Mammy's Pancakes June 22,2014

Well this week was a good week. It started off with us heading out to my old area of Hung Hom at the beginning of Preparation day. This sister that I had been with since the start of my mission was heading home and needed to get jade. Sister McKown was in my district so I let her know I had the hook-ups so we all headed out of the new territories to the city.  So heading back to Hung Hom was great. I felt so good because we headed over to this old man's shop Mr. Wong, I had written about him probably forever ago, and when we walked up he was like "my friend! my friend!" then he gave me a big old hug. I wasn't sure who was more happy to see each other, me or him. I had went to say goodbye to him before I left to Tuen Mun so he asked about that. Well he ended up selling a lot of jade to our group of 8 and was happy. He always tries to give me something for free because "friends don't talk money." but I gave him 20hk. I love him, hilarious, wise old man. 
Then we went to this place called "Mamm'y Pancakes" to go get some HK style waffles. Super good, best in hong kong. The lady had moved locations so we had to go find the place. She wasn't open so we waited and well since it was Sister McKown's last pday, things worked out. She showed up and opened up. We were stoked. I felt on top of the world because the lady also "cheng'd" me to a "gaai daan jai" It felt good to be back to see these people. 

Well this week we taught our investigator Anderson. I wrote about how we had called him after he went to the temple to pray and all last week. Well we met with him again and he is a special man. The Spirit felt so strong in his lesson. He is just such an amazing man. I don't even know how to describe. Since he has had a lot of hard things recently, we had been thinking a lot of what to share with him and how to let him see the Lord will strengthen him. I found myself reading President Uchtdorf's talk "Grateful in Any Circumstance" from this April's general conference and realized we needed to share with him about gratitude on how that will change everything for him. How giving a day of only pure gratitude prayers will make us feel God's love so much stronger. 

I have put this to the test many times and seen its power, so we were excited to have him do this. We taught on gratitude and shared out of 1 Nephi 18 just as president Uchtdorf had as well. We focused a lot on how in his trial that Nephi praised the Lord and then when he was released, he asked the Lord for peace in the waters. He really enjoyed it and saw on how it could benefit, that rather than to complain of the problems to see how much support there has been. He has incredible faith in prayers being answered and how God gives him support. As he shared about that, we were prompted to talk on the Light of Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost of how special it is to receive that gift after we are baptized. On how God will answer us. He already knew God does, he just needed to understand how. I am so grateful for the guidance and ability each day to have the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We bore testimony of the power of gratitude and the blessings of it. I know that gratitude changes us, because i feel it changing me everytime I focus on it. I love the Lord, He is so great. I wish I could always do right. But He strengthens me and gives me the courage to change and that I am thankful. The Holy Ghost truly benefits our lives for so much good. It is the gift that we should always maintain or desire. We will work with Anderson so he can receive one day! 

oh and we will be having preparation day next friday. We have a special temple day next week as a zone. the temple president has invited us missionaries to come.

Loves

Elder Townsend

Aiya June, 16,2014

This week sure was pretty quick.

So Tuen Mun is going well. Starting to get to know the ward more and sure just loving them. It is a little different than my last ward so it is cool. I get to learn different things! In fact it was fun because yesterday before church, a member from TST ward member walked in to attend our meeting. He was there visiting a family for their sons baptism, but I sure was excited to see him. We worked together visiting a lot of Less-Active members and finding their homes. He even hiked up the 10 floors houses with us in the hot little stairways! It was great talking to him.

This week we had a couple of cool experiences. Basically we needed to be better at calling people at nights, so we pulled out the books and have been calling people more often. In the second night of this we were calling some people and I felt I needed to call this random lady that I saw her old teaching record. She hadn't had contact with missionaries in over 3 years so I was hesitant, but decided to call. She answered and told me she was busy and I said (english translation) "with what a ma?" and she was like "I am moving laa!" so then I was like, "Hold up, when are you moving?" and she said "like tomorrow or something like that ama!" so I responded "Well funny because we can help la! Do you need our help a?" and she was like "For real?" and I answered "of course la!" So all in all, we found time to come over and we helped her move out of her house that friday. It was a little miracle. She seemed stressed out by it, didn't really know how to move, and was having a driver come pick up the stuff. She asked us how did we know to call her? she hadn't talked to missionaries in a long time. Had Jesus told us? We bore testimony to her of the love of God for her. And that He will guide us to help others if we allow Him to. I told her that I had a thought that I should call her so I did. I let her know that the Holy Ghost could guide her life for the better. It is so true. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father loves us all and willing to use us benefit others. It just once again built and strengthened my testimony of the power of obedience. That the blessings are really given.

Also it was even cooler because my companion had called a recent former investigator that night as well who didn't pick up. Then later the guy called back and scheduled us. When we met up he told us what had led up to the call. Basically life was being really hard on him and had a lot of pressures. He happened to be out in Kowloon Tong and near our temple. He felt that he needed to go pray so he went to the temple. He couldn't go in so he said a prayer outside of it in the garden area. He prayed to his Heavenly Father for help. Then that night he got a call from us. He was busy so he couldn't pick up but he knew that the Lord had heard him and answered. I love of the faith that I see people exercise in prayer. Of the power and answers that they receive. The Lord is so loving, it amazes me every time. It just made me think a lot of President Eyring's talk in priesthood session of General Conference when he speaks about how prayer will change us and it will surprise us how much. I love how he talks about praying to be grateful and to pray with more real intent. I could do that a lot better at times. But every time I do, life gets happier. 

That is all I got to say this week.

Loves

Elder Townsend

bowling for preparation day! I got that curve ball down.

Yep.... June 8, 2014

Hello. Well this week was pretty quick because we mainly spent a lot of time helping out some elders. We had an elder in our zone go to the hospital and so we had to make sure things were alright and stay with his companion. That took out a couple of days but he is doing great now so all is good! :)

Alright super cool news, I am officially a missionary. Why? Because I rode a bicycle for the first time as a missionary. There is only one area in our mission with bikes and I went on exchanges there this friday. It is our in Yuen Long. Also I met former Elder Wong who serve in the Folsom's ward! Pretty wild! So we went out there and we went to go remind a semi-active member about church so that she would come. 

While we were riding bikes I was just filling high on life. So happy. Then when we were on our way back, there was this man riding by me. (we are in the boonies) and I start talking to him. He was cool, but he had to turn the other way to go to a junk yard he worked at. Then later down the rode we were talking to some people, a man from pakistan who was awesome, and the man from before went riding by and stopped for a little by us then kept going. When we left we were going down the rode and he was waiting for us and he was like, "where is your church?" so we told him and talked. He is from Nigeria and just a nice man. Out in this area is a lot of refugees. We talked with him and ended up praying with him. He was super happy and just super nice. He said he loved to hear the word of God. We talk a lot on how prayer can really give him support because it'll bring him closer to Heavenly Father. He has his family still living in Nigeria so we talked about them and how God will care for them. It was so great. I was so happy talking to him. I was so excited I was like, "you know, me and you and him (my companion) we are all brothers! We are all one big family so we got your back." and he was super happy and was like yeah we are! We are all brothers no matter where we are from. Just some loving.

Other than that we had a Mission Leadership Council this week. President talked a lot on teaching. On how important it is to teach, that it would be the thing that will stick with us our entire life. He also shared on getting rid of contention and making sure we continue on working for exact obedience. I am really impressed by the missionaries we serve with. Everyone works for it. We have something in our mission we call creep. It is the little things that slowly creep into our lives from not allowing us to become the best we can and obstructing us from being exactly obedient such as sleeping in a couple of minutes rather than being out of bed on time. Or even just the simple thing of spending a couple of minutes talking to other missionaries before we head out. I have learned through always striving to be obedient, that God truly does bless us. The scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants section 130, i think 21 when it talks about we are blessed through obedience. I find that so true. It just makes me want to strive to always be obedient teh rest of my life. It is hard, but it is so worth it. 

Shoot. This week was quick, but good. Just trying to work hard and find people to bring to baptism. We are really working right now to find people to teach progressively and help someone be baptsized in July!

Loves

Elder Townsend

Finally a "real" missionary- riding a bike!

Dragon Boats!!! June 2, 2014

Aight, so today is a public holiday and we didn't book computers so I only got 10 minutes on this puppy. 

So today is a holiday for Dragon Boat Festival. It is a grand fun one. In fact the races were today so we got to go watch some of them! So rad, The story behind the holiday is good and very interesting. (true story) and a part of it is where they make these sticky rice dumplings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are called jung. They are pretty good. It was cool we went over to a semi-investigators house and we made them with the family! It was a great experience, they told me the story of the holiday as well. 

Well not terribly too much happened this week because we were busy with meetings and helping out some other missionaries. We had zone conference and it was incredible. President Hawks is the most amazing people I have met. He is very powerful and truly lives the gospel. I won't be surprised to hear his name being spoken next spring conference to be a general authority! (that's what my companion and i decided) He has really taught us obedience and continuing to teach us. He really lets us see that there is more to obedience than following the rules. Also I just see him live every little thing that he asks us missionaries to do. For instance he asks us to carry a book of mormon in our hand wherever we go so people can see it. Sure enough, everytime I see him, without fail, he has a book of mormon as well! That is just a simple thing, but he really is teaching me so much! I love President Hawks! 

So Elder Chan and I are trying really hard to find an investigator that is willing to meet with us and also that is really solid. We don't really have anyone right now.. So we are just praying hard and searching every day for someone. We really want to be part of July and help someone be baptized then. That would be such a special day for that person to be baptized when we are celebrating pioneers!

The other day I was talking to this guy on the street and he wasn't too sure if he was really too sure about christian anity (i can't remember what it is called..) Anyways I was sharing about my beliefs of God and Christ. While sharing he was tell me of some experiences when you knew! so I started telling him simple experiences and how when I make decisions with God, it really works out for the better. After talking to him, he left. But after that, i couldn't just help think of all the help that Heavenly Father has given me. That night I thought a lot about how I know that He lives. How i know that God is truly our Heavenly Father. Through the experiences I had and i couldn't help just be grateful. In the Liahona for this month there was a talk that was by Bishop Causse and he talked about praying and searching for the existance of God and how he will make it known. I really liked that. I am out of time so i cant write more...

Loves!

Elder Townsend

"Always carry a Book of Mormon in your hand" Pres. Hawks

Elder Chan & Elder T

Hello May 25, 2014

Alrighty then, this week, hmm...

Well it started of interestingly. Basically I wrote hoping that the weather would be nice and that night Elder Chan and I were walking and we saw a lightning in the distance and he goes "i think it might rain." and I was thinking maybe..  Well as we were walking in an non covered area it rained big rain. We were drenched from head to toe. It was a good laugh and just be a funny memory. Got to love those little things. Elder Chan is such a great companion and missionary. Love the guy! i mean elder! 

The next night was also lots of rain so no one was out. I mentioned to my companion that the night was going slow so in order to match it i was going to walk in slow motion for a bit. in the 10 seconds of me walking in slow motion a guy walked by and laughed. We talked for a second, had to make sure he knew we did more than that slow motion walking and he was nice. Said he was happy to see someone enjoying life. Yep, i try sometimes. :)

The next night was also a little interesting. As we were out in a estate area looking for people to teach, there was this man who was running and stopped at us, he said something and was off. Then later we ran into him. He was out of breath and looking at us with a type of worried eyes. He kept said he wanted to learn and understand about our church. We tried to get him to sit down but he was panicky and also said he was cold. He was on drugs. He said he wanted to change and he didn't like it anymore. Then he ran off. We both had the feeling we needed to help him that night before we went home so we went walking around and ran into him again. We had talked to him a lot and kept telling him things would be alright and all that stuff. He was walking up stairs of a place and we weren't going to let him get to the top of the roof. We finally got him to come with us and get some water. So i ran into 7eleven and bought him a water. We kept walking with him, trying to understand him, and he slowly drank his water. after talking for awhile we had him pray with us. It was neat because during the prayer he stopped moving completely and just listened. Afterwards he was much calmed down and we directed him home. He was pretty far gone when we had met him at first and really panicked. But eventually we were able to help him out. We gave him our number aka we slipped it into his pocket. Hopefully if he really wants to change he will call us. It was a good chance to be able to help someone. To see the true power of prayer from us while we were with him and then the prayer we said with him. I know that Heavenly Father loves him and I know that Christ will help him, no matter his situation. I just hope he will acknowledge it and do right. 

It is special to be able to help all kinds of people out here. The people of the every day personal stresses to the people of larger problems. The coolest part is that it is always the same solution and problem fixer. Christ and then starting to exercise faith to Him. It all begins there. I like it.

We went to the bishop's house on saturday night and met with him. He is a really great guy. He really wants to help us missionaries out and is thinking of places to find and how we can help more people. He was telling us that youtube is filled with great messages from our church so he tries to find ideas on his way to work. He is great. Also he loves war games (air soft) and has a ton of guns so he cracked those out as well. haha

that is all i got. 

Loves

Elder Sugar

Hey Oh! May 18, 2014

So this is a quick one because I just wrote a couple of days ago.

So this week went super quick. We had a few baptismal interviews we gave for some missionaries in our zone. It was pretty awesome. I always love giving interviews because you can just feel the desire these people have to follow Christ and the faith that they have. It always is rejuvinating (however it is spelled) to hear their testimonies. There is this one old man who is being baptized for the mandarin elders that is so great. He is about 80 and is as strong as an ox. He also is tall. He attends our ward so we've been able to chat with him. He reminds me of my grandpa Pops. Same haircut and about the same height. He loves talking to everyone and loves to learn this stuff. He also loves old jazz. He sang a little of it for a second the other day. When he was younger he attended an English school so he can speak some english. 

This week was a chaam (bummer type thing) because our super awesome investigator, Pip, has to go to a different ward. He is the counselor of the stake presidency nephew and was introduced to us. Then a few weeks later we found that where he lives is not in our area. He is the coolest kid too. 18years old and so nice. I loved teaching him. Loves learning these things and a solid, genuine guy. Hopefully he will enjoy the other ward he will attend and there will be people he knows there. It is always a bummer to turn someone over but always just pray that they stay strong and happy that he is still learning!

We weren't able to have too much success teaching on the street this week, so hopefully going to see some things work out for the better this week! We have a pretty open week so that means lots of time on the street! All we need is the weather to permit (knock on wood!) 

There really isn't really anything to write on for this week because I don't really have much to say. 

Loves,
Elder Townsend

the only picture i have is to show you how humid it was after the temple. Most people think it is fog! Couldn't even see us outside.