Hello everyone! It is almost Christmas!!! I hope everyone is in the Christmas spirit and focusing on the real reason for the season:) This was a busy week. I got to go on two different exchanges. One with with the Spanish Missionaries. But this time I had a spanish missionary here with me in my area. Then a couple days later we had one with the waterloo missionaries. The waterloo missionary has never been here yet on an exchange. So it was fun taking him around everywhere and giving him the East St. Louis experience. They loved it. I love it to because it is a nice switch up and to be with someone different for a change. During one of the exchanges we came up with a new idea. It is called Bridge Contacting. Since our branch boundaries reach out to the middle of the Mississippi river, we are allowed to walk half way across the bridges. There are multiple in our area. Most of them are freeways but there are some for walking too. We do not know if we will try it yet or not but it is just an idea.
Well we went to another funeral this week. The second one we have bent to since being here. This time it was for our investigators father. He died from drinking beer. He had some condition already and when he drinks it just kills him. He was an older man so things were not as tragic as the last one. But still very sad. Everything has been hitting the fan in this family. Satan has been working on them real hard because he knows they are working towards baptism. TJ was supposed to be baptized this sunday but now we are changing the day to either Saturday of this week or wednesday of next week. So please pray that it will happen. He really needs this in his life. We are making progress with a couple other investigators trying to help them to be baptized. We Challenged a couple more people but no one wants to commit to a date yet.
We are trying to convince the branch President to change the time of church from 10 to 11. The reason being is that everyone shows up to church way late. Everyone likes to stay up all night long then show up after sacrament meeting. This is the case for all of our investigators. They all like to stay up all night and show up late. It is irritating. We will get a bunch of investigators at church but no one will be at sacrament. Which is one of our key indicators. Yesterday some showed up for the last 10 mins of the last hour. Please pray that people will be at sacrament meeting.
We have heard rumors of them changing the branch boundaries again. The reason why they condensed the ward to a branch and gave half of the boundaries to other wards was because there was some racism going on with the African Americans and caucasians in the ward. All the caucasians people were running the ward with the African Americans not doing as much. So now the branch is mostly black making it so that all the African Americans have to step up to the plate and start taking responsibility and taking up callings. But many of them have not and the branch is really suffering. Even though many things are happening with investigators and we are baptizing it still has not been enough to support it. So there was something we heard is that the branch might totally be disintegrated to all the other wards that are surrounding. Please pray for the strength of this branch that it may be able to function correctly. It is going through a lot right now. We are starting to make an effort with getting the Hispanic group back.
We had a mini transfer because the group going home this transfer is going home a few week before it ends to be home for Christmas. So in this transfer the Spanish missionaries were moved to St. Charles because they just opened up a spanish branch there. So with our district leader leaving my comp was named the new district leader to finish out the transfer since he had been one many times before.
This week was the Mission Christmas party. It was a ton of fun! It was nice to see everyone again and play games, eat some food, and have a nice fireside. We had out branch Christmas party this week also. It was kind of funny that everyone came to the party and we had like 60 people there and then church the next day only 25 people were there. Well 20 of the people at the part were not even in the branch but still we had a ton of our investigators at the party but then it comes to church he next day hardly any of them show up.
Anyways I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Remember the reason for the Season. And have a spirit of giving not receiving:) I love you all.
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*Serving in Zion*
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
12-12-11
Hola!!! I know I say this every week but when an awesome week this has been!!! Many interesting things have happened this last week. Well interesting things always happen here in East St. Louis. It is kinda expected because of what kind of an area it is... So this week one of our investigators, Marlin, dad died. He died from drinking to much alcohol. Do not drink people. It is not smart. But we are going to the funeral tonight. They told us that they want us to pray over the body and speak at the funeral tonight. SO we are going to bring our Branch president so he can do that for us:) We just find it better if he did it instead of us. We are just not used to how these people mourn and stuff. And after the last funeral we went to we were kinda shocked. It is way different. We set a baptismal date this week!!! Tj will be getting baptized on Christmas day!!! The night before we went over to teach him and his family he had a dream that he was being baptized! This was the first thing we heard from his mouth when we walked inside the home. This one is pretty solid. So we are very excited about that! Moneesha would be baptized with him but her husband is not ready to be baptized... And she said she wants to wait for him and be baptized at the same time. The whole thing is that I do now know how long that will take for Marlin. He has to give up a lot first. So pretty soon we will be pushing her to be Baptized sooner before her husband is ready. Because that family needs examples in it. And when I say examples I mean good ones at that. With the death of Marlins father is made it a perfect oppurtunity to teach about the temple and that Familys can be together forever. But only through being sealed for time and eternity in the Temple. It really brigthened their day when they heard this all. And they really want that.
Yesterday a Miracle happened. This is how the story goes... John Johnson came to church the first sunday I was out here in the field. He came to church with his Girlfriend who is a member. The first lesson we had with him we set a baptismal date with him. We taught him the second time and found out that he was living with his girlfriend. We told him that they either had to be married first before he could be baptized or move out. The sunday after that he dissapeared off the face of the planet. We could not get a hold of him. We went by his house many times finding no one to be there. We called his Girlfriend and she said she did not know where he was or anything. Acting like he did not live with her even though we know they do... He was just gone. So for over a month we had no contact with him. Trying every week to find him. At a point we just gave up kind of. But my companion and I had a spiritual impression that we needed to fast and pray for him so that we could get in contact with him again. Then finally after a very long time he walked into church yesterday. This was one of the biggest faith and testimony builders I have had on the mission so far. It was literally a miracle that he was there. At first it felt like a dream. I could not believe my eyes at first. We talked with him for an hour after church. He said that he went down to Memphis for a couple weeks and he was just having a lot of things going on. His phone had been shut off for a long time now. He told me that he felt like he needed us in his life again. He called us his Angels. It always touches my heart when someone says that. We asked if him And his girlfriend were still going to get married and he said yes they were. Then he asked me to be his best man. I am not sure if we are allowed to be something like that when we are on a mission but he is getting married at our Branches building. So I just said yes that I would be. Seeing that we are probably going to have to plan their wedding anyways. Oh well. This is the second time my comp has had to plan one since being on the mission. We said that we needed to get them married this month so that he could be Baptized before the month is up. But when I went to his girlfriend and talked to her and him about it she was like oh he has to be baptized first then we will be married. She is still trying to act like they do not live together. But we know that they do. So straight up told her that they needed to get married soon. But she tried to play it off. So that is our next big problem to overcome. Because John is ready for baptism. Just his girlfriend is holding everything back...
We have been finding new investigators this week and people that we feel solid about. Our lessons being taught are higher then ever before right now. We have many solid people in our teaching pool. Just pray that we can keep those people solid and start setting Baptismal dates with them! Pray that we find more people also and that we will be in saftey and protection out here. Thank you all so much. Good luck on finals this week!!! Remember prayer and that you can always commune with your Father in Heaven. He loves when you talk to him:) Anyways, I love you all! Merry Christmas!!!
Love, Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Yesterday a Miracle happened. This is how the story goes... John Johnson came to church the first sunday I was out here in the field. He came to church with his Girlfriend who is a member. The first lesson we had with him we set a baptismal date with him. We taught him the second time and found out that he was living with his girlfriend. We told him that they either had to be married first before he could be baptized or move out. The sunday after that he dissapeared off the face of the planet. We could not get a hold of him. We went by his house many times finding no one to be there. We called his Girlfriend and she said she did not know where he was or anything. Acting like he did not live with her even though we know they do... He was just gone. So for over a month we had no contact with him. Trying every week to find him. At a point we just gave up kind of. But my companion and I had a spiritual impression that we needed to fast and pray for him so that we could get in contact with him again. Then finally after a very long time he walked into church yesterday. This was one of the biggest faith and testimony builders I have had on the mission so far. It was literally a miracle that he was there. At first it felt like a dream. I could not believe my eyes at first. We talked with him for an hour after church. He said that he went down to Memphis for a couple weeks and he was just having a lot of things going on. His phone had been shut off for a long time now. He told me that he felt like he needed us in his life again. He called us his Angels. It always touches my heart when someone says that. We asked if him And his girlfriend were still going to get married and he said yes they were. Then he asked me to be his best man. I am not sure if we are allowed to be something like that when we are on a mission but he is getting married at our Branches building. So I just said yes that I would be. Seeing that we are probably going to have to plan their wedding anyways. Oh well. This is the second time my comp has had to plan one since being on the mission. We said that we needed to get them married this month so that he could be Baptized before the month is up. But when I went to his girlfriend and talked to her and him about it she was like oh he has to be baptized first then we will be married. She is still trying to act like they do not live together. But we know that they do. So straight up told her that they needed to get married soon. But she tried to play it off. So that is our next big problem to overcome. Because John is ready for baptism. Just his girlfriend is holding everything back...
We have been finding new investigators this week and people that we feel solid about. Our lessons being taught are higher then ever before right now. We have many solid people in our teaching pool. Just pray that we can keep those people solid and start setting Baptismal dates with them! Pray that we find more people also and that we will be in saftey and protection out here. Thank you all so much. Good luck on finals this week!!! Remember prayer and that you can always commune with your Father in Heaven. He loves when you talk to him:) Anyways, I love you all! Merry Christmas!!!
Love, Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
12-7-11
Hey everyone!!!
So this week Elder Malm of the Seventy came and had a conference with us. So we had to switch our pday so that is why you are getting my email today. This week has been a good week. We have found a handful of new investigators. It is nice because we need more people to teach. We are pushing the investigators we already have towards baptism. Ray is going to have a baptismal interview soon. Monisha is ready for baptism but her husband is not yet because he is hardly ever there when we teach her and her brother. So pray that we can teach them all together because Monisha knows this is the right thing for her and her family and all want to be baptized together and make that step together. We challenged one of our new investigators, Robin, to baptism Monday night. That day during the conference the made a big push on us challenging in the first lesson so we did. She accepted! She just has one big hurdle to get over first. Pray for her that she will be able to do that. Also pray that our investigators will make it to Sacrament meeting. They come to church a lot but never make it there on time. Things are going great for most of the people we have been teaching. Just pray that they will all be able to progress towards baptism. I am so grateful for all of you and praying for me and our investigators. I know I say this often but I can not say it enough. I can see the difference it makes in theirs and mine life.
The Elder Malm conference was very nice to go to. We had to go up to Springfield for it which is where Abe Lincoln grew up. We was a very funny man but I know is is a special witness of Christ. He has such a great testimony and the spirit filled the room. I learned a lot from him of how I can personally be a better missionary and how to teach my investigators and teach more with the spirit, and by the spirit. Letting the Holy Ghost work through us is the best way for anything really.
The First Presidency Devotional was amazing. The new video they showed was different but works wonders with the spirit. It lets the spirit do more of the talking in a way. Please do not let Christmas be all about the presents and Santa. President Monson said Christ should be the center of our celebration during this season. Remember the birth of the Savior and what a great event in history it was. And also remember do not let the Christmas tree set on fire... Something we learned from President Uchtdorf. haha
So drunk people really like trying to preach to us for some reason. They will be in the streets and will start talking to us about the gospel. Usually we just be nice to them and not bug them or make them mad. But it happens often where they try to preach things to us. We find it very amussing though. But do not worry we are safe. The drunks are always to drunk to even function right. I am surprised that we do not see any past out lying in the streets. We avoid all the very sketchy areas for the most part. We have only been to a couple of different projects so see members in our branch and stuff.
I hope you are all doing very well this Christmas season!!! I enjoy getting letters from you. It always makes my day and helps me to work harder to know I have people supporting me and cheering me on. Just know that I am doing the same for all of you. I hope school and finals coming up for everyone will go well. Finish strong and you will have a nice Christmas break to enjoy:) I love you all keep following the footsteps of Christ. He is the WAY.
Love Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
So this week Elder Malm of the Seventy came and had a conference with us. So we had to switch our pday so that is why you are getting my email today. This week has been a good week. We have found a handful of new investigators. It is nice because we need more people to teach. We are pushing the investigators we already have towards baptism. Ray is going to have a baptismal interview soon. Monisha is ready for baptism but her husband is not yet because he is hardly ever there when we teach her and her brother. So pray that we can teach them all together because Monisha knows this is the right thing for her and her family and all want to be baptized together and make that step together. We challenged one of our new investigators, Robin, to baptism Monday night. That day during the conference the made a big push on us challenging in the first lesson so we did. She accepted! She just has one big hurdle to get over first. Pray for her that she will be able to do that. Also pray that our investigators will make it to Sacrament meeting. They come to church a lot but never make it there on time. Things are going great for most of the people we have been teaching. Just pray that they will all be able to progress towards baptism. I am so grateful for all of you and praying for me and our investigators. I know I say this often but I can not say it enough. I can see the difference it makes in theirs and mine life.
The Elder Malm conference was very nice to go to. We had to go up to Springfield for it which is where Abe Lincoln grew up. We was a very funny man but I know is is a special witness of Christ. He has such a great testimony and the spirit filled the room. I learned a lot from him of how I can personally be a better missionary and how to teach my investigators and teach more with the spirit, and by the spirit. Letting the Holy Ghost work through us is the best way for anything really.
The First Presidency Devotional was amazing. The new video they showed was different but works wonders with the spirit. It lets the spirit do more of the talking in a way. Please do not let Christmas be all about the presents and Santa. President Monson said Christ should be the center of our celebration during this season. Remember the birth of the Savior and what a great event in history it was. And also remember do not let the Christmas tree set on fire... Something we learned from President Uchtdorf. haha
So drunk people really like trying to preach to us for some reason. They will be in the streets and will start talking to us about the gospel. Usually we just be nice to them and not bug them or make them mad. But it happens often where they try to preach things to us. We find it very amussing though. But do not worry we are safe. The drunks are always to drunk to even function right. I am surprised that we do not see any past out lying in the streets. We avoid all the very sketchy areas for the most part. We have only been to a couple of different projects so see members in our branch and stuff.
I hope you are all doing very well this Christmas season!!! I enjoy getting letters from you. It always makes my day and helps me to work harder to know I have people supporting me and cheering me on. Just know that I am doing the same for all of you. I hope school and finals coming up for everyone will go well. Finish strong and you will have a nice Christmas break to enjoy:) I love you all keep following the footsteps of Christ. He is the WAY.
Love Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Monday, November 28, 2011
11-28-11
Hey everyone!!! This was another fun week! I hope you all had a great happy thanksgiving and remembered all the many blessings you recieve. I am so grateful for the chance to be out here on a mission and be able to preach the gospel to these people. I know it is making a difference in their lives and my own also. I am so grateful for all of your prayers and thoughts. They really do make a difference.
So this week was very exciting. Thursday morning at 8 we went up to Edwardsville to go play football. A couple of the wards up there were doing a joint Turkeybowl. It was a ton of fun to be able to go play football with members and other missionaries. We had a total of 14 missionaries there. It reminded me of turkeybowl back at home but just a little different.
After that we headed down to Dupo which used to be in our area before we were condensed down into a branch. We ate lunch with the waterloo missionaries at a members house down there. It was a full on Thanksgiving meal we had. So after that we went back up to the church and our Branch president, President Oniel was holding a huge thanksgiving/birthday party for his 94 year old father. It was all their family. 8 of the 11 kids from his father were there. Including all there kids and grand kids. So there was over 100 people there. It was awesome. My companion and I were the only two white guys in the building and the only ones who were not family. President Oniel is the only member in his family so this was a perfect oppurtunity for us indeed. We talked to everyone and We ended up teaching a lesson with one of Pres. Oneil's brothers who is a pastor at another church. It was pretty cool he really liked it. But were very happy with the whole thing. So there we had a turkey again.
Then after that we went to President Hair's home which is in the zone leaders area. Since my comp. served there and is very musically inclined they had us over to sing and and for dessert with them. President Hair is the 2nd counsler to our mission president. It was fun! I had talked to pres. Hair before not to long after getting out of the mtc because one of the fake investigators I had there was one of his good friends. The fake investigator knew I was going to STL mission so they talked about me. President Hair also has family that used to live in Temecula and stuff. It was fun to be there with the zone leaders and Presidents family including his sister in laws family. After that day I have never felt so full in my life before.... hahaha
The day before thanksgiving we also had a thanksgiving dinner with a member. We had a appointment right before that at our investigators who were are pushing to set a baptismal date with right now. We did not succeed though... After while waiting at the bus stop to go to our dinner appointment a car pulled up to us. It was an undercover cop. He asked us what are you two doing down here?! We just said we are missionaries. He asked you two are going in soon right? We replied yes we are going to another appointment. He then drove off. But I had a feeling he was going to be watching us. So a minute later I saw him staked out watching us. Then after few mins he pulled up to us again. He signaled for us to come over again. He had a picture of this white girl and said have either of you seen this girl in the past week down here. We said uh actually yes we think we did. We saw a white girl a few days ago. It was so odd to us because you never see any white people at all in East St. Louis. We told him where we saw her. She ran away from a near by city. I do not know why she ran away to East STL. She was staying at some projects that one of our members lives at. We had not been down there to those projects in weeks so we had no info to confirm she was down there. While talking to him we missed our bus. So he said jump in I will give you a ride. So we both jumped in the back of the Undercover Cop car. He gave us his phone number so we could call him if we saw the girl again. He told us that he is actually a U.S. Marshall. We were like oh wow this guy is the real deal. We figured that is why it was so hard to tell he was undercover it looked like just any other car in East STL. So yes I got to ride in the back of as U.S. Marshalls car this week:) He asked us if we carry weapons on us we said no. He was suprised at the notion. haha but it was a sweet experience.
Friday night we had sister Lehr the only lady who can drive missionaries by herself in our mission take us around a few places. She asked if we would go out to dinner with her and her family and their friends. We said sure! Everyone there were nonmembers except us, sister Lehr, and her daughter who is inactive. It was really cool because it made sister Lehr feel like a real missionary having us with her. Mostly everyone was drinking too which made her feel better also that we were there with her. It was really cool because we got a referal out of it which is not even in our area but it is cool because we may get to teach the guy.
Last night we had dinner at a members house who is an import up in Granite City. When they took us home they had to drop off some other people who were there with us who live right in the heart of East STL. Right as we turned onto the street the tire went flat. We were so blessed that it did not go flat on the highway. But it was already around 9:30 by that time. We went to the trunk of the van the jack and all that stuff was not there. So we had to call someone else to come with the stuff. It was a big mess and took forever so we did not get home until 11. It was way cold last night so all the gangsters were inside so we had no problems:) Even though we do not get bothered at all anyways, well except drunk or high people. Or mentally ill people. But I am so blessed for everything and all the good things happening here. Hope you all have a great week!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
So this week was very exciting. Thursday morning at 8 we went up to Edwardsville to go play football. A couple of the wards up there were doing a joint Turkeybowl. It was a ton of fun to be able to go play football with members and other missionaries. We had a total of 14 missionaries there. It reminded me of turkeybowl back at home but just a little different.
After that we headed down to Dupo which used to be in our area before we were condensed down into a branch. We ate lunch with the waterloo missionaries at a members house down there. It was a full on Thanksgiving meal we had. So after that we went back up to the church and our Branch president, President Oniel was holding a huge thanksgiving/birthday party for his 94 year old father. It was all their family. 8 of the 11 kids from his father were there. Including all there kids and grand kids. So there was over 100 people there. It was awesome. My companion and I were the only two white guys in the building and the only ones who were not family. President Oniel is the only member in his family so this was a perfect oppurtunity for us indeed. We talked to everyone and We ended up teaching a lesson with one of Pres. Oneil's brothers who is a pastor at another church. It was pretty cool he really liked it. But were very happy with the whole thing. So there we had a turkey again.
Then after that we went to President Hair's home which is in the zone leaders area. Since my comp. served there and is very musically inclined they had us over to sing and and for dessert with them. President Hair is the 2nd counsler to our mission president. It was fun! I had talked to pres. Hair before not to long after getting out of the mtc because one of the fake investigators I had there was one of his good friends. The fake investigator knew I was going to STL mission so they talked about me. President Hair also has family that used to live in Temecula and stuff. It was fun to be there with the zone leaders and Presidents family including his sister in laws family. After that day I have never felt so full in my life before.... hahaha
The day before thanksgiving we also had a thanksgiving dinner with a member. We had a appointment right before that at our investigators who were are pushing to set a baptismal date with right now. We did not succeed though... After while waiting at the bus stop to go to our dinner appointment a car pulled up to us. It was an undercover cop. He asked us what are you two doing down here?! We just said we are missionaries. He asked you two are going in soon right? We replied yes we are going to another appointment. He then drove off. But I had a feeling he was going to be watching us. So a minute later I saw him staked out watching us. Then after few mins he pulled up to us again. He signaled for us to come over again. He had a picture of this white girl and said have either of you seen this girl in the past week down here. We said uh actually yes we think we did. We saw a white girl a few days ago. It was so odd to us because you never see any white people at all in East St. Louis. We told him where we saw her. She ran away from a near by city. I do not know why she ran away to East STL. She was staying at some projects that one of our members lives at. We had not been down there to those projects in weeks so we had no info to confirm she was down there. While talking to him we missed our bus. So he said jump in I will give you a ride. So we both jumped in the back of the Undercover Cop car. He gave us his phone number so we could call him if we saw the girl again. He told us that he is actually a U.S. Marshall. We were like oh wow this guy is the real deal. We figured that is why it was so hard to tell he was undercover it looked like just any other car in East STL. So yes I got to ride in the back of as U.S. Marshalls car this week:) He asked us if we carry weapons on us we said no. He was suprised at the notion. haha but it was a sweet experience.
Friday night we had sister Lehr the only lady who can drive missionaries by herself in our mission take us around a few places. She asked if we would go out to dinner with her and her family and their friends. We said sure! Everyone there were nonmembers except us, sister Lehr, and her daughter who is inactive. It was really cool because it made sister Lehr feel like a real missionary having us with her. Mostly everyone was drinking too which made her feel better also that we were there with her. It was really cool because we got a referal out of it which is not even in our area but it is cool because we may get to teach the guy.
Last night we had dinner at a members house who is an import up in Granite City. When they took us home they had to drop off some other people who were there with us who live right in the heart of East STL. Right as we turned onto the street the tire went flat. We were so blessed that it did not go flat on the highway. But it was already around 9:30 by that time. We went to the trunk of the van the jack and all that stuff was not there. So we had to call someone else to come with the stuff. It was a big mess and took forever so we did not get home until 11. It was way cold last night so all the gangsters were inside so we had no problems:) Even though we do not get bothered at all anyways, well except drunk or high people. Or mentally ill people. But I am so blessed for everything and all the good things happening here. Hope you all have a great week!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Monday, November 21, 2011
11-21-11
Hello Everyone!!!
It has been a wonderful week!!! Two of our investigators were baptized on Sunday!!!!! Angel and her daughter Nanieyia were baptized. The father Ray still has to quit smoking before he can be. We are planning on getting him an interview this week though. It was amazing because Nanieyia asked me to baptize her and Elder Hart the Missionary who found them was asked to baptize Angel. It was pretty cool because this was a first time Elder Hart or I have ever baptized anyone. I thought I was going to be nervous when I baptized her yesterday. But I felt the spirit so strong while I performed the Ordinance. It was a big testimony builder to me. I am so blessed to be able to baptize someone after only being out in the field for a month. The funny part about everything is that more people showed up to the baptism then they did to church... Oh well it was perfectly fine though:) We were happy because we had investigators there and everything. We also had many other missionaries there because it was a big deal for these two to get baptized. Many of the other missionaries who taught them came to it. Including the assistants, and 2 other people and their companions. We had a total of 9 missionaries there. It was awesome! This week we are planning on setting 6 baptismal dates for Moni, Monisha, John, Marlin, TJ, and Ray. Please pray for them and that they can commit to a date! But we have a lot of great things happening here. This week we had another zone pday where we all played football together. Then the next day we had interviews President Clark. He took us out to eat after at Lotta Watta. Best place ever. I love going there.
Saturday we went to the Temple with the our Zone Leaders and The Assistants. Since my trainer was a zone leader before and is good friends with one of the assistants we get some special treatment. It is a great blessing because we rode with the zone leaders on the metro link to the other side of the river in St. Louis and the Assistants just picked us up then took us to the temple. Then they took us back home afterwards. I am very grateful for my trainer with all his sweet hook ups and also for everything I learn from him. But I have also been able to become pretty good friends with the assistants and the zone leaders. They are great men who are such a great example to me. I really look up to them.
So today, on the way here on the Metro Link, I was trying to teach a street lesson so I started talking to this guy sitting across from me and a few rows down. I was not close enough to smell the alcohol that he smelled of. After 10 seconds of talking I knew he was drunk. He started talking about when he goes home he is going to go make food read the scriptures and drink a beer. He admitted to me that he was a drunk and has been like that because his wife committed suicide 3 years before. He was messed up. So I started to talk about commandments and told him to stop drinking and that he would be happier if he did not. He did not know how to react. So he started talking about the knights templar. It was very interesting conversation. Half of the time drunk people are easy to teach and love it, one quarter will be like him and just talk about random stuff or the last quarter will try to tell you God is black. And we have had many tell us that... But it is fun sometimes. We always try to stay away from drunk people though when we know they are. But I am so grateful for all the prayers for me and my investigators. I really see them make a difference and I feel the power of it. Prayer is an amazing thing and will take us a long way. I love you all. Have an awesome week!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
It has been a wonderful week!!! Two of our investigators were baptized on Sunday!!!!! Angel and her daughter Nanieyia were baptized. The father Ray still has to quit smoking before he can be. We are planning on getting him an interview this week though. It was amazing because Nanieyia asked me to baptize her and Elder Hart the Missionary who found them was asked to baptize Angel. It was pretty cool because this was a first time Elder Hart or I have ever baptized anyone. I thought I was going to be nervous when I baptized her yesterday. But I felt the spirit so strong while I performed the Ordinance. It was a big testimony builder to me. I am so blessed to be able to baptize someone after only being out in the field for a month. The funny part about everything is that more people showed up to the baptism then they did to church... Oh well it was perfectly fine though:) We were happy because we had investigators there and everything. We also had many other missionaries there because it was a big deal for these two to get baptized. Many of the other missionaries who taught them came to it. Including the assistants, and 2 other people and their companions. We had a total of 9 missionaries there. It was awesome! This week we are planning on setting 6 baptismal dates for Moni, Monisha, John, Marlin, TJ, and Ray. Please pray for them and that they can commit to a date! But we have a lot of great things happening here. This week we had another zone pday where we all played football together. Then the next day we had interviews President Clark. He took us out to eat after at Lotta Watta. Best place ever. I love going there.
Saturday we went to the Temple with the our Zone Leaders and The Assistants. Since my trainer was a zone leader before and is good friends with one of the assistants we get some special treatment. It is a great blessing because we rode with the zone leaders on the metro link to the other side of the river in St. Louis and the Assistants just picked us up then took us to the temple. Then they took us back home afterwards. I am very grateful for my trainer with all his sweet hook ups and also for everything I learn from him. But I have also been able to become pretty good friends with the assistants and the zone leaders. They are great men who are such a great example to me. I really look up to them.
So today, on the way here on the Metro Link, I was trying to teach a street lesson so I started talking to this guy sitting across from me and a few rows down. I was not close enough to smell the alcohol that he smelled of. After 10 seconds of talking I knew he was drunk. He started talking about when he goes home he is going to go make food read the scriptures and drink a beer. He admitted to me that he was a drunk and has been like that because his wife committed suicide 3 years before. He was messed up. So I started to talk about commandments and told him to stop drinking and that he would be happier if he did not. He did not know how to react. So he started talking about the knights templar. It was very interesting conversation. Half of the time drunk people are easy to teach and love it, one quarter will be like him and just talk about random stuff or the last quarter will try to tell you God is black. And we have had many tell us that... But it is fun sometimes. We always try to stay away from drunk people though when we know they are. But I am so grateful for all the prayers for me and my investigators. I really see them make a difference and I feel the power of it. Prayer is an amazing thing and will take us a long way. I love you all. Have an awesome week!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Monday, November 14, 2011
11-14-11
Hello Everyone!!!
What a week it has been!!! I had a team up with the spanish Elders for a couple of days. It was nice to get a switch up and be with someone besides my Companion. It was cool doing spanish for a day, even though everyone we talked to spoke english as well so we did not speak any spanish. I think they did that for a reason so that I would be able to understand everything instead not understanding anything because I only speak a little spanish. Not enough to get in a deep conversation about the gospel. hahaha. We teach like an institute class every Wednesday to everyone at the branch. It is nice because many of our investigators came to that and really enjoyed. We taught very simple priniciples so that they would understand. And also it is nice to teach and go over basics and stuff with the members because they are mostly all converts and do not understand very much. It was awesome this week because we had many member present lessons with the investigators. It is always a blessing to have that because it is a good way to fellowshiping and making that friendship between member and investigator. So John is hard to get a hold of because his phone never has mins. But we finally taught him wednesday before institute and he stayed for it also. We are going to have to help plan a wedding for them now because we told him if he wants to get baptized that he has to either has to stop living with this lady or marry her. They are engaged now so we might be having a wedding a few weeks from now then a baptism not to long after that. Naniah and Angel are being interviewed this week for baptism. The father Ray has to wait a bit longer for his interview. Saturday we met this lady and her sister at a mcdonalds. We went by there house the day before with no answer and left them a note. They called us back and said to meet them there because they do not want anyone going into there house because it is a mess. They are two very old ladies. So we got to know them in a mcdondalds which they bought us lunch which was way nice. We discussed a few scriptures with them. Left them with some BOM's and a restoration video. We should be getting another time to meet with them soon. They had me say a prayer for them before we left. I folded my arms and started saying the prayer. Everyone was holding hands but me they just put there arms on my shoulders. They were repeating a lot of things I say I were making noises and saying amen! praise Jesus! oh Lord! etc. I started kind of laughing because it was hilarious these two old black ladies really getting into it. My first experince like that so far. They are baptist so that explains a little. Saturday night we had a phone call with the 1st counselor asking if my companion and I could give talks the next day. We were the only ones to speak so we both spoke for 20 mins. Which probably was the longest talk I have ever given. It was nice though. We had only like 10 mins. to prepare it but still cool:) We have to do everything in our branch on sundays. I gave a talk, passed the sacrament, played the organ (I did not really play it, it was eletric with all the hymns on it and just had to tap the keys for it to play... lol)and helped teach sunday school for the youth. All three of the youth... haha. So Sundays are very busy for us. But it is fun doing all of that. We never get bored. My companion and I are expected to do a musical number very soon also...( I can not sing). But oh well it is still fun because we only have like 35 people at church anyways. hahah. Today we have another Zone pday so we will all be playing football. It is our own little turkey bowl. I am so excited for it because the last time I played flag football I split my eye open and had to get stiches! yeah! haha But I love the sport so much though I would never give it up even just playing around with missionaries. Thank you for all your prayers for me and my investigators. It really means a lot to me. I love you all!!! Have a great week, choose the right, and remember the Atonement in everything. Without it we would be lost. It helps us out a lot to be able to repent and become clean of our sins because none of us are perfect and all need to be using it constantly.
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
What a week it has been!!! I had a team up with the spanish Elders for a couple of days. It was nice to get a switch up and be with someone besides my Companion. It was cool doing spanish for a day, even though everyone we talked to spoke english as well so we did not speak any spanish. I think they did that for a reason so that I would be able to understand everything instead not understanding anything because I only speak a little spanish. Not enough to get in a deep conversation about the gospel. hahaha. We teach like an institute class every Wednesday to everyone at the branch. It is nice because many of our investigators came to that and really enjoyed. We taught very simple priniciples so that they would understand. And also it is nice to teach and go over basics and stuff with the members because they are mostly all converts and do not understand very much. It was awesome this week because we had many member present lessons with the investigators. It is always a blessing to have that because it is a good way to fellowshiping and making that friendship between member and investigator. So John is hard to get a hold of because his phone never has mins. But we finally taught him wednesday before institute and he stayed for it also. We are going to have to help plan a wedding for them now because we told him if he wants to get baptized that he has to either has to stop living with this lady or marry her. They are engaged now so we might be having a wedding a few weeks from now then a baptism not to long after that. Naniah and Angel are being interviewed this week for baptism. The father Ray has to wait a bit longer for his interview. Saturday we met this lady and her sister at a mcdonalds. We went by there house the day before with no answer and left them a note. They called us back and said to meet them there because they do not want anyone going into there house because it is a mess. They are two very old ladies. So we got to know them in a mcdondalds which they bought us lunch which was way nice. We discussed a few scriptures with them. Left them with some BOM's and a restoration video. We should be getting another time to meet with them soon. They had me say a prayer for them before we left. I folded my arms and started saying the prayer. Everyone was holding hands but me they just put there arms on my shoulders. They were repeating a lot of things I say I were making noises and saying amen! praise Jesus! oh Lord! etc. I started kind of laughing because it was hilarious these two old black ladies really getting into it. My first experince like that so far. They are baptist so that explains a little. Saturday night we had a phone call with the 1st counselor asking if my companion and I could give talks the next day. We were the only ones to speak so we both spoke for 20 mins. Which probably was the longest talk I have ever given. It was nice though. We had only like 10 mins. to prepare it but still cool:) We have to do everything in our branch on sundays. I gave a talk, passed the sacrament, played the organ (I did not really play it, it was eletric with all the hymns on it and just had to tap the keys for it to play... lol)and helped teach sunday school for the youth. All three of the youth... haha. So Sundays are very busy for us. But it is fun doing all of that. We never get bored. My companion and I are expected to do a musical number very soon also...( I can not sing). But oh well it is still fun because we only have like 35 people at church anyways. hahah. Today we have another Zone pday so we will all be playing football. It is our own little turkey bowl. I am so excited for it because the last time I played flag football I split my eye open and had to get stiches! yeah! haha But I love the sport so much though I would never give it up even just playing around with missionaries. Thank you for all your prayers for me and my investigators. It really means a lot to me. I love you all!!! Have a great week, choose the right, and remember the Atonement in everything. Without it we would be lost. It helps us out a lot to be able to repent and become clean of our sins because none of us are perfect and all need to be using it constantly.
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*SERVING IN ZION*
Thursday, November 10, 2011
11-7-11
Family and Friends,
I have to say that I was a little concerned when I didn’t get an email earlier in the day. You know us Moms. I guess my lesson for the week is try to not worry and know that Derek is where he is supposed to be at this time in his life. He seems to be learning so much so quickly. I’m so grateful for his optimistic attitude. He really is learning to love the people where he is serving and feels for them under the conditions in which they live. He says that the people there love the missionaries. I am so grateful to all of the people of that area that my sons feels that way. I know that there are places in Derek’s area that even the police are reluctant to enter that the missionaries go into. Crazy huh! Derek would love to hear from you. He wants to keep up with the happenings in everyone’s lives. If you don’t want to hand write your letter then you can still go to dearelder.com and type your letter. They will print it, put it into an envelope and mail it for the price of a stamp. Just put that he is in the St. Louis Missouri Mission and make sure that you include his first name Elder Derek Turner. Good chance of more than one Turner in the mission. I hope you all have a great week!
Doreena Turner
Hello Everyone!!!
Another crazy week! So much happens in a week and how fast the week goes by!!! Last week we met two ladies out in front of a church. My companion and I both had the feeling that we needed to talk to them. So we did. They invited us to come to some chili cook off there church was doing. Many missionaries in our mission do that kind of stuff to show that we are nice people and makes it easier for people to talk to us. So we helped the church set up for there chili cook off and left to an apointment when it started because we did not want to stay for it. But we are hoping this lady there will let us start teaching her soon because she loves us. But we want her to ask us to teach her because if we ask her we will make the pastor mad and all will go bad. But we really feel this lady will take the lessons because she is very lost in what she believes. We are teaching a whole new family now. They started coming to church a month ago with Ray and his family. They say our church is there church. So we started teaching them, we think it should be easy to get them baptized. A daughter in that family actually was married by our branch president in our building last month. The second wedding that has been there in the last few months. The three baptisms that were supposed to happen Sunday fell through... but they still come to church we just had to push off the date for another few weeks because they have some serious issues that I can not tell... But we have a baptismal date for this guy John this week. But one problem. We are pretty sure that he is living with this lady in the ward. So we are thinking that we will have to plan a wedding for them so we can get him baptized! This would be the second time my comp had to plan a wedding in this branch to get someone baptized. So drunk people are hilarious here. I have never really experinced drunk people as much as I have here. They are mostly really nice suprisingly. Like we street contacted a guy the other night and he was so cool and loving what we were saying he was just super drunk though. Then at the Metro Link station this drunk guy came up to us and asked,"What is God's name?"
I replied, "God." I said that to not make him mad by saying another name for him.
He said, " God's name is Jehovah! What color is Jehovah?"
We replied he is a Jew. Then He yelled NOOOO GOD is Black!!! God is Black!!! Thank goodness our train came up as soon as he started yelling that. The Train was packed full of people. We ran on with him yelling God is black! God is black! so everyone on the train heard that. Some people we laughing asking what the heck was that and we said he was drunk. It was really funny though just because the guy looked really bad saying that. Even a black guy on the train said to us everyone knows Jesus is a Jew. But this has not been the first guy to tell us that Jesus is Black. We just usually walk away and avoid all confrontation. When we were on the bus the other day two old black grandmas almost got in a fight. They were cussing each other out and two men were holding them down so that they would not harm one another. For a split second I wanted to see the two grandmas throw it down... But then I thought it would not be a good if that happened because my companion and I were sitting very close to them and we did not want to be involved. Today we had to go to a funeral for someone in our branch this morning. Hence why we are emailing so late today. The man was only 21 years old. He had been inactive for many years now though. He has two brothers who are members but only one of them is active. We orginally thought that the funeral would be at our building but the mother who is not a member decided to do it at a funeral home so that she could drink and smoke. It was a mess though. The son was found dead on Halloween I believe off the side of a road near a freeway. He was shot in the back of the head in a drive by. Well that is supposedly the correct story. Many newspapers have been putting out different stories then what the police report says. It was very sad being at the viewing and funeral. We were there for support as was most of the branch. At first my comp and I were the only two white guys there until people from the branch got there. Half the people there were wearing grills and everything. It was sad to watch because people were really having a hard time. We left right after the funeral started though because we felt like we needed to go. So most of the people of the branch left then. I really wish we had the funeral at our church. The whole thing would of went a whole lot better. But many people were saying that is what happens when you hang out with the wrong crowd. The man who died had gotten into stuff and owed a ton of people money and he was killed. His brother who is active in the church bore his testimony Sunday saying I stopped all the gang stuff so that something like that would not happen. He had walked away from that life many years ago. But he is now very excited to do the temple work for his brother in a year from now. He was the only one in the family who had himself under control because he knows the Plan of Salvation and knows where he is right now and knows work can be done for him now because he was only baptized. I am so grateful for the Plan of Happiness. This plan would not be anyways possible if we did not have the Atonement. It is completely centered around it. The second half of the day has been fine though because a member took us to Lottawata. (or something like that) That place has the best burgers ever! They are huge!!! Well I look forward to hearing from you. Do not be afraid to write! I want updates in peoples lives because now I feel so distant. But anyways I know this is the true church. And if we use the Atonement in our lives always we will start to be more Christ like. Because that is our goal is to be like him. None of us our perfect but through praying and reading the scriptures everyday much more is able to be accomplished because the spirit will be with us to lead and guide us through the big and small things. I love you all.
Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Another crazy week! So much happens in a week and how fast the week goes by!!! Last week we met two ladies out in front of a church. My companion and I both had the feeling that we needed to talk to them. So we did. They invited us to come to some chili cook off there church was doing. Many missionaries in our mission do that kind of stuff to show that we are nice people and makes it easier for people to talk to us. So we helped the church set up for there chili cook off and left to an apointment when it started because we did not want to stay for it. But we are hoping this lady there will let us start teaching her soon because she loves us. But we want her to ask us to teach her because if we ask her we will make the pastor mad and all will go bad. But we really feel this lady will take the lessons because she is very lost in what she believes. We are teaching a whole new family now. They started coming to church a month ago with Ray and his family. They say our church is there church. So we started teaching them, we think it should be easy to get them baptized. A daughter in that family actually was married by our branch president in our building last month. The second wedding that has been there in the last few months. The three baptisms that were supposed to happen Sunday fell through... but they still come to church we just had to push off the date for another few weeks because they have some serious issues that I can not tell... But we have a baptismal date for this guy John this week. But one problem. We are pretty sure that he is living with this lady in the ward. So we are thinking that we will have to plan a wedding for them so we can get him baptized! This would be the second time my comp had to plan a wedding in this branch to get someone baptized. So drunk people are hilarious here. I have never really experinced drunk people as much as I have here. They are mostly really nice suprisingly. Like we street contacted a guy the other night and he was so cool and loving what we were saying he was just super drunk though. Then at the Metro Link station this drunk guy came up to us and asked,"What is God's name?"
I replied, "God." I said that to not make him mad by saying another name for him.
He said, " God's name is Jehovah! What color is Jehovah?"
We replied he is a Jew. Then He yelled NOOOO GOD is Black!!! God is Black!!! Thank goodness our train came up as soon as he started yelling that. The Train was packed full of people. We ran on with him yelling God is black! God is black! so everyone on the train heard that. Some people we laughing asking what the heck was that and we said he was drunk. It was really funny though just because the guy looked really bad saying that. Even a black guy on the train said to us everyone knows Jesus is a Jew. But this has not been the first guy to tell us that Jesus is Black. We just usually walk away and avoid all confrontation. When we were on the bus the other day two old black grandmas almost got in a fight. They were cussing each other out and two men were holding them down so that they would not harm one another. For a split second I wanted to see the two grandmas throw it down... But then I thought it would not be a good if that happened because my companion and I were sitting very close to them and we did not want to be involved. Today we had to go to a funeral for someone in our branch this morning. Hence why we are emailing so late today. The man was only 21 years old. He had been inactive for many years now though. He has two brothers who are members but only one of them is active. We orginally thought that the funeral would be at our building but the mother who is not a member decided to do it at a funeral home so that she could drink and smoke. It was a mess though. The son was found dead on Halloween I believe off the side of a road near a freeway. He was shot in the back of the head in a drive by. Well that is supposedly the correct story. Many newspapers have been putting out different stories then what the police report says. It was very sad being at the viewing and funeral. We were there for support as was most of the branch. At first my comp and I were the only two white guys there until people from the branch got there. Half the people there were wearing grills and everything. It was sad to watch because people were really having a hard time. We left right after the funeral started though because we felt like we needed to go. So most of the people of the branch left then. I really wish we had the funeral at our church. The whole thing would of went a whole lot better. But many people were saying that is what happens when you hang out with the wrong crowd. The man who died had gotten into stuff and owed a ton of people money and he was killed. His brother who is active in the church bore his testimony Sunday saying I stopped all the gang stuff so that something like that would not happen. He had walked away from that life many years ago. But he is now very excited to do the temple work for his brother in a year from now. He was the only one in the family who had himself under control because he knows the Plan of Salvation and knows where he is right now and knows work can be done for him now because he was only baptized. I am so grateful for the Plan of Happiness. This plan would not be anyways possible if we did not have the Atonement. It is completely centered around it. The second half of the day has been fine though because a member took us to Lottawata. (or something like that) That place has the best burgers ever! They are huge!!! Well I look forward to hearing from you. Do not be afraid to write! I want updates in peoples lives because now I feel so distant. But anyways I know this is the true church. And if we use the Atonement in our lives always we will start to be more Christ like. Because that is our goal is to be like him. None of us our perfect but through praying and reading the scriptures everyday much more is able to be accomplished because the spirit will be with us to lead and guide us through the big and small things. I love you all.
Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
10-31-11
Hey everyone!
Happy Halloween!!! This last week was crazy!!! East Saint Louis is starting to get less scarey now that I am getting used to it. We just know where and what to avoid now. It is really funny because there is a rumor going around that some people think we are the FBI or Police undercover. So no wonder they do not mess with us... hahaha I laughed so hard when I heard that. One of the guys we are teaching told us that he had some friends ask about us. He knows everyone in this city so we get in on a lot of people. So Saturday we taught the first lesson to a guy who showed up to church with a friend. We didn't even have to give him the Baptismal challenge. He said after the lesson he wants to be Baptized. We now have 4 baptismal dates. 3 for this sunday and one for the sunday after. I am pretty excited. There is a whole other family that shows up to church who are not members. We are thinking we might be able to get them at least a few of them Baptized also. We are so blessed to have all these investigators. They almost found us. So we are very excited for this next few weeks. This last week we had a zone pday monday. That was awesome to see some friends there from the mtc. My zone leaders are awesome. I have started to become good friends with them. I look up to them a lot. I have also gotten to know that assistants pretty well because we have seen them a lot in the last week. Plus one of them served in this area so we talk a lot about it. But since my Trainer is good friends with one of them, they came out together, we have some special privileges. Like they give us rides and what not because we do not have a car. Tuesday we had a training meeting so we got to go back to St. Louis. It is nice being back on that side of the river where everything is so much nicer and safer. Wednesday we had to have exchanges because my Trainer had to go to another training meeting so Elder Wardle who has only been out one more transfer then me got put together for the day. We had to be here in East ST. Louis though instead of going to his area. It was a good day though. We found one person that day who is a potential. Saturday night was the chili cook off. We had many non members there. Actually probably more nonmembers then members... But hey that is a good thing for us! The family who is being baptized this week came. There names are Ray, Angel and Nania. Please pray for them that they will go through with it! It was a little weird because this other lady and baby was with them. Once I saw that babies face I knew that was Ray's baby and his babies Momma... Ray and his wife have only been married for a few months. But it was super duper awkward that his Babies Momma was with them. It really got weird when his wife held the baby. But hey that takes a lot of courage for Angel to not hate that lady or baby. But still why would a married man bring his babies momma with him to such an event. Its good that he cares for the baby though and takes care of her. But this is just one little taste of what goes on in the city. The people we deal with have so many different problems and things. It is like Jerry Springer but REAL. But that is why we try to help all these people and love them and share the gospel with them. But after knowing the situations people are in here it is truly become evident why it is such a bad place. But We love the people anyways. They are very humble and more accepting to the Gospel. Sunday my Trainer was asked to go Baptize someone back in Troy Missouri so we go to go to the Baptism out there. Some people from Hazelwood came and picked us up and toke us out there. My trainer was real close with them when he served in their area. On the way back they took us to their house and fed us:) We have special permission to go to their house again tonight because our area is so unsafe. Even though we live in Belville and it is way better then East STL. But our choice was either get out of our area or stay in our apartment the whole night. We are not even allowed to go to a members house in our area tonight. So we will be over on the other side of the river for the third time in a week. But I am loving the Mission a lot. I am so blessed to be out here. Miracles happen everyday and just helps build my testimony stronger and stronger. You all mean so much to me. I love you all! I sent out a few letters to some of you so I hope they got to you!!! or will get to you! Have a safe Halloween and do not do anything stupid!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Ps. I am still debating about the Cardinals, If I will become a fan or not even though they won the World Series... ;)
Happy Halloween!!! This last week was crazy!!! East Saint Louis is starting to get less scarey now that I am getting used to it. We just know where and what to avoid now. It is really funny because there is a rumor going around that some people think we are the FBI or Police undercover. So no wonder they do not mess with us... hahaha I laughed so hard when I heard that. One of the guys we are teaching told us that he had some friends ask about us. He knows everyone in this city so we get in on a lot of people. So Saturday we taught the first lesson to a guy who showed up to church with a friend. We didn't even have to give him the Baptismal challenge. He said after the lesson he wants to be Baptized. We now have 4 baptismal dates. 3 for this sunday and one for the sunday after. I am pretty excited. There is a whole other family that shows up to church who are not members. We are thinking we might be able to get them at least a few of them Baptized also. We are so blessed to have all these investigators. They almost found us. So we are very excited for this next few weeks. This last week we had a zone pday monday. That was awesome to see some friends there from the mtc. My zone leaders are awesome. I have started to become good friends with them. I look up to them a lot. I have also gotten to know that assistants pretty well because we have seen them a lot in the last week. Plus one of them served in this area so we talk a lot about it. But since my Trainer is good friends with one of them, they came out together, we have some special privileges. Like they give us rides and what not because we do not have a car. Tuesday we had a training meeting so we got to go back to St. Louis. It is nice being back on that side of the river where everything is so much nicer and safer. Wednesday we had to have exchanges because my Trainer had to go to another training meeting so Elder Wardle who has only been out one more transfer then me got put together for the day. We had to be here in East ST. Louis though instead of going to his area. It was a good day though. We found one person that day who is a potential. Saturday night was the chili cook off. We had many non members there. Actually probably more nonmembers then members... But hey that is a good thing for us! The family who is being baptized this week came. There names are Ray, Angel and Nania. Please pray for them that they will go through with it! It was a little weird because this other lady and baby was with them. Once I saw that babies face I knew that was Ray's baby and his babies Momma... Ray and his wife have only been married for a few months. But it was super duper awkward that his Babies Momma was with them. It really got weird when his wife held the baby. But hey that takes a lot of courage for Angel to not hate that lady or baby. But still why would a married man bring his babies momma with him to such an event. Its good that he cares for the baby though and takes care of her. But this is just one little taste of what goes on in the city. The people we deal with have so many different problems and things. It is like Jerry Springer but REAL. But that is why we try to help all these people and love them and share the gospel with them. But after knowing the situations people are in here it is truly become evident why it is such a bad place. But We love the people anyways. They are very humble and more accepting to the Gospel. Sunday my Trainer was asked to go Baptize someone back in Troy Missouri so we go to go to the Baptism out there. Some people from Hazelwood came and picked us up and toke us out there. My trainer was real close with them when he served in their area. On the way back they took us to their house and fed us:) We have special permission to go to their house again tonight because our area is so unsafe. Even though we live in Belville and it is way better then East STL. But our choice was either get out of our area or stay in our apartment the whole night. We are not even allowed to go to a members house in our area tonight. So we will be over on the other side of the river for the third time in a week. But I am loving the Mission a lot. I am so blessed to be out here. Miracles happen everyday and just helps build my testimony stronger and stronger. You all mean so much to me. I love you all! I sent out a few letters to some of you so I hope they got to you!!! or will get to you! Have a safe Halloween and do not do anything stupid!!!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Ps. I am still debating about the Cardinals, If I will become a fan or not even though they won the World Series... ;)
Monday, October 24, 2011
10-24-11
Hey Everyone!
So they sent me to the Centerville Branch. It covers Centerville, Washington Park, and guess.... East St. Louis. Yes we are in East St. Louis. They sent me to the most dangerous place in the mission. Well except for one area that is supposed to be just as bad in STL or worse. The day we left the MTC we woke up at 5 and left at 6 in the morning. It was a great feeling getting out of there. Tuesday around 2 when we landed we went straight to go over the Missouri RIiver because it was close to where we were at. Then we went to the temple and we were told a couple stories and stuff. Then we went to the mission home. It is in a super nice area and the house is huge. When we got there they fed us. Then we watched the boring saftey video. Then The president starting doing interviews. He did not finish all of them so before it was time to go out to dinner. He took us to this Mongolian Grill. It was so good. We ate a lot there. I sat next to the presidents wife. She is so funny. And we started talking about BYU and said That she would txt us all the game updates for all the byu games. So I got the score of the game already:) But I love the President and his wife so much. They made us feel just like we were at home. In my mission we have 4 assistants. 2 in the office and 2 normal ones. They were all really awesome guys. I talked a lot to a couple of them. One of them were driving us around everywhere for the two days. But after dinner that night we went back to the home and had a testimony meeting. It was amazing. Then after that he finished the interviews and we had cake and ice cream. I had no clue the Cards were in the World Series... Well until we got here. I was excited for that. Hopefully they win it all just because We are in St. Louis. We have 6 missionaries in our mission who are supposed to go to the Netherlands but are held up because Visas. SO they are here until they get them. So I am one of the ones who has two comps. Our trainer is Elder Horlacher. He is from Vegas. He is a very good cook. Oh by the way because the area we are in is so poor we never get fed by members... I think for the whole month of Nov. we have one dinner for sure that a member will be feeding us. The Branch President fed us lunch the day we got here after transfer meeting. It was way nice of him. But my area is all bus and walking. We are not supposed to ride bikes here. Im sure you all know the answer of why we can not... hahahahah. But my other comp. Is Elder Maughn. He is going to the Netherlands. It sounds like he may be flying out tomorrow. He is from Logan Utah. It is kinda chilly here. Not to cold though. First day here was awesome because we got on the bus all these people started talking to us saying hey Jesus Boys! Go save some lifes! There are a lot of people who loves us here and love talking to us. It is nice. Our first lesson we taught to investigators and was asked by my comp. to challenge them to Baptism. So I did and now we have 3 people in a family who all have a date:) Nov. 6 I hope it does not fall through. Because they were to be baptized before but it fell through. Oh and Also we White washed this area. But our trainer has served in the area before so thank goodness to that or else we would not be having a fun time. There are maybe 30 members in the branch. And of those 30 about half of the people are imports and do not even live within Branch boundaries. But the branch could not survive without these people. It is nice because we have a senior couple in the branch too. They spend most of there time at the bishops storehouse though. So because the area is so dangerous we do not even live within our area. We live up in the west part of Belville. So we have to ride the bus 30 mins. everyday to our area. Our area is huge though. It goes all the way from the edge of Fairview Heights to the River. So I see the arch everyday. That is cool though. It is so sad to see how people live here and that they hardly have anything. It just makes me way grateful for all that I have. It is really humbling. So Usually when it is after 8 we try to get a ride back to our appartment to avoid the bus and it is just so much quicker to get back. But contacting is best on the bus. Somtimes we ride it just to find people on it. There is a sister in our ward. Sister Lehr who is the only single lady who is allowed to give rides the misisonaries by herself. She got special permission from President Clark. So she has a badge and everything. She is very old but she is so nice. She took us to walmart and other places we have to go to. But I am in total culture shock here though. But I am already starting to love the people:) One big goal is for us to try to get the members going to the temple. That is something that both me and my comps have felt very strongly on. In my mission we are allowed to go to the temple once every transfer so we will be taking a trip with them all I believe! But I got to get going though. I hope to hear from you all soon! I sent a few letters out and I do not if they ever got to anyone. I hope they did... But have a great week!!!
Love, Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
So they sent me to the Centerville Branch. It covers Centerville, Washington Park, and guess.... East St. Louis. Yes we are in East St. Louis. They sent me to the most dangerous place in the mission. Well except for one area that is supposed to be just as bad in STL or worse. The day we left the MTC we woke up at 5 and left at 6 in the morning. It was a great feeling getting out of there. Tuesday around 2 when we landed we went straight to go over the Missouri RIiver because it was close to where we were at. Then we went to the temple and we were told a couple stories and stuff. Then we went to the mission home. It is in a super nice area and the house is huge. When we got there they fed us. Then we watched the boring saftey video. Then The president starting doing interviews. He did not finish all of them so before it was time to go out to dinner. He took us to this Mongolian Grill. It was so good. We ate a lot there. I sat next to the presidents wife. She is so funny. And we started talking about BYU and said That she would txt us all the game updates for all the byu games. So I got the score of the game already:) But I love the President and his wife so much. They made us feel just like we were at home. In my mission we have 4 assistants. 2 in the office and 2 normal ones. They were all really awesome guys. I talked a lot to a couple of them. One of them were driving us around everywhere for the two days. But after dinner that night we went back to the home and had a testimony meeting. It was amazing. Then after that he finished the interviews and we had cake and ice cream. I had no clue the Cards were in the World Series... Well until we got here. I was excited for that. Hopefully they win it all just because We are in St. Louis. We have 6 missionaries in our mission who are supposed to go to the Netherlands but are held up because Visas. SO they are here until they get them. So I am one of the ones who has two comps. Our trainer is Elder Horlacher. He is from Vegas. He is a very good cook. Oh by the way because the area we are in is so poor we never get fed by members... I think for the whole month of Nov. we have one dinner for sure that a member will be feeding us. The Branch President fed us lunch the day we got here after transfer meeting. It was way nice of him. But my area is all bus and walking. We are not supposed to ride bikes here. Im sure you all know the answer of why we can not... hahahahah. But my other comp. Is Elder Maughn. He is going to the Netherlands. It sounds like he may be flying out tomorrow. He is from Logan Utah. It is kinda chilly here. Not to cold though. First day here was awesome because we got on the bus all these people started talking to us saying hey Jesus Boys! Go save some lifes! There are a lot of people who loves us here and love talking to us. It is nice. Our first lesson we taught to investigators and was asked by my comp. to challenge them to Baptism. So I did and now we have 3 people in a family who all have a date:) Nov. 6 I hope it does not fall through. Because they were to be baptized before but it fell through. Oh and Also we White washed this area. But our trainer has served in the area before so thank goodness to that or else we would not be having a fun time. There are maybe 30 members in the branch. And of those 30 about half of the people are imports and do not even live within Branch boundaries. But the branch could not survive without these people. It is nice because we have a senior couple in the branch too. They spend most of there time at the bishops storehouse though. So because the area is so dangerous we do not even live within our area. We live up in the west part of Belville. So we have to ride the bus 30 mins. everyday to our area. Our area is huge though. It goes all the way from the edge of Fairview Heights to the River. So I see the arch everyday. That is cool though. It is so sad to see how people live here and that they hardly have anything. It just makes me way grateful for all that I have. It is really humbling. So Usually when it is after 8 we try to get a ride back to our appartment to avoid the bus and it is just so much quicker to get back. But contacting is best on the bus. Somtimes we ride it just to find people on it. There is a sister in our ward. Sister Lehr who is the only single lady who is allowed to give rides the misisonaries by herself. She got special permission from President Clark. So she has a badge and everything. She is very old but she is so nice. She took us to walmart and other places we have to go to. But I am in total culture shock here though. But I am already starting to love the people:) One big goal is for us to try to get the members going to the temple. That is something that both me and my comps have felt very strongly on. In my mission we are allowed to go to the temple once every transfer so we will be taking a trip with them all I believe! But I got to get going though. I hope to hear from you all soon! I sent a few letters out and I do not if they ever got to anyone. I hope they did... But have a great week!!!
Love, Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
10-18-11
Family and Friends,
I got this email yesterday. Elder Turner was able to call this morning for a few minutes from the airport. He sounded great and very excited to get to St. Louis. He loved the MTC but is happy to leave. I’m hoping to get an email or phone call from the mission office letting us know that he arrived safely. It would be nice if they let us know where he is going at that time.
Hope you all have a great week,
Doreena Turner
Hey everyone!!!
Today is my last day here in the MTC. I am very excited to get out to the field and out of here. It has been great here but at the same time I want to get to the field and Be in the real life situations of a missionary, not just all the lessons we teach to fake investigators. Last night our Branch President came and said goodbye for the last time and we all knelt down in prayer with him. Many of us were getting a little emotional. He is such a great man and has made a big impact on me here in the MTC. Everyday I keep seeing more and more people I know. The number has gotten up to 40 people that I know here in the MTC. Not including all the people I know who work here. Which it is awesome to see them too. They made us switch buildings for the last week that we live in and instead of just having 4 to a room we had to stick another bunk in the room and had 6. They are doing a ton of renovations so they did that. I do not know why they could not just wait untill we were out of the MTC to do it. It would of been much easier for us and for them. But tomorrow I fly our of SLC Airport at 9:48 I believe. It will be a 3 hour flight to STL. I am so excited to get there. I seriously am so excited to see it and serve there. We have 16 of us going to our mission tomorrow so it will be exciting to meet all the others we have not met yet. By the way I have sent many of you letters. Sam I sent a letter off before I got yours... I want to know if you have gotten them yet. And Alex I sent you one like over a week ago to. I hope you got that one also. In filed orientation was awesome Friday. Everyone who is going out to the field this week were there. It was my favorite day yet. I have a few friends from school heading out also the same day as me. Thank you everyone for your support. I can feel the blessings coming from your prayers. And know that I am praying for a lot of you also. I hope I can go to the STL. temple soon after I get there. That has always been the highlight of my week here at the MTC. And plus its one of the few times we are allowed to go outside of the MTC. I feel like I have been trapped in here for the last 3 weeks. But now I will be able to get out into the world! I feel kind of lame because I do not have to many interesting things to tell. But when I get out tomorrow to the field I will defianlty have some stories to tell and people to talk about. I feel bad for all my friends who I am leaving here who have been here since august and do not leave for another few weeks still... That is the great part about going State Side:) Missionary work is so awesome. I wish I toke more advantage of it before the mission... Anyways you are all the best!
Love
Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
10-11-11
Hey everyone!!!
Well this week has gone by fast! The first week just felt like it took forever!!! But now things are going fast and it seems just like yesterday that I was writing an email last week. So I have been seeing more and more people that I know from school and random other places. I think the new total is 32 people that I know here that are going on missions not including all the people from my stake back home that work here and that I see almost everyday. So I have 11 guys in my district and we have 3 districts in our zone. The oldest district left yesterday which makes my district the oldest now. It is so weird. But I really can not wait to get out of this place. I feel like I am in a prison but I still love it a lot. Half the people in the district that just left are going to the San Bernadino Mission so I have been giving them a lot of advice for how the area is and stuff. But it is really cool because 4 guys from my district are actually going to the Carlsbad Mission!!! That is the mission I live in! So I hope at least one of them serves in my home ward I think it would be really cool. But I have been giving them names of people to look up when they get there and have been telling them how it is there. I am very jealous of them... That mission is like the best. This week we found out that we have not just the University of Missouri in my mission but the University of Illinois also. I can embrace those two teams but I do not know about the Cardinals... Sorry Murph haha. But my companion has made a huge improvement. He is actually talking more and speaking up during lessons. Because for the first week and a half I was basically teaching it all by myself. But he has such a strong testimony when shares it. I admit I have cried a few times when he has shared it. But I have to say I have made a huge improvement with teaching. We will set somewhat of a lesson plan and then start teaching it then the spirit will direct us a whole different way and always works out for the best. It is kind of fun to figure out our investigators and who they really are and why they are afraid of baptism. But it is awesome. For you who are in Provo yo should come volenteer here at the trc. Those people are awesome. It is funny one of our fake investigators is actually in the MOTAB choir. We saw him on tv during conference. But we havent mentioned it yet. One of the less actives we taught who is now active was also in the choir years ago. It killed friday night and saturday. We could see the Y lite up then all day saturday we could here the parade and game and everything else. I am Glad Reilly is not the QB. He is way better then Heaps. Anyways I have very little time left so everyone have an awesome week. Oh yeah last thing. I fly out to St. Louis a week from today so If you mail anything you might want to send it to my mission home. Because sometimes mail takes forever to get here and to leave here. I sent out a few letters so I hope you all get them soon!!!
Love Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
10-2-11
Hey everyone,
First week has been crazy! I have seen so many people in here that I know. I have made a list of them and it has come out to me over 25 people I know here. Many of them are from school which some of them were good friends. Some are kids from back at home in our stake and others just from random events. It has been awesome seeing them. It makes me feel more comfrotable here. Funny thing yesterday I saw Sister Heid who was my english teacher my senior year in high school! Her and her husband are going to serve in Ghana. When I saw her, I ran up to her and she was like Derek I know I am not supposed to do this but I have to hug you anyways, so we hugged in the middle of the cafeteria. It felt good hugging someone besides a guy even though I have only been in here for a week... She just said if anyone asked why we hugged to say she was like my mother. So Missy and Tiana our former teacher is in the MTC. The mtc has been a lot of hard but fun work. Teaching is harder then I thought but I enjoy it. It is such a blessing to be in here. Funny thing is that I am already sick of the MTC and just want to get out to the field! Some times people acting as fake investigators are not very good at it... Oh well though. but hey we have success with a lot of them. Suprisingly I have already gotten use to the schedule and It feels good getting to bed early and waking up early. I might think about keeping a schedule like this when I get home, or maybe not... haha But First day did not even feel real. Untill yesterday it felt like everything was going super slow... But conference was awesome! I really enjoyed it! Sister Daltons talk was awesome and probably my favorite out of them all! But it kinda stinks hearing a talk like that which makes you want to get married and have kids while you are a mission. I see how obedience is a very big blessing here. The spirit is always with me and I just always feel good! I already see how this is the best two years. So I sent a few of you letters. Let me know if they have gotten to you yet! Thank you everyone for the letters you have written me. It has helped me out a lot to get them so I have something to look forward to to read that night. The food is ok... I am starting to get used to it. But I made a promise to myself that I would not eat to much here and get fat... Friday night I had gym right as the BYU games was starting. we were out on the fields in front of the temple and we could hear everything from the band, to the annoucer, to the crowd. I admit we listened to the game for a while as like most of the other missionaries did who were out there. you can see the stadium from the fields and even some people in the stands. So every tuesday we go to the temple at 2:30. I can not wait to go to the temple today! It will be cool to go inside the Provo temple! Speaking of temples, isn't so cool that they are turning the burned down Provo tabernacle into a temple?!?!?!?! I can not wait to go in that one when I get home! Oh yes and our fireside Sunday night was Chad Lewis and his Wife. It was an awesome fireside! It was cool because he talked a lot about football and stuff. Also another cool fact Roby Bosco the national winning qb for byu has a daughter in the mtc right now also. Chad lewis annouced that to everyone and had her stand up. Then they next day I saw her and said hi in french to her. everyone says Hi to everyone in here in random languages so me and my district who all speak english make up words and act like it is a greeting and say it to everyone else to throw them off. Well again thank you everyone for your support. I hope I get to hear from you all soon!!!
Thanks Alex for the box of doughnuts! Me and my district really enjoyed them:) I hope you got my letter. I wrote before I got the doughnuts because I got them the day after I got your letter haha.
Love, Elder Derek Turner
Serving in Zion
Monday, October 3, 2011
10-1-11
Family and Friends of Elder Derek Turner,
Elder Turner is now in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). He will be there for 3 weeks.
We were notified two days ago that Elder Turner has a new mission address once he leaves the MTC. The new address is
Elder Derek Turner
1850 Craigshire Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63146
Please use this address because anything sent to the old address will not be forwarded.
Elder Turner will be leaving the MTC on October 18th. There is another address for any mail for the time he is in the MTC. That address is
Elder Derek James Turner
MTC Mailbox # 225
MO-STL 1018
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793
Anything mailed after October 10th should be mailed to the St. Louis address.
The easiest way to mail him during the time he is in the MTC is through DearElder.com. You can type an email and they will print it and deliver it to his mailbox. It is super easy. His mailbox number is 225 and departure date of Oct. 18th.
Derek is beginning a unique time in his life where he will be completely devoted to sharing what he believes with others. Why would he want to spend two years doing that? Some of you may have asked him that question. I can tell you that in a world that can be confusing, sometimes harsh, and faithless, Derek knows that the gospel will bring joy and understanding to Gods children. I promise each of you that Elder Turner will grow in ways that will help him for the rest of his life. There are many blessings that will come with his full time service of the Lord. Along with the blessings will also come the hard times of missing family and friends and the difficulties of missionary life. Please remember him in your prayers. Pray that the people in the areas that he will serve will be humble enough to listen to a 19 year boy share his beliefs of a wonderful gospel that can change their lives. I appreciate your friendship to my son and am grateful for all you. I know that Elder Turner would love to hear from all of you and keep up on what is going on in your lives. Your letter may come on a day that he needs a little boost and may make his load lighter.
I am anxiously awaiting his first letter and email.
Derek’s loving mother,
Doreena Turner
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