I make dough but don't call me dough boy... August 25, 2013

 Hello. 

Well this week was crazy and fast. Basically it was consumed with EEFY. Yeah its called english especially for youth. So basically we do stuff with the youth like play games and make stuff and speak english. The stake basically was in charge of it this year and we were to just to the teaching and what not.. you know, being the foreigners and all so the english is our mother tongue. 

They chose the theme as Stripling Warriors. So the first day was filled with wars. We played capture the flag and also a balloon fight. Capture the flag was hilarious because no one understood the rules and it was on our little basketball court so it ended up being hilarious.

 Then the next day we made food. The whole theme was to follow with exactness- such as recipes and what not. Well the hilarious thing is that they had put the young women in charge of bringing the supplies. Well some didn't show. So for instance, we made pizza. The cheese person never showed... haha so we had to run to a random store (cheese isnt too big here) and finally found some. The american cheese? the individual sliced plastic cheese? We call it fake cheese back home. haha Well  we got that and used it. And the dough also didn't cook so it was like we had stretchy mozeralla cheese. haha Anyways we also made tacos. Well the taco seasoning girl didn't show up either. haha so it was just a ball. We improvised really well. And lets be honest, none of the people here have ever tried a taco anyways so it was good. When we asked people if it was good, some kid said no. I asked him why? and he yells "taco hou syun!!!" which means it is very sour. Well its because this little genius taco was mainly sour cream hahahaha. too funny. 

Well this Friday at Engllish class we had a special visit. This lady, lets call her Polly, showed up  like an hour early and sat in the room and kinda napped. Well before english class, we talked to her and I came to recognize her. I meet here a few months back with Elder Goodrich. She hasn't come to church in long time. Kinda very interesting when we first met her. Well through English class she was good. Then at the end after the missionaries shared a spiritual note, she stood up saying she wanted to say something. She stood up and started telling us an experience she had. It started when she had cancer-a tumor. It needed to be removed. Well while she was very sick, she had an experience. and this is kind of how it goes translated and to simplified quick email writing. she said she saw a pillar of blue light, over her head. It was very bright and descended upon her. This light then surrounded her and lifted her up and took her away. She then was taken to a place that was very beautiful. While she was there, a man came to her to talk to her. guess who it was! yep. Jesus! He came and talked to her and said some stuff. Then she started going into weird stuff. Saying other people say she is crazy, but she knows she is not. By then, Elder Christensen was like "WOW. Isn't that amazing. Now i need you to stop talking. You could say the prayer for us, is that fine? We don't have time and people need to go." She then started saying more and he then told her She seriously needed to stop and say the prayer. But she said she was unworthy to pray. So someone else said it.

Awesome right?

well  that is what my life this week consisted of. Crazies and eefy. 

But we had an investigator at english class share a story. It was really awesome, he shared the first vision from what he had memorized. It was amazing. Joseph Smith's experience when God and Christ visited him is one of the most powerful things I feel that we can share out here. It truly is amazing. I know for a fact he did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I always love sharing that experience because I always feel the spirit burning inside from his experience. I know we get answers for our prayers too. Love this stuff. 

That's all I got. 

Loves

Elder Sugar

eefy days. I had to hit the cameras so that is why i am awkwardly in the front. I panicked and slid across the floor.

EEFY

EEFY

Ho Ka Hong...so awesome- helped me with everything. Moving to Utah for school and was taught by my MTC teacher Bro. Kruman

Raindrops

Hey. so i just typed this email and it deleted on me and wasnt in drafts so it wont be as good as the last one because I just lost 24 minutes. darn. everyones loss i guess. haha

Anyways yeah, we had a typhoon. It didn't pick up until that night and since I live out here in Tai Po, it didn't get us that bad at all.Pretty much all night I heard rain and lots of wind. All the way up at our  26th floor room. 

Well I had alien or bug eggs in my arm. Yeah they planted. But don't worry I took care of it. I got my handy tweezers, hot needle, and alcohol to take care of it. They shouldn't be back anytime soon. And I also talked to Sister Hawks after the procedures and she gave me some ointment and good advice for me. One of them was next time not to do surgery... haha She is the best ever. 

So this week our ward had a party and it was a blast. We had people perform and do stand up comedy. Then Johnny the ward mission leader, had us missionaries on stage. He put a headphone in our ear and we had to try and sing the chinese song outloud and have the people guess it. It was fun and pretty funny as well. Like it wasn't too bad it reminded me of back home when I would speak and just use made up slurred words. like shleh maofin tushanad. But they eventually guessed them! 

My favorite was watching a few of the men standing around the table looking at the desserts before it started. Then while a sister cut some of the dessert thing, they would steal some  and sneakily eat it. too funny. Brother Lam, the one that always calls me elder Sugar, came over and told me about when he was a waiter and would always sneak food to eat. Too hilarious. Showed me the techniques and all. He is the funniest. 

Then yesterday, the bishop had us over with members for dinner. it was great. and I got to meet a guy that was with Buster in the MTC!!!

Food this week.. Well I love this noodle place called Tam Ji. My trainer elder Goodrich LOVED Tam Ji. And while i was with him, i wasnt used to the chinese stuff so I wasn't too into it. But now I love it. It can be pretty spicy where your lips go numb. So good. I sure do miss Elder Goodrich. He was a good man. Wouldn't mind sitting down to some Tam Ji with him. haha

Well finding is fun. Its pretty rad to talk to people. We will find in a chyun, like a square between apartmetns and stuff. We all do seperate finding to talk to all the lots of people, it makes it so we can contact lots more. Well I was able to stop this guy. We talked about his awersome shirt and then about life. I shared about how knowing of Christ and having his help has blessed my life. Then I talked about prayer. We went and sat down on a bench and I was able to pray with him. Afterwards I felt to share the 1st vision with him. Man the 1st vision is just filled with the spirit. after that we talked on how we all are similar to Joseph Smith and can receive answers. He thought that was cool. I shared about the Book of Mormon and he thought it was pretty rad too. It was cool being able to just share with him and laugh and talk and feel the spirit. I hope to see him soon again.

On last pday as we headed to the Mac store to email. we heared "Elder, elder!!" as we turned around we saw a Thai lady running to us. She said she needed our help. She had just gotten to Hong Kong with her daughter and friends and they were going to the Temple. But they were lost and didn't know how to get there. She said she had prayed for help and that seeing us was a miracle! We were able to send them the right way and help them there. 

Prayers sure do work. Sometimes its hard to do or hard to believe itll work, but it totally does. Why not pray? what do you have to lose, nothing. If pray didn't work then oh well. But if it does, then you have everything to gain. And it totally does. So cool.

Jesus Christ is the best.

Loves

Elder Townsend

pics with the group and the other wiht the bishop and his wife

Thank you Apple Store!!! August 11, 2013

Yep.

Well the reason there wasn't an email from me last week is that I write the email for the time I am on the computer and when I don't know what to write I write other people back while I think. Well as I go to start writing it again, a crazy lady comes up and says that I needed to get off the computer. It was her time. I asked the guy and he messed up scheduling me and I only had a half hour (1/2 of that was writing the president) on the computer so I didn't get to send off the letter. whoops. sorry. But hey its all good! I am at the Apple Store writing you a letter on this way cool, brand new, mac book pro. 

The reason why... is I got a new companion! wait, I mean two companions! Yep! I am with Elder Christensen (who I wanted to be comps with super bad because he is super darn cool, way funny, such a good missionary, and a ginger.) and Elder Christensen is training a new missionary by the name of Elder Crump, who just graduated! Nutso. so cool. Anyways I am pretty much just the guy that gets them water when they are thirsty and carry their bags. Its like what-ev.. haha Nah, I guess I am getting a new companion in like 3 weeks so I am definitely going to enjoy this while I can! It is so awesome.

So last week was pretty wild. We had a zone meeting and the zone leaders decided to ask me to "help." They had me stand on a chair and they put a couple farther away. It was resembling  how when you work to help people get to a goal such as baptism, you can't skip steps. you need to prepare and help set up a way for them. SO they asked me to try to get to the other chair. I wasn't sure, but they told me to. So i took the "leap of faith" and it resulted in me landing on the chair which slid on the wood floor making me land flat on my back. Pretty hilarious. I am a stunt man now.. Some of the missionaries got it on film so I will have proof one day.

 

Anyways my Recent-convert Roy blessed the sacrament today!! So legit. he is so darn awesome.

So since all the new missionaries came in this week, they usually go finding once before they go to their new areas. I was lucky and got to take a couple of the new elders finding. It was so darn fun. I realized how my cantonese isn't too bad! But I also found out it is terrible too. I was talking to a guy and eventually found out he was a member... haha I was like can we switch numbers since you are busy. and then I realized he was saying he was a member.. hahaha 

I was blessed with a tender mercy from the Lord big time this last week! Since it was the end of the month, I had no money on me. I had a 20 and that was it. I got mischarged on my octopus card (what you use for buses and train) so I had no money on that. Well we had an appointment at a members and it was far and we didn't want to be late. So we took a taxi and I had to pay. I gave the man my 20 to get $3.50 in change. Well after we left the members we had to take the bus home or we'd be super late. As we were walking up to the bus, I was thinking how I was going to pay for the bus. I knew I only had 3.50 in my pocket and that was it. the bus fare would cost like 4 something to get home.As I walked up I had the feeling to check my pocket. As I reached in and pulled out money, I had 5.50 in my pocket. I had no idea how, but I had enough money. This was a miracle, the Lord had supplied me with the money to go home. As we rode the bus home that night, I was truly amazed. This tender mercy is something I will remember my whole life.

He truly does care for us. I know He does. He helps me many times everyday. This time, I had proof of it in my hands. I will be honest, I had to fight back some tears because I was so grateful. But all I know, is when we do things for Him, He will do things for us. Whether it be we feel so happy for no reason that we just smile, or it be helping us have something we need. God is our Heavenly Father and is willing to bless us. Christ is our Savior and He puts smiles on our faces when we don't know if we can that day. 

I love being a missionary so much. and I am so happy to serve these people in Hong Kong. I struggled with knowing I could serve and love them when I first arrived. But now I know they just need the gospel so much more. 

Once again I am sorry I didn't get my email off last week, but the Apple store isn't kicking me out. so they are cool. the AC is really strong as well. I am cold. That's also all I really can write about. 

oh actually we had a blood drive at the church on Friday, so i got to promote for that and teach people after they donated blood. I totally can say that in Cantonese now too. Cool stuff.

Loves 

Elder Townsend

pics: kool-aid and the new comps

Elder T, Elder Crump & Elder Christensen

Titles are the hardest to make up! July 28, 2013

Well hello.

Alright. my week, i met some cool people!! yep an awesome man that plays the flute! Pretty neat.  I met an old crazy man that gave me his business card. It has a charcoal drawing of himself. In English it has "I can charcoal drawing of myself and like to play accordion." Super legit. Has his number and name too. haha This guy played some Italian sounding music and also played some other fun stuff. 

Then one day we were walking looking for people and I saw this older guy sitting on the side of the wall thing by the river eating some of this "yellow skin" fruit. I had seen it around so I decided to ask him what it was called. He told me and then had us eat fruit with him because he had a lot. haha Super cool guy, just happy to sit and eat fruit with us. It made me smile because I knew that the Lord placed him there to give me another boost of confidence.

Well this week went by fast and it was good!

We had Zone exchanges! It was great! I went with Elder Groesbeck. He is such an awesome missionary. He taught me a lot. We also enjoyed drinking our Kool Aid together. Yes, I love kool aid. Yes, I will love it forever. That is why I am Elder Sugar. 

Alright this is going to be a short one. Sorry, but i just don't know what to write about today. 

Alright It was awesome. The Lord totally is the best.  I was struggling at being pretty scared approaching people and speaking the language. So I decided to make a goal to not care about the how bad the language was and do work. I asked the Lord if I did this if He would just help me during the  time I first contacted them and how long they would be willing to talk. It was great because He totally helped!!  It was great, we were able to stop so many more people this week and teach! I loved it. I knew half the time the people wouldn't understand me because of their faces looked lost.. so then I would be like umm.. smile for a second and then re try saying the topic. It seemed to work! haha they basically answered and prayed and everything. So i know that the Lord helped them understand me.

At church there was a lesson about faith and prayer. The teacher shared about youth conference they just had and the differences between two of the youths prayers. One had asked that the weather would be good enough to allow them to do their activities and if not how to figure out how to still be able to do the activities. While the other youth had prayed the rain would stop and the sun would shine. He shared about how we cannot demand God to change everything for us, but we can have faith in Him to help us out. The first youth prayed that if He couldn't change the weather then at least allow them to know what to do.I really liked this. It got me thinking about what I can do to better serve the Lord. 

Alright, shoot I don't know what I wrote. 

all I can say is that the Lord rules. He totally helped me out so much with contacting people and speaking to them. I love Him so much.

So I was asked about my language skills... hahahaha yeah still terrible. but its like whatever. The weather has been super rainy lately. We had an intense thunder and Lightning storm last night. Loved it!!! Thunder so loud it made your kool-aid shake. But it is hot and sunny now. like real hot.

Im done. I will start to write out my emails before so they aren't so bad... sorry. 

loves 

elder townsend

I met Bruce Lee July, 21, 2013

hello.

how are you?

I am fine thank you.

wow, you're english is so good!

my english very bad laa.

oh...

That is a conversation I have a good amount of the time.

Well this week was a goody. Why? I went to the Bruce Lee statue! It was so awesome. There were so many mainlanders there so it was an experience. Why? Well because they love white people and they would pull out their phone/camera and just take a picture of us. or ask to get one with us. then when Elder Falk and I went to get a picture with Bruce Lee a crowd of mainlanders flocked up to us and we became stars.

 Seriously we just stood there doing different poses the whole time and getting pictures. It was hilarious and I felt famous. Also it was our way of doing proselyting on a P-Day. Look at that, the pictures are going to China!! haha 

We had a new Elder move in. His name is Elder Christensen and he is hilarious. He has one move left after this one. He moved in from the office because the other elder here got a visa and took off for Australia. Elder Christensen is so funny and great. And he is a red head. He reminds me a lot of my friend Bret Smith. So darn similar it cracks me up! So fun

.

Anyways I would like to first point out some fashion tips or things here. 1. the Monsters Inc. Monsters University is HUGE here. Everyone wheres shirts of it or backpacks and bags of it. so super trendy. Next is moles. Yep moles. If you have one, its cool to grow the hair out on it. Basically all the guys I see here have the longest hairs on them. There face is shaved but not the mole. So i don't know if it is a pride thing or a culture thing, but it is cool regardless. Alright this next is my own fashion thing, but I wore and am wearing the same tie for a month. This Wednesday makes a month. it would have been a month last week, but I being a newb didn't wear my tie on one day the 1st week of my tie. I was going to try more, but I cant do it anymore. so i am at least doing a month. 

Food. Durian. It is absolutely terrible. It is onion and bananas combined to make a stinky fruit. terrible. Some members had me try it at a cheng out and it was gnarly. Sister Kwok told me her mother calls it cat crap. so its all good. i ate cat poop.. This family, Kwok family, is so awesome. So nice. Actually one of their daughters is leaving today to go to the MTC. She is going to the San Fransisco Oakland mission and also Oakland temple. This is cool because another elder in our ward is going to that mission too!

Alright on Tuesday and Saturday, we saw some animals.Walking in the city was a rooster. Pretty cool. Then Saturday we came upon 1. Guinea Pig walking in some plants. 2. a colorful parakeet bird. Real fancy. 3. a baby pigeon sitting on a post with an old pohpo (grandma, old women are called grandmas) trying to make it fly. she was doing coos and flapping her arms. 4. some crazy cats that liked us. 5. Tons of toads that would laugh. We would rub the bellies and they would laugh. hilarious. Great day.

Alright, well the Lord is awesome. So this week was a toughy and we weren't having any success. I was really wanting to at least just talk with someone. So finally on Saturday, I saw this guy sitting on a bench eating some ice cream. He was a gentleman and was eating a cone from the new place. So i figured I would ask him about the ice cream. As I approached him, he was like sit down! and then we had a great conversation in English mainly. He had lived in the UK. Well this was just awesome because I have been dying with the language and absolutely terrible. And then I was just having a hard time. So as I prayed this week every day just to talk to someone, Heavenly Father didn't let me down. It was awesome. This guy and I had a fantastic conversation and it made me so happy and feel so great.  He wasn't interested in gospel too much, but he was just super nice and great. It was nice being able to sit down and just talk to someone. 

Well also something super dope was that Roy, my investigator who got baptized two months ago, just got the priesthood!! It was so awesome and great!!! So excited for him. such an amazing experience to see someone who accepted the gospel in his life and being so happy. I love it. so great. Christ is so great and same with his gospel. Well I cant sit still anymore and cant think.

Loves

Elder Sugar or Tohng. But its still the same thing.

1. re-enacting the picture at the mtc

2. elder falk and I posing for the mainlanders.

Met Bruce Lee

 Our Mainlander posse- just a few of them

Elder Falk and I -we just like taking pictures

Eating dau fu fah. It is tofu flower pedals. So good-muh fave

fun pic by my home

Elder Christensen

Kwoks home- awesome family!

Stay classy San Diego!! July 15, 2013

Hello!!!!!!!!!!

Well I didn't email last week because it was Temple Week baby!! So good to be able to go there and just be able to feel the peace and spirit there. love the temple. 

Well not much has happened the past few weeks except 4th of July happened. yeah, it is sad not being in America for it. My companion and I dedicated companionship study to it, so we sang the national anthem, I made a flag and we talked about America. haha So good.

 There is a lady who comes to English class and not really investigating the church anymore take us to a dim sam because we told her it was America's bday. We ate like kings. haha 

Well I guess something that is neat is that I am like a barber. I just cut everyone's hair here. I can do Asian cuts and gwaailouh (its like we are called white devil here... like Ace Ventura) So basically I am getting a lot of practice. We had this former investigator we saw on the street tell us he would come to my shop if i set one up here. he liked my comps cut.

We also had a neat rainstorm where we got caught up finding refuge in a little tin shed while we were finding away from the city. Then the best part after being there for almost an hour (the rain was nuts and we didn't have umbrellas... newbs.) we had these to older Chinese men come up to us. We couldn't escape because there was none. So they proceeded on talking to us (constantly doing the Catholic cross yourself thing) and then they went on talking about war and army. They thanked us personally with handshakes for World War 2. They thanked us for the bomb in Japan...Yeah I wasn't too sure on how to act. but after that we departed ways, never to meet again. haha 

Speaking of men, we have this guy that stands outside of this bar/snooker/no idea place by the church. Well this man is so cool looking. He is a Tri-Ad guy. so legit. always smoking and talking/yelling/cursing at people on the phone. and then pushing his long hair back with his really nice clothes. I always try saying hi, but he ignores. he just looks like a really powerful man too. haha 

Alright well that is pretty much it for that stuff. 

This week we were able to have a pretty awesome experience with a former investigator. So she is the old lady that we ended up not meeting with anymore because of the lack of desire to learn/keep commitments. Well she had always been really bitter because of things that occurred in life. 

One of them that made her sad was that her children would never communicate or visit anymore. they didn't like her. Well we decided to go visit her and just see how she was doing and if we could help her out. As we got to her house she was so excited to see us and introduce me to her son! He had come home. he came from mainland back here to hk to find a job and help with her and the father. 

This was a miracle. I had been praying the past few months for her and if the Lord would allow one of her children's heart to be softened. and He answered my prayers!! When i shared this with her, she was very grateful. But it just hurt my heart that she wasn't willing to open her heart to her Father in Heaven to be blessed. This was a very good learning experience as I learned that Heavenly Father is willing to answer my prayers. I also am learning more on the patience and trust in God. I felt that this wait felt long at the time, but now the wait was worth it because I know so strongly of God's willingness to help us. 

Another scripture that has really strengthened me these past few weeks is in Mosiah 14. Where Abinidi shares about Isaiah 53 about the Savior. in chapter 14 the verses 3-5 really gave me strength. Just being able to remember and know that Christ really did carry my sorrows and that He was rejected of men. It gives me so much comfort to know that even though I was feeling down about everything, that He has felt the same and also has felt those pains so I can ask Him for the comfort because He is the only way I can truly find that comfort.

I also loved in Alma 30:9 when it says it is a privilege for us to serve God. That is making me really re-think of my work out here. Am I really each day thankful through my actions that I have the privilege to serve my Father in Heaven? This has really helped me change my attitude and try to become more like my Savior in this work.

Well all is going alright out here in Tai Po! Thank you for the letters/emails I have been able to get. they really are the best! make me so dang happy. Especially the letters I get from Tanner's mom about his life in Brazil! So hilarious to hear him write about some of the stuff out there. Sounds wild. 

Oh and sorry I am so slow to write back, I always just forget to send the letters. Mainly because I am going to the Bruce Lee statue today baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So stoked!!!! :)

Loves,

Elder Sugar.

Thats what people call me because my name is same sound as sugar. the character is a wee different, but some of the members/people here like to say sugar. haha

Ni Hao June 30,2013

Yep you better believe it.  I am now a Mandarin elder! They gave me the switch! Looks like I will be able to chat with Buster after all!! Pretty crazy right?? Alright, that happened last night in my dream and I was like whah!? but then I woke up to still being the same.

Alright I may have like 4 minutes here or 30, we will find out. The library messed up the times and also the computers. So i wont be able to be sending any pictures today, sorry.

So the food I discovered this week was eating either a duck or goose mouth. Yeah, not the best. It literally was just the mouth or bill whatever it is called. You eat the tongue and the mouth. Very neat. Our investigator took us to dinner and she loves that and also fried oysters, so that was our dinner. But its all good, i had green bean soup after! :) Also another thing she got us was Red Bean Popsicles. They are surprisingly really good. Just like a frozen version of the soup. haha nothing like a blue popsicle though. 

Oh, we went to the American store! They had Kool-Aid!!! So awesome, except my heart was a little broken because they didn't have blue. ouch.. But I made kool aid and the Asian elders loved it! then I froze the rest and shaved it with a spoon until it became a snow cone. Dedication.

So I love the shirts here and how people half the time can't read them. Yesterday at church we had an older lady in the ward wear a bedazzled shirt that said "Zombie Nation Eats Your Head." Great shirt. hahaha also another good one i saw on the street was "Don't be such a mermaid." I then congratulated another lady today whose shirt said "I Found My Dream Job." She was a little confused, so i explained why. She loved the American telling her what her shirt meant, walked away smiling all big.

These past few weeks have been complete solid days of finding without really any success. I honestly wanted to just go sit in the church some days and enjoy the free AC and just practice the language. But that wasn't the case, we kept working.

 A couple of weeks ago we met a couple and shared our message of the Restoration with them. After they agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray, they left us smiling. We were able to meet with them this week and have them come to English class! I was so excited and am just praying that they'll continue to learn. 

I am so grateful for the fact that I get to walk around everyday sweating buckets just so I can help someone. One thing I am learning is the importance of truly just loving everyone. I think that is what worked for this couple because God probably had prepared them and this time when I walked up to them, I was just praying so hard to feel His love for them. And right as I began to to say hello, I was overcome with love and happiness. I couldn't stop smiling! It was so great and i just was so happy to talk to them.

 I guess what I am going at here, is that God is so willing to allow us to feel His love for our heavenly brothers and sisters. I am so grateful that I was able to feel that love for them and continually pray to feel that love for everyone else. It is hard though, especially when they tell me No Time! But when that person finally stops, its all worth it. I just want to be like Nephi when he talks about the charity he has for everyone in the end of 2 Nephi. so awesome

Ok, I am totally out of time!!!!!!!

Loves

Elder Tohng