The Truth of All Things (Jan. 24, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

Let me first apologize, I have pictures to email home but I forgot my memory card adapter on my desk. Photos will have to wait until next week. Sorry again about that. Dad, I asked Elder Malmberg about Joseph P. Malmberg from Logan. He said he's not sure, but it's possible because there aren't too many Malmbergs in Cache Valley. He did say, however, that there are Malmbergs related to him that are buried in Clarkston cemetery, so I think it's very possible!

 

This past week was good, pretty normal week, really. We spent a lot of time tracting, unfortunately we had several of those "nobody in the whole neighborhood is home" days. Hey, it happens! We pretty much just hit the streets and talked to everyone we could. We had one appointment with Phyllis that went well. She doesn't remember a whole lot about the Restoration. I don't blame her, it was October when we taught it to her. She had a lot of questions that her family members have been feeding her. We answered all of them, and she was pretty satisfied with the answers. 

 

My favorite question to answer was this: Phyllis' sister told her that Mormons believe that all blacks are going to hell. I said, "Phyllis, what do you think the answer is?" She said, "Well, I dunno. Because I keep thinking to myself 'If I'm going to hell anyways, then why do these two nice boys keep coming by to see me?'" We all laughed, and I smiled and said, "So what do you think?"

"I don't think it's true," to which I responded, "Good, because it's not."

 

That was pretty funny, and then we got into the lesson. She had issues with the fact that God continues to call prophets. We bore powerful testimonies about the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. At the end, she said, "I guess I just have to find out for myself and read the book." By the time we came by the next day, she had read through 1 Nephi 12! I was pretty impressed. I love hearing when people read the Book of Mormon and enjoy it.

 

Stephanie and Jared are doing great, and are still set for baptism on the 12th. Johnathon, Stephanie tells me, is losing more and more interest every day. It breaks my heart to hear that. Every time we see Stephanie and Jared, the two of them tell us how much they enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon together. It just makes me so sad. Here is a loved son of God who is being withheld from the joy of the knowledge of the restored gospel because of false things other people are telling him about it. He says he wants to know if it's true, but he turns to the wisdom and traditions of man. I know that there is no way in this world for anyone to come to know of spiritual truths except through sincere prayer, and the witness of the Holy Ghost. It's the only way. He may come around, and it may not be for a while. We're still praying for their family, because Stephanie tells me how much she wants Johnathon to come to church. We taught Stephanie a wonderful lesson this week about keeping the commandments. She's so excited to be baptized. She's been asking people in the ward to come to her baptism. She loves reading the scriptures, and so does Jared. It's wonderful to see. I just hope and pray that Johnathon's heart will be softened.

 

We had a really good zone conference this week. It was on "The Divine Companionship," and having the Holy Ghost in our companionship. I heard a great quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, saying "At the end of the day, ask yourself this: Was the Holy Ghost the senior companion today? Was the Holy Ghost the junior companion today? Was the Holy Ghost even in our companionship today?" We aren't privileged to physically have God the Father in our lessons, nor are we privileged to have Jesus Christ with us as we teach. We are, however, able to have the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, in our lessons to bear witness of eternal truths to the hearts of those who are looking for it. I love that. The Holy Ghost is the only way that the lessons cease to become ours and become His. I love that.

 

I love you all and pray for you. I hope things are going well back home. Things are always getting better down in good old Avondale, Arizona. I'll be sure to keep you all posted on everything that's going on. Oh and dad, gimme a little while to decide on a scripture for the plaque, I'll get that to you as soon as I can. Write back soon, take care and be good.

 

 

Much love,

 

Elder Eric James Turner

Tuesday e-mail? (Jan. 18, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

I know you were expecting an email yesterday, but the library was closed for MLK so we're emailing today. The picture I attached is actually from a few weeks ago, it's me and Elder Malmberg on the balcony of our apartment. Pretty nice view, really. This past week has been pretty good. Last Monday was had dinner with the Andrus'. Sister Andrus showed me the emails you sent to her. Mom, thanks for reminding them to ask me about my stupid human trick. They were pretty amazed. Bro. Andrus laughed harder than I'd ever seen him laugh. Thanks for talking with Bro. Price too. He and I went on splits this week and had a real good conversation about our respective families, missionary work and so on.

 

Recently the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 Apostles have been talking about the new mormon.org. If you haven't had the chance to check it out, I highly recommend it. Once a week the missionaries here are allowed an hour just to get familiar with the site so we can relate it to those whom we are teaching. I have good feelings about it, it's really a wonderful new tool to help spread the Gospel.

 

As far as teaching, we had two great lessons this week. One of which Elder Malmberg did all by himself without my help! He and Bro. Flores went to teach Stephanie about prophets and the restoration. They watched the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. Stephanie loved it, and said she learned a lot about the Prophet Joseph Smith. We taught them again on Saturday to teach them about the importance of the Holy Ghost. As Stephanie and Jared are getting closer to baptism, we'll be meeting with them more frequently to help them prepare. Johnathon, the 13 year old son, still doesn't know what he thinks. He knows that he wants to be baptized, but doesn't know where. We asked him how he thought he could find out which church was right for him. He told us that he thought he would have to pray. We simply asked him, "Well, did you pray?" He said that he hadn't. We left the lesson with a strong Spirit in the room, and I know that Johnathon will be helped along the way of his spiritual journey. We're working really hard with Stephanie and her family. I have very good feelings about them. I hope Johnathon receives an answer, I would love to see that family be baptized together.

 

The second lesson this week I enjoyed was with Joe and Andrea. We tracted into them on Friday, and Andrea said that she had never actually read the Book of Mormon, but wanted to. We went by that evening with Bro. Kidwell from the ward to share a lesson with them. Joe, her husband, was very nice to us. He invited us in, offered us some water, and sat us in their living room. The two of them actually helped start a local branch of the non-denominational congregation that meets up up in Peoria. They love the Savior and enjoy talking about the church. I'll be honest, I was a little afraid that they were going to try and bash. It's happened down here a few times. Quite the opposite happened. They didn't want to argue at all. They asked very insightful questions and we had a wonderful lesson. I left them with a copy of the Book of Mormon, along with my testimony of its truthfulness. I invited them to read and to pray, and they said they would. I hope we can meet again with them sometime soon, such a nice family.

 

Elder Malmberg is doing great, he's getting much better each week. Every day he learns a few new scriptures to help him in his teaching. He's very comfortable when we're tracting and has overcome his fear of talking to strangers on the street. I find every opportunity I can to give him praise, because I know that I appreciated it when Elder Abel did the same to me. It's weird to me to think that this transfer is half over now. The time flies by so fast. I have a feeling that Elder Malmberg and I will be together for the next transfer at least, most trainers and trainees are. I'm just thankful that we get along. That's very important when trying to create a strong companionship.

 

Not a whole lot going on this week, but we're definitely keeping ourselves busy! Every day I learn something new and I try to become a little better in everything I do. Thank you all for the love and support, I hope you're doing well!

 

 

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

 

 

For Perfect Love Casteth Out All Fear (Jan. 10, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

This past week has been going very well. I hate using the term "numbers," but our numbers have shot up this week. We've had more contacts and lessons this week than we've had in a long time. We're really meeting and teaching a lot of wonderful people. It's been really nice getting out to work and seeing the results of our labors. The members of the ward are providing a lot of people to go on splits with us and it's awesome!

 

Mom, dad and sis, you'll enjoy this, we recently discovered that our apartment complex has a sand volleyball court. Guess what we've been doing the past three weeks for P-Day? Oh man it's fun! The sand really makes it a workout. We'll get the whole district in on it and it gets to be quite a party. When half the district is done, we get a little two-on-two going. Last week it was Elder Browning and Elder Tameilau against me and Elder Bush. Best of 5, and we lost in 5. (Sorry dad.) We'll see what we can do today! Hopefully it'll warm up in the afternoon. It's not in the 20's anymore, but it's still pretty chilly.

 

Stephanie is doing so well. We met with her and her sons this week, and talked a lot about baptism. She's thrilled to tell us that she's completely quit smoking, and that it's been so long since she's smoked that she's lost track of the days! I was so happy to hear that! We invited her to be baptized on a specific date, and she thought and asked if it could be a different date, one that's personal to her. We invited her to pray at that moment to ask which date her Father in Heaven wanted her to be baptized on. We knelt down together, and she gave a sweet, simple prayer asking which day would be best. After the prayer, her son Jared asked if he could be baptized this weekend. I laughed a little bit and told him that would be amazing, but we still had a few more things to teach. He's excited to be baptized too. Stephanie called us the next day and told us that she received an answer. She's planning on being baptized on February 12th. She's very proud of the progress she's making, as am I. Her older son Johnathon has even expressed interest in being baptized. He hasn't said anything to us, but friends of his in the ward told us he's been thinking about it. I would love to see that family baptized together, what a great opportunity for them.

 

We taught Scott again this week, and he came to church yesterday. He stayed all of Villa de Paz ward, and brought up things we told him about the Singles Branch. We told him about the activities they do, and that their branch started right as Villa de Paz ward got out. He asked something that kind of caught me off guard. He asked, "Can I check that out too?" He then went into sacrament meeting with the singles branch and stayed for their block of church too! He loves coming to church! We're going to meet with him again this week, and hopefully his mom and sister will sit in on the lessons too. We'll most likely be having the Singles Branch Elders be teaching him, but I'm happy to have seen him come this far.

 

We had a lot of other great lessons this week too, one of which was meeting with Phyllis. We finally saw her again, and gave her a church tour. She really loves the building, and was excited to come to church. We took her into the chapel and taught her a little more. The thing I love about teaching in the church is that the Spirit is always there. Phyllis even accepted the invitation to be baptized if she received the witness that the church was true. She's also excited to come to church and to read the Book of Mormon.

 

Things with Elder Malmberg are great! We really enjoy each other's company. He's still lacking a bit of confidence when it comes to teaching, and we spend a lot of companionship study sessions working on that. He reminds me a lot of me when I first came out. I had an amazing trainer, and I hope I can help Elder Malmberg feel more comfortable with his teaching. I keep helping him up, and reassuring him that it comes with time and as you teach. It's one of those things that you really learn by doing. The other day he kind of pulled me aside and told me a few things that were on his mind. We had some time before our next appointment, so we went to the church. I had an idea I wanted to try. We went into the chapel and set up two chairs in the front and conducted a companionship inventory. Weekly, we hold comp inventories to check the status of our companionship, things we're doing well, and things we can improve on. We started by identifying the good parts of each other, and what we thought we ourselves did well. We did this with each other, and then checked the companionship. I then asked him to tell me the things he wants me to do better. He said a couple little things that I hadn't even noticed, and I agreed to fix it. I then asked him what things he wanted me to help him with, and it got a little personal. He said he noticed a few traits I had that he wanted while he worked. I shared with him a few thoughts and scriptures that mean a lot to me. It became an opportunity for me to bear my testimony to him about the sacred calling of being a missionary. Things were a little emotional, and I will simply say this much of a very spiritual experience with my companion: the Lord trusts us to build each other up in this area. He will not let us fail.

 

I love and miss you all. Keep writing, I really enjoy hearing from everyone. I can assure you that things are going very well down in good old Avondale, Arizona. As a personal favorite scripture of mine so beautifully states: "My heart rejoices, and I am exceedingly glad." I love it here. Take care and be good.

 

 

Much love,

 

Elder Eric James Turner

Twenty Degrees and Dropping! (1/3/10)

Hey everyone!

 

As you read in last week's email, Elder Abel and I are no longer companions. He got the call Monday saying he'd be transferred, and that I'll be staying. On Tuesday we drove up to the transfer building in Glendale. Just before the announcement of the transfers, all the trainers met their trainees in a classroom. My trainee and new companion is......drumroll......Elder Joseph Malmberg from Logan, Utah! We clicked right when we met and we're excited to work in the Garden Lakes and Villa de Paz wards. The first few days were rough because he had no food and no bike. Wednesday we got all that stuff for him. Thankfully we were in a car, because it rained harder than any day thus far on my mission. It rained all day! Thankfully we got him a bike. It's the same kind as mine, just a different color. A mighty fine bike if I don't say so myself! Thursday was our first day of real work, and it was terrible. We stepped outside and it was below freezing! What's up with that?! Poor Elder comes into the field on his first day and it's colder than Provo. We had shirts, ties, sweaters and it was brutal. We made it about half a mile from the apartment when we broke down and decided to buy some gloves. We went to Sports Authority and bought some good gloves to keep our hands warm. After finally preparing for the cold, we've been working hard.

 

I'll be honest, I was a little worried at first. I had no idea what kind of greenie I'd be getting. Thankfully we get along, but he's worried about teaching. He knows the doctrine pretty well, just kind of struggles as he teaches it. I took him tracting on Thursday, and his first door turned out to be a new investigator. First door! Look at him, worried for nothing. On Friday we met a man named Kentrell and he invited us over on New Year's Day to teach him and his wife Laquisha. The lesson went very well. Honestly I don't know what Elder Malmberg's worried about; he's going to be just fine. I'm sure all new missionaries have the same general feeling. I know I did. I keep reassuring him that the Lord wants him here, and that he'll qualify him to do the work. The wards like him too. Elder Abel was here for a year, and when they saw a new Elder they were a little caught off guard. They like Elder Malmberg and he's starting to get to know the wards a little better.

 

President and Sister Beck gave the mission an interesting challenge at Christmas. I think I mentioned it before, but we all received crisp, new copies of the Book of Mormon. Starting New Year's Day, we're to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days. Our focus is the Savior. We circle every reference to Christ, highlight in one color everything He said, and highlight in another color everything related to His ministry and mission (birth, baptism, Atonement, etc). After three days of study I'm in 1 Nephi 15. I can't believe I've grown up reading the Book of Mormon without noticing so much focus on the Savior. The Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Christ. My testimony of His divine role as our Savior is growing stronger each day. My outlook of the gospel, the sacrament, the temple, everything is changing for the better. I feel embarrassed for having taken the Gospel for granted for so long. I love being a missionary. I know I say that every week but it's true. Those men in white shirts and ties you see knocking on doors have a wonderful message. The Gospel has been restored to the earth in our time. Families can be together forever. Jesus is the Christ.

 

I love you all. Write soon, I miss you and hope you're doing well. Take care and be good.

 

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

Sweet Potato Casserole for the Win (Dec. 27, 2010)

Hey everyone!

 

First off let me thank my darling mother for giving Sis. Price the recipe for sweet potato casserole. So good. I walked into their house on Christmas for dinner, and she was still cooking stuff and whatnot. I saw her making sweet potatoes, nothing out of the ordinary for me. When she started putting the pecan and sugar glaze on the top  I knew something was up. "Hey, I've seen that before," I said out loud. Sis. Price said, "Good, it's your mom's recipe!" Mom, you'll be happy to know that it turned out fantastic and tasted just like yours.

 

Ok, pictures this week. The one of me in the chair is just when we got home from roaming around on Christmas Eve. I was pretty wiped because we did a lot of biking. For being 50 degrees outside, I was sweating pretty hard. I crashed in front of the tree. The other two of the tree is our setup for Christmas Eve--one of myself and Elder Abel in front of said tree before opening presents. Notice the stockings hung under the sink with care. The last one is of me holding a chicken at the Prices' on Christmas. They have a few chickens in their back yard for the kids to play with, and soon they'll be taking eggs from 'em. Of course, I needed a picture. Mom is very proud. I'll be sending home the full memory card sometime next week so you can get all the pictures I've taken since September.

 

Well, today started off with a bang. Elder Abel's being transfered. In fact he's opening a whole new area, PLUS he's training again. Straight up flush training. He's pretty sad to be leaving this area since he's been here for a year after all. I'll still be here, but I also got a friendly call from President Beck this morning with some interesting news...guess who else is training? Yup, me. Tomorrow we get a whole bunch of new missionaries fresh from the MTC, and I'll be training one of them. 

 

I'll be honest, I'm pretty nervous. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on and whatnot. But I also think to myself that if the Lord inspired President Beck to have me train a new missionary, then the Lord will qualify me to do it. I'll send info and pics next week after I meet my greenie tomorrow.

 

This week was very simple, but very fun. Not a lot of people were home for the holidays, and not a lot of people were on the streets either. Lots of neighborhoods were relatively empty from people being gone. On Thursday we decided to take a shortcut through a dirt field to get to a certain neighborhood quicker. As soon as we popped out on the other side, an older gentleman named Mike with his grandaughter was passing by us. He recognized us. Turns out he lives in the apartment complex that the Elders lived in over a year ago, and wanted to know if we still lived there. We told him no, that we moved to another apartment complex. He said he always enjoyed talking to the Elders who lived near him. He said he had a friend who was LDS, Greg Parsons. As soon as he said that I lit up. Greg Parsons is in the Stake Presidency here, plus he lives in the Villa de Paz ward! We said that we knew him very well, and that he was a good friend to have. Mike told us about how the Parsons family really helped him out a little while ago with food after he lost his job. It didn't surprise me at all, the Parsons are an incredible family. Mike said he wanted to get his grandaughter coming to Church, and said that he himself had a lot of questions about religion in general. We'll hopefully be teaching him this week, and we're definitely going to try and have Pres. Parsons go with us.

 

On Christmas Eve we biked around giving little Christmas cards to some ward members and investigators. There were three in particular that stood out to me, Ray, Roger, and Joanne. None of them are even investigators, just nice people we know. All three of them seemed to know that we would be stopping by. Ray was very grateful to see us, and Roger was nearly speechless. Both of them have been out of work for a while, and always appreciate us checking up on them. Joanne is a Catholic woman who lives around the corner from a recent convert. She said she has no intention of coming to church, but each time we stop by the visits are friendlier and friendlier. We stopped by, and she was happy to see us. She doesn't have any family, but a few friends were at her home for the holiday. We said we wanted to give her a card, and a little something from the both of us. We gave her the card, and a DVD of  "Mr. Kreuger's Christmas." She opened up her screen door and we could see tears in her eyes. She reached up and gave us each a big hug and thanked us repeatedly for thinking of her. She said she had been thinking about us and wondered if we had forgotten about her. How could we have forgotten her? Is not every soul precious in the eyes of our Father in Heaven? She was busy at the moment, but begged us to come back soon to see her Christmas decorations in her home. My heart goes out to this sweet sister. We're going to try and stop by tonight and see her. I keep thinking to myself a quote I had heard that said, "If they will not accept our religion, then they will accept our hospitality." Sometimes that's all somebody needs.

 

Yes, we are representatives of Jesus Christ. No, not everyone is ready to recieve the message of the Restored Gosel. But everyone is most certainly in need of the pure love of Christ, especially when hands hang down and knees are feeble. This has been one of the simplest Christmases I have experienced, but quite possibly one of the best. I hope you all are doing well. To my family, it was wonderful to speak with you. Thank you for your constant love and support. Write back soon. Take care and be good.

 

 

Much love,

 

Elder Eric James Turner

 

 

Email from 12/13/10

(NOTE: Sorry I forgot to post this one when it came.  Hence the reason why it's out of order. ~TT)

 

Hey everyone!

 

Glad to hear things are going well at home. I'm curious to see how the upstairs project will turn out. Hopefully it looks nice. Sorry about the whole Bomber girls basketball fiasco. I'm even more sorry about grandpa. Broken rib? Are you serious? Lotta' pain, nothin' to worry about as he always says. I hope he and grandma are doing well too. Is Marlee doing basketball for middle school? How's everything been going with her?

 

Things in Arizona are going pretty well. It's such great weather. This past week was in the 70's and 80's, and dipped into the 60's at night. The pictures this week are snippets from the ward christmas parties we covered. In the Garden Lakes party, they did a 12 Days of Christmas "Arizona Style" I thought was pretty funny. Day 8 is my favorite. At the Villa de Paz Party, they did a live nativity skit, and one of the ward members let the youth use one of his goats. I had to laugh when the narrator said that the shepherds made haste. The kids playing the shepherds walked across the yard trying to drag the goat with them, but the goat wouldn't budge. It planted its butt down and pulled its neck back. It looked a lot like trying to get Edgar to go inside the house through the side door, he wouldn't move at all. It took a good two or three minutes to move the goat. One of the kids tried poking it with his staff, and the goat just bit the staff. Everyone was laughing. I had to get a picture with the goat because it reminded me of one of my faovrite Saturday Night Live sketches, "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals."

 

 

 

This past week had its ups and downs with teaching. We dropped Bro. Webster, the husband of one of the members of the garden lakes primary presidency. He's stuck with his baptist church and has no intention of joining the LDS church, but he says he always enjoys us coming by to hang out...but that's not why we're here. We found out that Stephanie has now gone two weeks without smoking, and she's very excited to tell us about her progress. We're trying to meet with her to extend a date for baptism, but her work schedule keeps us from meeting regularly with her. I taught Scott a few times this week, a guy who was tracted into way back when Elder Hill was in the area, last March or so. We finally got to meet with him. This week we met with him twice, both of which were exchanges with ward members. We taught him the first two lessons, and he said he's willing to be baptized after he reads and prays. We tried extending a date, but he said he wants to study a bit more, which is going to be ok. He's very eager to learn, and already knows the doctrine pretty well. He's getting baptized, it's just a matter of when.

 

Elder Abel and I did a lot of tracting this week. Because our teaching pool fluctuates so regularly, we hit the streets and just start knocking on doors. This week was a little slow when we tracted, but I really got to have some fun conversations with Elder Abel. We told stories about stuff we did at home. For instance I told him about Baker, he told me about playing water polo. It was pretty fun and really helped soften the blow from all the grumps who yelled at us. On Friday I think we put in the most miles on bike in one day up to this point on my mission, at least 30. We rode from the bottom to the top of or area and bike probably twice? All of our appointments cancelled, and one of them moved! To Missouri!

 

Ok so mom and dad you asked about Christmas day. Yes, I will be able to call home on Christmas, and it doesn't really matter what time. We call from our mission cell phone, and Elder Abel and I don't have to call at the same time either. I'm fine with whatever, if morning works best then we can do morning. I'm an hour ahead of Washington time, so if you wanted to talk at 9am I'd call at 10. Whatever works best for you guys, just let me know.

 

I love you all and hope you're having a good Christmas season. I'm amazed at how fast time is going. We in the apartment are doing things to make our Christmas away from home as awesome as we can. We have three mini-trees, lights, stockings, and today I'm buying candy. Elder Abel even got a homemade recipie for eggnog which I want to try and make. The members here take good care of us and also want to make sure that we're doing well. No worries mom, we're all doing great. I miss you all and can't wait to hear from you. Take care and be good.

 

 

Much love,

 

Elder Eric James Turner

Email from 12/20

Merry Christmas to All!!

Hey everyone!

Merry Christmas! It's been a great week down here in Arizona. The weather has been pretty interesting lately. Every morning it's dark and cloudy, then the clouds disappear and the sun comes out and it's in the 70's and 80's. On Thursday we had a zone meeting that lasted all day, and it poured rain the whole time (hence the picture with the umbrella). Elder Browning hit a pigeon in the car on the way there, that was pretty weird. Anywho, the other pictures. One is of these really ridiculously tight pants that Elder Abel bought at Savers and thought would fit him. They don't. They don't fit me. They don't fit anyone. I tried 'em on and looked like a goof. I put on Elder Abel's shoes and Elder Bush's glasses. Mom, you've raised a fine lookin' son. Spitting image of his father, if I don't say so myself. Sis, sorry you're related to him, but I know you miss him. He certainly misses you. The last picture was the result of a long day of tracting in lower Garden Lakes. We found a kitten. He sat at the door with us while we tracted. Fun day.

This week really has been pretty good. We're still trying to meet with Stephanie, but she's so hard to get a hold of. I did, however, have two great teaching opportunities I'd like to share. The first is the Kramer family. The Kramers are way less active, in fact they're totally inactive. Their daughter, Elli, is 9 and wants to go to church and be baptized. Mom wants nothing to do with church, but is ok with her going to church. We go to their house to teach Elli, but Elli wasn't there this week when we stopped by. It was me and a member of the ward on splits, so we taught Sis. Kramer. Her husband is always out of town for work, and he's not a huge fan of church either. 

We taught Sis. Kramer what I like to call the primary answers, prayer, scripture study and church. We focused mostly on prayer and church. At the beginning of the lesson, her 6 yr. old daughter wanted to pray to open the lesson, but wanted her mom's help. Mom said, "No, have the missionary help you." It broke my heart. What mother doesn't want to help her child with prayer? So I helped her with the prayer, and I was determined to invite Sis. Kramer to pray by the end of the lesson. During the lesson, we uncovered the iceberg of why she's uncomfortable with prayer and church. She doesn't feel worthy. She doesn't want to be judged by the ward. She doesn't feel worthy to pray just because of her past. She wants to learn the things that will help her become a better parent, but is afraid of going to church. After a long, powerful lesson of my personal testimony and a few scriptures, I invited her to pray. She laughed and said no. At this point her daughter was asleep in her lap. I thought for a moment, and reminded her of what she told me. I said, "Sis. Kramer, you told me that you wanted to learn things that will help you better raise your children. Your daughter told you she wanted to pray, and you didn't want to help her. She's learning that prayer is important and can help her in her life. You need to show her that it is." She was a little shocked at what I said, looked at her daughter in her lap, and said to me, "He won't hear my prayer, I sound like a child when I pray." I looked at her again and asked, "Do you think that your Father in Heaven hears your daughters prayers?" She said of course. I promised her that hers could be heard too. It could be the same vocabulary but as long as you were sincere, He will hear and answer your prayers. I reminded her that when she was baptized as a child all those years back, she was given the gift of the Holy Ghost, and was promised that it would be with her at all times if she merely asked. I asked her one more time to pray. She paused for a while. It was kind of a long silence, but that's when the Spirit is the strongest, and is carrying the words into her heart. She said ok, and gave a simple, wonderful prayer. When I told Elder Abel and Bishop Johnson about that, they both were very happy to hear that. She hasn't prayed in a long time. We're going to try and see them again this week.

The second teaching experience I enjoyed this week was Scott. We met Scott a while back and have finally been able to teach him. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and The Gospel of Jesus Christ lessons this week. One was even in the church. He really enjoyed the church tour and was eager to come to church. Bro. Call, the greatest member missionary ever, drove him to church yesterday. Scott even had a suit! He was welcomed by the ward, and a lot of people introduced themselves. He feels pretty welcomed. He loved Sunday School and Elder's Quorum, and even participated in the various lessons. He's continuing reading the Book of Mormon and loves coming to church. Like I'm telling Elder Abel, he's getting baptized...it's just a matter of when.

I hope you all have a great Christmas. Please keep in mind its true meaning. We hear this all the time but it's so true. It's the time when we focus our hearts and minds on the birth of Him who came into this world and performed that great Atonement so that we may be able to return to our Father in Heaven as a forever family. I'm ever thankful for this knowledge and for the sacrifice which He made. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you. Mom, dad and sis, I'll talk to you on Saturday at noon your time!

Take care and be good.

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner