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