We did not get to email yesterday because the place we go to was closed because it was Lincolns Birthday and this is Illinois, which is where he was born and from so yeah. All the schools were out and everything. We are now in the last week of the transfer also! So Saturday night we will have transfer calls and then a week from tomorrow will be transfer meeting! I kinda hope I go to a new area because I have been here in East St. Louis for 4 months now. It would be nice for a change of scenery. I love it here but I like change though also. If I stay here for another transfer I will be here for a total of 6 months. That is a way long time in one area.
We are teaching this new guy Chico. We have only been able to meet him at Mcdonalds. He does not really want us coming over to his place because he lives in a high rise project. I feel bad for those people living in those because they are literally living on top of each other and jammed packed in. Mcdonalds of course is not a great place to teach in so we will hopefully be changing the location soon. It was a weird lesson because he brought printed out pages of the Koran proving that it teaches some correct doctrine in it but the Muslims believe otherwise. I believe he used to be Islamic. So that got pointless to where we said ok there is a reason that we do not use that book as scripture. We only use the King James Version Bible and the Book of Mormon. Let's please talk about that. But then once we got to that point we had a great lesson for the most part. There are many people who act like they know they Bible so well out here, but they really do not. If they knew the Bible well enough then they would know that are Church is the true Church. Chico has really liked the Book of Mormon so far saying that is matches up pretty well with the Bible. And it does match up really well.
Moneesha is still struggling. She did not get baptized Sunday. We need to find out what her concern is that she has not come out with yet. So far she says she is not ready yet because she is going through a whole lot of problems. We keep telling her that those problems are present because she is not baptized yet. And that she needs to very soon. The longer she waits the harder things will be. She has been so close but she is starting to reverse now. If she starts to reverse too much, then we will drop her for a little bit then maybe pick her back up again in a while. Missionary work is not easy. But it is definitively fun and worth it. Especially to see John who was baptized weeks ago to be active in the church having the priesthood now and getting along with everyone at church. On Sunday we had branch conference. We had more people from the stake there then the branch members itself. It was really sad actually. I think this was a key thing because the Stake might realize that they need to widen the boundaries back up again. It is not very appealing for our investigators who come to church who see that there is only 20 something people there. We shall see though what all happens with that. But it was a really good day at church though. One of my favorite church services since I have been here. The Stake President gave a great talk. On Saturday they had a branch Valentines day party a couple of hours before the World Wide Leadership Training Broadcast. That day we were on exchanges so Elder Ashley from Waterloo came up with me for the day and my Comp went down to Waterloo. I learned a lot from Elder Ashley. He is a very smart Missionary. He knows his stuff. When him and I arrived at the party thing a little early they asked if I could give a 10 min talk on love because the person who was supposed to do it did not show up. The first thing I said was," I am a missionary, we are not allowed to date and stuff while we are out here." They still wanted me to do it. So I split the 10 mins with Elder Ashley because I did not want to blab on for 10mins. So I just talked about Charity: the pure love of Christ. It worked well enough.
Yesterday we went across the river to a members house in the Crandolet ward. It was fun to hang out here with other missionaries and meet some that I have never met before. I really hope My comp or I get transfered because my trainer is going home this transfer and I want to be able to see him for the last time. And when missionaries depart they have them bear their testimony at the transfer meeting. Now that he is gone I realize how much he did for me and what a big of an impact he had on me help shaping me up to be the kind of missionary I am now. Anyways have a great week everyone. And choose the right:) It will bring you more happiness then you can imagine!
Love,
Elder Derek Turner
*Serving in Zion*
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