Summer is Here to Stay (June 6, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

Well, let's see, what's new to update since Wednesday? It seems like I was just here emailing everyone. No new pictures since then, but mom and dad you may want to check out Sister Beck's blog. She took a few pictures at last zone leader council (last week) and there should be some good ones in there.

 

We've been working real closely with Sandee in the West Point ward. She was referred to us by her sister in law in the ward and has a baptismal date set for June 25th. I'm confident she'll be ready by then. We sat down with her and planned out a calender of things she needs to do and lessons that we'll be teaching. She came to church yesterday and Bishop McLaws was really happy to meet her. Her sister in law even took her to the nearest Deseret Book to look at picking out her own set of scriptures. Our next appointment is tomorrow at the church and we'll be helping her even more to get ready for her baptism.

 

On Friday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Brase, one of the AP's. Just like the zone leaders go on exchanges with their district leaders, the AP's go on exchanges with us. Elder Brase and I spent the day in our area while Elder Angelos went with Elder Perkins in the AP's area. We had a really good time together, which isn't anything surprising. We spent most of the day just visiting potential investigators and tracting. We met a few people who were, for lack of a better term, sufficiently hard-hearted. It just irritates me when some people can be so difficult and horrid to us, especially when they claim to be Christians. Would a follower of Christ seek to destroy the faith of another, especially in such a hostile manner? He would not! All of that frustration was gone when we met with Julia and Ingrid, a mother and daughter who haven't been to church in probably twenty years. They have a strong desire to come back into the fold and to make some changes in their family life. They were very sweet and I'm eager to meet with them again. It's so nice when you have experiences like that to make a difficult tracting session seem so small and not worth worrying about.

 

Saturday was the groundbreaking for the Phoenix Temple!!! After three years of planning and compromising, construction is finally underway. I wish I could have been there to see it live, but it was by invitation only. The groundbreaking was broadcasted to stake centers around the area and I got to see it there. Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the 70 was the presiding General Authority at the groundbreaking. When it came time to break ground, the stake presidents in the area all had the chance to help. President and sister Beck got to go out too, and it was cool to see them on that broadcast moving dirt to make way for the temple. Now I'm curious as to when the actual construction will be done. I'm hoping it will be done by the end of my mission, but I'm not getting my hopes up. It's possible though!

 

This is Elder Angelos' last week in the mission. Next Tuesday he flies back to Columbus, OH. Since he'll be leaving, I'll most likely be taking over the zone. Three zone leaders are going home this transfer, which means three more will need to be called. I'm curious who my new companion will be. They way it's looking, I'll probably become senior zone leader and will be training a brand new ZL just like Angelos trained me. It's all just happening so fast. This will be President Beck's last transfer meeting as our mission president before President Taylor comes in. I'm sure President Beck wants things to be in good working order for the new president. I know he's inspired, and I'll sustain him in whatever decision he makes. Taking over the zone will be very interesting. As far as responsibilities, I'm not worried, but it's still weird to think about. Within the next month it will be an entirely different mission as far as leadership is concerned. Change is good, right? I'm spending a lot of time in prayer and study to learn how to become a better missionary and a better leader.

 

That's what's new down in the APM! Not a whole lot has been happening since I last emailed on Wednesday. Mom and dad I'm looking forward to your package. I'm happy, healthy, hydrated and loving the work! We now have four baptismal dates in our area and we're working really hard to help them be ready. I love you all and hope to hear from you again really soon! Take care and be good.

 

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

Blessings, Baptism 'n Baseball (June 1, 2011)

Hey everyone!

Mom and dad, I'm glad you had the opportunity to speak with Sister Turville. She isn't paid or anything, and it's not a calling. She just volunteers her time out of the goodness of her heart to help any missionary with anything. Her husband passed away a few years ago, and all she does now is help people in the mission, in her stake and anywhere else she is needed. President and Sister Beck give her the utmost thanks and praise for her kindness. She's one little ball of energy and it was so good to see her at Victor's baptism.

I hope everyone is doing well back home. Sorry you had to wait until Wednesday for the email. Monday was Memorial Day, and all of the libraries were closed. Tuesday (yesterday) was very busy. From 10-3 we had zone leader council at the mission home, then we had back-to-back-to-back-to-back appointments from 4-8 pm and had no time to do emails. This morning we had a district meeting to attend way out in Peoria North and we had a few more things to do after that. So we had to wait until 3 pm on Wednesday to send our emails. To me, I see that as a good thing, being so busy that we actually have to wait to send emails home. But now I can take a breather and actually write about our adventures this past week.

So Monday, like I said, was Memorial Day. We knew that the libraries would be closed, but we had a zone activity planned! At about 10:30 that morning, our zone of about 28 missionaries met at a park in our area for a good old fashioned game of softball. Perfect for Memorial Day weekend. Elder Angelos and I called President and Sister Beck the night before to invite them to come. I'm sure Sister Beck had a heavy influence in their decision to come. She played softball in high school and really wanted to play with us. Just before we got started, President and Sister Beck rolled up ready to play. We had already brought some watermelon to put under our shade tent, but President and Sister Beck also brought popsicles, peanuts and licorice for everyone too. Now if that's not Memorial Day weekend, I don't know what is. Hot dogs would have been ideal, but we can't be too picky, can we? The game was so much fun. We played for a good 3 hours. Sister Beck was out in the field catching pop-flies and President hit here and there too. I even managed to get a few good hits (note the Ichiro at-bat pose). The funniest was when I came up to bat one time. Sister Beck was on second, and Elder Custance was pitching. First pitch and I crush it out into deep left-center field. This thing was gone. One of the Elders in the field was running after it and I was moving around the bases. By the time I rounded second, Sister Beck was at third, to which I yelled, "GO SISTER BECK GO GO GO!!!" She reached home and I followed about half a second behind her. President said, "Nice job Elder Turner, best hit of the day!" That glory was short lived because in the next inning Elder Angelos did the same thing. Everybody had a good hit somewhere. It was all just for fun, we didn't keep score, and we all loaded up on watermelon, licorice, peanuts and popsicles. It was an awesome zone activity. I think everyone who came had a good time. A couple companionships, including all of the sisters, left early, and we got a group picture of everyone who was still there. Notice President Beck in the Reds hat and the T-shirt with a tie printed on it.

On Wednesday last week, Elder Angelos and I had the opportunity to go to the Mesa Temple. It was Elder Angelos' last time before going home, and Brenton Beals and his brother Stettson in the Copper Canyon ward took us. It was a great way to spend the day. We gave up our P-Day for it, and our P-Day for that week became that Wednesday when we went to the temple. I hadn't been since Christmas, and this was great. At one point we, the four of us, pretty much had the Celestial room to ourselves. We all were enjoying the feeling. Yeah, there's things that are fun, but this was much more than just fun.

I'm sure most of you have heard already about Victor. Let me tell the full story. So we all know about the awesome lessons 1 and 2 last Saturday and Sunday in the Alger's home. We had set up another appointment for last Monday evening to teach lesson 3. He for sure knew when he wanted to be baptized, but when was the problem. His best friends in the ward would be going out of town, and the day before they would come back his other friends would be gone too. He wanted everyone to be there. We joked about just being baptized tomorrow (last Tuesday) and then we thought about it for a minute...why not? It could be done. It would be rushed but we could do it. We asked him, "Victor, when do you want to be baptized?" He had a huge smile on his face as he nodded and said, "Tomorrow." Instantly I got up to make some calls about scheduling the stake center and everything, while Elder Angelos answered questions and continued with the lesson. We asked if we could come back in a few hours to teach lesson 4, because we had another appointment, and the Algers said ok. At about 7 on Monday night we came back to teach all of lesson 4 and then reviewed the baptismal interview questions. The next morning he was interviewed by our district leader in the area, and he was baptized that night at 8 pm.

It was a busy Tuesday trying to get ready for the baptism. All morning we were inviting the ward, making the programs, setting up the baptismal service and all that good stuff. A ton of people from the Copper Canyon ward showed up to support him. Even friends from school who attend other wards came too. It was the most well attended baptism I had seen probably my whole mission. What made the baptism especially meaningful for me was that Victor asked if I could be the one to baptize him. I felt so honored. I had never had that opportunity to baptize anyone before, and it meant a lot to me. The service went really well. He asked his two best friends Sam and Travis give a few short talks. They were simple, powerful talks that invited the Spirit into the room with such great force. Everyone could feel it. After a few talks had been given and a few musical numbers performed, I took Victor into the font and baptized him by Priesthood authority. It was a fantastic thing to see. Elder Angelos confirmed him in church this past Sunday, and now Victor is preparing to receive the priesthood and go to the temple with his friends. Looking back on it, it went like this:

Saturday-Lesson 1   Sunday-Lesson 2   Monday-Lessons 3 and 4    Tuesday-Baptism

He had already been coming to church, mutual and early morning seminary. He was just that prepared! It wasn't anything we did, he was just ready! It's certainly the fastest baptism I've ever been a part of. Strange, don't you only hear about stories like that in the Ensign and Church magazines? But wait, it gets better. Yesterday, Elder Angelos and I set three more baptismal dates. This past weekend alone, our zone had ten baptisms. We also found out that for the month of May, the Arizona Phoenix Mission set an all-time record for baptisms in a single month. President was so happy. He had nothing but good things to say yesterday in zone leader council during our return and report for the month of May. We're baptizing at 90% efficiency, meaning that 90% of baptismal dates that are set are going through. Last month we were at 50%. This was just incredible. We're seeing blessings everywhere and they're continuing to come. But we can't just stop there, we have to keep it up.

Time is running short and there's so much more I wish I could say. I miss you all and it's so good to hear from you. I'll try and organize my thoughts a little better in next week's email, it's just that this week has been going so well. I cannot complain at all! Why should I? We've been so busy and we've been so blessed. I love you all and hope to hear from you all very soon. Take care and be good.

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

With Victor at his baptism

Outside the Mesa Temple with Elder Angelos

Ichiro!...Ichiro!...Ichiro!

Get out the rye bread and the mustard Grandma.....!!!

Memorial Day 2011 Missionary Softball Game

Prophecy Fail! (May 23, 2011)

Hey everybody!

I survived Judgment Day! Let me explain. There's this giant billboard up on Bell Rd. that says that judgment day was supposed to be on May 21. This may be hard to believe....... but it didn't happen. I know! I was surprised too! Some guy has been pushing this campaign since last summer about how the end of the world was in May 2011, the 21st to be exact. Well, Saturday turned out to actually be a gorgeous day. Not too hot, slight breeze, no judgment and I even got a letter in the mail! Not a bad day at all! All week we had random people ask us if we thought judgment was this weekend. It opened great doors to talk about the restored gospel. I attached a few other pictures too. One day we were driving home from a meeting and the clouds looked pretty cool. The last picture is of Elder Angelos with his 30 day countdown chain that Elder Custance made him.

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to do an exchange with Elder Alvis, one of the new missionaries in the zone. He's only been out for a couple weeks and it reminded me a lot of training Elder Malmberg. Elder Alvis was pretty solid. He had lots of questions and talked to everybody he saw. He'll do very well, plus his trainer is a fantastic missionary. I took Elder Alvis into old Surprise to go tracting and we talked to a lot of people. We picked up three new investigators that night! After we finished tracting there we went to a potential investigator's home to see if she was there. Her husband answered the door and said he thought it was funny we stopped by. His sister in law has been investigating the church too. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he wants to go on a tour of the church building. In the two and a half hours we had to work on the evening of P-Day, we got a lot done. Elder Alvis and I had a great time working together.

On Wednesday we had a specialized training at one of the stake centers in Peoria North. The afternoon portion of the training was for me and Elder Angelos to put on a zone meeting. Three zones were there. Ours went into the Relief Society room and of the planned 2 hours, we only had about 1 hour 20 minutes. We were very rushed. It went ok I would say. We had a few great discussions about things we were trying to improve in the zone, a few good talks and a very helpful skills training. I even joined in (was dragged into) a special musical number with Elder Custance and Elder Cava. The three of us sang together and it honestly sounded terrible. Now I know why I don't sing in front of people. Ugh. Never again. The zone meeting was really pressed for time and everyone could tell. It wasn't anyone's fault, the morning session of the training just went over. I guess it was good that Elder Angelos and I overplanned, that way it was easier to remove parts of the meeting on the spot than having to fill time at a moment's notice like that.

We had a few great lessons this week too. We saw Bro. Masch again and he still has a great desire to be baptized. He had a few questions and we taught a lot about repentance. A lot of concerns were brought up and as we continue to meet with their family, I'm sure he'll be ready for baptism soon. Bishop Smith is probably the best fellowshipper for them. He may be a new bishop but he's sharp and to the point. He's one of those guys who tells it like it is, and expects the same in return. All in a loving way. We saw Amber, the mom of Zack and Gabriel, two boys who have been coming to church. We took her on a tour of the building with Sis. Beals and it went very well. The whole time Amber kept talking about how good she felt. As we taught about the Restoration, you could feel the Spirit so strong. Testimonies galore brought tears to Amber's eyes. She really wants to come to church but can't get Sundays off. We're promising miracles to her as she prays and reads that the way will be opened for her to come to church. I believe in a God of miracles, and she does too. We're eager to meet with her in the coming weeks to see what happens.

The best lessons we've had this week were with Victor. Victor is 15, and a really good friend of Sam Alger, one of the boys in the Copper Canyon Ward. Sam called us one day to say he had a friend who wanted to learn about the church. Victor has not only been going to church and mutual for the past three weeks, but early morning seminary too! We told Sam to set up a time and we'd be there. On Saturday we went to the Alger's home to teach Victor. Sam was there, along with Bro. and Sis. Alger and another friend of Sam and Victor's. The lesson went better than anyone could have planned. Everything we taught made sense to him. When we asked him questions to check his understanding, he practically taught the principles back to us. For a 15 year old, Victor gets it. He had a Book of Mormon already and was reading it. We left him with more chapters to read. He even said his mom is ok with him going to church and meeting with the missionaries. When the time was right we invited him to baptism and he said yes. We asked the Algers if it was ok to schedule another time to meet, and Sis. Alger said, "How about tomorrow?" We didn't think she was serious until she said, "Yeah! Come over after church for dinner and another lesson!"

So last night after church we went to the Alger's home again. All of their nine kids were there, along with some friends. It was pretty crazy. Sis. Alger made the best dinner I've had in months and I ate a ton of food. We went into the other room, and a lot of the younger kids went upstairs to play. We taught the plan of salvation to Victor and once again, it just clicked to him. He taught everything back to us along with expressing his desire to be baptized. I asked him what he felt like he needed to do to prepare to be baptized and he said, "Repent." Elder Angelos and I were blown away. Most adults whom we ask that question to don't even have an answer. After the lesson Elder Angelos said to me, "In the two years I've been on my mission, that's the best answer I've ever heard." Like I said, Victor gets it! He's been reading the Book of Mormon and he loves it. The Algers are like a second family to him so I'm not worried about support. On our way out, we scheduled another appointment. Victor said, "How about tomorrow? School's out, and we've got nothing to do." Sis. Alger said, "Tomorrow it is!" So tonight we're going back to teach Victor lesson three, and we may even dip well into lesson four. Victor, to me, is the definition of the scripture that says, "Mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts." He's ready. The Lord has been preparing him and he's ready.

There's lots of good things going on in Surprise. This morning Elder Angelos and I had our weekly call-in with President Beck to review the work in the zone for the past week. President couldn't believe it. He asked us if it were true if the zone really had ELEVEN baptisms scheduled for this coming weekend. It does. It was the most happy I've ever heard President Beck. The list of who's being baptized where, when and by whom was so big that we wouldn't have had time to explain it over the phone. We had to fax it to him. Cumulative baptismal dates are up and so are new investigators. I just hope we can hold onto it in the coming weeks.

I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. Take care and be good.

Much love,
Elder Eric James Turner

Oops! Still here on May 23!

The clouds look cool on Judgment Day!

Elder Angelos and his 30-day chain

Busy (May 16, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

This past week has been pretty crazy. Elder Angelos and I have been really busy. It's been one of those weeks where you're running around at a million miles an hour but looking back on it you're not quite sure how much you actually got done. It just went by so fast is all. We had exchanges with a few missionaries, including two more this week. We had a district leader council with myself, Elder Angelos and the district leaders Elders Abel, Tripp and Custance. We've been meeting regularly because we have a plan to not only follow up with the three stakes' ward council trainings (roughly 20 wards), but to meet personally with each bishop to let them know of the zone's vision. Lately we've kind of noticed that the mission and the stakes aren't exactly on the same page, action-plan wise. We think meeting with each bishop for about 15 minutes as the zone leadership will set a good tone for the zone and for the goals we want to achieve. This week we'll be meeting with three bishops, and our goal is to meet with the rest of them by the end of this transfer cycle (June 12). It's going to be a huge project, especially with the zone being as large in area as it is. We'll be doing a bit of traveling over to Peoria North stake and up to Wickenburg and we really have to plan it out carefully so we don't miss anything in our own area.

 

Our busiest day was Saturday. We hardly had any time for proselyting. In the morning we did service for Patricia, a recent convert in the West Point ward. She had a tree in her back yard that had a limb that was snapped in a windstorm. She was afraid it would fall and break her window, so she asked us to trim it then cut it down. It felt just like helping grandma and grandpa with their trees in their back yard. Working from the ladder wasn't very effective, and I wasn't about to have a grandpa Goodey experience. Instead I pulled myself into the tree and did the job from up there. It was just very familiar! I felt like I had grandpa right there telling me what to do. I was using ropes, saws, makeshift levers and the problem was taken care of in under half an hour. The rest of the day was spent running errands and preparing for the stake meeting on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening, Ivan and Nicole invited us over for dinner. They're recent converts in the Copper Canyon ward and wanted to feed us before we helped them with service in their back yard...pouring concrete. Can't say I have any prior experience with that. It was definitely a learning experience for all of us. It was slow at first, but we found a rhythm and poured the first of 4 slabs they wanted. We'll be going back this Saturday to keep working. We came back to the house with concrete slop and powder all over our clothes and shoes (work clothes, mom, not missionary clothes). I slept pretty hard that night.

 

Last P-Day started off going pretty well, but crashed by the end of it. We had a great day playing basketball and whatnot. I even went to Best Buy to exchange my camera. They said they had to order a new one but it would be here in a week, which is today. Guess where I'm going after email? So yes, last week's P-Day seemed to be going great until we got out to work. We had an appointment with Jeff and Marcy, but that fell through. Without going into great detail, we found out that Jeff won't be baptized on the 21st like we had anticipated. Elder Angelos and I are pretty upset. The two of them are making such great progress! They were praying as a family and coming to church each week! Every lesson seemed to be a greater spiritual experience than the last. Like I said, we're not really sure what's going on and I can't really give details about the situation. If and when we hear from them again, I'll let you know. We have, however, had more opportunities placed in front of us.

 

When we experience trials or setbacks, we often tend to neglect the blessings that come in place. Yes, we won't be seeing Jeff for a while. But in the past week we've met 5 new investigators, including the husband of a part member family who wants to be baptized, and a referral from a youth in the ward whose friend has not only been attending sacrament meeting for the past three weeks but early morning seminary too. We didn't even know about them! I had the opportunity to go teach Bro. Masch, the past member husband on Wednesday with the newly called Bishop Smith of the Copper Canyon ward. Bro. Masch suddenly said that he wanted to be baptized! He had already had the lessons, but we wanted to teach them again to keep them fresh in his mind. His wife hasn't been active in years, maybe since her teens? We'll be teaching the two of them together to help them both. It almost seems like she will be the key in the conversion of that family, not him. They still have some things to work on but I see Bro. MaschMasch that there was an order to all things and that the missionaries were the ones who would be helping him prepare for baptism. Bishop told me after the lesson that he personally wanted to be the fellowshipper for the Masch family. I have no problems with that at all. We'll be meeting with Victor this week, the boy who has been attending seminary and church for the past few weeks. I met him yesterday at church and he's a pretty cool kid. He really wants to learn and I see good things coming there.

 

I hope things are going well at home for everyone! We're keeping busy down in here. This week we have a specialized training and a zone meeting, so we'll be making preparations for that and our meetings with bishops this week. I'm working hard, living my purpose and drinking lots of water! Write back soon, take care and be good.

 

Much love,Elder Eric James Turner

Surprise Emails and Phone Calls (May 9, 2011)

Hey everyone!

It was so good to talk to the family yesterday! Glad to hear that everyone is doing well. That hour sure flies by pretty quick though. Then again, so did the five months since the last time we spoke. From now until Christmas, this will be the longest time that I've gone without speaking to my family. That's sure weird to think about. I know the time will go quickly. It always does. Dad I got your email and to answer a few questions, President Beck constantly reminds us about our deportment and demeanor. We're missionaries, not twenty-something college kids, but representatives of Jesus Christ. We need to maintain the highest standard of appearance. And for your question about the "levels," that's the result of a study guide that we do as missionaries. Once you finish it, or the sixth level, you have the opportunity to do a study session with President Beck and Elder Madsen, formerly a member of the mission presidency. I'm working on my level three right now. The different levels correlate to the new missionary training curriculum: "Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel: Teaching More Effectively." It's a great guide to studying, and you cover a lot of material.

This week has had its ups and downs, like most weeks do. Almost every day this week was over 100 degrees, which is a friendly reminder that the Arizona winter and spring have come to a close. No bueno. It helps that we're in a car, but that goes away once we step outside and hit the streets. Warm days a'comin'. We did however have a great Mother's Day Sunday. Between our two wards we had 13 investigators at church. 13!!!! Elder Angelos and I have never had that many investigators at church before. We'll hopefully be extending baptismal dates to some of them this week. There were even people who walked into Copper Canyon ward and asked the bishop how they could be baptized. Elder Angelos and I received a voicemail from on of our ward mission leaders saying, "Bro. ________ approached the bishop on Sunday and said that he wanted to be baptized...could you take care of that please?" We laughed when we heard that but we know that we'll have good things in store this week for us and the people we teach.

I apologize that this letter is so short this week. That and for not including any pictures. I had set my camera on my desk for a timer function photo and my desk got bumped. The camera fell to the ground and bent the lens, and now it doesn't work. No worries, I still have the receipt and I'm going to replace it after I send off this email. I just hope everyone knows how much I'm loving it down here. I say that every week but it's true. Even the days that aren't as glamorous are still wonderful learning experiences. My testimony grows day by day as I teach and live my purpose. Recently as a mission we've been magnifying our purpose by inviting everyone we meet to be baptized. Even at the door. You might think that would be kind of frightening to do, and it is at first, but you really feel the power and authority of your calling as you teach pure doctrine and invite everyone to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds the Priesthood authority of God.

I love you all and hope to hear from you very soon! I know it's a few days away, but Mom, I'll wish you a happy birthday now! Let me know what you want. I'm still pushing for the idea of a saguaro across the yard from the ginko. Trust me Mom, it'll look great! Write back soon, take care and be good.

Much love,
Elder Eric James Turner

Nine Months? Slow Down!!! (May 2, 2011)

Hey everyone!

 

Mom and dad, thanks for the emails this week. It was so good to hear from you. Sounds like a lot has been happening back home. I knew Marlee would love track, but then again she's such a natural athlete I'm sure she'd enjoy anything she does. So Sis. Williams sent you a text message, huh? That's cool! The Williams are a family in the Villa de Paz ward. We had dinner with them a lot and they were always very kind to me, Elder Abel and Elder Malmberg. Sis. Williams is the mom/wife of the family. The Williams have a daughter named Dawn. Every time we go over for dinner, Bro. Williams always jokes with us and gives us a hard time. I love that family. Glad to hear that they're doing well too. I really miss a lot of the families in Avondale, but I'm really starting to connect with the families here in Surprise. I actually know names and faces now, and people remember my name without having to look at my nametag! Families like the Housari's, the Lake's, the Barajas', the Maughn's, McLaws', Del Vecchio's, all awesome. That's one thing I absolutely love about the church, is that wherever you go the people are so loving and kind. To answer your question dad, the reason why we don't have a lot of dinners with members here is because of the mission dinner policy. President Beck wants us to follow the missionary handbook instruction for dinner policy which says that members are encouraged to have investigators, less-active or part-member families in their home for dinner with missionaries. When I was in the Garden Lakes and Villa de Paz wards, they did the best they could with that rule and just had active members feed us the rest of the time. Out here in Surprise, Elder Angelos and I just coordinate dinners with the members. We let them know about the rule and they do the best they can to set it up. For instance, those two Mondays that we had dinner with Bishop McLaws and his family, Jacqueline was there one week and Jeff and Marcy the next. We do fine with making our own food. We have occasional dinners with members, and they're always great.

 

A lot has been going on this week. As I mentioned in last week's email, this past week was full of trainings and conferences. We had zone leader council on Tuesday, leadership training on Wednesday, two district meetings on Thursday and an all-mission specialized training on Friday. Then on Sunday we had Surprise Stake Ward Mission Leader Training at 6:30 am, I helped with a Surprise North Ward Council Training with President Beck and President Morris of the mission presidency at 10, then Elder Angelos did the same Ward Council Training all the way up in Wickenburg at 1. WHEW! It was a very busy week. When it came time for Elder Angelos and I to do weekly call in's with the district leaders, we were exhausted. We were given new forms and paperwork to fill out in our call in's and it's not harder, just more time consuming. We crashed into bed last night and slept hard. Elder Angelos forgot even to set the alarm, but Elder Johnson came in this morning at 6:30 to wake us up. Begin P-Day!

 

Transfers are tomorrow and the zone is pretty much staying the same. Nobody in the Surprise district (where I am) is being transferred, which makes everyone happy. That means that the house is still the same and Elder Angelos and I are going to be together next transfer! I'm killin' him off! He goes home at the end of the transfer and he wants to finish strong. I think he'll be fine. One of the district leaders in the zone goes home tomorrow, and his companion is being transferred. That area's being flushed so we're curious to see who comes in and who will be the new district leader. Elder Abel and Elder Custance are still district leaders here, they're not leaving yet. Only one other Elder and one Sister in the zone are being transferred.

 

I don't have any pictures this week but we had another amazing lesson with Jeff and Marcy this week! Elder Angelos and I had some slow days this week, so we were looking forward to this lesson. Jeff had already accepted the invitation to be baptized on May 21, and now we're meeting with him twice a week to teach him the lessons. On Friday night we went by and finished up the lesson we had started on the plan of salvation. We started working on a calender for Jeff to schedule all of the things he needed to do and the times we wanted to meet with him leading up to his baptism. Elder Angelos started to schedule a few dates and I noticed something was up with Marcy. She looked confused or something and I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. I (lovingly) interrupted Elder AngelosAngelos and I both felt prompted to try and see Jeff and Marcy, because we had never met them before. We weren't aware of each other's prompting until we came to their street. It was that realization that prayers were heard and answered that filled the room with the Spirit and nobody could deny it. I'm sure I've said this before but I'll say it again. There are days when nothing goes right and you think to yourself, "How can I possibly do this for two years?" But when you have lessons and spiritual experiences that only last for an hour like that, I think "I can totally do this for two years." Jeff and Marcy came to church yesterday, stayed all three hours and loved it. Jeff's on track for baptism and we have another lesson with him tonight at 6:00.

 

Nothing new here, but I'm absolutely loving it here down in Arizona. Ask me that question again in about three weeks...it's starting to get hot again. I'm sure I'll still love it. Mom and dad I'll try and figure out something for calling home next week. I don't know our Sunday schedule yet, if we have meetings or not. I might call in the morning just to say when I'll be calling in the evening. I'm not sure. Do you want grandma and grandpa to be there too? I'm not sure what you have planned. Whatever happens, I'll talk to you on Sunday! Write back soon, take care and be good.

 

 

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

The Easter Bunny Visits Missionaries Too (April 25, 2011)

Happy Easter everyone!

We had another great week, nothing different there. Yesterday was Easter and we had a Surprise visit from the Easter Bunny! Elder Angelos and I went to the store a few days ago and bought a bunch of eggs, candy and little gifts for the other Elders in the apartment. The first picture is of Elders Custance, Ward, Cava and Johnson with their Easter "baskets." The second picture is of all of us, about 7 am on Easter morning with our spoils after the search was over. We found something for everyone. Elder Custance got his favorite hair gel, Elder Johnson got Eggo waffles, Elder Ward got Fruity Pebbles, and Elder Cava got a bottle of his favorite chili sauce. We even had a special golden egg that we hid, and whoever found that egg won the grand prize, a king-size Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar. Elder Cava found the golden egg and was pretty excited. Not bad for his first Easter egg hunt. Elder Ward finally got his new bike in the mail and while he was putting it together, Elder Johnson, myself and Elder Angelos used the box as a bobsled. There's a pretty funny sequence of pictures of us as if we're on an actual bobsled run, including a crash. You'll see those when I send the memory card home. The last picture is of our house Rule Board. We've picked some rules that we want to improve on as an overall house. Everyone has a dish night and trash night. Should anyone violate a rule, there are punishments affixed, as identified by the tally boxes at the bottom of the chart. Oh yes, we have fun.

Elder Angelos and I had a good Easter Sunday. The wards did great programs and had good speakers. We were invited to dinner a the Wagher's home in the West Point ward and had a blast. They had family in town and it reminded me a lot of holidays back with grandma and grandpa. We mostly told stories to the teenagers about our missions, and then their family gave us a each a giant Easter egg filled with candy. We didn't stay too long, but we were very grateful for their kindness. Elder Angelos and I spent the evening street contacting because we didn't feel like knocking doors on Easter Sunday. We went back into El Mirage, the ghetto part of our area and just walked the streets and talked to people. It's a pretty sketchy area. Lots of trashy yards, bars on houses, dogs in the streets, shady allies...SO MUCH FUN! There were a lot of families outside together and were very nice to us. We walked down one ally and saw lots of families in back yards who waved to us. We turned to go down another ally and saw a huge pitbull halfway down the ally. No thanks. We met a few drunks and lots of Hispanic families but overall had a good Easter evening. The funniest part was that we forgot where we parked the car...oops. It was very much like the episode of Seinfeld where they wander the parking garage looking for the car. We just laughed as we turned every corner and the truck wasn't there. It started getting dark and we were kind of freaking out. Not in a scared way, but in a humorous way. Yeah it was dark and we were in the sketchiest part of the area, but we were having such a good time and the people were so nice to us, we weren't (too) worried. We eventually found it and by that time it wasn't blue-dark anymore but straight up black-dark.

The work this week has been going very well. As a mission, April was a tough month for finding and baptizing. As a zone we wanted to step it up and focus more of our meetings and trainings on living our purpose as missionaries by inviting to baptism. In just a week we've already seen a huge change. From last week to this week, our number of baptismal dates in the zone has DOUBLED. That was a very good thing to see, and President Beck's pretty happy with it. This week we have a zone leader council (tomorrow), leadership training (Wednesday) and a specialized training on Friday with half the mission meeting in the morning, and the other half immediately after the morning session. It's going to be a long week for meetings, but I see good things coming. The meetings' focuses will be on living our purpose as missionaries and extending baptismal invitations. We'll learn more as zone leaders tomorrow, and in turn will pass it to district leaders on Wednesday, then to the rest of the mission of Friday. President really wants to make sure that we all get the water to end of the row on this one. Already our zone has a projected 19 baptismal dates for the month of May, and the zone record is 20. Elder Angelos said that before President Beck goes home, we want to break that record. May is looking very promising!

I went on two exchanges this week. The first was with Elder Cava in his ward. He totally took the wheel and stepped it up. We had a great day together and got a lot of work done. I bet we spent an upwards of 6 hours tracting, which makes for a long day. It went by really fast, though. We met a ton of people. One guy tried tearing us apart with bashing, and it didn't go so well for him. We didn't fight back at all. It was just pure doctrine and testimony the whole time. I really admired Elder Cava's patience with him and his sincere testimony of the Restoration. I always learn something from Elder Cava about character. He's a wonderful example of patient service and humility. The other exchange was with Elder Tripp, one of the Assistants to the President. The AP's are in our zone, so I wasn't really sure who was the senior companion here. Elder Tripp said that since we were in the zone leaders' area, the zone leader was the senior companion. Elder Tripp and I had a great day together. We had meetings in the morning and a whole lot of tracting in the afternoon. We went into El Mirage, the ghetto part of mine and Elder Angelos' area that I referred to earlier. Very humble people. It was cool because of all the houses we knocked, every single door was opened except one. That's never happened before! We picked up a new investigator and three potentials. Such a good afternoon. We had lots of chances to talk and share thoughts about being in leadership. We both learned a lot from one another. Elder Tripp suggested that even though I'm a young zone leader I should expect to strap in and get to work, because I may be in Surprise for a while (there's been strings of zone leaders who have been here for up to 11 months...just saying...). Who knows. I figure that as long as I'm doing what I need to be doing, the Lord will put me where He needs me.

So last week I mentioned that we were having dinner at Bishop McLaw's home with Jeff and Marcy. It went SO well, better than we could have planned it. Turns out that Marcy and Sis. McLaws' families are family friends. They both grew up knowing each other. Friends that Bishop McLaws had in the neighborhood were siblings to friends that Jeff had growing up (Bishop McLaws is a very young bishop, young 30's). It was a very "small world" dinner. Sadly, nobody knew anyone from Washington or Ohio, so Elder Angelos and I were kind of left out. It happens. We tried pulling Bishop aside to see if he would do a fmaily home evening thought on receiving answers to prayers, something we knew that Jeff was trying to understand. We never got to talk to him and then we started family home evening. Bishop proceeded to talk about, you guessed it, receinving answers to prayers. Can you say inspired? It was a short lesson (due to the McLaws' kids' attention span) but very powerful. You could see that Jeff and Marcy enjoyed it.

Saturday's lately are my favorite days, because they always seem to be the days where we have the most spiritual experiences. With that introduction, we met with Jeff and Marcy again on Saturday night. They invited us over for dinner before the lesson, which we gladly accepted. The first thing I noticed on the wall was that painting of the Salt Lake Temple which I love. Mom, you know which one I'm talking about, the one with the close up of the temple and the bright red leaves in the foreground? Marcy's parents gave that to them as a gift. I think it's a perfect addition to their home, and a great motivator to apply the gospel into their homes. After dinner we started the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We switched things up a little bit and halfway through the lesson we transitioned from the Atonement to how we apply the Atonement into our lives...and invited him to be baptized. There was a long pause until Jeff said, "Wow, you guys really brought the hammer down on that one." More pause... Jeff said, "I think that it would be nice to have that clean slate, yes, I would like to be baptized." He had a lot of questions about what he had to know, because he feels like he doesn't know anything. We told him how our role as misisonaries was to be those guides to help him prepare to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. We promised him that we would help him prepare, and invited him to be baptized on May 21. Elder Angelos said, "Jeff, will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that date?" Jeff immediately responded "Absolutely." The Spirit was very strong in the room for the rest of the evening. We kept it there by ending with a quick prayer and then by heading home. We saw them the next day at church and they were very happy to see us. I'm so excited for Jeff, and so is the ward. Lots of work to come, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Life is good in Surprise, Arizona! It's going to be a busy week but busy is good. I wouldn't have it any other way. I hope everyone at home had a good Easter weekend. While I'm certainly grateful for egg hunts, Cadbury Eggs and coconut jellybean nests, I've been reflecting more on the Atonement and Resurrection of the Savior. Lately I've been studying in Acts and I've been loving it, particularly chapters 3-10. The apostles all are witnesses of the Resurrected Savior and were commanded to teach the nations. Their experiences have motivated my efforts to better represent the Lord in my missionary efforts. I wish I could go into more detail but I'm out of time. I love you all and hope you know that I'm having the time of my life in the service of the Lord. Write back soon, take care and be good.

Much love,

Elder Eric James Turner

"Easter" baskets in hand

Easter Morning!

Bobsled team ready for the push

Flying down the bobsled track

The RULE board