10.18.2010

Wow so much happened this week. I'm constantly tired but I guess that just means I've been working hard. The baptism was amazing and the spirit was really strong. We went to the church to fill up the font and for some reason the hot water here in Winnipeg comes out like dark brown so it looked disgusting. haha we told the girls that becuase they wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized we were trying to recreate the Jordan River.

Needless to say they weren't impressed. haha Bishop luckily had bought some pool die and so we put that in

there and so the water was like a deep blue. Looked kinda funny but better than brown I suppose. We didn't think too many people would show up but we set up a ton of chairs in the Relief Socity room. Well that filled up pretty quickly and during the first talk we had to set up more chairs and I had to sit out in the hall. As I was in the hall more people kept coming and they had to stay in the hall. Luckily everybody piled in to see the baptism and than we moved it to the chapel afterwards. After that everything went smoothly. The girls were so great and they just beemed. The younger one had to get dunked twice and after the first time when she found out she had to get dunked again she said "Are you Kidding Me??" pretty loudly. Everyone Laughed. They were also pretty happy/ honored that President Paulson and his wife came to see it. All in all it was a very long but extrememly good day.

At the baptism a member told us that he had been talking to his friends and they agreed to have us meet them so we are going to go visit this family with the member on thursday. We are pretty excited because member refferals are great. I don't think members realize that Tracting isn't the most effective thing and the best way to do missionary work is through the members. This particular member once went tracting with the Elders before I came and was like "Oh so tracting doesn't always produce people to teach". Maybe we should take members tracting more often. haha I don't think that would go over very well.

Jayden is adorable for sure and he's going to be even cuter when he gets a real puppy for Christ

mas. I just wish I could be there to see his face when he opens the present.

Sounds like everything is going good back at home. We should be having alot of good things happen this upcoming week and we are pretty excited about it. Sorry I don't have too much to say but the baptism really was the highlight. I'll try to send pictures today but if I don't get to it I'll send them next week. Love Ya

Elder Turner

10.13.2010

So something really strange and unexpected happened this week. We were eating at a Filipeano Member's house this past week and his daughter and her 4 kids live there as well. They just moved up from Utah and the husband has to still work there and travel back and forth but he was there this past week as well. I introduced myself to him and he asked me how many elder Turner's there were out and I said just 1.He than said "Oh, you're my cousin" haha His name is Matthew Olsen. He is the Grandson of Grandpa Turners sister. They told me that even though I'm a distant uncle to the kids in Filipeano culture, I'm still at the same standing as an actual uncle. They call me Elder Tito (which is Uncle in Tagolog). I thought that was pretty funny and the last thing I expected was to run into relatives. They tahn invited us over for Thanksgiving on Sunday so I got to spend time with my new neices and nephew. haha.

This past week was really good. We had another Thanksgiving meal on Monday so I've been stuffed for a while. Oh sorry this is being written on Wednesday, Monday was thanksgiving so everything was closed, Tuesday was Zone Conference so we had no time to write. We have to head out to Interviews with the President soon after this. Zone Conference was really good. We had a General Authority come out and talk to us, Elder Sybrowski (?), and it was really good. The whole time I thought they looked really familiar but than I realized as his wife gave her conversion story that they spoke to us while we were in the MTC and she told the same story. They were both really good and we will hopefully start to improve as a mission. I think we all have kind of inherited a sense that our mission is not as successful as others and so its ok when we don't have much to show for it. I guess "whether you think you can or you can't, you're right" really makes sense in this case. We kinda needed a wake up call I guess you could say.

No mom I'm not sick, yes you loaded me up with tons of different medicine before I left and I still have quite a bit left. I've lent out more than I've used myself so don't worry about me.

That is so exciting that Casey is going to serve a mission. She'll do really great. Let her know that I've been meaning to write but I don't write many letters anymore. I've probably sent 2 in the last 6 months. But don't get me wrong I love mail so keep sending it. Just give me time to respond.

I want to make this really clear. Canada is not too much different from the United States. Canadian Thanksgiving is the same exact thing just on a different day. It is also actually for a different reason. Theres is because some guy tried to find a northwest passage by boat and failed but when they got home they had a feast of thankgiving that no one died on the journey and that they returned safely home.

We're gearing up for the Silk Girls baptisms this upcoming week. It will be on Saturday. I'm pretty excited for them and they are ready. I'll let you know how everything goes with that. It is tough planning a baptism exactly the way they want it and than having to ask members to participate. I guess if I baptized more often I would be use to it. haha

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

Love,
Elder Turner

10.4.2010

Well this past week has been pretty great. How could you be mad when General Conference is shown. It was really weird for me though becuase you only get 4 General Conference's on you mission and that was my third. Time goes by really quickly. Conference was great though. My favorite talks were Patrick Keaton in the Priensthood Session and my favorite speaker always is Dieter F. Uctdorf in both the Saturday Morning Session and the Priesthood session. The one in the morning was probably my favorite talk of the conference. Last week Elder McCleave and I bought a tube of Cinnamon Rolls and had them Sunday Morning so I'm keeping the tradition alive, even if they aren't as good as yours. We had 4 people come to church The Rodriguez girls (whom are getting baptized October 16th) came to all four sessions but went to the other chapel becuase she wanted to see some friends and Catherine and her Common-Law came for the last session. It was really interesting becuase she has 7 kids and always struggles to raise them and she is trying to quit smoking. They came about 30-45 min late but two of the talks that they heard which she really enjoyed was about raising kids (especially teenagers) and quiting addictions. Definately spoken straight for her.

Elder McCleve and I get along really great. He is hilarious and we just have tons of fun together. He's a great missionary too so that helps. I love having a truck. It is the greatest thing ever. Unfortunately we have to keep track of our K's which takes alot of the fun out of it. I'm not sure if that is in every mission but I think we have had missionaries here who have driven to Alberta, Ontario, and about 10 years ago, Utah. Yeah they took pictures in front of their house and drove back. They should have just stayed there becuase they got sent home that following week. Sometimes missionaries are just stupid.

Haha I'm glad you liked the pictures of Balut. It didn't taste bad just the thought/texture were gross. I probably won't do it again. Between sessions of Conference we went to Olive Garden for their never ending pasta bowl and I ordered the Parmeson Alfredo Portebella (knowing full well that portabella was a mushroom). It wasn't bad. I figured I've never really had it and Ive had balut...how bad could it be.

I hadn't heard that Evan got his mission call. That is so great. He'll do great, he'll be able to help alot of his investigators personally with problems they get. I sometimes wish I had a companion who was less-active or a convert just to be able to help our investigators personally. I know Evan wasn't either of those but it is the same effect.

Well I am overjoyed today, especially for Evan. I'm so happy I was able to write today and find that out. Next week we will be emailing later becuase next monday is Thanksgiving (Canada). I love you all and are constantly praying for you success as I know you are as well.

Love, Elder Turner

9.27.2010

This past week was pretty slow. Not too much happened but the big news is that we got our transfer calls. Elder Woods is coming over from his area (jefferson) which is closing to be with Elder Fackrell and be the new district leader. So He is staying in the same ward and they will cover both areas. I'm being moved to an area called Munroe and am staying in the district. I'm pretty excited. I'm going to be with Elder McCleave. He is a very quirky missionary but he is really funny and we get along so I'm excited. I get a truck (the truck is a Chevy Colorado) which I'm also excited and I'm prime driver. I've been prime driver for the past 6 months (senior companions are usually prime drivers) but we didn't have a car. My old area is getting a car as well.

I'm literally moving two areas over. I'll still be going to the same building but just the other ward. It is the London ward. I'm going to miss Gateway ward (my old ward) because they have some great members but I'm excited to start a new ward. It's weird because my district leader now is the elder at Munroe and everytime we went on exchanges I went to his area (even if I was with his companion) so I've taught all but 1 of their investigators. That will be nice and make it an easy transition. Munroe has two baptisimal dates. They are two girls (12 and 14) whose mom and step dad are super active but their real dad is anti. The mom and step dad have full custody so she can get baptized regardless. They are all super active and the girls are really great. They are already members, just haven't been baptized. They will be baptized the week after General Conference. They also have an investigator named Catherine who is Golden. I've taught her before. She asked the missionaries when she can be baptized and was reading the gospel principles manual and said "I really have a desire to be get married for eternity but I just need to find someone with that Melkizidek Preisthood" haha. She is really great.

So this past week we also taught Melina and have her set for a Baptisimal date for December 11th. She commited to come to church 3 times a month at least and to go to the fireside that weekend (it was another one of those Elder Masters' fireside) which was yesterday. Well, her new boyfriend won't let her go to church or the fireside so we are kinda stuck with her. She can only leave his sight for school and work. I don't know why people put themselves in these positions but it is stupid. Sometimes people are just dumb. Not too much else to report.

Our ward now has a ton of Filipeano members. they are the best people ever. One of them asked us to come over and give their house a blessing (first one I've ever done, I didn't even know that people did that. Did we do that to our house?) When we got there we realized she had invited us over for her sons 4th birthday party and their was a lot of Filipeano people and tons of good food. Then she asked me to bless it in front of everyone. haha I was nervous about doing it infront of just them. It went well though. She also decided for fun, she would make us Balut (Ba-Loot). Balut is a fertilized duck or chicken (we had chicken) egg that is almost devloped. You boil the eggs than crack the shell, pull off a little of the skin, drink the fluid, eat some of the yoke, than you can see the actual bird (beak, feathers, etc.) and gobble that down. It didn't taste bad but it was so gross. Hopefully I'll get time to send pictures today. I Think you'll enjoy it.

Our birthday lunch was good. It was at a place called Mongos. It is a mongolian stir fry restraunt where they have a ton of veggies, meats, noodles, and sauce and you put everything that you want into a bowl and then they through it on the grill right in front of you. It is pretty fun and tasted really good. I'm sure you could understand it better if you had pictures but I didn't take any. Look online, I'm sure they have some.

Well I love you all. Hope your week is good. I'll try and respond to everyone who wrote me but I'm gonna try and send pictures first so if I don't get to it, I will next week. Love ya

Elder Turner

Me holding the last bite of balut.

Balut...One is before you open the egg, the other is after. Can you see the birds head?

More Balut Look at how good that cake looks. Good thing I didn't throw up on it.

More Balut. This was really fun to do. I had to do it but i know you just love the pictures (esp. mom and Destiny)

Two pictures from a birthday party.

Marco Anthony (he's 4 now) playing with Elder Fackrell's Camera

One is of all of our zone at P-day activity (last transfer) and the other was at an Elders Quorum activity. We had a pig roast. That is the head.

This is from left to right Elder Fackrell, Elder Burch, Elder Woods, and I. Elder Burch, Elder Woods and I are pretty good friends. The first picture is serious and I think Kevin, and Cami will probably get the second picture ("Make the Face of your character!!) haha

9.20.2010

Hello everybody.

I hope everybody is having a great week. This week wasn't too bad for us. We did have somebody come to church for us this week which has been the first time in a while. He is from Sudan (Africa) and his name is Joshua. We might have to turn him over to the Young Single Adult Elders because he is that age but we are hoping on starting to teach his whole family. His English is ok but he really liked church. He had to have been the spirit because he doesn't understand too much English.

Karen has once again disappeared. Hopefully we get ahold of her soon. I don't know what to do with her. With Melina though we had a really great lesson with her. She is starting to learn again which is great but she wasn't able to come to church this past week because she was going to the zoo. Her boyfriend isn't the best example for her but she stated that she needs to be the example for him. Hopefully good things continue to happen with her. Things are starting to slowly build up again and hopefully it continues to go up.

That member (the DeFrancescos) fed us cafe rio yesterday. It was so good. Thanks for sending the recipe, she appreciated it as well. She had a recipe for the dressing that tasted exactly like it so she said she would copy it for me to give to you.

Not too much else happened this past week. Next Sunday is transfer calls and there are going to be a lot of changes in the mission. 9 missionaries are going home including our assistant so it is exciting to find out who our new leaders will be. Well I love you all and keep on keeping on.

Love,

Elder Turner

9.6.2010

This week has been pretty good. We still haven't found anybody to teach but we did find alot of potentials that should be paying off soon. Our mission has had the goal of getting 50 to church for a while. In the summer it gets really hard to get people there and for the past 4 or so weeks we have gotten under it. This week we all fasted for it and we were grate full to get 57 at church. Our zone had 25 (there are 4 zones in all). Unfortuately we weren't able to help at all in the goal but we are definately working for it this week. Karen finally called us on Sunday and apologized and said she felt like she needed a little break so she wants us to start coming over again. I wasn't even mad that she took so long to call, I was just so excited and happy/overwhelmed that she called. It really was a great feeling.

Not too much is going on here. Because of the new schedule thing that the church put out zone confrences are every other transfer so this transfer we aren't haveing zone conference but there is a huge training meeting for all the leaders Wed, Thurs, and Friday from 8 am to 5 pm every day. They eventually invited everyone to go in Winnipeg so it will be sort of like a Bi-zone conference but spread out over three days. I'm pretty excited for it but this whole week is shot. Monday was P-day Tuesday District meeting than shopping and emailing (the stores and libraries were closed due to labor (or Labour up here) day. Wed thursday and Friday is that huge meeting all day, saturday is a Pig Roast for the ward, a couple appointments and we have to find time that day to plan for our upcoming week for three hours and than Sunday is Church, Monday will be P-day. Not too much actual missionary work will be happing this next week but that training meeting will be really great and help us in the long run. It is on the new way to use Preach my Gospel video so its gotta be good.

BTW Sorry I didn't write yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, it was Labour Day here yesterday.

Mom, a couple in the ward had us over for supper one day and we started to talk about restraunts in the states and I mentioned Cafe Rio and she said that is one of her favorite restraunts and I said that you had the recipe for Cafe Rio Pork and she said (and I quote)
"If you can get me the recipe, I will make it for you" There is no way I am turning that down. If you can get me the recipe that would be really great. Also if you can find a recipe for Cafe Rio's house dressing (or if you know one) that would be great to.

Well not to much else is going on here. A couple of the apartments have been getting bed bugs and we thought we had one the other day but the guy who checks the apartments looked at the bug we trapped and told us it wasn't a bed bug. What a relief...those things are terrible. On the brightside though the mission pays for you suits to get dry cleaned if you get them.

Well I love you all and know that I pray for you often as well and I definately feel your prayers.

Love,

Elder Turner

P.S. I didn't hear anything about an earthquake, thats crazy. Thanks for the notice

8.30.2010

Well this past week hasn't been the most memorable. We are starting to see more missionary excitement in the ward so that is good. We taught 5 lessons last week so definately not very good. It seemed like everything we set up seemed to fall through so hopefully this next week will be better.

This week there seems to be a plague on our district. Our District Leader had his car broken into on Sunday and they stole his CD's, his comp. camera, and broke the ignition on the car so that it doesnt' work now. Another set of Elders (elder Woods and Elder Galbraith) got Bed bugs and they are always at our apartment so hopefully they don't bring any with them. Alot of apartments have been getting Bed bugs and they are not fun at all. They are nasty and I never knew about them until I came up here. I don't think we have them in the states. I know also understand the phrase "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". I always thought that meant any bug but I did not know it was the name of an actual bug. they are gross. haha. On the bright side if we get it, the mission pays for our dry cleaning.

So on Tuesday we had district meeting and President Paulson came as well. Elder Fackrell and I were assigned to practice our tracting on President Paulson so we went out in the hall and he ended up talking to us the whole time. He eventually told us that if we keep working hard, not only will we find people, but people will find us. kinda a weird statement but the very next day it came true. We were walking away from our apointment and the man named Salifau came down from his house and wanted to talk to us. He is from Guinee (Africa) and only speaks French but wants us to bring him a Book of Mormon in French. Later that day we were walking and this lady named Ann started talking to us while we waited for the bus and she was doing her yard (her house is in front of the bus stop). She was talking about how she is pretty sick of religion and how they are businesses. We talked to her a little bit and she really wanted to learn more. We are pretty excited for her. She also committed herself to church this next week with her daughter. We're meeting with her in a few days. We also have quite a bit of members that we are meeting with this day which should be really good. Somehow we swung 4 dinner appointments which 1 is sometimes a rare thing. We really feel like the members are starting to trust us more and want us involved with them. Elder Woods and Elder Galbraith found out that their apartment/area is closing at the end of the transfer (we are already starting to close areas for next year) so the ward will now be down to 2 sets instead of 3. I think the members know that with less missionaries it means more emphasis on the members so they are starting to step it up.

We had a really great day at church yesterday too. It was the 5th sunday so the leaders of the ward spoke and it was really great. Also our ward mission leader pretty much committed one of the other Elders investigator to be baptized which she accepted. We did end up missing the Master's Fireside though this month because nobody was able to go from our area (you can only go if an investigator or RC go). It was a good opprutunitiy to find though so hopefully our work pays off.

Well not much else to say. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Elder Turner