Kickin' it in the streets October 27, 2013

Hello.

Well this week has actually gone so fast, I didn't wake up thinking "it's p-day!" I actually woke up thinking, alright today is wednesday and what do we have planned. Didn't realize time would move fast.

Well this last week was good! 

Monday as we were finishing P-Day, we were in an area called Hung Hom. It has the best HK style waffle there. So my companion was getting one and I decided to talk to the shop owner guy next to it. He was selling lots of jade and other rock things. As we were talking, he shared how he learned to make it all and pretty much a little part of his life story. It was awesome he was such a cool guy. As we were talking, I was amazed by his work. I wanted to buy a necklace that is like usually jade and it a ring. Its like the peace ball thing (just look at the picture) but they were pretty expensive. I asked him if he had cheaper and he said (I hate quoting because I don't know how to translate..), hmmm oh wait yes, for you I do. you are my friend. And he grabbed one and he said only 1 dollar! and I refused but he persisted. Finally we settled an agreement on 1 dollar. He said money has not importance he doesn't want it all sitting with him when he is dead. He gave me some kind of one. I didn't feel too bad because it wasn't jade, but I thought it was so cool he gave me one. He is a good friend. We invited him to bring his grandchildren to church or english class so hopefully we will see him one day.

Oh we had another miracle. We went to go visit a less active member and while we were going up to the door of the place.... it was locked. So as we turned around to leave, a man walked up and opened it. we got in! look Heavenly Father needed us going up there. as we went up to the place, holy cow I felt just like super scared for some reason. Just like super weird. Warm and just heavy footsteps. So I said a little prayer and then just knocked. The door answered and the member had moved to mainland. But his son was there. We had a good chat and gave him a mormon.org card and put him on our email system. He was way cool. Hopefully we can find a time to meet again. Definitely Heavenly Father needed us to talk to him.

Later this week we were able to meet with some more Less Active members. One was this incredible artist guy. He does calligraphy now. His house was filled with artwork of ancient china and was just elegant. so awesome. He said he will write a scripture for us in Chinese calligraphy! He was so awesome.

Also the other day when we were walking home one night, we took a different way. As we were going to cross the street, we heard a man yell elders! This one guy came up to us and asked for english book of mormon! We ran and grabbed one. We found out he was teaching in mainland and came for a new visa. While he has been here, his friend has been reading the Doctrine and Covenants with him because that is where she is. He feels so happy from the scriptures. and really wanted to read the Book of Mormon so while he was in HK he really wanted to see us. and... he did!!Definitely miracles.

alright this key board is sooooo sticky. but I am done.

sorry if  hard to read.

Loves!

Elder Townsend

took elder goronson too the island real quick!

this is my awesome suit passed down from Elder Tyau to Elder Christensen to me!

The hand-me-down suit

Awesome friend Roy!

My friend Mr. Wong

Finding at old  awesome park

Bro. Foo birthday

TST lovin' October 20, 2013

So I am loving my new area it is so great! I still can't believe how big it is! Elder Goronson and I have been heading around and been able to get some solid finding time in! In fact, Heavenly Father has just been blessing us with miracles as we go along! 

Alright want to know a fun fact. Elder Goronson and I were out finding and we stopped to talk to this one guy who was reading some papers and like a magazine the other day. He was kind of in a random spot, not waiting for the bus or anything. Well as we stopped to talk to him he was like looked at us then looked down and reached for his pocket. I was expecting him to pull out his phone and turn off his music to talk to us or something like that. Nope. Instead he pulled out a badge and was like I am a police officer, I am on duty right now. I am busy. We totally talked to an undercover officer maybe. Yeah, cool story.

Anyways, so this week started off awesome. Tuesday night while we were out finding, we were checking out an area and it wasn't the best for finding so we decided to leave. As we were going, I decided we should stop in Hung Hom and check out an area. I wasn't sure if this was me just wanting to see the Island lit up at night or if this was the spirit hinting. So we decided to go. Well while we were walking on the Promanade, right before we left the area we ran into a man. Usually the foreigners won't talk to us here so it was weird to have someone come up to us, but then he introduced himself as Brother Adler from Germany. Then he talked to us for a bit and we came to find out that he has been doing business here in HK for 18 years and he was a great man. He wanted to go look at the light night show they do across the harbour at night with us. We had a little time so we decided to go walk with him, talk and watch the show too. Mainly we just talked. He was sharing some great things with us and it just felt so good to talk to him. He talked a lot about really understanding priorities and the importance of looking to eternity and really signaling in on what life is and the blessings of it. It was amazing what he shared. As we were leaving I asked him "now remind me brother, what was your name again?" he then was like "brother, well actually Elder Adler. I am in the third quorum of the Seventy. So I am a general Authority." It was so cool, we met a General Authority and able to talk with him for a little time! He was inspiring. One of my most favorite parts though, was after chatting with him, I went to shake his hand goodbye and he pulled me in and gave me a hug. I could just feel love in his embrace and just honestly, Christ's love. and that was what I needed to remember, we can all show Christ's love and be able to share it with others. I knew it was definitely God's hand that placed us there. In Chinese we say something like God's will or hand in things.. I don't really know how to translate it, but that was definitely the perfect time for that word! haha

Well after being able to chat with Elder Adler, the days that followed were miracles. It felt as each time Elder Goronson and I went out finding, we were able to stop people and teach them . We were able to pray with them and bear witness that God is their Heavenly Father and that He is wanting to help them. We were also able to share on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how it can bless our lives and bring us closer to God by following the words of it. 

I also was able to learn of the true power of fasting this week. I know that through our sacrifice, God will help us. After I fasted this week, after that God supplied. He helped me just be able to understand when others spoke to me and helped me share my feelings. We also were able to commit our investigator to baptism! He is awesome, we will have to work with him and help him get ready for baptism. also need to get him coming to church! 

All in all this week went super fast, but was jam packed of the tender mercies of God. 

Like one of my most favorite little mercies is a man named Jack Swagger. well I don't know if that is his last name, but it should be. As we were walking around last monday night, I was like seriously? what am i doing here! this is so hard and blah blah blah.. you know thinking of myself. But then all of a sudden i hear, "now what are you doing out here in these neck of the woods?" my first thought was, woh haven't heard that in awhile and then I see this guy with a basketball, thug look and big ole smile. Came to find out he was born and raised in the "beautiful, blessed, glorious state of Florida." Jack was hilarious he shared of how he is sharing of Jesus, and how He has blessed him. Then, since he was in a rush to play ball, said to us, "you keep up that work. You keep your heads up and walk with strength, walk with Jesus! Bring as many souls to Him as you can! God bless you!" that was when I was like, yep, i am doing this. And all my lame attitude was gone and the worked started. Thank you Jake.

Seriously this reminded me of the importance of just keeping that attitude of faith and just remembering that hey it doesn't matter, we got good things to come. Smile and do work. 

Well I don't know what else to say.

sooooo

love you.

loves

Elder Townsend

1. me and the cat. This is the Wong's family cat named Blessing

2. Happy Birthday to you know, us. Thanks to Brother Foo.

3. Hitting up Dim Sum with Hank, A-Po, and Jarvan.

City Life October 13, 2013

Well it's official. I am now in my second area!! I am pretty excited! It'll be really good, filled with new adventures and miracles... I hope! So I just got transferred to an area called TST. Tsim Sha Tsui (honestly, i dont know how it is spelled yet...) But this area is HUGE! It includes so much area, like tons of places. In fact, I have only seen a wee bit of it so far. 

But what is it? The city!!! Yep, I am in the city now! It's wild. Super busy. Tons of people. Awesome. We live in Mong Kok (which is our area) and we live over the famous Lady Street. Basically one of those cheap fake stuff places that attracts everyone. But I am loving it out here, it is really awesome. I have been only able to meet a few ward members so far and they are awesome, super nice. My new companion is Elder Goronson. He got here last move and has really good chinese so far. He also has a huge desire to learn it which is super good for me because that'll help me have a better desire! haha Elder Goronson is really cool and I am really looking forward to this move, I think it will go really well.

Well this weekend was conference weekend for us out here in the land of Hong Kong. Man, I wish we could watch it like twice in a  row. I feel like so sad when it is over because it was so good hearing the words of the prophets. Oh and it kind of was hard for me to understand all of the conference because some people spoke english too fast.. haha as in, I am super used to slow english now and when some people spoke it was a little fast. I really liked what they shared though. 

I liked the HUGE focus on missionary work and also the amount of using the Atonement. One thing that really stuck out to me was when President Monson shared that there is light and there is sorrow. But through the best and the worst, He is always there. I love how Christ is always there for us, through it all. I know that is true because I truly have felt that. I also liked the focus on families and also less active member work. As we were at a members home last night, we shared a message on happiness. We watched a video on Mormon Messages called Our Fun Family Vacation. After watching this we talked a lot on families and where we find happiness. One thing that the members shared is through the gospel and their family they have found happiness. That the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation brings them happiness. It is true that through God we will find happiness and that through our family we find it as well. I am so thankful that I am able to have an awesome family and I have been able to learn a lot and learn love. 

Alright, I only had 30 minutes today at the library (and the computer wouldn't turn on for 10 of that!) so I am out of time now. Sorry it is short. I am doing good. Life is good. This mission is good stuff. I have all limbs and every thing. Hopefully I get hit by a car. That'd be cool. obviously with no damage to me.

Loves

Elder Townsend

Prayer works Oct. 6, 2013

On Monday we were looking for a less active member's home to visit them and we couldn't find it. The road that the address had on it and the building didn't match up. We had asked people where it was and they were not sure. So what did we do? well pretty obvious, we prayed. After prayer Elder Kwan and I were guided. We were walking a way we felt was right, and then we felt we needed to ask a person where to go. So we asked the person and they knew where to tell us to go. 

Then as we continued walking (honestly this would look like an epic scene in a movie, rain drizzling, dark night with street lights, taking random turns) and then we eventually ran right into the place. As we got there we made our way up the stairs to the home. Sadly, when the person opened the door and saw us, it was put back into the shut position. That was a little bummer because we had this amazing direction to them and when we finally got to them, they didn't want to talk.

 But I was able to strengthen my testimony in the power of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. and I hope the people felt that we truly loved them and that's why we continued forward in searching for them. I hope they remember how much Christ loves them.

Well on Tuesday that night, my bones started shaking and my skin started tingling. Then it was like that for the rest of the week. You know one of those crazy chinese illnesses that get the white people like me. I pretty much had a nice fever, got something like strep, and my body didn't want the food. So I spent some time on the bed sleeping. But since I sleep on the inner top bunk, I got tired of climbing out of the bed and almost falling to my doom everytime that I ended up sleeping on the nice tile ground. Which might I add was very comfortable. I took a blanket and just laid there. Luckily the tile was cool and the fan was rotating. And now I am here standing well sitting typing an email without really any fever anymore or anything. Just a cough. Thanks to Sister Hawks who helped me out a lot in my sickness. She is great. Seriously she could be a doctor after the mission. haha

The reason why I was healed. Well because I got a priesthood blessing from my fellow missionaries. I know that through God's power I was able to get better. Even though it took awhile, I was able to get better and not have anything bad happen. 

Oh! a cool miracle happened. So the first day, wednesday, I wasn't feeling to well, we had a lesson that was really important. Going to go visit a mother and her son. Mainly the mother wanted us helping her son. Well as we were walking over, I was feeling miserable but I knew we needed to teach this lesson. So as we were starting to walk into the building, I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to remove this sickness at least just for the lesson so we could effectively teach it and have the spirit. Well as I walked into the door, I felt normal, I felt good. Then after the lesson right as we walked out the sickness got me again. I thought it was so cool how Heavenly Father allowed me to be healed for that time. That is just another testimony builder that He sure does listen and answer.

Well I am not sure what else to type.

Loves

Elder Townsend

1. elder crump and I on exchanges

2. sports

Church house in Tai Po

Elder Crump and Elder T