8.23.2010

How's it going?

So this past week was transfer week. Not too much changed. Our zone stayed pretty much the same. Elder Woods is not training Elder Mitton but is training Elder Galbraith from Seattle. Elder Mitton is serving with Elder Lui from Hawaii. He is a really great missionary so Elder Mitton should be good. They are serving out in Melville, Saskatchewan. It is a small town outside of Regina that was just recently opened. Unfortunatley I wasn't able to see him but I know he's in good hands.
Not too much else happened. Almost all of our investigators decided it would be fun to stop investigating. I think they all had a giant meeting about it because all but 2 dropped us. All I can say is that this past week hasn't been the best. I definatley understand though, sometimes missions are hard but you just gotta keep working. We have been tracting in some newer areas and hopefully things start working out for us.

This past week though we did quite alot of service for people. We helped one of our investigators cut down a tree which was alot of fun. The next day we helped our other investigator pick up all the apples from their tree (there were tons of them). and the day after that we helped the Hernandez's (the members that called you for your birthday) put up a new fence because somebody drove though theirs. I enjoy doing service though. It gets you out of you missionary clothes and you get to help other people.

Sorry this letter isn't too long. Really not too much (good) stuff happened this week so not too much to report. The weather has been pretty hot but the other day we were out tracting and huge clouds came and it started raining, than hailing. That was the biggest hail I have ever seen. Fortunately some guy let us under his porch and he talked to us for a bit but wasn't too intrested. It's been pretty hot though, so much so that we are praying for winter. I know when it gets to winter we are going to be praying for summer though. This one is suppose to be extremely bad, or so they are predicting. But what do I know haha.
Love,
Elder Turner

Zone Conference Picture

8.16.2010

So first of all, transfer calls. Elder Fackrell and I are staying together here in the Henderson area. Elder Burch is going out to Moose Jaw (6 hours away) and Elder Woods is training. We are with Elder Burch and Elder Woods all the time so I'm hoping Elder Woods trains Elder Mitton because then I will see him every Mon, Tue, Fri, and Sunday. Pretty exciting.

It seems like Jobsisee is doing really well. Unfortunatley we aren't able to look at other websites except for email so I am not able to look at it but it sounds like it is doing good. When is it expected to launch?

So this past week has been ok. It has been raining alot but today it is clear. It is starting to get a little colder and they are expecting a terrible winter this year. I guess that is just payback for what the locals call a "mild" winter from last year. There was nothing mild about it. haha I guess I'm just a wuss.
We are still having problems with our investigators but slow and steady wins the race. Luiz, the man who came last week to church, came again but when he got there late he saw the congregation before us leaving so he thought church got canceled so he left. That was disappointing but we are meeting with him this week. We are really working on getting solid, commited people to investigate. We haven't gotten a hold of Karen since she was suppose to quit smoking but her daughter said she cut down but hasn't quit. Hopefully soon we will be able to talk to her.

It seems like Kevin had a good time in China. That is good to here. I'm glad Kevin finally got some man hood, even if it was from a sheep. I guess you could say it tasted ewe...haha that's dumb.

Well not much else to report. I do come up on my year mark soon which is scary but it was bound to happen sooner or later. I hear it goes by way to fast after your year mark. This past transfer just flew by so I guess I'll be home in no time. weird. haha well I love ya.

Elder Turner

8.9.2010

So this past week was ok. We had a lot of disappointments this past week but also alot of blessings. I guess you win some and you lose some. We set a baptisimal date with a man named Kenneth. He's from Nigeria and he is pretty great but hasn't come to church so it doesn't actually count as a date yet. He has a job at his church and often times the timing conflicts.

I'm not sure if I wrote this story before but we contacted a kid who gave us his info but didn't seem to intrested. When we called he ended up hanging up on us and his mom called back to apologize. We got to talking to her and she wanted to learn more about the church so we set an appointment. When we went by she told us she wasn't intrested anymore which was pretty disappointing. We than talked to President and he told us to go back. So we did. And set up another time and we actually had a really great lesson this past week. It was pretty exciting to see. She did say she would come to church and didn't end up coming so I don't know why. We'll have to get in contact with her soon. Good story though.

Sorry not much else to write about. This week was pretty slow. On Sunday we get our Transfer Calls so we will know where we are going. Pretty exciting. I love transfers, mainly because I like change. Don't get me wrong though, I will still miss our investigators and members if I leave but I still like the change aspect of it all.

Love,

Elder Turner

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

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

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

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