12.28.2009

Well after Kevin was the only one who didn't get me a christmas present, I guess in an unexpected turn of events he was the only one that remembered that I emailed on mondays. Whatever haha.

It was good to hear from everyone. My Christmas was actually alot of fun. We got to sleep in which I loved but I couldn't sleep past 7 am. At 9 am, all the missionaries got together and opened our presents. After that we did a white elephant and I ended up with a fake aquairium that runs on batteries. Than we played games. After that we went to a member's house, the Sheiss', and I talked to you guys. After that we went back to the church where we opened presents and had a Christmas dinner prepared by a member. It was lots of fun and the member had rented a huge blow up joust thing where you stand on a pedastool and try to knock each other off. Pretty much I did the best. haha but it was lots of fun. Than we played bored games till we had to go home.

Somebody got Bang! for Christmas so basically we played that all day. Also today our P-day activity was bored games so we played all day today. The other day when you asked me if I wanted anything else, I've decided I would like the game Bang!

So thank you everyone for the presents, it was very nice and I enjoy using all of it. I was looking at the socks that Santa gave me and I guess with the recession, Santa has turned to the Chinese black market. The packaging of the socks is all in Engrish. It is actually really funny.

Well not much else to write. I'm sure you guys are pretty busy getting the wedding in order and that's probably why you didn't write. Good luck tomorrow and I hope everything goes according to plan. Welcome to the family Mark. Cami, Brian, and Jayden congratulations on having a whole house to yourself again (I guess you have to wait till everyone else leaves). What is the honeymoon gonna be? Email me pictures of the wedding.

Love Elder Turner

And here are some pictures Paul sent. On Christmas day, the members that had all the missionaries over rented a giant blow up joust arena. This is just a picture of some of the action.

12.21.2009

Hey Everybody,

First off, Christmas...Merry Christmas. I just talked it over with my companion. I want you guys to call us at 2:30 pm. I'm sorry if that time doesn't work with Destiny's schedule but she gets to hear Marks voice 24/7 and only mine twice a year. I am not sure what time it would be there in Vegas. We are Central Time but without Daylight Savings time. If this helps I started this email at 1:30. If you don't call at 2:30, I'll be forced to call you and will have to pay for a long distance call so don't mess this up.

So in this spirit of Christmas I wanted to talk about what a member in the ward talked about yesterday that I liked. She talked about the Nativity and about the different people who "found" Jesus. The Shepherd's were in their fields doing their Job. They guarded the sacrificial sheep but when the angel came and told them of Christ they instantly left or being Obedient. The wise men were reading their scriptures and found out about the star and decided to seek him, and Simeon and Anna (A few days later) were fulfilling their calling in the temple and they found him. She mentioned that We can find Christ when we are obedient like the Shepherd's, studying the scriptures like the wise men, or fulfilling our callings such as Simeon and Anna. I thought that was a good way to look at it.

Well Christmas Eve this year a member in a different ward is having all the missionaries over from 5 till the end of the night. Elder Halliday and I bought Pies, and Martinellis for Christmas Eve so that we could celebrate a little. Than for Christmas we are allowed to sleep in so I was planning on sleeping till noon but the zone leaders decided it would be fun to get together at 9 and open presents together as a zone. Afterwards we will be opening White Elephant gifts. After that we will be doing service as a zone. it's not mandatory but President Paulson encourages it. I'm hoping we go to a soup kitchen. I think they are planning on doing service at the hospital though. That should be done by 2 pm. After that I'm going to speak to some people in my family for 40 min and than while Elder Halliday is speaking to his family I'm scheduling in a nap. Than at 5:00 pm another Member is having all of the missionaries over for a dinner. This member is also in the Mission Presidency. President Watson is his name. So that is pretty much my Christmas. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to sleeping in.

Now on with the Karen (pronounced quran) information. I asked you before if you could find a Karen (That is how it is really spelled) translator. Just wondering if there was any updates on that. Also when I was back in Winnipeg, a karen family gave me a Karen shirt which is like hand woven multicolored shirt which is the traditional dress over there. I loved it. Now here in Saskatoon a family gave me a Karen bag which is a hand woven multicolored purse-like bag that both the men and women use. I might be sending these home sometime because I don't want to ruin them. Lastly I don't know if you remember me talking about teaching a Karen woman by having a Thai guy take our words, translate it to Thai, and have her understand in Karen and about how difficult that was. Well I have had an even more difficult lesson. We are now teaching a blind Karen guy. He has a Braille machine and we quote bible verses to him spelling out every word so that he can Braille it on paper. Than he gets a family member to say that verse in Karen and he is slowly learning English that way. I think we got through one verse in the 45 min we were there. It was exhausting.

Well not much else to report. I'm looking forward to talking to you guys next week. Have a good couple days and I'll talk to you soon.

Love,
Elder Turner

12.14.2009

This week has been so boring. haha the entire week was good but we can't go outside if it is -40 C or colder so Saturday and Sunday were boring because we had to stay inside the whole day. Sunday we went to church but it was only an hour because there was about 10 people there and you can't leave the car's in the cold that long. Also at 3:00 on Sunday it warmed up to -39 C so we were able to go out and that lasted until 5:00 so we did get 2 hours of work done that day. It seems like today is going to be an "apartment" day. Luckily we are still able to do P-day stuff. I think on Saturday night it reached -49 C which is ridiculously cold. The forecast is saying by friday it should be about -8C which is really warm so thats good. hopefully the warm lasts.

Not too many good missionary stories for you today. I can tell you a story that happened in our district that was pretty amazing. A couple weeks ago a newlywed lady in her 20's in another ward had a dream where the name "James Rielly" came to her. Supposidly she dreamed about someone like this on her mission and she found the name and they taught and baptized this person. So anyway she has no idea who this guy is but looks him up in the phone book and he happens to be in our area. So we stopped by him and his wife said he was sleeping. We asked her if she knew any members of our church and she said yes, our daughter Brenda Rielly. We looked at our plans that night and we had actually planned on stopping by Brenda Rielly that night and we didn't make the connection when we planned that they were related. So when we stopped by Brenda and told her what happened, she laughed and said her dad would never be interested in the church so we were pretty disappointed. When we told her about the dream, she got all serious and said, maybe it's my nephew. His name is James Rielly also. So we got his information and gave it to the Elder's in charge. Supposidly he has been praying to know the truth, he does know quite a bit about the church but never joined. They started teaching him and even told him the story. He has loved everything they teach him and has been coming to church every week now. He is also bring his cousin which is really good. They are kinda the "mission miracle" and I'm glad to be a part of it, even if our contribution was to find the "bad" one.

So since we've been stuck in the apartment, it's been filled with updating our planners, updating the area book, reading the scriptures, taking naps, and reading lots and lots of Ensigns/New Eras (we have like every one since 1990) While I was reading one of them I came across an article about a woman playing piano in church. I looked at the author and it said April Moody. Wasn't that our babysitter? at the end of the article it says where she lives and it said orem Utah. The article was called "In turne with his will" in the Feb. 2006 Ensign. Look it up. I'm pretty sure that was April our babysitter.

Thanks for the package, I got it. I've been eating all the candy inside it. It's kinda crazy to have the presents out and then being stuck in the apartment just staring at them all day. I really wanna open them but don't worry, I'll wait till Christmas. I think there was a mistake though. I had presents from Santa, Presents from Mom and Dad, Presents from Destiny, a present from Brian, Cami and Jayden, but I think you forgot the one that Kevin was sending me. I couldn't find it anywhere but I'm sure Kevin wouldn't have forgotten me even though every year I at least gave him a big bag of Peanut M&M's. I'll be looking forward to it in the mail. haha just kidding i don't care. Kevin's my least favorite anyway, he can't get any lower on the list. Thanks dest for your wedding announcement. It looks really good. also thanks for the invitation to the sealing but I think I'm going to be busy that day.

Well thats about it. I feel like i'm forgetting something but I can't remember.

Love ya,
Elder Turner

12.7.09

Well this week has been compeletly different from last week. We got snow, we got wind, and we got super cold temperatures. This morning at 9:00 am it was - 40 C (which is also -40 F). If the weather is -40, we cannot go outside and proselite becuause it is too cold. We can still do P-day stuff though. By the time we left it warmed up to -38 C.

So I don't think I could say I have ever been this cold before. I was reading in the scriptures about Adam and Eve and about why they needed to eat the fruit. They now had opposition in all things. They could be happy because they have been sad. They could do good because they knew how to do bad. I think the reason Heavenly Father sent me here was for the same lesson. Now when I go home I can experiance warmth because I know cold. haha

Yesterday was the Christmas Devotional with the First Presidency. I don't know how many of you saw it but it was really good. I would recommend watching it online. I liked President Ucthdorf (?)'s talk. It was way good.

Also we usually get our transfer calls on tuesday but President Paulson changed it to Sunday Night this transfer. I am staying here with Elder Halliday. Actually in our who district, only the district leader Elder Gines (from Vegas) is leaving. So for the next 6 weeks I should be here in Saskatoon. This also means that I will continue to be walking/busing at least into January.

Even though it sounds like I'm eating alot, I've actually lost weight so no need to send me new pants. For our p-day activity, a member of the singles ward is feeding us a Christmas Dinner. I'm kinda excited for it because I love food. Easy stuff that we make quite often include Perogies (little potsticker looking things but stuffed with cheese and potatoes), Kraft Dinner (Mac & Cheese), and Sidekicks (Instant noodle things). Its all pretty good and its all pretty cheap so it is a double bonus.

I was gonna send you a picture of me today but we went to email in the university and they don't have a way that we can do it. The picture isn't the best of me but i don't have much on my camera. I was also going to send a video of Elder Halliday and I throwing a pot of boiling water off of the balcony this morning and watching it evaporate before it hit the ground but once again we can't upload them on these computers.

Well not much else to report. I hope the wedding plans are going good and I hope everbody is enjoying themselves. I'll talk to you next week.

Love Elder Turner

11.30.09

Hey everybody. How's it going? Yes Time is flying by for me. Even days go by fast. Everybody says that each transfer goes faster and faster. I can't believe in a week i'm done with me second one. It's true. This transfer went so much faster than the first.

On Thursday a family fed all of the missionaries in Saskatoon. It was so much food and it was so good. I had like three plates and they were still encouraging us to eat more. Afterwards they had us play this game where you put whipped cream in your hand and launch it up and try to catch it in your mouth. It was so much fun but kinda messy. All in all we had a really good American Thanksgiving.

Thanks for sending my Christmas package. I'm looking foward to seeing what I got. I kinda remembered something else that I desperately wanted but I realize its kinda late. I wanted a english to Kuran translator. An english to multiple languages would be great but it needs to have Kuran on it. I know i won't get it for christmas but if you can find one please send me one. BTW Kuran is a one of the 7 languages spoken in Bhurma, Not to be confused with Qu'ran, the muslim holy book. I'm not even sure how to spell kuran so double check on that.

Thanks for all the recipes you have sent me. I've made them all and they are all way good. I was making a "sidekick" while I was boiling milk. They are like ready made noodles. Also, I'm not going to say that I haven't taken the vitamins because I have, but I also rarely take them. Sorry.

Anyway, this week has been pretty amazing. We met this drunk girl on the street that was trying to avoid us. Apparently she was taught about 10 years ago but stopped when her brother moved. We set up an appointment for a few days later. We stopped by and had a really good first lesson. At the end we committed her to baptism and she accepted. She is set for February 27th. I knows it's kinda far but she has a long way to go.

Another appointment we had this week was with a man named Matthew Cloud and his girlfriend Malinda. He is a less active and she is not a member. We have been having such powerful lessons and he really wants to start coming back to church. She mentioned baptism so we set a date with Malinda on March 13. She is pregnant and wants to wait till after she had the baby. It might be kinda hard to get them married though because the baby isn't his. Hopefully they can work through this but they seem to be doing better. During our last lesson she was kinda hesitant to ask a question but after some encouragement she decided to ask. She asked us which was the greater sin: abortion or adoption. I was so happy she asked that because she said she has been struggling with that for a few months. She was at ease when we told her adoption wasn't a sin. We even gave her information on LDS adoption services and she is going to talk to the bishop.

Than this week we had an appointment with a man named Moesly who used to live in another area and was being taught by the missionaries. He moved in our area and the missionaries gave us his info. We stopped by had a really good lesson. He knows that the BOM is true and JS is a true prophet. We were going to set a baptisimal date with him but he doesn't know his work schedule. He will let us know on Wednesday when we met with him.

Lastly we had a dinner appointment with some members and we showed up 15 min early. (when you ride the bus, you don't choose when you arrive) So instead of going early we decided to track one house. I chose the street and the side of the street. I saw this house and felt promted to go there but didn't act on it because their TV was on, it was the grey bowl (The super bowl for Canadian Football, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders were playing) so I thought they would get upset. Luckily, Elder Halliday said the exact same house. Their names were Paul and Grace and they have been taught by the missionaries before. They weren't ready than but now they want to continue the lessons.

Its kinda unfair whats been going on here. We are being so blessed and this doesn't happen very often. Its not fair because you try to serve a mission to repay God for all of the blessings he has given you and then he continues to bless you more. He makes it so that you can't repay him. I guess that is just how he works.

Even the weather is cooperating. I think the coldest it got here this week was -3 C which is about 27 F. We still don't have snow and people think this is going to last till Christmas. People have no idea what to do around here and its kinda funny. They haven't seen this weather for 20 years. Just one more of those blessings I guess.

I got a letter from the Valley Vista Ward Primary the other day. It was from a girl named Isabel. It was really funny. It was only two lines but I was cracking up as I read it. The first line was thanking me for serving a mission but the second line read "It must be really hard to be away from your family, sorry I brought it up but I don't know what to talk about." than she signed it "Thank you for your time, Isabel". Haha I think I write her a little note and tell her about missionary work or something. That letter though was so funny. I loved it.

Well I just spent like thirty min. writing this letter so I hope you enjoy it. It is one of my longer ones I think but a lot happened this week. Oh yeah we went bowling today for P-day as a zone and we played two games my goal was to get 100 points which rarely happens. The first game I bowled a 96 and the second I got exactly 100. Once again, I was blessed. haha I was so excited.

Oh and I didn't get a letter from Dad this week but what is his new company. I want to know what it is all about because obviously I've been left in the dark about this.

Well not much else to report on. Thank you for all that you do. It must be really hard to have me gone...Sorry to bring it up but I have nothing else to write about.

Thank you for your time,
Elder Turner

11.23.09

Haha the real thanksgiving is coming up. It's kinda weird because after Halloween, everybody puts up their Christmas Decorations so I've been in Christmas Mode for a while. There is a Canadian family who lived in Utah for 8 years so they are feeding all of the missionaries in Saskatoon a big Thanksgiving feast. I'm excited for it, I just love food.

So I've learned a few recent things. I've grown to love the bus (don't get me wrong, I'd take a car in a heartbeat). The people on it are just so interesting haha. We can't teach or anything but just observing people is fun. We meet people comparable to "Obama Man" (Brian, Cami, and Kevin will know what I'm talking about)

I've also learned that milk doesn't like to be boiled or if you would like to boil it, it requires constant supervision. Also, just because your supervising it, turning off the burner but not taking it off the stove still causes it to boil over. Yes, this has happened to me numerous times.

I've also learned that even though Everybody in the world told me Canada has cold winters, it doesn't make it true. We are still pretty warm. All I've been using lately is a suit coat and ear muffs (I bought some last week with my card)

Well not too much is going on here. We have a few progressing investigators which is good but none are too close to baptism. We have one lady, Neena, who is a single mom with a two year old that said she would be baptized when she knew it was true and then exclaimed that she knew it was true but now has been kinda shady and keeps "lunching" (ditching) our appointments. We're not quite sure what to do with her.

We are also teaching two different Quran (one of the territories in Bhurma) people. Teaching them is extremely difficult. Our first one speaks ok english but the other one we were teaching speaks nothing. We try reading the pamphlets with them to help them with thier English but yesterday we taugh Paebaw (Pay-Baaa) and we only read two paragraphs. We spoke English, her friend that only speaks Bhurmese and a little english, translated for us into Bhurmese, which Paebaw only knows very little of because she only speaks Quran and of course we don't have a Book of Mormon in any of these languages. I'm kinda wishing I had a similar experiance as Matt did with the gift of tongues. I'm jealous.

Thats way good that Brian, Cami, and Jayden are in Disneyworld. Everytime Cami talked about it she reminded me of a 6 year old going. She was way excited haha.

The Assistants to the president are coming up this week so they are bringing our mail. We get mail here about 2-3 a transfer (6 weeks) so whenever someone comes from Winnipeg everyone gets excited.

Today we were playing freeze tag for P-day activity and I was trying to unfreeze someone by sliding under their legs and burned myself pretty bad. I tore off alot of skin and have a huge blister on my wrist. Wasn't one of my best ideas. Elder Gines (from Las Vegas) might have broken his foot today playing Basketball so I've been giving him a piggy back ride everywhere. Haha I hope he's ok.

By the way, for Christmas I only get 30-40 min to talk to you guys. That is it. No more than 40 min so sorry but a rule is a rule. Supposedly and Elder once talked on the phone for like 3 hours and wasn't able to write home for 2 months.

Not much else to report. I'm excited to talk to you guys on Christmas. That will be good to hear from everyone. I've sent quite alot of letters out to people but the Canadian Mail service is often slow and so it might be awhile before you get it. Also if you send me anything and I don't respond for a while, just remember I only get mail 2-3 times every 6 weeks. Sorry.

Well I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and hope you have a good week.

Love Elder Turner

11.16.2009

Sorry I don't have too much time to write. I was getting ready to write your letter and a girl here at the university needed help talking to her friend about the gospel so I stopped to talk to her. Now I only have about 15 minutes.

Hopefully I can get you a picture of just me but no promises. I'm loving this weather. It is the middle of November and it is still 11 c. It is way nice. They are planning on having this weather till Christmas. The people here have never seen this kind of weather before but I'm loving it. YEAH GLOBAL WARMING!!!

I'm starting to get better at staying awake. It's difficult but I've been reading a lot of Ensigns. I found a whole box of ensigns that are way old so I read all the "Latter-day voices" or miracle stories of people. They are way corny and make me laugh but I like them and they keep me awake. I occasionally read the articles too.

A few more things for my Christmas package. Those gel clicky pens I think they are called G2 or something. Preferably Black. You know which ones I'm talking about. Also i want cologne. The kind I use is called Adidas Moves.

Can I get your address and Chinese phone number? That lady is still asking me about it. She is way nice and wants to meet you when she goes over there.

Also mom, After reading all of these "latter day voices" I read a lot of conversion stories. I realized I don't know yours. What happened, how'd you meet them, how did you know it was true, what were your feelings? I want to know everything especially the miracles you noticed.

Well not much more to report things are going good. I have good stories but time is running out so I gotta go. Love you all and have a great week. I'll tell you more stories next week.

11.9.2009

Well my new area is good. We are in an area called Pendygrasse in Saskatoon, Saskatachawan (I still don't know how to spell that). It is a good area lots of walking. We have met some very interesting people. I've kinda got discouraged recently because we have set up many appointments (like 50) since I've been here and two have actually happened. Everyone just isn't there for the time we set up to go. I'm trying to figure out what we're doing wrong so that we can fix that. It gets way frustrating. It's kinda funny sometimes how God answers prayers though. I was praying and telling him how frustrated I was and how much I felt like a failure but than at church we sang "God Speed the Right" and the line "If we fail we fail with glory" really hit me hard. I'm doing all that I'm suppose to and I'm working hard so even though I fail I shouldn't be disappointed. I've gained such a testimony about prayer since I've been on my mission.

Elder Halliday (my companion) is from Farmington, UT. He is the only boy of 5 kids so he thinks lots of things are gross and jokes around with me about them (he hates it when I spit) haha. We get along pretty well though. I've been tired so much lately from walking so much that I fall asleep everywhere around our apartment and he is constantly waking me up. haha Hopefully soon I'll get use to it. Also my District Leader Elder Gines is from Las Vegas and he went to Coronado High School. He is a way fun kid and we get along great.

Your right Remembrence Day is this Wednesday. It is very similar to our Memorial day. Supposidly November 11th is the day WWI ended so they remember all of their fallen soldiers. Lots and Lots of people wear these plastic poppyseed flowers that are red with black centers. I guess somebody wrote a poem for remembrence Day about poppyseeds and so they wear them as tribute or something like that. You could probably go on google and image search Remembrence Day Poppyseed and find what they looked like if you care.

Thanks for the recipe last week. I made it and it was way good. Does it taste different if you make it in the microwave? I wanted to do it in the microwave cause its easier but Elder Halliday says the oven tastes better.

About your talk. I don't have too many suggestions. A great place to look is Preach My Gospel. Lesson 5 is the commandments and one of them is Keep the sabbath day holy. It explains it pretty simply and even gives scriptures for it. I think you can read it online somewhere.

Recently all of the stakes in our mission are trying to get the members to be more involved in missionary work. It is a tough job and its hard to get some members motivated. Life would be so much easier and the work would progress so much faster if every member would just suggest one person for them to teach. People are often scared to share the gospel but from the experiances of the members who have done it, people often see it as more of a sign of love and respect than anything else. We have been visiting lots of members to encourage them to teach their friends. Alma 29:9-10 is one of my favorite scriptures about that because it is Alma explaining that when he calls people unto repentance, and they repent how much joy that brings them. Every time we invite someone to do anything, Watch a church movie, read the Book of Mormon, come to church, come to mutual, anything that is related to the church we are inviting them to repent. If they accept they are repenting becasue they are bettering themselves. Hopefully the members here catch on to the missionary spirit. I really believe that this is going to help so much.

We were doing some cleaning in our apartment this past week and we found a bunch of christmas decorations so we set up alot. Haha we have two small christmas trees and christmas lights hung around our living room. Its kinda fun to get into the christmas spirit. I feel justified in setting Christmas stuff up this early because we've already had Thanksgiving back on OCt. 12.

About my christmas Package: peanut M&M's and vanilla hot chocolate would be good. Also Just a reminder: on the package put "Canada Winnipeg Mission" BEFORE my name. It makes it so that the mission home can sign for it.

Well not much else to report. We have Zone Conference this week so that should be fun. Well I love you all and look forward to hearing from you.

Love,
Elder Turner

Here are some pictures. Two are of the snow in Winnipeg. One is of my old district.

The one with just me and a guy is Tim (he is being baptized on Nov 11, and the one with me, Elder Ewell and a guy who looks like he should be on Americas most wanted is Terry (a less active that we reactivated.)

11.2.2009

Last week when I said I "assumed" I was staying in my area and Elder Ewell was leaving. Well I was wrong. Elder Ewell stayed and is now training again so I have a new "brother" (I have another one but he died AKA went home early). After driving 6 hours to Regina, staying the night there, and driving 2 more hours I finally arrived in my new are. I am in Saskatoon, Saskatawan. My new companion is Elder Halliday from Farmington, UT. We get along pretty well. Our apartment is way nice though. We have a grill and a fireplace. The grill has no gas and the fireplace has no wood but the important thing is that we have them. There is bad news to the transfer though. I am now a busing elder so My companion and I do not have a car so we mostly walk and sometimes take the bus. This transfer doesn't end till the middle of December and I'll probably be here longer than one transfer (but I've been wrong before)

Things I bought: A big coat that is black and way warm, cheap hopefully warm boots, socks, hat, beanie, longjohns, gloves, scarf, and unlimited use hand warmers. I've decided that the reason people are so rich in Las Vegas is because they don't have to spend all there money on winter stuff. Thanks for the recipe I do want alot more in my christmas package. All apartments have a stove, oven, and microwave. I think most have a crockpot but I'm not sure about a blender. I doubt any have a rice cooker. When you send them to me can you also explain things that I won't know like how to cook rice or define words that I don't know what they mean such as 'simmer'. Make it so a smart 4th grader could understand it. It snowed when we left winnipeg on thursday. When we got to Regina it was cold but not snowing. When we woke up there was about an inch of snow. When we got to Saskatoon it wasn't too cold and no snow. The next day it snowed. Now there is no snow on the ground but it is still kinda cold. Winter is coming and its coming fast. It sounds like everyone is keeping busy. Oh yeah the other day we stopped by one of our investigators here who ended up not being home. As we were walking from her house, their neighbor called Elder Halliday and I into her house. She is a 60 yr old native woman and asked if we could give her husband a prayer of healing because he had a stroke 5 years ago and can't walk. We taught her about blessings and gave him a blessing. We are now teaching them. They are going to need alot of work. He is thinking about moving out to a special home becuase his wife is mean and she drinks all day everyday. Its going to take alot of work but I see their lives improving.

I'm happy to hear about Matt. It sounds like he is doing good. Tony just sent me a letter he is a trainer and a district leader now so that is good. Supposidly somebody tried to fight him and pushed Tony on the groung and Tony's brand new companion (only been out three days) had to force the guy to back off. Haha fun adventures in Denver.

About my christmas package. You need to have it get here within the next 5 weeks so I can have it for christmas time. Also you need to write "Christmas" on it so the office staff knows to hold it. The only main things I want in it is the same pictures I had in my old album recipes and music.

Not much else to report. We are emailing from an University and people just sit and stare at us. I feel like a nun. haha. Well I love you all. Hope you have a great week. Elder Turner

At a training meeting...

10.19.2009

I'm glad that you were able to talk to Tony. I was going to ask you if you've heard anything from all of my friends. By the way I went to buy winter stuff today. All of it without a coat was about $320 and my card was declined. I tried just buying $20 socks and it worked so i tried everything without the boots ($200) and it still was deciled. Do i have money on there? Or does it have a limit on how much I can spend. Next week we are going to have to shop again and I'm taking your card and mine. Hopefully one of them works.

It sounds like you've been busy with Youth conference. Did you go paintballing or just watch? I can't see you paintballing.

Thanks giving was very similar to American Thanksgiving. We had turkey and ham at everyplace though. BUt stuffing, yams, mashpotatoes, cranberry sauce. I know you won't believe this but I've been eating mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickles. I feel bad denying somebody's food so I just eat it. Cucumbers are still gross but everything else isn't bad. Sorry for all the grief I've given you. Nobody has given me seafood yet so i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The baptism was really good. We had a few investigators. WE had three lined up for Nov. 11 but we had to drop two of them. One is less accountable and the other hated church and didn't want to come back because she thought one of our speakers (incredibly quiet and boring) was our preacher. We tried explaining but she didn't want to hear it.

Kevin wrote me and told me he got the swine flu. that is so neat. My brother survived an epidemic. haha I'm sure you freaked out though. haha.

Well If you send me a package ever, can you put in lots of pictures, cds, candy, and my cologne (addidas moves). we are allowed to have cologne by the way. Well not much else to write I'm pretty frustrated with the whole winter gear situation. It's alot of money and I my card gets declined. Well I love you and look forward to your next letter.

Oh yeah, a lady in my ward travels to china quite often and wants to look you up when she gets there to find out the ward. She wants your chinese phone number and address. Its ok if you don't want to give it.

Love,
Elder Turner

10.13.2009

Hello,
Sorry this e-mail is a day late. It was the Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday so we couldn't going shopping or go to the library. This past week has been way good. Friday we had a tri-zone conference and Elder Gibbins of the Quorum of the seventy (or second quorum idk) came and spoke to us about the importance of members in our work. After zone conference one of the wards provided a Thanksgiving dinner for us which was so good. Sunday the Bishop of our ward invited my companion and I out to his house for Thanksgiving dinner and when we got there we discovered another senior couple in our ward was invited as well as the Mission President and his wife. The food was still very good. Lastly, yesterday a family, the Kenny's, invited us over for yet another Thanksgiving dinner. Once again it was delicious. I remember Kevin and Destiny saying I would hate Thanksgiving and Christmas because you get fed too much. I have no Idea what they were talking about, it was soo amazing.

So last week I was planning on buying my winter gear but their heavy stuff wasn't in yet so I contemplated the idea of just buying gloves and a hat then but just decided to buy it all at once. Lucky me, the snow came. Yes it already snowed here. I am literally freezing haha. Hopefully we have time to go get some stuff today. haha I don't know how much i'm suppose to spend but for me and my comfort I'm going to buy the best stuff for the best price. If it is over your limit, let me know and I will pay you back when i get home. We went from summer (which was about two weeks long, i got the last week of that) to winter and now we are starting to get into fall just to get back into winter. Everyone here is pretty shocked that it snowed because it usually doesn't happen till end of october. I mean, the trees are still green.

My favorite thing about the mission so far is just watching people change. You can see the difference of them at the beginning and then when they start using the gospel in their lives. They are genuinely happier. The hardest thing so far is watching people know the truth, or feeling the spirit and then having them decide not to progress. It is really difficult to see how much happier they could be but choose not to be.

I'm happy to hear about BYU winning again. That is way good to hear. I hope Mark enjoyed that. They have football here but it is kinda different. The field is bigger and there are only 3 downs. I've only seen high school practices but that is what everyone tells me.

Well not much else to announce. We are going to a baptism tonight of somebody in the singles ward. It should be good. We are bringing an investigator with us so he can see what he will do when he gets baptized on Nov. 11th. Hopefully I'm not gone for that because transfers are the end of October.

Well I love you all and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Elder Turner

10.5.2009

Hello,
Of course I watched conference. All ten hours of it. My favorite talk had to be Elder Hollands talk in the Sunday afternoon session. It was so good. When I heard there was going to be a temple in Sapporo I was so excited for Brian.

I'm pretty sure Lane and Lindsey are sending pictures home but I'll write them and remind them. My camera is fine, i just have to take the batteries out when not in use.

It has been pretty chilly here lately. I am buying my winter gear next week. I never know the temperature here because nobody knows the Fahrenheit and I don't understand Celsius. It is really annoying. The other night we fell asleep with all the windows open and it was the first cold night. It got to -2 Celsius and we woke up freezing. I don't know what -2 C is but 0 C is 32 F so it was below freezing. Also -40 C and -40 F is the exact same temperature and if the temperature gets below that, we can't go outside. I hear that happens quite often. Missionaries have fun though. Throwing a boiling pot of water up and watching it evaporate, spitting and watching it freeze before it hits the ground, or my favorite, seeing whose eyes can freeze shut first. I'm excited for the winter. Never had one like it and probably never will.

I can't believe Halloween is coming up. Time flies out here. Thanksgiving is next week. (yeah, we get it early in Canada) but I don't know what we are supposed to celebrate in November.

Now that conference is over we always have to wear our suit coat when out of our apartment till next conference. Before we could just wear a white shirt and tie.

I thought of more things I want:
Music: my favorite are the classical hymns that Kevin has. I want as much of those as possible. It just can't have drums, or anything that can't be played in sacrament.
Photo Album (i still want one)
American Candy (they don't have anything here)
Dr. Pepper (soda tastes different here)

The last two aren't that important, just throwing it out there.

That is about it for me. We played football today for P-day activity and I am so sore and hurt. haha it was fun though.

Well i love you.

(this is for the blog) ANybody who is expecting letters from me, it might be awhile. I rarely have time to write letters on P-day. Its a blessing and a curse.

Love,
Elder Turner

p.s. Here are some pictures of Paul with his Grandpa Turner at his 80th birthday party (and Kevin too).

9.28.2009

This week was so great. We are in downtown Winnipeg which is full of people so you get to talk to lots. We get a lot of new investigators but we also drop them as fast as we get them. People are often unwilling to keep commitments or unwilling to continue to listen. We have three companionships (two other elders and two sisters) in our ward. We have a goal to get 20 investigators to church between all 6 of us. Last Sunday, my companion and I had 13 planned for Church and 10 of them came. Unfortunately the other companionships were unable to get anybody to come but we were still very happy. We had a family from Mexico who is neighbors with the bishop and they are progressing very well, I just wish Kevin was here to translate. Sometimes they don't know what we are saying. We had a woman from Liberia who we taught on Saturday, she came to church and we committed her to be baptized on Nov. 11 and she said yes!! We had a family from Thailand who the father, Sacapau, speaks minimum English. Very difficult to teach them but yesterday at church they wore these very neat Thai shirts that are like knitted together or something. We taught them last night after church and they gave each one of us one of those shirts and a bag (kinda looks like a purse but still very neat). They are so nice and they are starting to understand our lessons. We had a man from the Phillipean named Dani who has a baptism date on Nov. 11. Lastly at church we had a guy named Tim from Canada who is golden. Everything we teach him he changes immediately. After our first lesson he decided to ask his boss for Sundays off so he could get baptized. He just recently quite coffee the other day. He is also getting baptized on November 11. That is going to be quite the day. 3 baptisms possibly 5 (we committed two others and they said yes but they couldn't come to church yesterday and they have to come once to count it.) Too bad transfers are on Nov. 1st so we might not be here to see it.

Until next week,
Elder Turner

9.21.2009

Hello Everyone,

So, I'm officially a real missionary teaching real people (not fake ones in the MTC). I am loving it out here. Winnipeg is very beautiful and very flat. As President Paulson puts it "you can stand on a tuna can and see a train coming for days". President Paulson and his wife are really nice and I really like them. The first day I was here I went on splits with an Elder Salsbury (I think) and we taught this really good couple named Bernie and Chastity. He is a drug addict but he is trying his hardest to stay clean. I think they will get baptized some time. He just needs to stay clean and they need to get married. Then Elder Salsbury took me street contacting which is pretty scary thing. After a while I got use to it and gained more confidence.

Well the next day I met my trainer. His name is Elder Ewell (pronounced E-Well). He is a super neat guy and we get along great. He is one of the best missionaries (or so I've been told) so I'm grateful to have him as my companion. He is from Tokerville, UT outside of St. George and he has been here for about 7 months. We've been teaching, tracting, and proseliting lots. This is tough work but it is so rewarding.

One experiance the other day was we went to go see this girl Melissa. She was a turn over so somebody else found her but she wasn't in thier area. Supposidly the day before we went there, the elders went over and her boyfriend told them to come back another day but kinda rudely. Well we went back over and the boyfriend answers the call box (outside of an apartment, i'm not sure what they are called). He told us that we needed to go away and they weren't intrested. We apologized and turned around to leave. We were standing there planning what to do next and we here "hold on". The boyfriend and the daughter came out and he told us to teach his 5 year old daughter cause she never gets to her stuff like that. We came up and taught the daughter and the mom, Melissa. The boyfriend wasn't interested and went to take a shower. By the end of the lesson, he was there and participating. We commited them to be baptized (soft commitment "when you find out these things are true, will you be baptized) and they said yes. They are so excited to see us again. We are going there tonight. Best part is they told us they are getting married in a month. That takes the law of chastity problem off the table.

Two things that are completely different that I'm working hard to do is 1. Not use missionary swear words, this includes slang such as awesome, sweet, cool, or anyword that doesn't mean what we use it as. I am constantly trying to correct myself.
2. Partting my hair. My hair is trying to recover from using gel which I don't think there has been gel in my hair for years.

There is only one temple here, and its in Regina (I don't laugh at it anymore) I only get to go there if I serve in Regina. I will probably be sending a few things home. Backpacks aren't allowed and no missionaries get to baptize, only the members do.

My first area is called Agnes (cause that is the street we live on). It is a "nice" part of town. haha. It definately is an eye-opening experiance but I love my area. It is so great. The people there are very nice and talkative. There are lots of natives here, there are also people from all over the world. I have rarely met the canadians we think of (white, with a heavy canadian accent). Yesterday we taught the second lesson to a man named Sacapau. He is from Thailand and speaks some crazy language that isn't Thai. We are trying our hardest to get him a Book of Mormon in his language but we are having difficulty. He barely speaks english and had to translate for his entire family. We would then ask him understanding questions and he barely understood what we were talking about. It makes me wonder what he was translating. Whatever haha.

Well not much more to say. I enjoyed talking to everyone the other day. I wrote lots of people and gave them my address with my name first which means I won't get it, so i'm going to have to write them all back.

In closing, I just want to say that I know that this gospel is true. Especially from teaching people from all over the world, I know that it is the same all over the world. Just from getting out there and teaching people, my testimony has grown an amazing amount. I challenge you guys to get more involved in missionary work at home. It is amazing how important members are to investigators. Well I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. Say hello to Jayden for me and teach him how to swim by the time i get home so we can play water polo or something.

Love,
Elder Turner

Here is a picture of Paul at the airport in SLC as he was flying to Canada. He ran into a friend of the family from Tokyo. The Mittons use to live in their neighborhood. It's a small world!

9.15.2009

Hey,

Just want to clear a something up, my flight doesn't leave at 4, I have to be at the travel office at 4. Still not exciting but better than being at the airport at 2. I probably won't call at the Salt Lake Airport but probably during my layover in Denver.

Its getting down to the end I am just waiting to leave. Not that the MTC isn't awesome but I think they purposely make it so you want to leave and get out in the field.

FYI My companion just went and got the mail while I'm writing this E-mail and I just got a package slip. I assume its from you and want to thank you for what ever it is.

Thanks Cami for the postcard. It is the only picture I have hanging up on the wall. I miss that little guy so much so it was nice to be able to see him. I'm glad to hear he was blessed and I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'm also excited to hear he likes the pool. He isn't a wuss anymore haha.

Well people have been writing me from dearelder.com which is really cool to hear how everyone is doing. Thank you everybody for your letters. I'm doing good and I'll try to write as soon as possible.

This week three in our district left to go to New York, New York South mission so everyone has been pretty depressed. We miss those guys so much and we've all become pretty close.

It's cool to hear your back in China. I just met some senior couples going to Hong Kong and sometimes Goun JO (?) to be a branch president or something like that. It made me think of you guys.

Thanks for forwarding Tony's letter. I've been writing him ever since and he seems to be doing really well. He is in Aurora right now.

Well I just wanna close by saying I love you all but I'm not coming home for you haha. Nothing can send me home. Even if both my legs get torn off I'll crawl. haha This work is so great that I can't even imagine coming home early. Well i Love you and I'll talk to you in Denver.

Love,
Elder Turner

P.S. Sorry about the pictures but I'll see if I can send some next week. My Camera is acting up again but I just take the batteries out when I'm not using them and then they don't run out.

9.8.2009

Well what an eventful week. I have pretty much mastered the first lesson and am almost done with the second lesson. It is so awesome here and I'm learning a ton. I haven't gotten the letter from Tony yet but know that I know its coming I'm excited to receive it. My Companion is pretty difficult but we only have a week left.

Oh yeah that reminds me, we got our flight plans last week, I leave on Thursday the 17th at 4 am (They really hate me) and we will go to Denver than Canada and get there about 1:30 pm. Just getting the flight plans have really excited me and made me feel as if there was an end to the MTC. I'll let you know what time I'll call. Give me a number to call cause I don't know if you'll be in Vegas. I do like it here but its starting to get old. I could never imagine being here 12 weeks (sorry Brian). Also Brian, the showers are private showers now.

I get along great with Elder Reilly. ha ha I told him to write you a letter and what to say but it is all true ha. Tell Kevin that I get my shirts back when I come home.

I see Jessica quite often and she even brought me cupcakes the other day. They were so good. I also see Lane and Lindsey about three times a week. Its nice to see friends here. I know tons of people here from BYU Hawaii, Mission Prep, EFY, or from Palo. Its kinda cool to see.

Well I'm doing Laundry now but I'll talk to you later. Hope you enjoyed the Lion King and go swimming for me. Destiny I'm glad to hear your wedding plans are going great. Your going to be a beautiful Bride.

Oh real quickly I just wanted to talk about my favorite hymn. ( i figure I should leave with a spiritual note) My new favorite hymn is called "Brightly Beams our Fathers Mercy" I just love this song and I sing it all the time. The background story is When a ship crashes, all of the sailors see the lighthouse and start swimming towards it. When they get close enough they realize that the lighthouse is on a huge cliff and think that they could never reach it. Sailors often drown 6 feet from the beach because they don't know how close they are. When there is a shipwreck, the lighthouse owner runs to the town and gets everyone to hold lights along the beach so the sailors know how to get to shore. God is the lighthouse and people go towards him and think they can never make it. God sends us to "be the lights along the shore" so that we can bring people to us. I highly recommend you read that song after knowing the story. it is such a good song.

Well I'm off, The computer is yelling at me saying I only have a few minutes left so have a great week and I look forward to your e-mail next week.

Love,
Elder Turner