Howdy everybody.
Life is going pretty good in Selkirk, Manitoba. We are working really hard and seeing some benefits from it. This past week was Zone Conference which was really nice to go to. It is amazing how much you miss seeing other missionaries when your outlining. Don't get me wrong, I like Elder Burch but when your use to seeing your zone every p-day you start to miss other missionaries. Zone conference was way good though. Its nice to here from President and Sister Paulson, the assistants, the zone leaders, and to see your friends. All in all it is all really uplifting.
On Saturday we got a phone call at supper time telling us that the speakers for church had to cancel so they asked if Elder Burch and I could speak. Talking in church is literally one of my biggest fears but since your always out of your comfort zone on a mission I was happy to do it. So pretty much I was stressing all night and all morning and I decided to talk about families and eternal families because it was Valentines day. We get out of PEC meeting and realize that President Paulson, Sister Paulson, and their daughter decided to visit the branch so I got even more nervous. Luckily the branch President asked him to speak so Elder Burch and I only gave half of our planned talks which made it alot easier.
We have been doing tons and tons of tracting this week. It kills me but I definitely need to work on my finding techniques. Pretty much all of Selkirk has been "Tracted out" but that doesn't mean there isn't people to find. I was sent here for a reason and I just need to find that reason. It is actually kinda nice that alot of people have had missionaries tract into them before because the ones that aren't interested let you know right off the bat while the ones that are (or the ones that like to argue) will talk for a little with you.
We started to teach a woman named Sandy who is a very nice lady. She volunteers at the food bank and so do we every P-day so that is how she first came in contact with the missionaries. She is really up to learning and is really enjoying our meetings. She is heavily involved in another church which might be kind of difficult later. On our second appointment she said she didn't read the Book of Mormon because she felt like she was cheating her church. I think we worked through it because she promised she would read it by the time we came back next.
It is kinda hard to see some our investigators who won't progress. You know how much the gospel can help them out, how much it will bless them and their families, and how things will work our for them but sometimes they can't always see it. You just want to help everybody but not everyone wants to be "helped".
Today we were able to go down to Winnipeg for a district meeting and zone lunch which was nice. (BTW mom, I had to pay for mine & Elder Burch's because he left his card at home but he is paying me back but both of those were on my home card) I truly do love seeing other missionaries and I believe either next week or the following week we get to go back down for another District meeting. Usually our district meetings are done over the phone which isn't fun so It is a real blessing when your allowed to go down.
Well I love ya all and hope you had a great week. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.
Love,
Elder Turner
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
2.9.2010
Hey everybody:
How's it going? I'm glad to hear you are really reading up on our little exciting town of Selkirk. haha If you've seen Chuck the Catfish than you've probably seen our Marine Museum or all the little shacks out on the river. It's pretty funny to see all of this stuff going on. Small towns are pretty fun.
I think I'm starting to go a little crazy haha. The zone leader came up on an exchange with me and Elder Burch went down to Winnipeg for an exchange with our district leader. Our zone leader mentioned we have a lot of crazy investigators and to me they seem normal. Elder Burch came back and kept talking about how sane the district leaders investigators were. haha I guess if you've been here a while they just start to seem more and more normal. We have this one investigator who is a former gang member. He asked me and Elder Olsen (the zone leader) to help him move his furniture upstairs so that when people came into his house they would think it was empty. Kinda weird haha.
Not too much has happened this week. We have zone conference which will be nice because we finally get to see other missionaries haha. It is kinda funny how quickly you miss seeing everybody every week.
February 5th here was National Clean Your Room Day so all the kids had school off here. Crazy i know. Canada has alot of holidays which is the reason they are in school till middle of July. Coming up is Family Day. haha We need more holiday's in the states.
I heard that the Saints won and I heard it was pretty exciting. We didn't even know it was the super bowl until an investigator mentioned she was sitting down to watch it. I guess things like that i don't think about anymore.
Sorry I forgot to mention that I got your package. It was great thank you. I really enjoyed the pictures and the journals and all the other stuff. It was nice to get a package. I felt bad because at transfers we got our mail and I got two packages, and 8 letters. Elder Burch got one letter and it was his birthday the next week. By the way, I never get that many letters it just happened but Elder Burch did get a package and letters later so that was good.
The other day I was thinking about those love apples and about how much I wanted them. Don't worry about sending me any though, I know that would be way too much work.
Sorry this letter is kinda short I don't have too much to write about but thanks for the love and support that you give me and make it a good week.
Love,
Elder Turner
How's it going? I'm glad to hear you are really reading up on our little exciting town of Selkirk. haha If you've seen Chuck the Catfish than you've probably seen our Marine Museum or all the little shacks out on the river. It's pretty funny to see all of this stuff going on. Small towns are pretty fun.
I think I'm starting to go a little crazy haha. The zone leader came up on an exchange with me and Elder Burch went down to Winnipeg for an exchange with our district leader. Our zone leader mentioned we have a lot of crazy investigators and to me they seem normal. Elder Burch came back and kept talking about how sane the district leaders investigators were. haha I guess if you've been here a while they just start to seem more and more normal. We have this one investigator who is a former gang member. He asked me and Elder Olsen (the zone leader) to help him move his furniture upstairs so that when people came into his house they would think it was empty. Kinda weird haha.
Not too much has happened this week. We have zone conference which will be nice because we finally get to see other missionaries haha. It is kinda funny how quickly you miss seeing everybody every week.
February 5th here was National Clean Your Room Day so all the kids had school off here. Crazy i know. Canada has alot of holidays which is the reason they are in school till middle of July. Coming up is Family Day. haha We need more holiday's in the states.
I heard that the Saints won and I heard it was pretty exciting. We didn't even know it was the super bowl until an investigator mentioned she was sitting down to watch it. I guess things like that i don't think about anymore.
Sorry I forgot to mention that I got your package. It was great thank you. I really enjoyed the pictures and the journals and all the other stuff. It was nice to get a package. I felt bad because at transfers we got our mail and I got two packages, and 8 letters. Elder Burch got one letter and it was his birthday the next week. By the way, I never get that many letters it just happened but Elder Burch did get a package and letters later so that was good.
The other day I was thinking about those love apples and about how much I wanted them. Don't worry about sending me any though, I know that would be way too much work.
Sorry this letter is kinda short I don't have too much to write about but thanks for the love and support that you give me and make it a good week.
Love,
Elder Turner
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
2.2.2010
Hola Familia and Amigos:
So this week has been good here in Selkirk. I'd like to thank dad for the facts on Selkirk. I didn't know I was in the Catfish Capital of the World. There is a giant Catfish statue that I will need to take a picture in front of one day. Also yesterday we were going to go take pictures at the river because there is tons of little shacks on it because people are ice fishing but we didn't get time so we'll go next week. Oh another fun fact about Selkirk, the Renee Zellweger blockbuster hit "New in Town" was filmed here so that's exciting. Another movie was being filmed here last week but I'm not sure what it was.
So the weather has been freezing here lately and we have no way to check the weather so we have to rely on the office missionaries to call us if it gets below -40 but they often don't call and we can tell its that cold. haha but we keep on working till we get that call.
We have been working really hard up here. I have never tracted as much in my whole mission than I have in this past week. The work is pretty slow here and everybody here has most likely talked to missionaries before but the Lord wouldn't keep sending us here unless there was some reason. I guess I just have to find that reason.
We have a few interesting investigators though. We just made one investigator who looks like a murderer haha but I don't think he is. He is just an extremely shady guy. I don't remember if I mentioned Beverly last week but she is a really good lady. We haven't been able to meet with her because she is really sick but she phones the church every week and listens to sacrament and loves it.
Speaking of sacrament, Elder Burch and I had to speak. Elder Burch spoke on how members can do missionary work and I taught the first lesson. I had a hard time deciding on what to teach and Preach My Gospel said that when we teach the members the Message of the Restoration it builds their desire to do missionary work more than any thing else. I think it went ok but I wrote my talk in an outline format and not completely written out like I normally do so that was really nerve racking. Beverly listened and she said she really liked my talk and she even took notes so even if none of the members enjoyed it (which many said they did) at least we were able to teach Beverly the first lesson.
Today is Elder Burch's birthday so I think we are going out to eat somewhere. Rest assured it will not be at Boston Pizza and we won't order alcoholic pizza. haha Elder Burch and I have been joking about how ridiculous Snuggie's are and than for his birthday one of our investigators gave him her snuggie because she can't stand to wear it. We have been taking lots of Snuggie pictures and they are hilarious. We also had district meeting which I use to be a fan of but now not so much because it is done over the phone and most of the time we can't even hear everyone. The good thing is though we can eat during it so I guess there are positives.
Well not much else to report on. This week has been kinda slow, good, but slow. I love ya all and hope you have a great week.
Love, Elder Turner
So this week has been good here in Selkirk. I'd like to thank dad for the facts on Selkirk. I didn't know I was in the Catfish Capital of the World. There is a giant Catfish statue that I will need to take a picture in front of one day. Also yesterday we were going to go take pictures at the river because there is tons of little shacks on it because people are ice fishing but we didn't get time so we'll go next week. Oh another fun fact about Selkirk, the Renee Zellweger blockbuster hit "New in Town" was filmed here so that's exciting. Another movie was being filmed here last week but I'm not sure what it was.
So the weather has been freezing here lately and we have no way to check the weather so we have to rely on the office missionaries to call us if it gets below -40 but they often don't call and we can tell its that cold. haha but we keep on working till we get that call.
We have been working really hard up here. I have never tracted as much in my whole mission than I have in this past week. The work is pretty slow here and everybody here has most likely talked to missionaries before but the Lord wouldn't keep sending us here unless there was some reason. I guess I just have to find that reason.
We have a few interesting investigators though. We just made one investigator who looks like a murderer haha but I don't think he is. He is just an extremely shady guy. I don't remember if I mentioned Beverly last week but she is a really good lady. We haven't been able to meet with her because she is really sick but she phones the church every week and listens to sacrament and loves it.
Speaking of sacrament, Elder Burch and I had to speak. Elder Burch spoke on how members can do missionary work and I taught the first lesson. I had a hard time deciding on what to teach and Preach My Gospel said that when we teach the members the Message of the Restoration it builds their desire to do missionary work more than any thing else. I think it went ok but I wrote my talk in an outline format and not completely written out like I normally do so that was really nerve racking. Beverly listened and she said she really liked my talk and she even took notes so even if none of the members enjoyed it (which many said they did) at least we were able to teach Beverly the first lesson.
Today is Elder Burch's birthday so I think we are going out to eat somewhere. Rest assured it will not be at Boston Pizza and we won't order alcoholic pizza. haha Elder Burch and I have been joking about how ridiculous Snuggie's are and than for his birthday one of our investigators gave him her snuggie because she can't stand to wear it. We have been taking lots of Snuggie pictures and they are hilarious. We also had district meeting which I use to be a fan of but now not so much because it is done over the phone and most of the time we can't even hear everyone. The good thing is though we can eat during it so I guess there are positives.
Well not much else to report on. This week has been kinda slow, good, but slow. I love ya all and hope you have a great week.
Love, Elder Turner
Monday, February 1, 2010
1.27.2010
First off let me just apologize for writing on a Wednesday. Usually here in Selkirk since we only have one library here and its closed on Monday's, we have permission to write on Tuesday. Yesterday we came to write but every time we came there wasn't any available computers so we wrote today. So you will always get an email from me on Tuesdays hopefully. I would still recommend writing on Mondays though because once or twice a transfer we get to go down to Winnipeg for P-day and we would than email than.
Also, LDS mail just recently changed to a G-mail service and it made us change our emails so now my email is pturner@myldsmail.net. All of my mail will still be forwarded to to my new one but I'm not sure how long that will be though.
Well after a two hour Drive to Regina, staying there for a night and driving 6 hours to Winnipeg than another Hour, I finally made it to Selkirk, Manitoba. It is a really small town and its alot of fun. One of the biggest buildings here is the Mental Asylum. I think it is the mental asylum for all of Manitoba. haha There is alot of crazy people on the streets here, like seriously. Elder Burch was telling me about a guy that told them he put space rocks up to his head and now he is a genius or another guy who hangs out with robots. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of normal people here (they just don't wonder the streets at -20 C)
My new companion is Elder Burch. He is from Boise (more specifically Star), Idaho. He is a really funny guy and we actually new each other my first transfer because he was in my district but we are constantly laughing the whole day. We actually have quite alot of fun together but don't worry, we still work really hard.
So the other day we were talking to one of our investigators Theresa. She is a "close talker" and she likes to get very loud (not a good combination). She also talks a mile a minute (or a Kilometer a minute). She welcomed me to Selkirk and started to list off the highlights of Selkirk that I need to check out. On the list was Wal-mart, and the McDonalds. She actually asked me if I had ever been to a McDonalds before. haha I told her a few times.
We are also teaching this guy named Trevor. He is a really nice guy and really interested in the gospel. I felt bad though because he asked me to give the closing prayer and in the prayer I called him Jeremy. Nobody bothered to correct me and it wasn't until we got home and I asked a question about "Jeremy" that Elder Burch told me I had been calling him the wrong name the whole night haha.
We had one investigator come to church this week...kinda. Selkirk branch is very spread out so sometimes people call in to a phone and listen to sacrament because it is too far to come in or the highways are really bad. We have one investigator, Beverly, who is a Steven minister for the Lutheran church. She really likes our church but she has been extremely sick so she called in and listened to it which counts for an investigator at church.
So on Sunday, the branch president and us, went to go visit a part-member family who live in Fisher Branch, Manitoba. We left after church and Fisher Branch is two hours north of Selkirk (our area is huge) the highways were terrible because there was a blizzard that day and it took us forever to get there. By the Time we left (at one) got there, taught an hour lesson, and got back it was 6 O'clock. We than had a meal at the Presidents house but we were going to have to cut it short because he had to leave at 6:15 to get stake priesthood meeting (we couldn't go because we didn't have an investigator going) so he drops us off back at our car and Elder Burch realizes we don't have the keys to the car/apartment. haha we searched Presidents car and the church but couldn't find it. President Anderson eventually had to go so he left us in the church. Sis. Anderson called and said she had found the keys in his car and she brought it too us with our food to go. haha by the time we left there it was 8. That was a long day.
On P-day, there was a crazy blizzard going on and we got stuck twice. One time somebody towed us out with their truck. We decided to go to DQ and get Blizzards and take pictures in the blizzard. I'll send them when I can. they are pretty funny.
Also, when I was back in Saskatoon, we had a Jehovah Witness lady who lived below us. She was constantly bringing us food and things just randomly and she was super nice. She brought us a $20 gift card to Boston Pizza which I put in my wallet because Elder Halliday and I planned on going there one p-day. well we both forgot and I didn't remember till the other day that I had it so Elder Burch and I decided to go to Boston Pizza yesterday. We ordered the BBQ Pulled pork pizza. She explained that the BBQ sauce was Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and we said that sounded good. It wasn't until we took our first bites that I remembered Jack Daniels was Whiskey. haha we both were kinda worried and we asked her and she said there was 1/2 ounce of Jack Daniels per 40 ounces of bbq sauce. We still couldn't eat it so we asked for another pizza and we were going to pay for both because it was our fault but they ended up just giving us a free new one. haha we felt pretty dumb.
Oh and in this Branch, every 5th Sunday is Missionary Sunday so we have to speak in sacrament. yeah!!! haha luckily there is only 40 people there.
Well I'm out of time but I love ya.
Elder Turner
Also, LDS mail just recently changed to a G-mail service and it made us change our emails so now my email is pturner@myldsmail.net. All of my mail will still be forwarded to to my new one but I'm not sure how long that will be though.
Well after a two hour Drive to Regina, staying there for a night and driving 6 hours to Winnipeg than another Hour, I finally made it to Selkirk, Manitoba. It is a really small town and its alot of fun. One of the biggest buildings here is the Mental Asylum. I think it is the mental asylum for all of Manitoba. haha There is alot of crazy people on the streets here, like seriously. Elder Burch was telling me about a guy that told them he put space rocks up to his head and now he is a genius or another guy who hangs out with robots. Don't get me wrong, there are alot of normal people here (they just don't wonder the streets at -20 C)
My new companion is Elder Burch. He is from Boise (more specifically Star), Idaho. He is a really funny guy and we actually new each other my first transfer because he was in my district but we are constantly laughing the whole day. We actually have quite alot of fun together but don't worry, we still work really hard.
So the other day we were talking to one of our investigators Theresa. She is a "close talker" and she likes to get very loud (not a good combination). She also talks a mile a minute (or a Kilometer a minute). She welcomed me to Selkirk and started to list off the highlights of Selkirk that I need to check out. On the list was Wal-mart, and the McDonalds. She actually asked me if I had ever been to a McDonalds before. haha I told her a few times.
We are also teaching this guy named Trevor. He is a really nice guy and really interested in the gospel. I felt bad though because he asked me to give the closing prayer and in the prayer I called him Jeremy. Nobody bothered to correct me and it wasn't until we got home and I asked a question about "Jeremy" that Elder Burch told me I had been calling him the wrong name the whole night haha.
We had one investigator come to church this week...kinda. Selkirk branch is very spread out so sometimes people call in to a phone and listen to sacrament because it is too far to come in or the highways are really bad. We have one investigator, Beverly, who is a Steven minister for the Lutheran church. She really likes our church but she has been extremely sick so she called in and listened to it which counts for an investigator at church.
So on Sunday, the branch president and us, went to go visit a part-member family who live in Fisher Branch, Manitoba. We left after church and Fisher Branch is two hours north of Selkirk (our area is huge) the highways were terrible because there was a blizzard that day and it took us forever to get there. By the Time we left (at one) got there, taught an hour lesson, and got back it was 6 O'clock. We than had a meal at the Presidents house but we were going to have to cut it short because he had to leave at 6:15 to get stake priesthood meeting (we couldn't go because we didn't have an investigator going) so he drops us off back at our car and Elder Burch realizes we don't have the keys to the car/apartment. haha we searched Presidents car and the church but couldn't find it. President Anderson eventually had to go so he left us in the church. Sis. Anderson called and said she had found the keys in his car and she brought it too us with our food to go. haha by the time we left there it was 8. That was a long day.
On P-day, there was a crazy blizzard going on and we got stuck twice. One time somebody towed us out with their truck. We decided to go to DQ and get Blizzards and take pictures in the blizzard. I'll send them when I can. they are pretty funny.
Also, when I was back in Saskatoon, we had a Jehovah Witness lady who lived below us. She was constantly bringing us food and things just randomly and she was super nice. She brought us a $20 gift card to Boston Pizza which I put in my wallet because Elder Halliday and I planned on going there one p-day. well we both forgot and I didn't remember till the other day that I had it so Elder Burch and I decided to go to Boston Pizza yesterday. We ordered the BBQ Pulled pork pizza. She explained that the BBQ sauce was Jack Daniels BBQ sauce and we said that sounded good. It wasn't until we took our first bites that I remembered Jack Daniels was Whiskey. haha we both were kinda worried and we asked her and she said there was 1/2 ounce of Jack Daniels per 40 ounces of bbq sauce. We still couldn't eat it so we asked for another pizza and we were going to pay for both because it was our fault but they ended up just giving us a free new one. haha we felt pretty dumb.
Oh and in this Branch, every 5th Sunday is Missionary Sunday so we have to speak in sacrament. yeah!!! haha luckily there is only 40 people there.
Well I'm out of time but I love ya.
Elder Turner
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