Townsend 2 taiwan

Monday, May 28, 2012

Hello!


Pictures. Its bright outside at 5 am so I needed a little help. Devil beetle thing. Took bro. wu to the temple. The famous jerry from taidong!
Hello one and all!
I just to start off by saying how grateful I am for our mission president, President Grimley. He trully is called of God. What I love the most about him is that he has made me feel safe here. I know as long as President Grimley is here that we are safe. I know the next President will do exactly the same. I know the Lord has called them to be his voice pieces here in Taiwan.
Alright this week news...
Well I went on exchanges with Elder Lin over in Shilin which was a blast. He is really humble and charitable missionary. He is the only member in his family. He is already 26 years old. Talk about faith. He said when he called back on Mother's day his ama (grandma) kept asking him over and over again when he was coming back. The Zone leaders stay pretty busy. Whenever they get an announcement they have to pass it along to all the other missionaries and wait and report back, just a bit annoying. I really loved serving with him. He set a great example for me.
This week we had a special meeting with Elder Gong and new Bishop Davies. (he is awesome) They were going around and doing a little tour with all missionaries to kind of remember President and sister Grimley type meeting. It was really spiritual. I really will miss the Grimleys, but I guess its there time.
This week Jimmy li came around! It was a pretty cool miracle. I have been trying to pray a lot for this people here in neihu that there hearts will be soften so we find a way to share the gospel. Well Jimmy had a some not too great experiences that really soften and humble his heart. Jimmy has been coming to english class for a while and no interest in the Gospel. I have tried but no good. well after class he came up and asked about learning more. OF Course we would be willing. we set up a time to share with him. IT ws really neat. As we were sitting there I felt the love the lord had for him.
Well out of time.
Lots of Love!
Elder Townsend




Sunday, May 20, 2012

A few more pictures




New Transfer


Hello!
Well... I guess I will see everyone in December... Weird how quickly that time is coming around. I Don't think it has quite rolled around in my head yet.
News.
I am the new District Leader. They are taking the district leader and putting him over here with me in Neihu. A little nervous. However, I am excited to get to work more with other missionaries and not always be bubbled up concerned with my  investigators and old men.
We had people come to stake conference this weekend which was pretty fantastic. I really enjoyed it. I sat next to chen ba. He is doing well, has some little problems like stressing about faith and some commandment stuff, but I am not worried. The Lord will take care of everything as we do our part.
I am still with Elder Montalto, (I don't know if that still counts as news but hey, we are still together)
Last transfer with our dearly beloved President Grimley. We are going to have a five week transfer so President can get rid of all the old missionaries before new President Day gets in.
Xiao yun xiang's baptism was amazing! It was really so fantastic! Except as we were filling the baptismal font, we accidently flooded the church... thirty minutes before the service... Thankfully the floors here in chapel are tile so it turned out ok! We got it cleaned up. Ha only about oh... an inch of water on the ground. The service started a little late, I was stressed out about it. A lot of things were not going smoothly, but its ok, the service was spirit packed. His whole family was there to support them, the talks were fantastic, nice and short 3-7 minutes, the Bishop's son baptized him and it was smooth (we invited the bishop's son to baptize him, they are close in age, we had him peike a few times, we felt it was appropriate) and the bishop gave a warm welcome and got a little teary eyed as he was sharing. He was so impressed with yun xiang. Also because him and his son were so close in age he felt as if yun xiang was also his son. The ward was good at welcoming in. Overall, it was beautiful experience.
The investigators.
Well as I mentioned earlier we tend to find the older men here in Neihu. As we were walking the park the other week I ran into a mr. feng. Found out he had a baptist background, is from beijing, and other little things. I sat down on the bench with him chatted a little and set up a time. (He looked maybe 65ish) well he had to change a few times, but I come to find out he knows one our members and she took us over to his house. We had a great lesson! Packed with spirit, Book of Mormon and the Bible. He understood the role of prophets, The divinity of christ, and how his originial church was. Still have a few parts we need to iron out, but went extremely well! After the Lesson finishes I come to find out that he is 85 years old. He has others beat... by a bit!
Well all the brothers here are doing well, thank you for all of your prayers! Lots of love!
Elder Townsend







Happy Mother's Day!


Hello and happy Mother's day!
It was great to hear from everyone! Voices sounded pretty great for the most part! (The only weird thing about voices is the clarity and my hearing)
Well kind of already talked, but there are some things I realized I didn't have time to share some moments from this week! For example most of our contacting is out on the street so we meet lots of people. In Taipei there are lots and lots of people so sometimes running to people more than once is rare. However, the taiwanese believe in Destiny or Fate however you would like to call it. So if you run into people more than once fate is taking its place. So we ran in to a Mr. Huang a view times and we set a time to meet and share the gospel with him this week. He has us come to his "house/dormitory". He lives in what we would consider to be an apartment that is split off into a bunch on smaller room boxes. Inside of each box (I am assuming) is room for a bed, maybe a desk and that's it. No other room so maybe 7 feet wide and 10 feet long. So like I said really little. Well We go sit down and he starts telling us how he is trying to get in correspondence with the president of Taiwan to help prove this story he has and to re-establish his natural state. He claims he is Obama's father. He said he used to speak English and have blonde here, but when he came here his body and mind went through a change. He forgot English and everything and because of it, Obama won't accept him as his father so he needs the president of Taiwan to help him find his real self. But that doesn't even start the crazy part of this guy. He also claimed that our world is a product of two other worlds colliding together to form this world and we in a way knwo about the old worlds. They are in way here on this earth as well. Its similar to one of holigraphics that as you turn it turns into another picture. For example you see a tiger and when you tilt the picture you see something new or new tigers, etc. Well Apparently on one of those worlds he was old Jesus Christ. Elder Montalto confirmed it by showing him a picture of christ and asking if it was him. He said yes that was him. He said he was crucified but never died. Also that there would be a new Jesus Christ who would come to save us. Being a little blown a way we said we said a prayer with him and wished him a great day. Its weird though, as you look in his eyes he doesn't really look crazy. Maybe just a little empty. I don't know.
Well this week Xiao yun xiang is getting baptized! He passed his baptismal interview and in church he had spiritual experiences that answered some questions he had! So the Lord does answer prayers.
Chen ba came to church! ha Handsome old man. Real stud. Came in a shirt and tie. Looked good and loved feeling of church. It was great to have his daughter there pushing him along. I'll try to get a picture with him this week so you can see what a great guy he is. Loves to eat has formed a nice big round belly but a funny very loving man. Very smart and capable of many things. Usually we go to his house to meet. He has done very well with his business ventures. Now we just need to keep him moving along in his spiritual journey!
Well this week we spent 4 hours in a police station trying to figure out Elder Montalto's stolen bike. Killed a lot of proselyting time unfortunately. The police stations here are really relaxed. I guess I really never visited them in America but here its so whatever. Almost could go there to hang out. But They were good and really passionate about finding his bike but unfortunately all the results were in vain as nothing pulled up.
Well lots of Love!
Elder Townsend!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Hola!


Hello!
This week is great! Lots of great things, in fact in was pretty short because we had temple day on Wednesday so I don't have a whole lot to share but here are a few things! Also I know you are curious about what the area I live in is like. I will do my best to explain it...
Current area is Neihu District. It is considered part of the taibei city. It is a really expensive area so we have lots of wealthy accomplished people walking around, however that doesn't included everyone. Taipei has a really cool MRT system that runs throughout it. Makes things really convenient. In our area we have about 6 stops or so and those sometimes will feed people out that we try to filter through in contacting. Lately we have been tracting and has brought some success and some future success. In the past tracting usually includes running into a bunch of old grandmas and grandpas who love their incenses. (Bai bai worshipping) so its been a little bit difficult but lately it has been going well. Getting in contact with a couple of families and hopefully we can get them to grasp the gospel's iron rod! In Taipei and a lot of cities because it is a city they will put parks in everywhere so they can go exercise. They have some little weird exercise gagets and a little greenery and stuff. Some are just beautiful. My area is more of the residental part of the city, so during the daytime hours its a little hard to find because people are out at different districts or cities working. So we contact a lot of people from different places because they are here for business.
The people in Taiwan are work aholics. It is ridiculous how much they work sometimes. In their thought process, one of the greatest reasons we are here is to get a good job and to work. Eat, sleep, work. Eat, sleep, work. It is really taxing and they get 60 or so retire. When they retire they go fishing everyday or go drink all the time. They all desire the same life as their neighbor. They really don't like change. It eats a lot of taiwanese up this process, but they don't any other way that could bring them money or anything so they stick with it. The ones who realize this process and want to get out of it are the ones that we try to find. They at least think that religion will be good. Can direct their lives, give it a spiritual support/crutch. However, when they start using the principles they start seeing changes. At that point it is up to them to accept or reject what we are sharing.
I love this place, I love sweating profusely because of the humidity, the nasty smell and taste of the air as you are trying not to get hit by a bus, car or scooter or even a taxi. Buses and taxis are the worst.
I love this people. Sometimes it gets hard, but when I can remember why I love them its a lot easier. Sometimes its frustrating to always get "politely" rejected, but I am grateful that they don't just stop, start screaming, and have a panic attack. (That's usually the Americans. We are way too dramatic)
People!
Old man qiu lian de set a baptismal date! It was a huge miracle! Its been about a month or so since we have started meeting with him and this last time, he set it and in his prayer, it was beautiful. He expressed the feelings of his heart and it really felt like he had progressed so much!
Next xiao yun xiang! So close he gets baptized in two weeks! Right now we are finishing up a last few things, but he is solid. Knows the Book of Mormon is true and the bishop peiked the other day and when he was there he had an amazing experience for trying to keep the sabbath day holy and he shared it with lil xiao! brother Xiao was absolutely blown away by the experience. He was so excited and kept looking down at the scriptures as if the words were coming out speaking to him.
Meet lots of new friends and one of the them came to church! It was great we had three people to church which is huge! Weng yu (howard) came! He is doing well, our current goal is to help his mom start studying the gospel. Its a process but it will happen! Next is his dad!
Well lots of love and always keep pushing! Even when you are sick of it, feel like desire or faith or whatever is gone keep going because God will reward the perseverant!
Elder Townsend

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Hello!


Time flies. I honestly don't know where it goes. This is such swirl. Well I just hope and pray that it is going the way the Lord wants it go.
This week see saw some pretty cool miracles. For example thursday. A couple of days earlier I met bruce lai on the street and set him up at the church. He came and he brought a friend. They both were willing to be baptized. They both had a christian background, but not the most devout background. They both sought for some form of change in their lives. That night we also saw lots of miracles. Back to back lessons with great people. Some of them like bro. Zeng just made us laugh the whole entire time. His personality was not the average taiwanese man and he was all over the place. Qiu lian de is hilarious as well. He is a 60 year old man and he is starting to progress a again. Our current goal is to get him to read the Book of Mormon and pray daily. I hope everyday that these people can feel of the spirit and move forward in faith. There are so obstacles. I just want them to feel the love of the Lord. That they do have a place among all of this. Sometimes its hard to display it perfectly in words. Chinese can be a real kick in the behind, but if we can give the message to them in there native tongue how much more likely it is to have meaning and bring the spirit and spirit of understanding.
I wanted to talk about Xiao yun xiang. He is doing great. He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon already. He believes in Joseph Smith restored the church because of the Book of Mormon. He has felt that the Savior is real because of the Book of Mormon and it testifying of Christ. This week we went on a temple tour with him in the heart of taipei. He has opened up a lot and is doing great. He is committed to baptism on 19th. So we will continue to push and work together with him for that date. There are lots of members that are so supportive of him.
This week meet some cool people and prepared people all around. For example Taiwan has this stuff called binlang, betel nut, a really nasty chew like tobacco. I had the thought that I needed to give one of guys sitting behind the stand a tract. He took it and he said he was Christian and would like to learn more about Christ and how to change his life. Also talked to a German who was so pumped and excited to meet us. We talked and we had a desire to learn more but we have to ask the other missionaries to share with him the Gospel. Probably one of the most special events for me was helping Mr. Zhou out. He was sitting in a wheel chair outside and he did not look good. He had scars and scabs covering his body. Legs were badly deformed and had a catheter attached. After a while he said that he needed to leave. I asked him if I could do anything to help and he asked me to carry him up to his house. He lived on the fourth floor of the apartments. I more than willingly accept his offer. As he got onto my back I realized how light he was. I was imagining him to be heavier and as I moved up the stairs he felt lighter and lighter. I know God truly cares for him. He has had some "rough" spots to say the least but I know we were supposed to be there to touch his life at that time. However big or small the impact was.  
Today we are off to the temple. 


Lots of love