May 22, 2017
Well transfers already came! Man everything just is a time blur. I get so confused sometimes. Sooooo..... I am staying here with my companion! And I seriously couldnt be happier because I am tired of packing haha. This transfer cycle though is only 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks because we are getting a new mission president so we will so what happens in the 3 weeks. My fingers are crossed...

Monday- It was really bad weather so we ended up not being able to do anything:( Pday still continues to be a challenge for me. I always am so tired and I need to use the time we have to rest but at the same time I can never sleep on Pday because there is always just so much on my mind after emailing,I guess that just is how it is haha. But anyway at night when we went out to proselite we taught several great lessons! Oh at night tonight  all four of us in the apartment were talking before we went to sleep and my companion seriously almost made me wet my pants. I dont know how the topic came up but the elders in my apartment started coming up with silly pick up lines I could use and my companion came up with this:

´Have you read your patriarcal blessing lately?´...´because you should go reread the part where it tells you that you will find your eternal companion at towns´-end´.... my goodness I thought that was so genious haha.... I dont know why I just included that in my big weekly email though... that is mainly just directed towards my brothers...

Tuesday- Today I did divisions and I had to go work in a different area. We had a pretty good day! Lunch was more of a challenge though. The gave us soda, and noodles mixed with oil... Let me make it clear I am always so greatful for all the sacrifices members make to feed us but I think out of everything I am excited about for going home, I think I am most excited about being able to have the liberty to decide what I eat and win haha.

Wednesday- In the morning we went on an adventure looking for baptismal clothes for another area in our zone that needed them. Then I finally got back to my own area we were able to have some great lessons. It was super cold today! And I dont know why but my body just cannot tolerate the coldness at all! It is always so funny because everyone freaks out when I shake their hand because my hands are super cold haha. 

Thursday- Today it rained super hard but luckily we were able to avoid it by entering some houses at the right times haha We went out with our new ward mission leader today and that was great too. He is a convert that basically was in this gang before he got baptized. Walking around with him was so interesting because no one would mess with us haha.

Friday- Today was the day. The glorious day I have been waiting for for so long. We finally went back to the house of the old lady that made us lemon pie several weeks ago. It was glorious. This time not only did she make lemon pie but brownies too. She is a saint. 

Saturday- Today we had a mini MTC activity in our ward with all of the youth! It was super awesome. It went from 9:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the afternoon and man I was completely exhausted afterwards haha. It was a super special experience. 

Sunday- Ok so for some strange reason members down here really love to know how much time missionaries have in their missions and how much time they have left. It{s somewhat annoying. But the worst part is they use it against us. I have developed a fear of going to the classes in church because it seems like everytime there is an opportunity I am asked and assigned to give the lesson. And the topic is always marriage and eternal families! And they do it in an attempt to make me uncomfortable because I am finishing my mission reletively soon. Its like a form of gospel bullying!!! They know that is definetly the last thing I want to be talking about!!!!

Well I hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather because I am already freezing down here!

Elder Townsend

May 8, 2017
I think I am going to make this week a little different. I guess I really am just kinda getting bored of writing the routine of how my week went. I thought I would spice it up a little bit and do a detailed recap of just and average day. I think this would also be cool because I have realized so many people dont even have the slightest clue what missionaries do haha

Wednesday May 3rd:

6:30=7:00  We woke up and did exercises just like everyday. For excercises I guess I would say I just do prison excercises. Hey but that is really all we have haha 

7:00=8=30 We got ready for the day. I showered and then got dressed into my proseliting clothes. It takes a long time getting dressed as a missionary because there are seriously so many wardrope options to choose from... Then after I decided which tie to wear, I ate breakfeast. For breakfeast every morning I just eat oatmeal and the whites of 3 boiled eggs. I hate the yellow part so much, gross. I think the yellow is also bad for you to so maybe its a good thing I dont eat it. 

8:30=9.00 My companion and I went through our plans for the day. We use an agenda to schedule appointments with people and where to go. We also have a map and a binder with information about people that have talked with missionaries before. 

9:00=10:00 This is the hour of the day we personally study. So basically we read the scriptures or other church books to help prepare us for the things we are going to teach during the day and to just keep learning in general. Today I read the Book of Mormon and then I studied a little bit about prayer and fasting. Cool stuff.´

10:00=10:45 We walked a good distance and met up with a church member to go to an appointment. We finally got there and our investigator wasnt there. Story of my life haha. But anyways it was  good because we set plans with the member for her to invite our investigator to church later in the week.

10:45=12:00 We did a lot of walking going to a list of adresses we had written down of people that talked with missionaries before. When we do a lot of walking to we are always constantly talking with people in the street and trying to meet new people. We give out cards and pamphlets to people that have interest

12:00=12:30 We met this lady named Juana and quickly taught her about the Book of Mormon. She has a lot of interest and we will see her next week.

12:30=1:00 We walked to lunch while meeting a few people on the way

1.00= 2:00 We had lunch with this 26 year old in our ward named Leo. He is so cool. He was basically a drug runner before he was baptized 5 years ago. We had lunch with him and the other elders we live with. He made us noodles and chicken

2:00= 3:30 We headed back to our apartment and did more studies we have to do. We study spanish everyday and then we studied together as a companionship for our appointments for the day

3:30=9:00 Yeah so this is a super huge gap of time but I dont have much longer to type so I am going to have to summerize a lot haha. So basically in this time period we walked probably several few miles (which is average), taught a few lessons that we schedules with people we already knew, we found a great family that has a lot of interest, we probably got lied to about 10 times, we set several appointments for later in the week, we probably contacted about 30 people and I would say a good handful of them have interest, and our appointents for the night time werent home

9:00=10:30 We got back home and made some phone calls. Some other elders came to our apartment for the night from one of my old areas and they brought me some letter from some of my converts so that made my day. We talked and messed around with everyone. I am always just completely exhausted after everyday so I normally dont eat anything and just go to bed.

So that was a normal day of my life! I guess towards the end it wast very detailed but I blame my slow typing.

I hope everyone has a great week!

May 15, 2017

Monday- It was a super rainy day! So for our pday we just had to stay inside and that was a bummer. At night, due to the rain, all of our appointments fell through:( I swear mother nature has it out for me sometimes.

Tuesday- Today for lunch, my companion and I bought two kilos of meat and had a barbecue with one of our investigators named Ramon! It was super fun!  We recently helped him overcome an alcohol addiction and he is progressing great towards his baptisms! I seriously just love meat so much haha

Wednesday- At 6:00 in the morning we ran to our chapel and played soccer. It was super cold and dark but pretty fun because there were six of us because another companionship had to spend the night in our apartment. Then later in the day we did service for a less active member in our ward that is starting to come back and then after that it was basically just a regular day.

Thursday- It was a pretty normal day. We had some great lessons and nothing to crazy happened

Friday- Today we did divisions but luckily I was able to stay in my own area. I am getting so tired of doing so much traveling haha. It rained all day but we actually had a prett productive day! At night we had to do some traveling though to do a baptismal interview. 

Saturday- Another great day. We got a lot done. We even had a very lovely interaction with a drunk man. Did you know our church is called the ¨The Church of Jesus Christ Universal of the Universal days´´ ? That was something completely new to me...

Sunday- Mothers day! We got to skype and it was great to see my family again! Moms are the best! 

Well I hope everyone has a great week!

May 1, 2017
Monday- I have gotten to the point where pdays arent even that enjoyable for me any more... I think I would rather have it just be a regular work day. I guess you can say I am failing to get satisfacion out of it haha. But any way, today we cleaned, emailed, got ice cream, played soccer, and then went out to work at night. 

Tuesday- My goodness it rained sooooo hard today. It absolutely just poured the whole entire day. I still dont understand what happens when it rains in this country because no one goes out to work or school but at the same time no one is home. We had about 5 appointment in the afternoon and night today but all of them fell through.

Wednesday- Today we did service in the morning. Argentine construction never fails to amaze me haha. We had to move a lot of brocken brick and rock to another location and we saw some of the biggest spiders I have seriously ever seen in my life. I didnt even know God made spiders that big.... crazy stuff

Thursday- Today in the morning we had interviews with our mission President. My mission is getting a new mission president at the beginning of July so this was his last interview with all of us. It was a little sad but kinda crazy at the same time because it just reminded me how time has seriously just blurred by. Its hard to explain.

Friday- In the morning today we had to travel a bit because we had a meeting. Then the rest of the day was pretty normal. The only thing is that there are seriously so many mosquitos lately. It is so ridiculous. I have never seen anything like this. People down here are going crazy about it. They are calling it an invasion haha. It is even effecting missionary work because no one is wanting to be outside. My poor companion is getting eaten alive no matter how much repelant he is putting on haha.

Saturday- Today we quickly did service in the morning again for a less avtive member in our ward. Then after our service things got a little hectic because the members coordinated our lunches wierd and we ended up having several families prepare to give us lunch today. But hey, I am not going to compain haha. 

Sunday- Pretty normal day at church. ummm I am trying to think about anything that happened.... oh so in the afternoon we tried to visit this very humble bolivian family we met earlier in the week. So the mom let us in their gate and their dog started to go a little crazy. It was actually pretty freaky. I had never seen a dog like that. My companion and the lady were kinda freaking out because the dog was acting like it was totally going to eat me and I was trying to stand as still and calm as possible. Luckily the mom yelled at one of the kids to get bread and we were able to distract him while all of us quickly got back throught the gate. I think the dog was just really hungry because the family didnt have food for it. So that was all pretty exciting. 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Townsend 

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