Hey everyone!
Transfers are tomorrow and by the looks of the email subject, you know what's happening. This morning at 8:15 I was doing my personal scripture study when I got a friendly phone call from President Beck! I've been called to serve as the new district leader. I'm not being transferred, I'm staying here. Elder Browning, our current district leader is going home tomorrow. A lot of the other Elders have been saying it would happen for a long time now. Even Sister Turville. I'm a little nervous, but still pretty excited. Elder Browning was such a great district leader, I feel that there's big shoes to fill. I'm sure it will work out. I've got the help of a wonderful district along the way. Speaking of which, the two pictures are of us as a district this past district meeting. The second one has Sister Turville in it. What a bunch of goofs. The rest of the district hasn't received the news yet as to whether or not they'll be transferred. It may come by the time I finish this email. I'll be up at the transfer building tomorrow for a leadership meeting, which should be fun. I know for a fact Elder Buttars (my first companion in the MTC) will be there tomorrow getting a new companion, because his current companion goes home tomorrow too. It'll be fun to see him again!
Elder Malmberg and I are doing great! We spent a lot of time tracting this week, and he's really improving. The other day he did a whole door approach without my help AND scheduled a return appointment! What a stud! After we left I gave him a lot of praise and he just started laughing. He said, "How did I do that?" I told him the same thing I told him the first day we tracted together, that it comes with practice. I'm sure this will help him in his teaching now. Speaking of teaching, Stephanie and Jared are being baptized this Saturday!!! They had their baptismal interview this week and did great! Elder Browning interviewed them, and was quite impressed with how much they knew. He was blown away with Jared. For an eleven year old, Jared knows a lot. He's already read the Book of Mormon and remembers everything we've taught him. He loves coming to church. Stephanie's excited to be baptized, and has been inviting everyone in the ward to come. Her fiance, who is not a member of the church, is happy for her too. I'll be sure to take pictures and send them home. We met Stephanie back in October when we left the apartment to start a new week. She was walking along and we stopped and talked to her. She invited us back and we've been teaching ever since! Such a great family, I'm sad that they'll be moving in the summer. I plan to keep in touch with them once they've left, but they'll be in good hands even when they're gone. They already know where the nearest church building is to their new home. They're set!
I had another opportunity to place a Book of Mormon this week in my favorite way, by talking to someone on the street. We actually know the girl already, her name is Kathy. We've run into her a few times on the street as she walks home from school, but never really set an appointment with her. She has had lots of questions about the church, and we answer every one with simple, pure doctrine and testimony. She goes to mormon.org a lot and has even defended some of the doctrine of the church in conversations with friends. She's pretty impressive. We saw her back on Tuesday and she told us she was looking for a copy of the Book of Mormon but didn't know how much they were. We had a few copies on us and told her about it. We read the introduction page and then she brought up a lot of questions about Joseph Smith. We answered all of those too, and she wanted to know about his role as a prophet. We told her all about prophets, dispensations and apostasy, all of which she agreed with. I told her the experience of the First Vision. As soon as I finished, she just smiled. We gave her the copy of the Book of Mormon and she was very grateful. The next day a few friends of hers in the ward caught us walking around and told us they were surprised that we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and how proud she was that she had one for herself. I hope that we'll be able to meet with her again sometime this week.
I always love bearing testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, as Hugh B. Brown quotes, "The greatest message that has come to this earth since the angels announced the birth of Christ." I'm so thankful to have this knowledge and to have the opportunity to tell others about it.
I thank you for your love and support, and hope you're doing well. Take care and be good.
Much love,
Elder Eric James Turner
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| At the district meeting |
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| With Sister Turville |
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