Townsend 2 taiwan

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

August 14th letter...Hello!


Last week had a bit but the main things I'll share will be English Class Monsters, Chen dixiong, Thomas, Tian, and Jenny Phillips.
English Class Monsters.
Probably self explanatory. So Elder Siebert (Who I think is exactly like Rudy, Also does anyone know if Rudy is still alive?) and I were waiting for the kid class and they hadn't showed up with they came about half an hour or so late and it became the hardest hour of my life. It was as if someone had let Satan into the Church. Luckily they didn't have knifes or they would have thrown those around and possibly killed someone. They would not be good. So we tried to play games, because that was they only thing that wasn't too out of control. It was really it feels like it was just babysitting their kids. Ah I can't even describe the chaos that takes place. So the reason why I share this is. 1. English Class is a nightmare. 


 3. Always have a (responsible) parent present who can control kids. 4. This wasn't a good way to encourage us to have kids
Chen dixiong
We had been contacting down at the park and had no success, it was time for dinner so we decided to go, but before we left I saw this man on a bench (different bench) and decided to invited to start studying the restored gospel with us. He said yes and we met him on Saturday. Super humble and great. We got him a baptismal date and set up the next time to meet with him. Hopefully start getting him to come to church and be baptized! So remember the biggest blessings might come at the very last minute or after you have "done your work". (work is never really done)
Thomas.
One of the pictures I attached is our great ward mission leader Thomas. His English is amazing. Basically, He is American in what he likes, speaks, and does (except he is Taiwanese and doesn't live in America) This is after our correlation meeting and he is just being great. He is super awesome because he can help me with words I don't know in Chinese and English. He is just a funny man. He is definitely one of my best friends here in Taiwan.
Tian dixiong
Well we had a list of potentials and I just started calling them. About the eighth number a kid answered and I started talking to him and I tried to set him up. He asked if we could meet tonight and luckily we had Finding time planned (so yes we had room) so we went over to the church real quick and we met with him. It went great. He was really funny, we talked about the spirit, how the holy ghost can bless our lives, prayer, scriptures, and finally we set him a baptismal date. It was pretty funny he would throw a little English out he knew and little taiyu.
Last but not least Jenny Phillips to zhu bei (She is a big lds singer). She was really good our investigator daniel huang really liked it! It was a little hard though to have the spirit though because one of the English Monsters (The worst of the worst) was sitting right in front of me. Everytime I saw him I wanted to go nuts. I need to repent and love him but oh man he is truly sent from below. Anyways Daniel Huang's baptism is in two weeks so it should be great!
Lots of love!
Elder Townsend



Monday, August 8, 2011

Xin Zhu


Well the pictures are a few from the previous area and the flight. Oh and the last one of the stencil is from my new area.
 
Hello!
I survived my first week in my new area! I have successfully memorized the route from the church to the apartment and some other paths. ha In my first it took me about a transfer to do that so I am considering this a major improvement blessing! So adjusting to the new area is a bit different, but not too painful. Instead of looking at trees, mountains, aborigines, and clear skies, I now look at cars, scooters, buildings, and more buildings. Its a big change, but I am grateful this change wasn't to the middle of taipei. That would be a little too much. So my new companion is Elder Millett. He is from Utah as well, go figure. He has been out over a year. We are just a normal companionship so nothing out the extraordinary. The work here is a bit different because we have two college campuses here and lots of people. This week was pretty good, its funny how any single person you come across on the street could be prepared. Most of the finding this week took place at parks or at street lights. Basically, all that will happen is you will turn to the person next to you and say something like, "have you been to church before?" or "We have an important message that can change your life" or "how are you?", something along those lines. Next thing you know you can get them to pull over to the side of the street and you start sharing the gospel after finding about who they are. The hardest part about the street lights is we have about 30 seconds (give or take on the light) to 1. Find if they are interested 2. Prepared 3. Their Needs 4. Testify 5. Promise Blessings 6. Share the restoration and baptism. Those are just a few of the things we have to share and if they aren't prepared be able to turn to the next person and start sharing and starting the process over again. Lots of rejection, but after all that rejection, I like to think that it puts me one closer to the prepared soul.
This week I had a pretty spiritual experience. We just pulled up to this park type area. Got off, prayed and went to work. My companion walked off ahead and walked right past this man smoking on the bench. (I don't know if I have mentioned before, but everyone and their dog smokes in taiwan) I just had the words pounded in my head that I need to talk to everyone and a scripture that says roughly don't rush around while the inhabitants on your sides suffer in unbelief. So I just sat down next to him and started to talk, pretty soon we had talked about his job, prophets, the apostasty, God, Jesus Christ, and the restoration, and prayer. He was awesome and know that I think about it he really felt the spirit. Crazy to think being among the chaos and turbulence of the world, that God could create a bubble around huang cao qian and me so he could hear the Gospel. We set up a time to meet again and he was pretty excited. I had walked off and was talking to another man at that time but mr. huang came up to me and gave me a coke he just bought from the family mart. ha I loved it he was excited to give it to me.
Oh this week of course we had english Class which was interesting. One of the other Elders, Elder Siebert and I took on the Little kids class! It was ran off of improto, but we survived! Ha it was hard and it will be a long transfer with that, but we can do it! Oh another thing, everyone here in xin zhu speaks almost perfect English. In the last area very very few, but here everyone does. It is so weird... I like the chinese better. ha Its a blessing and a trial at the same time. Blessings, 1. We can rely upon their help 2. I kind of know English Trials, 1. We are called to speak chinese and teach in their tongue 2. Easy to be lazy and not speak chinese. I'll just use their bilingual skills to improve mine I think. Oh also I have seen more White people here in the last week than I have seen my whole entire mission. Its weird. Ha the funny part is that here I am, a white person, commenting on seeing a foreigner. Ha its what happens when you become Taiwanese. We have a super awesome investigator and he was showing us a presentation and he told us we had to pretend to foreigners again. ha He says that missionaries, us, aren't foreigners, but are really Taiwanese. Ha made me feel pretty good. 
Well there is so much to write, but I'll write it my journal and save it for another day so you can read it.
 
Lots of Love Elder Townsend





ahhhh.... August 1st letter


Well the big news.... I moved! I left my beloved home in Taidong to the other side of the island (Still avoiding the Taipei city). I am now in the west north part of the island called xin zhu. My new companion is Elder Millet, his family currently dwells in spanish fork. Ah it was so rough. I had a feeling I would be moving so I had already packed my stuff up. Its rough to because we had found some amazing investigators to at the end. I guess over all it feels unreal that I was ever there. Not till the last day did I learn how I loved them. I shared my little good bye testimony. After sacrament zhang mama came up to me and said my son has to move? you aren't going to see jun cheng's baptism. She was crying a little bit and I about broke down. Having gone to her house so many times and having her come out telling us that her son went off drinking and never came back yet, I realized how amazing of women she is. She really became my mom (one of many). I also realized a mother's love for a child. (Yes I am sure a father's is the same/about) I will miss that little woman 77 years old, has a golden heart, works hard everyday, and not afraid to spit fire. (We had a taiwanese elder translate what she would say sometimes after jun cheng went smoking). She was also really sad too because she never got to take me fishing. So when I ever get back to Taidong, one of the first things I am going to do is go fishing with zhang mama.
This wednesday I went out with chen meng xin and elder Wang. Chen meng xin tagged along me with me. That is a future Ammon/Alma/Aaron all those great missionaries. It was pretty fun we just did work together. Also he isn't afraid to share the Gospel with his friends. He is willing to go and do the Lord's work. He has brought at least 5 friends to come meet with us. My goal right now is to develop courage like him. He is truly amazing.
The hou jia ting was another hard one to say goodbye to. Hou dixiong has always been so funny. Whenever we asked him what we could do to help him, without fail, he would say, "eat more" (In chinese). Ha once he had called us over and said that he needed help, we went over sat us down at the kitchen table and said, "now you can help me eat all this food I cooked." Ha I really want my family to be like his one day. Him and his wife are just amazing and they have some of the cutest little kids. Their daughter always wanted to jump! So she would hold onto my hands and I would help her jump! ha I remember one time we were all at cai hui zhang and she wanted to play hide n go seek on the roof of his house. There was absolutely no places to hide, but we couldn't deny her sweet little face and say we didn't want to play.
I think the hardest to say good bye to was Wang jia ting. They just had gotten back from gaoxiong so we swung by to say good bye. I said goodbye and wang ba made me super sad and same with wang ma. Wang ma said she wanted to hug me, but of course that is not allowed so she hugged wang ba and wang ba hugged me again. I started tearing up. I couldn't handle saying goodbye to them. This morning wang ba called me and said that he would miss me and to come to visit him when I came back to taiwan. He made me get all choked up again. That is another family that I want my family to be like. Just so giving and loving.
I had to say goodbye to shen hong yu. That was pretty rough too. His little cousin has been with him and he was pretty sad I had to leave, but he was still his goofy self. Funny that the difference the two is three years and yet hong yu is double the size of little cousin. ha I can't wait to hear about his baptism. He is so close and I am not worried about him. There are great members at church who will take care of him.
I also can't forget Jerry lin, the greatest man alive, Lin chao wei, wang hong ming, song dixiong, qiu bo yuan, fei yu, and all of my other amazing friends down there. Even though I have had all those amazing experiences and meet even more amazing people, I know I will meet just as amazing people here in xin zhu (at least that is what I will tell myself) This is still the Lord's work no matter where I will go, all I am is a tool in the Lord's hands and I need to become what he wants me to be, so I must willfully submit to his will as Jesus Christ so perfectly demonstrated in The sacred grove of gethesame and the Upon the Cross of Calvary.
 
Lots of Love,






Elder Townsend

Wei/ July 24th letter


Hello!
 
Hope Everyone is enjoying the beautiful summer! Here in Taidong, Taiwan, its nice hot and humid. Its in the 90's with out of control humidity. Don't worry I drink lots and lots of water.
This week we had the zone leaders come down for our district meeting. It was good, The picture is of our unity! ha It's called the Fireman pushup I believe. We also had the opportunity to have Elder Leavitt and come proselyte with us after! He goes home next week and it has been a real pleasure and blessing to be able to know him. He is an amazing missionary had has put his whole heart into serving the Lord. No doubt that the Lord is pleased with his work. He has changed many lifes and I hope to be at least a fraction of the type of missionary he is. But at the same time everyone is different and I will be Elder Townsend, another servant of the Lord. All the apostles had different attributes that helped them touch the hearts of the people, but one commoninality is they all are/were bold.
Boldness takes a lot of effort and courage. Everyday we are out on the street inviting people to come unto Christ. To be able to feel of his love. It is a foreign concept to them and takes courage on their part as well to go and do. That's one reason why missionary work is so difficult, it requires lots of courage and desire.
One brave soul we encountered this week was Daniel wang. 18 years old. Great kid, has a desire to fill those holes he feels he has in his life. He came from a Christian background, but still it is a change in to the Restored Gospel of Christ. Its amazing how the spirit can create an environment where they will open and talk. My favorite part is when we have a member present and when the investigator and member bond. It is the best thing in the world. Its hard to go through life by yourself. So grateful for the members here and back home. More importantly grateful for our best friend. He sacrificed his life for us. I know my Redeemer lives.
Lots of love,
Elder Townsend




The Island July 17th letter


OK picture break down. First one for all of those graduated 2010. ha Thought it was pretty funny that Taiwan got the vibe to be alive.
Next is just riding to email this morning (almost killed myself trying to take the picture) I saw the rainbow and thought it was a cool picture. (All why riding, I had a box on the back of my bike and it was not easy to get the camera) Finally my stallion, I don't know if you have ever seen it but here it is!
 
Ok this week we went up to Hualian for Junior Companion Specialized Training! ha It was great, President asked if I could conduct. It was awesome the congegration was five in total with four sitting behind me. It still scared me though. Ha But seriously, it was a spiritual experience overall. I learned a ton especially about our focus of this transfer of unity. It was cool they pointed out in Mosiah 24 that 450 souls worked in perfect unity gathering  up the herds and flocks in the middle of the night without waking anyone up. That is complete unity. Not one squeal from an animal and you can think too. what if half or or a quarter wasn't unified? They wouldn't be able to gather or accomplish their goal and in the end be freed. I thought it was just an amazing experience.
Well English Class I taught them about ghost stories and told them a few. They are the most lifeless people. No reaction, no laughing, no smiling, and no fear. ha They just sat there. I asked if them if they understood and they did for the most part. They also liked them, but it just didn't show forth on their faces or body. ha It was pretty funny and kind of disappointing.
Well this weekend Elder Murphy and I went on splits. Elder Murphy is a transfer ahead of me so I knew him in the mtc. We were out tracting and we started helping these people with car. We come to find out that they are trying to get a cat out of their car. Somehow a kitten had crawled in under carriage of the car and was chilling with the engine. They had been working for the last two hours on trying to get it out. We never got it out and it just kept meowing the whole time. Poor kitty. We tried to use the opportunity to teach but he was strange guy. They were nice and we definitely made friendly relations but they have no interest in the Gospel. Its ok because we were able to help them out! Oh thank you uncle alan for the flashlight again. It did work. ha their flashlight couldn't get the job done.

Well lots of love, hope to hear how everyone is doing!
Elder Townsend