5.17.2010

Thanks for the email. I hope everybody is having a good week. Yes mom I did get the recipe, she is cooking for us on the 26th so I'm pretty excited. Our first dinner appointment was pretty good, it was with a family who the wife is really active but the husband isn't. He is kinda strange though because he was even talking about Less-actives and acts just like a super active member. Not sure what to do about him.

Glad to hear everything is going well at home. Things are changing so fast but than again life on a mission goes by even faster. This past transfer has literally flown by. Transfer Calls are on Sunday so I'll let you know next week whats happening.

So this past week had its ups and downs. We finally got ahold of our one investigator, Bonny-Sue, who is "golden" as we would say. We weren't able to contact her since she came to church two weeks ago and we finally found out it is because her husband won't let her answer the phone for us, won't let her meet with us, and won't let her go to church. The only reason she answered this time was because he was at work. We were pretty discouraged but we're still working hard. She asked us to drop off some material so she could study on her on time. Hopefully in a couple years she will be ready.

We were able to find a new investigator this week. Her name is Tamara. She is from Paraguay but lived in a German Colony so she speaks German best, than Spanish, than English. She is great and we are excited to work with her.

Also two people contacted us on the bus the other day and were excited to learn more about the church (this never happens) we are meeting with them tongiht so I'll let you know how that goes.

We had nobody at church this week which was sad. Elder Smith and his greenie just had 7 at church in Selkirk. He told me they found a really great family of 5 so it sounds like things are going good in Selkirk. We did have 6 less actives come from 4 different families so we were happy about that. We have been trying to work with the members alot more. We made a goal to meet with every member in our area. We were happy about them coming to church because we have been working with 4 of them.

Not too much else going on here. Transfer calls are this week but I think I mentioned that. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Turner

So you will stop complaining...

Haha just kidding here are some pictures!

The first one is of Elder Clarine, our District Leader. Dairy Queen had a deal a couple weeks ago where if you bought one Blizzard you got another for 25 cents. We took full advantage of that deal and was there everyday of the deal except Sunday.

The second one is of me and Sandy. Sandy was one of our investigators up in Selkirk. She is a great lady and hopefully she is making progress.

The First picture is of me and Beverley (the one outside). She was a really nice lady but was having alot of health issues so we weren't able to meet as often as I would have liked.

Christi and I are in this one. Another one of our investigators. I think I wrote home about alot of these people but if I didn't write me and let me know and I'll tell you more about them. They are all up in Selkirk, in fact all except the blizzard one were up in Selkirk.

This is of a woman named Sharon and her family the oldest is Dominique, than Paige, than Kaycee, than the youngest is Stephen. They are a great family and she is the second best mom in the world (Next to Carrie Turner). She cooked us baked goods all of the time too which might contribute to why I love them so much.

This is Chris Palmer. Another one of our investigators up in Selkirk. I actually just found out today he set a baptisimal date and came to church. That will be so great for him and yes I understand what he looks like and we are concerned about WOW issues as well.

5.3.2010

First off, sorry about the contacts thing. I thought I had another box in my suitcase so I didn't worry about it but I decided to check last week to make sure and realized I didn't. It won't happen again but thanks for being willing to help me out.

So this week was a pretty successful week and our hard work is starting to pay off. We got 2 new investigators (they changed the meaning of an investigator recently so they are alot harder to get than before) we also got two people to church. Bonny-Sue, the lady I talked about last week came and loved it. I can see some potential problems with her husband but it should be good. Because she was so scared of the previous church people, he is worried about her jumping into another church thing so quickly which is understandable. She notices a big difference meeting with us though. She says when she does what we ask she is calm and collected and feels peacefull which is exactly opposite of what she use to feel so she hopes he notices a difference. She got in a fight with her husband before coming to church. I guess he said "there is a reason why people don't answer the doors to these people" and she responded "And there is a reason people do" and than she left. After sacrament she wanted to go home and apologize to him especially after a member bore his testimony and mentioned he had an arguement with his wife. She literally cried the entire time. We are extrememly excited for her.

President Paulson called us today and congratulated us on getting people to church and for getting new investigators and for turning the area around. Than he had our district leader call us and congratulate us as well. It made us feel pretty good but we know that it was definately because of our hard work and the Lords blessings (more so the latter). Also our entire district got at least one person to church and our entire zone except one companionship got people to church which has never happened before in any zone so things are starting to pick up.

The other person we had to church was named Rebeccah. We tracted into her on Saturday and invited her to church on Sunday. Her family is staunch Mennonite and her parents are against her going to any other churches but they are out of town this week so she decided to check it out. She is 24 though so she is old enough to decide for herself.

The weather was nice up untill thursday and then it continueally poured until Sunday. Not fun especially when you have to walk everywhere. We woke up this morning and it was Snowing. I don't know what to think anymore. It is nice now but a little chilly.

Well not much else to report. I love ya.

Love,

Elder Turner

4.26.2010

Hola everybody. How is everybody doing? You mentioned you wanted Elder Palica's smarts to rub off on me. I'm happy to say it somewhat has. He taught me how to solve a rubix cube so now I can do it without the cheatsheet he wrote out for me. You should be so proud of me.

So things here are going better. We've met with a couple of the members this week and taught them short lessons. The ward I am in is known as the "refiners fire" for missionaries becuase they literally won't do anything. It is kinda weird because every ward I've been in out here is super missionary minded and then I come here and people really don't notice the 6 Elders in the ward. Supposidly President Paulson has threatened several times to close all of the areas that go to that ward until they try harder. I guess we'll have to see. The Stake has asked every member to do 1 hour of missionary service a month (Which is not hard to do). Before I got here some members had the elders over for a short lesson. We called them back to see if we could set up a time to follow up with them and they said "Oh, we've already met with the missionaries this month. Lets try it for next month." Lets just say I want to be a good member when I get home.

So we have been tracting Everyday, all day. Every time we are out though we find a new potential investigator so things are going good. Like I'm working really hard but I kinda feel like I'm on a treadmill. I'm doing the best I can but I'm not really going anywhere. Things will pick up though. This week we found somebody whom we are extremely exctied about. We knocked on a door and I woman asked if we were from a certain church and we explained that we weren't and explained who we were. She looked genuinly relieved. She invited us in to learn more. I guess she has been meeting with that other faith but is scared of them. She mentions that she doesn't like what they teach, and feels confused, scared, and worried when they are over. We shared with her the scripture about how the spirit feels and asked if she felt any of those around them. She said no. We asked her how she felt around us and said exactly what the scripture said. She was bawling and said she had been praying to know the truth and knows that we were sent to find her. Funny thing was that entire street nobody answered and the few that did were rude. She was the last house on the street and before her I really wanted to quit and go to another street. I guess it's important to plan by the spirit as well as teach by it.

Our apartment is pretty nice. Only Elder Palica and I live in it but Elder Clarine (the District Leader) and Elder Burch (My old comp. from Selkirk) are over quite often. Since we don't have a car they drive us to church, P-Day stuff, District meetings, and we get meals together quite often. Members in this ward don't feed us too much (I haven't had one since I've been here) but its ok because we buy food ourselves. I am eating good though so don't worry. My Suits are doing good as well. I saw in the stores the other day they had Machine Washable suits made of recycleble material. If you see that material in China can you hook me up. Love ya.

Well thanks for the emails and your love. I got a letter from Jessica today and the Madsons are moving back to Utah which is great and Mandy is engaged which is great as well. Both exciting news.

Well I love you all and hope you enjoy your week.

Love, Elder Turner

4.19.2010

Well I've been in Winnipeg for about 4 days now and things are going good. My new companion is from Spanish Fork, UT. He is a nice kid but kinda sheltered. He graduated High school at 14 and has already done three years of university before coming out so he is pretty smart. He plans on getting a doctorite in Physics so yeah...he is pretty smart. He is kinda socially awkward though and we are working with getting him comfortable to talk to people.

Things are going well here, I came into Henderson Area (thats the area we live in) and noticed we had 1 investigator, so Elder Palica and I are doing alot of finding. We are also planning on working with Part-member families, less actives, and members in general. We just have to keep working hard and we will be blessed. I wanted to go through the former investigator records as well but quickly found out that many of them are "made up" records of some Elders who wanted to make it look like they were working. Now we have to clean that all up so this is going to be one tiring transfer.

I miss Selkirk terribly but I'm excited to move onto another adventure. I ran into one of the members from Selkirk today in the grocery store which was great to see. She is a yoga instructor and last week did a free yoga class at the church. She said that Sandy and her girls, Christi, and Elder Smith and his greenie were there which is great. Sandy and Christi have been hard to get out to the church for activities so hopefully this helped with the fellowship and making them feel comfortable.

Its sad that last transfer I worked really hard and things were picking up towards the end of the transfer. Now I got to put more work in but hopefully have the same results. Well not too much to report, everything is good here. It is nice to be in the city and see other missionaries all the time.

After reading my letter it sounds kind of like I'm upset or something so I apologize if that is the impression you recieved. I am happy to be here and excited to get this area moving. I guess I'm just tired and sore from P-day activity. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Turner

4.14.2010

So this past week has been extremely good. A ton of our investigators are progressing and we even set a baptismal date with a 24 yr. old kid named Chris. He smokes weed alot and isn't all there alot while we are teaching him but he wants to quit and wants to do better. He is planning on quitting on Wednesday. He actually said he wanted to come to church which is something that Elder Burch and I Tried to do last transfer and he would never come. Elder Smith and I went by on Sunday morning to wake him up, than we went by 30 min later (9:30am) to make sure everything was ok and he was dressed and ready to go. Than we went to church and waited, and waited, and waited and Chris never showed up. Karl showed up though and we were really excited. We weren't expecting him but he decided he wanted to come this week. We later went by Chris and found out he was watching TV and lost track of time. He's going to be a difficult one but he really is sincere and wants to do better.
Elder Smith and I found a lady the other day while tracting named Kristen. She said she had talked with missionaries at her door before and wasn't interested. We've been working alot on being personable with people and joking around alot more with people. We started talking to her about families and stuff and were cracking jokes and she invited us to come back. We than offered help and raked her whole yard in our suits. Since than we have met with her twice and she is really really good. She understands everything, has been praying alot, and reading. She is what we would consider a "golden investigator" and proves that Selkirk really isn't "Tracted out"
We are meeting with a lady named Sharon who is really good and really nice. We've become pretty close and she gave us a really good homemade pumpkin pie. Ahh man it was good. She is honestly the nicest lady and one of the best moms I know. She is a single mother of four and on the weekends she fosters two girls. She is really busy but is trying to do whats right. We are meeting with her tomorrow.
We are also meeting with another one of our really good investigators named Christy whom we've become close with as well. She is progressing really well. We have been taking a couple in our ward and the wife and Christy get along great and have become really good friends.
Tonight we are meeting with Sandy who is another single woman who would get baptized soon but is having trouble knowing Joseph Smith is a true prophet. We are trying to help her understand it better. She doesn't like reading the Book of Mormon because she feels as if she is cheating on her church but she has promised this week to read 10 min a day ever day the Book of Mormon (her daughter made her even put her hand on the bible and make an oath to do it) haha it was funny. Tonight we are planning on watching the Jeffrey R. Holland talk on the Book of Mormon with her from the October General Conference. We are also meeting with Karl tonight who has a baptismal date.
Also the members here are really great and are getting a few referrals from them. We have been working really hard and Selkirk really has turned around and I would consider it probably my favorite area. I love it here and I love all of our investigators and the members here. Which is really sad now because I'm being moved down to Winnipeg on Thursday. I'm excited for change but I truly am going to miss Selkirk. It's going to be hard to leave. I called all of our investigators and set up times to meet with them before I leave but I'm thinking its going to be hard to say good bye. Elder Smith is staying up in Selkirk and is going to be training a greenie so he is pretty excited about that. I'm going back to a busing area (there are like 4 in the whole mission and I'm going to have been in two of them. President must not trust me with cars) My new companion is going to be Elder Palica from Provo, UT. He came out the same transfer as Elder Smith so one transfer after me. I can't believe though I've been on my mission for 7 1/2 months. It doesn't seem like its been that long but apparently it has been. Well I hope everybody has a good week and I'll talk to you later. Remember that I will now be writing on Monday so be prepared. Love ya
Elder Turner

4.7.2010

Well this week has been alot of fun but exhausting. I am extremely tired right now. This past week our car went into the shop as you know and the weather was pretty good but one day it was pooring rain and it eventually turned into hail which was not fun. That morning I made the executive decision that it wasn't going to rain so i didn't wear a coat which was not a good decision. I was very very cold. Also lots of hail hitting you in the face while tracting is not the most fun thing to do in the world. haha it was good though.

We were suppose to get our car on Thursday but it wasn't ready yet (typical Dealerships) and because of the long Easter weekend we weren't going to get our car till Monday. The problem with that was we were going down to Winnipeg for Saturday and Sunday for general conference and than we had District Meeting in Winnipeg today (Tuesday). The Assistants figured it would be easier for us to just stay down in Winnipeg for 4 days. haha it was lots of fun. A senior couple drove up and picked us up for conference and than we stayed with the Zone Leaders until today when they just dropped us off. We did get our car back as well. Because we were in the city for P-day though we got P-day activity which I haven't had in about 3 months. To say the least I am limping everywhere because of how sore I am but it was a good time. For Easter Supper I had White Cheddar Mac and Cheese with a hot dog. Haha it was good though. It's the life of a missionary.

Conference was amazing and thankfully we don't have to wear suit coats anymore. Everyone is super excited and happy to just be able to wear their white shirts. There is nothing better than being able to walk outside with beautiful temperature with just a rolled up white shirt. I'm excited to hear how you liked conference. We did have to go to the city because they only show it at the chapels. Here it is not on the TV and some members watch it online. It kinda makes you realize how blessed we are to get it on the TV. Elder Hollands talk was really good and a super power house but I was a little disappointed because I wanted another powerhouse talk about something like the Book of Mormon one he did last time. We share that one with investigators but I don't think we will share this one about Pornography. Elder Uchtdorf gave a great talk, my favorite of the General Conference, about Patience in the Priesthood Session.

Mom/Cami/Destiny I recommend you watch that one, if not the entire Priesthood Session because it was really good. Also I don't remember the speaker but he gave a talk about mothers that I really enjoyed. All in all it was a great conference.

So yesterday in Winnipeg I bought new dress shoes on my home card just to let you know. They were $100 but they were on clearance for $50 and they are really nice brown dress shoes. I also took $20 out last week from the ATM (@ Scotiabank!!!!) I needed it for laundry and fast offerings and I was out of money on my allotment card. I'm just grateful that they allot us a certain amount each month because I would be out of money in like my first 6 months if they gave us all of it.

This Sunday we get our Transfer calls so I'll let you know how that goes. My guess is that I am leaving Selkirk but President Paulson does what he wants and it is not always what you expect. In fact, it is rarely what you expect. Well not much else to mention. I know as soon as I leave the Library I'm going to remember something to tell you that I've been thinking about for a week but what ever. Well I love you and hope you have a great time in China with all the extra baggage.

Love,
Elder Turner