1.10.2011

So this week was ok. We taught alot of people this past one which is good but not any real progress. We were finally able to meet with the Marinos which was great but they have stuff planned every weekend this month so they won't be to make it to church this month...great. They are such a great family and they know they need the gospel so bad. We're just going to have to go slow with them, thats ok though. The ones that take a long time are usually the best members.

Our ward just got a new missionary food coordinator. Well some people call her the Missionary Food Nazi haha I guess she had the calling before and people got offended which I don't know how but anyway we have supper everyday this week which is unheard of in this mission. It is pretty nice to see that the ward is really supporting us. Personally if it was either teaching them or eating with them Id rather teach but we're slowly making progress with the ward. They are literally one of the best wards in the mission and they are really starting to trust us. (The hole didn't ruin our trust haha). On that note the hole is fixed so you can stop worrying.

Side note: We're in the choir and the song we are singing for our next performance is "If you could Hie to Kolob"

Not too much else happened this week. We keep moving on and good things will happen. We had Elder Terrence Smith of the Seventy come talk to us and we learned a ton. It really helps us keep our focus when stuff like that happens.

Well not too much else to say. Love ya all and hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Turner...eh

1.3.2011

The first is of our district the other is of the two missionaries that were in our ward but are now going to the Regina (Elder Ziegler, the taller one, and Elder Dunn, the tall but not as tall one) and the last picture is of a hole that Elder Dunn and I put into the wall of the church because we were horse playing (I'm not even going to sugar coat it) I'll let you know if I have to pay anything to fix it. haha love ya.

One is of a house in our area that is crazyily decorted (there is even music playing outside of it) the other is of Kelsey and Hailey on Christmas day and the last is me exercising. Believe me, I'm pedaling. It really confused my brain cause the top half of me wanted to sleep but my legs were exercising.

So first off, I want everyone to know that it was not my fault about the hole. I was picked up and put through the wall. Whether i was horse playing prior to the picking up is another story. We talked to the building manager and he didn't really care. He said it would be an easy fix, just cut it out from stud to stud and put another piece in. He said "No Cost, don't worry about it" but I said if there is any cost to let me know. I'll also ask him again this week. He made fun of me quite a bit though haha. Our bishop also had a hay day with it and still continues to make fun of me. On Sunday i was moving a chair during class to the front of the room and he said "be carefull not to hit anyone...or the walls" haha I just laughed. Everybody was pretty cool with it. Only the Bishop and the building mananger knows it was us so I didn't get ragged on too much. And mom, now the parents can say "Don't fool around in the church, do you remember what happened to Elder Turner" Everybody is an example, some what to do and what not to do.

Thank the G-units for the presents and I will still send them a thank you card. I still need Grandpa Turner's address. I don't have it so that christmas card is just sitting on my desk. At least now I can add the Thank you part to it.

The weather here has been soooooooooo cold. haha I don't know how Kevin got Frostbite at -10. That is nothing. I'm actually wearing a very light coat (if a coat at all) at -10. It has been in the -30's here lately and it can be really miserable to tract sometimes. Luckily we taught quite a bit last week so we weren't outside very often.

Oh yeah and the reason I'm writing today is because the libraries were all closed yesterday for the New Year holiday. just an FYI

About my coming home date, I don't know the exact date. I believe my release date is Sept. 3 but I might have to go home a bit early to make it for school. I was just thinking a week. You can call the office and get that date though. I know that they know it.

This past week was alot better for us. Alot of things are starting to align and the work is getting a bit easier in the area. One of my favorite people to teach now is a recent Convert of a month that was just prepared. Her name is Celeste and she is so great. She was in the other area but now that we cover both areas we get to teach her. Her husband was killed in a car accident in August so she was going through a rough time. We taught her 5 year old (Patrick) last night about the Plan of Salvation because he is starting to ask questions about his dad. He is the cutest and most fun kid ever. haha They are a great family.

Welll not to much else to write I hope all goes well for everybody and hope you had a great New Year.

Love,
Elder Turner

12.19.2010

Merry Christmas:

I decided since I get to write you every week and Brian and Cami will be gone and so will Destiny and Mark that I would just skip phone calls this year. We're going to be very busy on Christmas day and all so hopefully you don't mind.

So this past week was ok. We finally got ahold of Kathryn and we're meeting with her this week but unfortunatley she is moving at the end of the month out of our area so we won't be able to teach her after that. She still is going to be baptized in the other ward in January and I'll be able to go to her baptism so that will be good.

This past week wasn't the best for the work that we had going on. Unfortunately with the Christmas season coming up nobody wants to meet these next couple weeks. Christmas is a great time but also a tough time.

Well not too much else to write about. Mom, Stop crying I'm going to be calling you on Christmas, I was kidding. We are pretty busy on Christmas but That is the only time we can do it. Will Brian and Cami be on Three way? Will Destiny and Mark be back in time for Christmas? Well I love you all and hope you have a great Christmas week. Oh yeah I almost forgot. Elder Mitton and I are staying together for antoher transfer but the other area in our ward is closing so we will now be covering the entire ward boundries (you can probably look it up online: London Ward) It is a huge area so hopefully we can keep up. Well love ya.

Love,
Elder Turner

12.13.2010

First off, Its cold. Very Very cold. I don't know how winnipegians do it but somehow they manage. I asked one person "how do you Winnipegians do the winter?" and they responded with "grudgingly" haha I thought that was funny. So last night Our church put on something called "Prelude to Christmas" and it is like a musical production with our church and also a local catholic church. At the production the Priest of the Catholic church got up and told this joke: He said, "I'm sure not many of you know this but there is a story in the Catholic church that goes like this: One day the pope had a very important meeting with all of his cardinals and so he told his secratary "do not inturupt me for any reason, I don't care if someone calls or comes in, do not interupt me" and than he went into his meeting. He was a little preturbed when the secratary did come in and say there was a call for him. Grudgingly he left the meeting and said that he told her not to inturupt. She responded, No, you need to take this call. After a few minutes he went back into the meeting and said "I got some good news and I got some bad news" Everyone decided they wanted to hear the good news" he told them that Jesus was on the phone and he has returned for the second coming. Everybody was pretty excited and than said wait but you said there was bad news " He said yeah...He was calling from Salt Lake." Haha I thought it was a pretty funny joke, especially since it came from the Catholic Priest.

Anyway on to our week. We had a fairly good week. We found a former investigator named Laurant who hasn't been visited with missionaries for 5 years but he is Golden. He said he recieved some anti material 5 years ago but doesn't care anymore. He came to church for the first time and loved it but while he was there he said he found the antil pamphlet and wants us to come over to talk about some things. I'm not too worried becuase I think we can explain it to him and he trusts us quite a bit. He is from Benine, Africa and is just a super humble great man.

Kathryn has been difficult to get ahold of this past week. I think her common law is making it slightly difficult for her to do things so we have to work through that. She is still great just have to work through some things.

The marinos are great. The dad called his dad (who is a pastor or something down in florida) who has been trying to get his son to join a church forever so he called him excited to tell him about his baptism date. Well, his dad didn't share his excitment. He was actually pretty upset. We talked to the Marinos and he said it is ultimately his decission he just would rather have his dad's approval. We will probably have to work through that unfortunately. He said he wishes his dad would just not be so closed minded and supportive. They still want to be baptized just might take a bit longer now. They need your prayers...seriously.

Well not much else to say. When you walk outside in your sweater or in a bathing suit on the cruise, please remember that your son is wearing Big boots, two pairs of socks, long johns, a sweater, a big parka, two pairs of gloves, ear muffs, a Toque (a beanie), and a scarf and is still cold.

Love,
Elder Turner

12.6.2010

Here are some pictures from my old area, not sure if I ever sent them. The one with the hispanic family is an active member family (the younger woman is the one that called mom for her birthday), the other big family is a less active family we were working with, and the woman and the boy are Melina and her son. She was the really golden investigator with a not so golden "other"

Here are a few more pictures that I'm not sure If i sent before. One of them is of Curtis. Our neighbor in our old area who always gave us a ton of food and baked us a ton of pies (he's not a member).

One of them is of my pumpkin that I carved. It is Igor holding a skull. I used a stencil.

The other picture is something that I learned you could do on the camera so we were having fun the other day with it.

and the last one is of me and my neices/nephew. Oldest to Youngest: Matea, Naleah, Quintin and Pria Their last name is olsen.

I don't take alot of pictures but I take a few. Here are two that I though you would enjoy. The fur is taken from off our big coats.

12.6.2010

Not too much to report on this week. I've been sorta sick (mom, don't worry) so i've just been really tired and didn't do much work one of the days. Everybody gets sick this time of year up here but I'm pretty much over it now. Kathryn and her family and also the Marinos were suppose to come to church this week but nobody showed up. That was really disappointing. This week should be alot better than this past week though. We have alot more appointments set up and we're working hard. We also have zone conference and interviews this week and I think we are watching "Its a wonderful life". I told sister Paulson we should watch Elf and she had never heard of it before but that she would consider it. I didn't actually think we would watch it though.

So I heard you've been talking to my Bishops wife. haha. That is kinda weird but whatever. They are the nicest people ever. Today she stopped by the church while we were playing dodgeball and gave Elder Mitton and I and the other missionaries in the ward gift cards to a nice restraunt. I said something like thanks for the christmas gift and she said "this wasn't your christmas gift" haha I was shocked. They are really great though.

Not too much else to talk about. Sorry this is really short. Hopefully next week we'll have more to report on. We should be meeting with The marinos and Kathryn this week but you never know. Justin just wrote me and mentioned that him and his brother are going to a spring semester at BYU and his brother is going to find an apartment so after the spring when his brother goes on a mission Me and probably tony can move in to that apartment but he'll get you the details later just wanted to give you a heads up.

Love,
Elder Turner

11.29.2010

This week has just zoomed by. It truely is crazy how fast the mission gets. I'm glad you got those pictures from Sister Heieie (pronounced Hi - i, in case you were wondering). That is our Bishop's wife. They are super great people and alot of fun.

So we invited about 10 people to the christmas party and all 10 said they would come. It was pretty disappointing when none of them came. The Marinos and Kathryn both didn't show up which was the biggest disappointment. Well it was the biggest disappointment until they both didn't show up to Church. That was a bigger disappointment but oh well we will just keep working with them on that.

Actually on a brighter note Kathryn is preparing for baptism on January 8th and The Marinos are preparing for the 18th of December but we are going to have to push that back because in order to get baptized they have to come to church 3 times and that won't work now that they didn't come. We actually got ahold of the Marino's yesterday after church and we found out that she had a pinched siatic nerve and was in a ton of pain so hopefully they can come next week.

Thanksgiving was fun and so was the Christmas party. Not too much else happened this week. One day it got down to - 24 C which by the way is ridiculously cold. It has also been snowing quite a bit. They are expecting this winter to break records. Supposidly we already have 80% of the highest recored snow fall during winter and we are only in the first 2 weeks of winter.

Well Sorry there isn't much to write about this week. I hope you have a great week and keep up the good work (what ever that means)

Love,
Elder Turner