3.30.2010

This picture is of me in front of Chuck the Catfish.

This week has been extremely good but extremely tiring. The weather here has been extremely nice and really good. Yesterday was +15 C so yeah things are getting nice here in Selkirk. The ice in the river is cracked and gone but the river is flooded. There is a bridge that goes out to East Selkirk and is about 20-30 ft above water normally and now nobody can cross because its too high. The water is going to be at its highest on Saturday hopefully so well have to see how much higher it will get.

I'm not sure if I told you but when I was Elder Burch a car backed up into us and messed up our bumper while we were parked. Well today was the day we were told to bring the car into the shop and it won't be ready till Thursday so Selkirk just became a walking area. haha and of course after a week of great weather on our way into the library it started to rain. haha. just our luck. Plus we have lots and lots of appointments today and tomorrow on opposite sides of the city so things will be interesting.

The other day the Szypkowski's had us over for supper and than we helped them move an extremely heavy piano out of somebodies house and into their house. Their son, Bart, just returned from a mission in BC, Canada a week ago and he had learned how to play the piano on his mission so when his mom heard him play she decided they needed a piano because he is really good. Don't expect the same thing from me though. They are a really nice family and live just outside of Selkirk in St. Andrews. They were like one of the first members in Poland and pretty much started their branch their and in Austria. They are an amazing family and true Mormon Pioneers.

I'm happy to hear Morgan is going on a Mission. He'll do good in Denmark. I honestly can't believe Dillion and Reese are home/coming home. Two years just flew by with them. haha that is crazy to think about.

We had zone conference this past week. I really enjoy zone conferences and you learn alot. Most of the time I have to review my notes the next personal study because I just learn so much.

I'm super excited for General Conference this next week. After General Conference us as missionaries here in The Canada Winnipeg Mission don't have to wear suit coats anymore except to meetings. I'm so excited to walk around the streets in just a white shirt. I'm also excited for the talks. They should be good. I'm excited to see what Jeffrey R. Holland is going to speak on, all i know is it is going to be a powerhouse talk. Lets just hope its not on something boring...like food storage.

I'm going to try and get some pictures off today. I was wondering that whenever you send me a package (the next one will probably be my birthday) if you could send me my CD Player and Speakers. I'm not sure where they are but if you come across them that would be great.

Well I love you all and I'll talk to you later.

Love,

Elder Turner

3.23.2010

Howdy Ya'll,

Supposedly that is the typical "American" Accent up here in Canada. Alot of times people are surprised to hear that Elder Smith and I are from America. They aren't ignorant or anything. Canadian people actually know the states alot more than I do. Actually I would say we are kind of ignorant, I have absolutely no idea about Canada or its provinces. If somebody asks you what the capital of Canada is, do not say Toronto. Its not. Now that I'm thinking about it I can't even remember what the actual capital is. All I know is it is not in Manitoba.

Anyway, things are going well here in Selkirk. Alot of good things are starting to pan out here. We just work as hard as we possibly can and God takes care of the rest. We are working with a less-active lady and her part-member family. The husband is against religion. She might be going to church and being nice to us for the wrong reasons, but both of her sons expressed desires to be baptized. She wouldn't let them before but she said they could this time. We just have to discern her true intentions for coming to church because if she isn't genuinely interested in becoming active again we aren't going to baptize her kids into inactivity.

Another less active man called an active member this week asked for home teachers, a book of Mormon, and he wants his son to take the baptismal lessons. But they still haven't come out to church so again we will have to check on their intentions for getting him baptized.

Karl had to cancel our last appointment but we have a standing appointment with him on Tuesdays so tonight we should be meeting with him if nothing comes up. We are also hoping that he has picked a date. Also we are meeting with a lady named Sandy who we are hoping to set a date with soon.

We have been going out to Stonewall lately. We have two investigators out there and they both seem really good so hopefully we will be working with them for a while. The only bad thing is they have to work around our schedule and when we go up there rather than when they are actually available so that makes it difficult sometimes.

Well not much else to report. I accidentally used all the money on my allotment card so I ended up having to use my home card twice yesterday. Sorry, I know it costs more money but I only use it when I'm about to purchase something with my allotment card and I get declined. At that point I can't run to Scotiabank and take out money.

Last week we went on exchanges with our district leader and Elder Smith had to go with a missionary that is less than obedient. It kind of bothered him because he didn't know what to do and was awkward. My exchange went great though. I got to go with a Zone leader and I learned alot. One thing he said was "There are those missionaries who say they aren't going to change their personality or not follow a rule because they don't want to but I'm going to follow every rule and do what I'm suppose to. If my personality changes, who care? Its who God wants me to be" I like that. If we do what we are suppose to, we will become who God wants us to be. Anyway I'll get off my soap box.

Love,
Elder Turner

I forgot to mention how nice it has been up here. We have been in the positives and the weather her is just the best right now. The river should be breaking this week which is exciting. supposedly the ice sometimes will make a dam and flood the city so some exciting times ahead. Also they have the machine that cuts up the ice to prevent it from damming and this past week it fell through the ice and they can't get it back until all the ice is gone. haha a quarter of a million dollars is just sitting at the bottom of the river. haha well that's about it for the weather love ya.

3.16.2010

Well not too much has happened this week. Elder Smith and I have been finding like crazy which has made me extremely tired all of the time haha. More than usual. We found 14 New investigators last week which is about 8 more than we found all of last transfer. Things are going well here but I literally am tired all of the time. haha

Last night we drove and stayed with the district leader so we could go to District Meeting and than afterward I was going to be going on an exchange with the zone leaders but the Carpets at the church are being redone and so our district meeting got changed till tomorrow so I literally drove in last night for a sleep over. I'm back up in Selkirk now with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Willardson, while Elder Smith is down in Winnipeg with Elder Farr, Our district leader.

We met with Carl last week and it went really well. He has a super strong testimony but hasn't necessarily gotten answers to his prayers so we talked about real intent and how one way to show real intent is to set a baptismal date and promise to God that he will be baptized on that date if he gets an answer. He was excited to kind of put a "deadline" on God. We are meeting with him tomorrow and he said that he would have a date planned out.

We went out to Stonewall this week. It is another small town about 30 min from our home and we tracted out there. It is a more conservative town and we found some really good investigators.

Things are going pretty slow up here in Selkirk so I don't have too much to report but things are going good. Sorry I don't have too much to write but I'm falling asleep here at the computer. Lately I've been falling asleep when ever I'm not moving. I took a 3 hour nap yesterday for P--day. It was great. haha. WEll I love ya.

Elder Turner

3.9.2010

**Note: One of his best friends is serving in Chile and was in the center of the quake and tsumnami. That is who he is referring to “Gavin”.

Well this has literally been an exhausting week. Elder Burch left on Thursday and Elder Smith came up. Elder Smith and I get along really well and I'm really looking forward to serving with him. He has alot of drive and really wants to see things get done. I think he might be a little depressed because Agnes (where he just came from and where I was trained) is an amazingly blessed area and Selkirk is kinda a slow area. We definitely are doing all that we can though to make it work. We have been tracting literally from sun up to sun down. Last week we found more new investigators than Selkirk has seen in a long long time so things are shaping up. The two of us teach really well and we've had some really powerful lessons lately. Elder Smith is from Idaho Falls, Idaho (i think its Idaho Falls). We are really similar and actually when I told all the sisters out here that I was going to be with Elder Smith they all said "haha you'll have a great time together, you two are the same person". I can already tell it's going to be a great transfer.

I can't believe Gavin was put through all of that down in Chile. That is so scary and he is definately in the prayers. All the Canadians here say that although everybody makes fun of them for living in such cold conditions, they don't get earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano, really no natural disasters. Make sure to keep giving me the updates of Gavin.

I'm glad to hear that you and the Vander Martin's are having fun in China. It is definitely a large country and there is lots to see there. Tony says he wants to go to China with me when we get back so that would be fun. Don't ware yourself out though. Your kinda old now, don't go anywhere without a walker and an oxygen tank. haha love ya.

The weather here as been extremely nice but here in Manitoba they have a saying about March. "In like a lamb, out like a lion" since the March started out nice, the end is going to be very cold and they are all anticipating another giant snow storm.

Well I'm glad to hear that everybody is doing good at home. Keep me updated. Sorry this email is kinda short but not too much happened this week. Just alot of tracting. haha

Love,
Elder Turner

P.S. Keep me posted on Gavin, seriously

3.2.2010

Well first off, I hadn't heard about the big earthquake in Chile. How is Gavin doing? How are all the missionaries down there? That is terrible. At the end of the story it mentioned something about a tsunami hitting Hawaii? what happened there? Man, nobody tells us anything. haha

Well we got our transfer calls on Sunday so on Thursday Elder Burch is being moved down into Winnipeg while Elder Smith from Idaho will be coming up here to Selkirk. I don't know Elder Smith too well but he was trained by Elder Ewell the transfer after me so he is considered my "Brother". It should be fun and the one time that I did meet him he was super nice so I'm looking forward to this next transfer even though I'm sad to see Elder Burch leave.

It is amazing to think that this past week I hit my 6 month mark. It doesn't seem like it has been that long but time just flies out here. Elder Burch hits his year mark in a couple days and people say when that happens, your mission goes incredibly fast.

This past week hasn't been the best week for Elder Burch. He found out he got a speeding ticket in Winnipeg for going 10 K's over. It will cost him $216 which is alot of money for about 5mph over. He was following some other Elders to a restaurant because we didn't know where it was and they weren't being the best leaders. Fortunately for them, they didn't get a ticket. Also yesterday we went to a ladies house to clean off some graffiti from her garage (some kids graffitied a whole street with Swastikas and "hail Hitler") and so we parked across the street from her house. Another lady in the drive way started to back up after we had been parked for 10-15 sec and backed into us so now we have to take care of that. Luckily we are at no fault so he won't have to pay anything.

The weather here has been really good lately. I haven't even been wearing a coat except for in the evenings. They say the river will soon be cracking and we will be able to hear it. Supposedly the ice sometimes takes out bridges and floods streets so we will need to help with the sandbagging. Believe it or not, I'm actually excited to see it. Everything has been melting like crazy and it has been about -1 or 0 C which is really nice (considering it has been cold for a long time).

Things are going really well here. We don't have anybody lined up for baptism but we have a lot of good situations. Elder Burch is kinda sad to leave all the good stuff we are working on but Elder Smith will come in and we will just tear it up haha.

The Olympics have been fun here. We "tried" tracting during the championship hockey game but that didn't turn out very well. Afterwards though we connected to alot of people by telling them we were American. At first they rubbed it in about the game and than usually their next question is "why are you in Selkirk?". That really is a good teaching opportunity.

Not much else to report. I will probably need new contacts soon. I have enough to last me this month and next month but I'm not to sure after that.

Well I love you all and hope for the best.

Love, Elder Turner

2.23.2010

Hey Everybody,

Well this week has been a pretty busy week. We actually just got back from Winnipeg again. They let us go down for one more district meeting which I'm glad they did. I'm pretty tired though from all the driving and the not sleeping too well on an uncomfortable couch in another missionaries apartment but it was lots of fun.

This week Elder Burch and I had two people to church. We actually had 6 committed to church but on Sunday morning 3 of them called and had to bail and the other one just wasn't home. Ben came and stayed just for sacrament. He really enjoyed it and hopefully we will see him coming to church more. Beverly, the steven minister, came as well and she loved it. She stayed for all 3 hours of church, a potluck afterward, and than a baptism after that. Church starts at 10 and we left at 3:30-4. All in all it was an extremely long day at church but Beverly really enjoyed herself and was glad she came.

As a mission we got 76 people to church which is tied for the record of the most people at church. President Paulson has changed lots of things and the mission is really turning up. Our goal for the past two transfers was 50 at church, now its 60 but this whole transfer we've broken that too so we are really improving.

We have this one investigator we are working with named Carl. He is a really nice guy just really into Animae, video games, Dungeons and Dragons, and LARP (Live Action Role Play) which is where they dress up and act out games like Dungeons and Dragons. I hope you now have a good vision of Carl but he is a younger guy, maybe 25. We brought a member who goes to the Young Single Adult ward in Winnipeg (the YSA ward) but lives up here. His brother is actually the Branch President but anyway this member, Devin, turns out that they are actually were friends in High School and were happy to be reacquainted with each other. They are also into similar activities (see list above). The good news though, Carl is planning on going to YSA which is what we were planning on and wants to do a bunch of activities. He knows the church is true just needs friends in the church so I see him getting baptized soon. Probably won't be our baptism though, even though he will be taught by us he will be baptized in the YSA ward.

Canada has been kinda warm (-9 C) lately but last night it got super cold (-39 C) but tomorrow it should be back up to the nicer weather. I'm really looking forward to General Conference. After that we don't have to wear suit coats anymore which I can't wait. I actually don't get as cold as most people here. I hate wearing big clothes so I don't wear my Big coat as much but more like a light one. Actually when I was down in Winnipeg the Elders we stayed with had a long er coat like the one Kevin got in China that didn't fit them but fit me so they gave it to me so now I have a nice long coat which is way warm.

I'm glad to hear America beat Canada in Hockey. I knew it already but its a fun thing to joke around with the investigators with.

Don't worry about sending me a package soon but I was just thinking if your sending anything can you send me some card games like Bang! (I know your working on that), Phase 10, Skipbo, Etc. (I already have UNO).

Well not too much to say. I'm exhausted and had a couple things I wanted to say but I completely forgot. I'm really tired right now. I'm thinking of sending a package soon but I'm not sure how soon that will actually be. I actually got a letter from Brittany Allison, Lauren Dudley, and Jessica Madson which was really nice to get. Well I love ya and make it a great week.

Love,
Elder Turner

2.16.2010

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