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