Elder Jonathan Turley: March 24, 2014

Hi Family –

How are you all doing? I hope everyone is well. Here is my week:

Monday was pretty chill, we went to Burger King and that was pretty sick (awesome, great) because it tasted super, "super" because it was close to American Food! After we left Burger King, we went to help a family move, and I was carrying their oven a couple of blocks and it started pouring rain … oh it gets worse … then the oven broke, the lid that covered it fell off and so I felt really badly about that. But the good thing was that the family was so stoked (happy) that we helped them move that they didn’t even care that their oven broke. So that was really sick (awesome, great)! After that our day was over and we went back to our apartment and went to bed.

Tuesday, we went on Divisions and I was with my Zone Leader, so that was pretty cool. We didn’t have very many lessons, but we were able to talk to some people and so it went pretty well. That night I slept over at our Zone Leader’s house, and I woke up in the middle of the night completely soaked in rain. My pants, my shirt, everything was soaked. Apparently their bedroom has seven leaks in the roof, so that was pretty crazy, but I slept through the rest of the night because I was so tired, so that was good. It also made me appreciate our apartment more. (As his mom, I am so happy that he can see the positive in things).

Wednesday, I reconnected with Elder Gummersall, and we were kicking it with (teaching a lesson to) a family of less actives, and it was a pretty dope (amazing) lesson. Right as we were about to leave, the guy dropped the statement “I have one more doubt about things.” Then he started talking about the house next door and how it was filled with demons, and he got into some pretty sketchy (crazy) stuff. In Paraguay there are a lot of people who become possessed, and so it’s kind of a crazy thing. Then the investigator asked if we could go into the possessed house and pray for the demons to leave it. Well my comp said “no,” (Side Note: Right before Jonny left, he had some night terrors – where he felt like someone was trying to hold him down, and so he talked to his leaders about them and they gave him some wonderful scriptures and advice for him. He has not had any since he was set apart as a full-time missionary), but I was able to give him some scriptures that seemed to help him. I am not sure if we will ever go into the house, but probably not, but I was really glad that I was able to share with them some of the things I had learned because I really want to help, and eventually re-activitate this family. While we were walking home, it started raining really hard and a girl saw and told us to come in out of the rain, and so we kicked it with (taught a lesson to) her and her brother, and they are now our Neuvos (our new investigators). Then we talked to the family that we are going to baptize on April 12^th and taught them some more English, so
that was pretty cool.

Thursday, wasn’t that eventful. We went on Divisions again, and the missionary
I was with had a messed up knee, so we weren’t able to go out tracting or be
very active, so I felt super unproductive, but it’s all chill (okay). We were able
to convince two families to come to church, so that was pretty cool. That night, we ordered Pizza Hut, so that was way cool.

Friday, was sick (awesome). We talked to a menos activo (less active) family and got them to come to church, so that was super sick. Then we talked to the Hermana's investigators who were to get baptized on Saturday, Aljendra and Cinthia, and my comp interviewed them, and they are ready. Then we went back to talk to the family who live next to the demon house, and they seemed to be doing better. Finally, we talked to Ariel and he is so sick (awesome). He just came back to church and is working with us to baptize his family. We gave his mom a blessing and she cried during it, and then we asked her to give the closing prayer and she cried again, the Spirit was so strong! Ariel is just super cool. He said he got along good with the missionaries that were there a while ago (Jon and his companion re-opened the area they are in) and was friends with them, but told us he feels the Spirit super strong whenever he’s with us. So that is sick (awesome)!

Saturday, we helped a member Rafeal Lopez make empanadas for the Relief Society Activity, and we ate some and that was pretty cool. Afterwards we had a lesson with the Aquino family, and they are now coming to church again.
Then we had the Hermanas (Sisters) baptism. and I baptized Alejandra, but Cinthia had anxiety issues (see March 17^th email), and so she left the church without being baptized. It was very sad! (Side Note: I was told that Cinthia was finally baptized, although I heard that from the Mom of the Hermana, Sister Cowger, who taught Cinthia and not from Jon). Finally we had a lesson with Ariel and his sister, and his sister became a Neuvo “investigator,” which is pretty sick. Her name is Luz De Los Angeles – which is light of the Angels in Spanish,
so that is very cool!

Sunday we had 75 in church which is 15 more than we had last week. We had nine less actives in Church, so yeah we hit our goals! After church, we had dinner with a ward family, the family Fernandez, and then we went and talked to a kid named Moroni, he is almost eight and wants to be baptized. It’s kind of cool because every one in his family is less active except his Grandmother. We also had the confirmations of Grandma Ilse and Matias (the two people we baptized last week), and then we went over to their house and watched The Joseph Smith Movie. The sad thing was that there were cigarettes in the house, and it’s kind of sketchy because we are pretty sure that Grandma Ilse is smoking again, but she is confirmed and we don’t really know what to do, it’s now between her and The Lord.

Anyway, this week has been pretty cool!

I love you all and hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Elder Turley