Wednesday, August 4, 2010

8.3.2010

This past transfer has flown by like crazy. Elder Fackrell and I only have two more Sunday's before transfers which scares me how fast everything is going. Elder Mitton is going to be here at the next transfer so that would be pretty fun to see him. I know what he looks like but its been a long time since we've done something together.

This past week has been pretty good. We've been really busy which is probably one reason this transfer is flying by. We already have 14 appointments set up this week which never happens so we're pretty excited. We haven't been able to get ahold of Karen since she quit. She works shift work so we just don't know when to call. Hopefully she's doing good but we'll find out soon enough. A member called Melina and talked to her. Melina is just super stressed and having a hard time but still wants to investigate just wants a little bit of time to figure things out.

Some pretty exciting news. Elder Fackrell was in Downtown Winnipeg (that is where he started, which is also where I started). There he taught a man named Gaberial from Sudan Africa. He also taught her sister. Gaberial is getting baptized this week and his sister (Akon) and her two kids will be at the end of the month. When they were teaching Gabrial he asked for copies of the Book of Mormon to send home to Sudan so they gave him two english ones and an arabic one. Well according to Gabrial, his village loves them and they read them all the time and every Sunday about 500 people get together for "church" and all the young boys wear white shirts to be like the missionaries. haha. Pretty amazing story. Too bad there is no missionaries there yet but when it is open 500 people are ready to be baptized.

I did get the video of Jayden floating but I can't watch it because of these computers. For some reason they won't let me watch certain videos. I did get alot of pictures though and I really enjoy those ones.

Oh by the way, yesterday was a civic holiday so that is why I didn't email. I'm not sure what the civic holiday means but Canada Loves holidays and they have them way too frequent. If they don't have 2-3 each month its rare. Oh also I heard that my friend Brittney Allison is engaged. That is crazy to hear that our friends are getting married. I also heard that Rozlyn Jensen is either engaged or already married. I'm happy for both of them but that is still really weird.

About two weeks ago we contacted this kid and got his info but I thought it was fake information. We called a few days later and his mom answered. We asked for the kid and she asked who we were. Than she told her son and told him who we were and he came over and hung up the phone. haha so we just laughed and continued making calls. A few min. later his mom calls back and apologizes for her sons behavior and than starts to ask us questions about what we do. Supposidly she has been looking for a church for 6 years. She was pretty excited to have us come over and teach her more. So we went over and she said "Yeah, I'm not really intrested anymore, thanks though" and than closed the door. We were pretty disappointed. Elder Fackrell was talking to President Paulson about it and President flat out said go back. So yesterday we went back and she wants to meet on Saturday and have her son sit in as well. It's weird...its as if President Paulson is inspired or something. haha pretty exciting.

Zone Conference was really good. There are going to be some major changes in the mission. They are going to have an entire new way of using Preach My Gospel. Also there is a new "The District" videos (ask Kevin and Destiny). Our mission is loosing alot of missionaries as well. Now we have about 98 missionaries and by next July it will be 56. Each ward will eventually have one set of missionaries (Our ward now has 3 sets and another ward has 4) That also means that each set will cover a huge area though. That means that 5 sets of missionaries for all of Winnipeg. Every area will have a car though. We are also loosing a ton of senior missionaries and nobody to replace them. Apparently there are 12 senior couples preparing to serve a mission right now...for the whole world. The church is desperatley in need of senior couples.

Well not much else to talk about I love you all. I've also heard that that movie (inseption or whatever) is really good. Not too big of a concern for me right now though but I definatley will see it.

Love ya,
Elder Turner

Monday, July 26, 2010

7.26.2010

So this week hasn't been as good as others but it was still ok. We had an amazing lesson with Melina on Tuesday but than haven't been able to get ahold of her since than. I'm not sure what happened but we're kinda worried about it.

We also met with Karen and talked about the first vision and how satan tried to stop it from happening. We related that to smoking and how satan doesn't want her to be baptized. She seemed to enjoy it and she is ready to quit smoking this Sunday. I guess before the Elders kinda pushed her about smoking and she quit for a month but only for them. She says she wants to do it on her own time and so she is pretty sure she is ready. We're excited for her and we got permission from her to talk to her everyday and she how its going.

This next week we should be really busy. During our weekly planning we set major goals and we are planning on making them. Unfortunately with Melina being MIA it's going to make alot of those goals very difficult.

To add to the stress of this upcoming week we also have less time to meet our goals because we have Zone Confrence this week. I'm excited for it but it is going to make our goals that much more difficult.

So I was talking to a missionary out here (Elder Banks) and he said his best friend knows our family. I don't really know them but they are the Jones. They live in Virginia. Elder Banks said that we went way back but that I probably wouldn't remember them. He did say he was pretty sure it was us because they got a Christmas card from you and found out I was out here and they knew that you lived in China. Kinda intresting.

My Birthday was really great though. We had district meeting and the Senior Sister brought cookies. Than because it was my birthday we had a District Lunch and Montana's (its like an Applebees but a little nicer) and Elder Burch (My companion from Selkirk) paid for mine so that was really nice. Thanks for all of the Birthday wishes and for the package.

Sorry this is short but I honestly don't have too much to write about. It's been hot...and humid.

Love,
Elder Turner

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

7.19.2010

Well, I guess I have to come clean. I did open up my package the day I got it but I didn't want to admit it so I pretended like I didn't know last week. haha Love ya. Thanks for all the presents everybody. I don't know who sent what so I'm sending out a general thanks to everyone especially Destiny and Cami for putting it together for me. We spent last P-day playing bang and I've already eaten all the candy. Thanks for the song book and the cd as well. A dying missionary (means he is going home) gave me a CD player and his speakers so I don't need one anymore.

So we had an absolutley spectacular week. It was so amazing full of miracles. Elder Palica and I talked to a 19 yr old girl a while ago and she asked for a Bible and BOM. We didn't have a Bible is stock so we kinda forgot. She ran into us about two weeks ago and so than we told her we were waiting on one to get. Than Elder Fackrell came and we went and dropped it off last tuesday. We had an amazing lesson with her and we set up daily contact (we call each day and see how her reading is going). We than met with her on Friday and committed her to Baptism (sept. 4) and than we met with her on Saturday and gave her a tour of the church and than on Sunday she came with her son and cousin (9 yrs. old). The kids absolutley loved church and so did she. She wants us to start teaching her sister and her friend as well. When they got home from church her 3yr. old son said he wanted to go to church again and she said ok next week. He responded with "NO!! I want to go now!!" haha. that made us laugh. We are really excited for her and she is loving what she is learning.

Karen is doing great. Her and her daughter have both agreed to quit smoking on Aug. 1. Pray for her. This isn't the first time she has tried to quit but it should be the last. I guess there was an older woman in a different ward here that was scheduled to be baptized but 30 min before her baptism she was rushed to the hospital and is now waiting a double lung transplant because she smoked for 70 some odd years. We are definately praying for Karen and we hope for the best of course.

We have definately been working hard. The zone leaders have this ceramic angel statue that the call "Lola, The tired angel" who is one of the angels that helps everybody out (Promise in the D&C somewhere) The area that made her work the most that week gets to keep Lola for the week. Today the Zone Leaders gave it to us so that was really nice.

Well not much else to report. I did the math the other day. The last time Mom and Dad didn't have a teenager was about 14 years ago i think. It was a while ago when I did it. haha. I'm a man now!!!!

Love,

Elder Turner

Monday, July 12, 2010

7.12.2010

Sorry I have to make this one quick. There is a thousand people here at the library and other missionaries need to write. This week is really great. We have alot of appointments set up for this upcoming week and its really exciting. Elder Fackrell and I get along great and we are going to be doing quite alot of work in this area. I've been senior companion for quite a while. I just never mentioned it.

Karen is doing great. She bore her testimony to us at the last appointment but the smoking has got to be hard for her to do. Things are going really well. Thanks Cami and Brian and Kevin for all the pictures. Its nice to see that everyone is doing great.

I got my birthday package this past week. Thanks a ton for it. I can't wait until I can open it. Pretty exciting. I'm almost not a teenager anymore.

Well sorry this is short. Don't hate me. haha Love ya,

Elder Turner

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

6.6.2010

This week was a fairly good week. I'm actually very excited about this past week. We worked really hard and actually we had someone come to church so that is good. Her name is Karen. She recently moved into our area from another area and wants to be baptized just is struggling with quiting smoking. Hopefully we can help her with that.

This week we got our transfer calls. I'm staying here in the Henderson area and Elder Fackrell (pronounced Fack-roll) is going to be my new companion. He is a fairly new missionary. He has only been out about 4 months. Elder Palica is leaving but staying in Winnipeg. Different zone though so I won't see him as much. I'm really excited because I've only met Elder Fackrell a few times but I've liked him everytime. I'm pretty disappointed though cause Elder Clarine is leaving. He is probably my favorite Elder out but he is being transfered to Regina (don't laugh Kevin). At least he'll be able to go to the Temple.

Sorry this is pretty short. I don't have too much time today. Transfers are on Thursday so it will be fun to have a change. Elder Burch is staying so I will have been with him my entire mission except my two transfers in Saskatoon. I was able to go Karls baptism. I thought I wrote about that last time but I guess not. I was not however able to go to Chris's but I hear it was good. Elder Smith, my comp in Selkirk, is staying there but he just got called as district leader.

I would write Grandma and Grandpa but I don't know their emails. If you send them to me that would be great. Tell them hello for me in the mean time.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love
Elder Turner

6.29.2010

How's it going?

So this past week has been really good. We had a pretty successful week and we are working like crazy. When I say successful I mean we did better than we have in previous weeks. This Sunday is Transfer calls which is crazy because this past transfer just flew by. I'll let you know what is happening next Monday.

I'm glad to hear the Funeral went well. Your right though, many people did love her. Dad sent me the Eulogy and it was really good. President Paulson has been asking how everyone is doing with the loss. You can tell he really does care and concerned about not just us as missionaries but also our families.

It has been raining quite a bit this past week. The Mosquitos are out in full force as well. They are literally eating me alive. I found out this day that only the female mosquitos bite you because they need it to reproduce. That means every time you get bit, you probably just allowed 1000's more to be born. It's a terrible thought. It just means more are on their way.

So this Past week Karl from Selkirk got baptized. Very exciting. Elder Burch and I were allowed to go see it so we went on an exchange and it was really weird because Elder Burch and I drove back up to Selkirk together so it felt like we were still the missionaries up there. The baptism was great and he was so excited. The other day in church they played "If you could hie..." and Karl loved it so he decided he wanted that song sung at his baptism. We sang all 6 versus. haha there were alot of people who were not members and it was weird. Elder Burch and I were the witnesses for the baptism so it was nice to have a part in the program. That was by far the best day of my mission so far. I felt like I was on a cloud. Karl is going to be great and I'm so excited for him. We we went up to Selkirk it was storming but after the baptism it was a great cloudless sky and a really great sunset. All in all it was a great night.

Last night we had another Master's Fireside and they talked about the 5 and 6 articles of faith. really it was on the Church of Jesus Christ in ancient and modern times. Very very interesting. One point I liked was that Moses had chosen 12 princes to look over the 12 tribes (one for each tribe). Than they called a quorum of the 70 (in numbers somewhere) because when you read Genisis and when it talks about the Geneology of Noah there are 70 gentile nations. Each one in the quorum looked over each gentile nation. That's why when Christ told the apostles to only stay with those of the abrahamic covenant but sent the 70 out everywhere else is becuase the 12 look over those already in the church but the 70 is responsible for everyone who is not a member. When we are baptized we are "adopted" into the abrahamic coventant and thus under the 12's stewardship. It was pretty fasinating. I'm not sure if I got all of the facts right but it was something like that. It was a really good fireside. I really enjoy going to them.

Well not much else to report. Sorry to bore you with the old testament stuff. Love you all and keep doing great.

Love,
Elder Turner

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

6.22.2010

Hello everybody

This past week was pretty tough. We had a tough week and an extremely busy one. We had Monday: P-day, Tuesday: Interviews, Wednesday: Zone Conference, Thursday: Weekly Planning, Friday/Saturday: Exchange with the District Leader, and Sunday: Church. I'm pretty exhausted but the harder the week the faster it goes.

It was nice being able to talk to you this past week mom. I was shocked to hear that Aunt Derd had passed away and I'm going to miss her terribly. Kevin wrote me and mentioned that it was shocking but its a good thing we have the Gospel. Being a missionary I know how true that is. There are so many people in this world that don't have a knowledge of the Gospel and yet have people close around them pass away. I don't know what I would do without the knowledge that I would see her again. It truely does bring alot of comfort.

I have been having a good week. Not as good as I planned but next week we are going to do alot better. Not this Sunday but next Sunday we get our transfer calls which came way too quick. Carl, up in Selkirk, is getting baptized this Saturday so I'm hoping we will be able to go (we have to have an investigator go).

Sorry this is short but I love you all and want you to know I'm doing good. Say hi to the family for me and my prayers are with you all as you attend the funeral.

Love,

Elder Turner