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
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