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