he can be baptized. My companion and I just love teaching them so much. All the experiences we have shared with them are just so special. Its just been a super spiritual conversion for both Silvia and her son. We are super excited for both of them.

While I was typing all of that I remembered a few weird things that happened this week!! 

-A cultural event came into our city and my companion and I tried Arabic tacos! They were super good!

-Some guy on the street that walked by us called me a hot dog... that was the first time that ever happened.

-We saw a couple couple kissing in a bus stop get splashed hard core by a car that drove through a puddle.

-Some kids we walked by at night thought they were funny and pegged me in the back with an apple.

-Silvia made us the best pizza I have ever eaten!

Well I hope everyone has a great week! 

Elder Townsend

July 11, 2016

I don't have much time but this week was great!

My companion and I are doing our best to work in our area and learn the new area we just we assigned to. Its been pretty crazy having to learn everything so fast but its been awesome because we have been super busy haha. 

On Monday we had a lesson with Silvia and met her son Johnathan. He is so awesome! He has a lot of interest too so we are going to start teaching both of them and we are super excited.

On Tuesday we had a training we had to travel to in another city so we went to that in the morning and then had a regular day in the afternoon.

On Wednesday we did divisions and I stayed in our area to work with another missionary. We had a great day and got a lot of work done. The poor guy was so tired at the end of the day haha.

On Thursday we had missionary acitivity we planned in the chapel at night. It was such a disaster preparing for it because everything went so wrong but it ended up turning out really well!

On Friday we went to a stake activity with Silvia and Johnathan for the 9th of July (which is like the 4th of July in the States). Each ward prepared a cultural dance and they made it a contest. Silvia and Johnathan really liked it!

Saturday and Sunday were both great days too. Nothing crazy happened but we had some great lessons and got a lot of work done.

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

July 4, 2016

Such a crazy week!

So the week started out pretty normal. Monday through Thursday was pretty mello. Nothing crazy. Just some great lessons and walking around in the rain and dark all day haha. 

On Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Silvia in the house of her cousin Beti (who is a member). It was so awesome! Everything went so well and it was so spiritual. Silvia is the best. She has such a sincere desire to follow Christ. She has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon for about two months now and has already made so much progress. She has just had a lot of fear about being baptized. But at the end of our lesson she accepted a baptismal date for the 30th of July!! Haha I had never been so nervous inviting someone to be baptized but she accepted! It was great! And the best part is tonight we have another lesson with her and her 18 year old son we haven't met. It's going to be awesome.

Then on Saturday the other elder we live with got a call in the morning saying that they are going to be sent to another area and my companion and I are going to be taking over their area and that they had to get everything ready because later that night they were leaving. Crazy stuff. So all that day was just such a mess haha. My companion and I did all we could to help them get everything ready while at the same time learning all that we could about their area and running to appointments and lessons throughout the day in both of the areas. It was a day in my mission I will definitely never forget haha.

Sunday was our first day with both the areas. Our area is huge now and we are going to be soooo busy haha. We have a lot of work to do and are excited to see how everything goes.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

Our investigator Silvia is a professional cook. So for our lessons we usual bake or cook something to bring and she does the same. These chocolate chip bars I made. We brought them to the lesson that she accepted a baptismal date. From this experience I learned a very important lesson, baking gets results.

June 27, 2016

It was a pretty great week here in Parque San Martin. 

We focused a lot this week on meeting new people to work with and it went super well! We found a great new family that is from Bolivia we are going to start teaching and also several families that are members of the church that are inactive. My companion and I are both super excited to start working with all of them. 

Currently we are helping two people stop smoking. So thats been actually super fun as well! Our investigator Silvia is doing great too! She is still sick so we were only able to visit her once this week. 

Oh and shout out to Korey Smith. This week even some of the members down  here were watching the youtube video about the parody to the song Hello by Adele about the life of a missionary.

I dont have much time to write so this is it for the week. 

Elder Townsend

June 20, 2016

Luis got baptized this week! It was so awesome! Just super cold haha. I was actually the one who got to baptize him so that was great too. For the baptism I made brownies. Lets just say its pathetic how much argentines love american desserts haha.

This week was pretty crazy because we had a lot of stuff going on, but we still got a lot of work done. The only down part of our week was we couldnt visit our awesome investigator silvia this week because she is super sick:(

Oh and we are starting a new tansfer today! I am staying in lovely Parque San Martin with my brasilian companion Elder Vicente! We are super excited to be able to stay together but not so exicted for the cold weather and fewer hours of daylight that awaits us this transfer but it is what it is haha. 

Oh and we are in a trio right now too. One of the elders we live with finished his mission so his companion is hanging with us until he gets his new companion tomorrow. Its been pretty fun. All three of us gave talks in church yesterday haha. 

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

June 13, 2016

It was a great week full of a ton of missionary work. We had several great lessons with a lot of our investigators and were even able to find several new investigators this week.

On Tuesday we did divisions. It was a great day. I stayed and worked in our area with another elder that came to the mission with me. We had several great lessons during the day but the highlight of the day were these three new investigators we found at night: So it was late and we had just finished a lesson with one of our invesitgators. We started headed back to our apartment becaue we had about a 40 minute walk and it was super cold outside. And while we were walking I recognized this house we passed by and I felt we should go clap it. So we head back to the house and they end up letting us in and we teach an awesome lesson about the restoration to these three brothers! It was so great! These brothers were so excited to learn and hear our message it kinda freaked me out haha. When we started talking about Joseph Smith they were literally on the edge of their seats exploding with excitement and anticapation, like they were watching a soccer game or something haha. It was a super great way to end the day!

On Wednesday we also found an awesome new famiy. They were a reference from there cousin that lives in Oregon that is a member and married to a returned missionary. They are super great and we are excited to start teaching them as well.

Our progressing investigators Luis and Silvia are doing great as well. Luis is on track to be baptized the 17th of June. He has quitted smoking and is really prepared. Our only concern for him is his neighbor Carlos who is a really bad influence. We stopped by Luis´s house the other day at night and Carlos was in there all drunk and smoking right in front of his face! Carlos really wanted to talk to us so he sits us down and we end up having a "grown up" talk with him. So hopefully we resolved that problem... Silivia came to church for the second time this Sunday! She is so awesome! We are so excited for her to keep learning and are really hoping we can set a goal as a baptismal date this week. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

June 6, 2016

This week went went. Nothing too crazy happened but we got a lot of good work done here in Parque San Martin.

We have two investigators that are progressing very well currently. Our first one is named Luis. He is so awesome. He has a baptismal date for the 18th of June and we think he will make it. We have been helping him quit smoking and he come so far. He hasn't smoked since Saturday and he is still doing so well.

Our other investigator is named Silvia. She is the best. She came to church for the first time this Sunday. She is reading so much in the Book of Mormon and really has a true desire to learn the truth. 

The week was pretty normal. We had several great lessons and found a handful of new investigators. The weather here this week was so aweful though. Super cold and rainy. Before being a missionary I never paid to much attention to the weather but it really has an impact on everything now haha. I dont know a better way to say this so will just throw it out there; a really large part of our area is just so ghetto and unpleasing to look at haha... And when it is dark and rainy its almost so bad its funny haha. I wish I could describe it better but thats all I got haha. But my Brasilian companion and I are hanging in there!

I hope everything is going well back home. Take care and have a great week!

Elder Townsend

making empanadas at a members house

May 30, 2016

Pretty great week. 

On Tuesday we did divisions again. I stayed in my area and worked with another elder. It was such an interesting day haha. I know our area decently well for only being here for two weeks but not too well haha. And our area is almost impossible to learn because the house numbers are all messed up. So needless to say we did a good amount of walking haha. I don't think the elder I was with was that accustomed to walking and moving around so much haha. The poor guy was dead at the end of the day.

On Wednesday was 25 de Mayo! It was a great day. For lunch my companion and the other companionship we live with bought empanadas to celebrate. There is this really nice buisness chain down here called empanadas de 10 and we ordered an empanada of every single one of their flavors haha (they have 25 flavors). We then cut every single one in 4 pieces and we all ate each one at a time and then took notes and gave them ratings. We are now proud to say we have tasted every flavor and we can in detail describe each one. For you future costumers out there I highly recommend you stay away from the bacon and plum flavor....

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Our investigators are doing great. Last sunday was stake conference which was awesome. Oh and during one of our lessons yesterday afternoon this drunk teenage girl riding a moped fell into the sewage stream thing on the side of the dirt road. Oh how I love this country.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend

May 23, 2016

It was another pretty great week.

On Tuesday this week I got to go back to my first area Merlo 2 to do divisions! Aww it was just so weird I cant even explain it. I was actually kinda reluctant at first but it was a great day. I got to see some of the people I met and catch up with them. It was awesome. I spent the day with an elder from Peru. He taught me that in Argentina if there are shoes hanging from telephone lines that means someone sells drugrs near by. And that was completely new information to me! I dont know if thats what it means in the states, I always just joked that it meant it was the ´´hood´´ but here it actually means something! haha the funny part is I checked the telephone lines when I came back to my area and I realized that almost every block in our area has shoes hanging down from the lines...so thats awesome...

On Thursday us and the other elders we live with learned how to make empanadas!! It was so awesome! A family in the ward had us over and taught us. Argentine food isnt anthing too special but empanadas are heavenly. So it was super awesome we all learned how to make them.

On Saturday the other elders we live with had a baptism planned. So my companion and I arrived at the chapel about thirty minutes before the baptisms to practice a song we were going to sing and the lady who was going to get baptized still hadn't come! So the elders went out to go look for her. They eventually found her and apparently her boyfriend almost died the night before and is in the hospital. She was emotionally recked and she just couldn't get baptized so we ended up having a small activity in the church with all the members that had come for the baptisms. Haha the whole day was just such a rollercoaster but it all turned out pretty well! I learned that day as a missionary you always have to be prepared haha.

The missionary work in our area is going well. We have several great investigators that are making such great progress. We are really excited for them. 

I hope everyone has a great week

Elder Townsend

It was a great first week in Parque San Martin! 

There are a lot of new changes so I will explain each one seperately:

My new companion is named Elder Vicente. He is such a great guy. He is from Brazil and he is the only member in his family of like 12 haha. He is going home fairly soon so he has a lot of experience and I have already learned so much from him. He doesn´t speak english like at all but I am doing my best to teach him before he heads home! 

The ward in this area is so great! They all love the missionaries so much and are always willing to help us out. I would say it is probably the strongest ward I have been in so far. They are the best!

The area itself is ok I guess haha. We share the ward with two other elders and our area is... well.... just fine. Its mostly suburb-ish. It is hard to explain what it is like because I have never seen anywhere in the states that compares to it. Its not anything like a suburb in the states. Its almost all dirt roads and pretty hood- ish. Its just kinda filthy and dark everywhere haha. I´ll just say its not very enjoyable to the eyes and I will leave it at that haha... Its pretty dangerous in some areas and with it being almost winter here it gets dark pretty fast which isn't good. We have already had some....ummm....interesting experiences so far this week but we are working on finding investigators in the few places of our area where there is light and its less dangerous so we don't run into even bigger problems in the middle of winter when it gets darker even earlier.

The missionary work in the area is going fairly well. There are a lot of less active members so we are working with them. We really could use some new investigators though so we are working on that. This week we found this great 17 year old kid named Thomas so that's awesome!

Our apartment is definitely the nicest one I have been in! Which isn´t saying very much but at least its an upgrade! We live with the other elders in our ward so that's pretty fun too!

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

Take care!

Elder Townsend

5-9-16

First off Happy Mothers day to all the moms out there! You guys are the best!

This week went super well. We had some fantastic lessons with several investigators with a lot of potential. 

The new transfer starts today and there is a lot of work here to do. The only thing is I won't be here......because I got transferred! Last night we got our transfer calls and I am going back to the stake of Merlo wear I started! But instead I am going to be working in an area called Parque San Martin! I have no clue what it is like but from what my companion and I have heard it sounds like it is in the city. Which kinda stinks because I have really enjoyed how nice and calm Marcos Paz is but on the bright side I wont be using bikes! 

I´m really excited to leave but also super sad. This area has been so great. I was super depressing saying goodbye to all the ward members yesterday. And even worse was saying goodbye to Gladys and Agustin. Being a missionary is so bitter sweet that way. 

Today as a district we are going to make tacos and we are all super excited! It has been a long 7 months without Mexican food. But you know what they say, sacrifices bring blessings...

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

I love you Mom!

Elder Townsend