May 25, 2015

Hey family what's up?
 

So as y'all should know this week was changes ... and I had changes and I am still out here in Neuland ... at least for the next six weeks!  To be honest, I think I'm going to be leaving in the next change which is a little bit sad, but at the same time it would be nice to be near Asuncion.  It's hard being in the Chaco. Haha!

 

But to let y'all know, my new comp is Elder Eaquinto. He has about 3 months more then I have In the mission, and will probably die (go home) out here in the Chaco. Elder Eaquinto is from California too -- a place called Ukiah or something like that.  From what I understand it is a little more North of Newport -- but I'm pretty sure that everywhere  is "a little more North" than Newport. Haha.  But I really like my new companion.  He is a good guy. :)  He is super motivated and is really in to goal setting, so we've been setting goals and this transfer is going to be super fun! :)

This week was super good.  We went to Asuncion, which we weren't really supposed to do, but it was super funny. Haha!  What happened is that we got on the bus to go to Abundancia to spend the night and wait for our new companions.  We had told our new companions to get on the bus to Abundancia, but somehow things got mixed up and they thought we were going to call them before they got on the bus.  So anyway we ended up getting on the bus and going to Asuncion to pick them up.  I was kind of glad that we ended up going to Asuncion because I got to see a bunch of my friends that are going home next transfer, and whom I will probably never see again.   It's crazy to think that now my mission is coming to an end, I might not be seeing a lot of my friends again. 

So overall this week was super good. We only worked like two and a half days due to all of the traveling, but we got so many lessons it was all good. We were able to find a bunch of new investigators which was super cool. :)  One of the guys we met was the Hermano Vasquez who is super cool.  We walked in to his house and said "We are missionaries, what do you want to learn?"  Hermano Vasquez said that he had been asking around because he had noticed there were so many churches, and he didn't know which one to join.  He said he was looking for the right church, the one "God would be proud of him for joining."  It was cool because we had run in to him and we were able to answer his questions and help him. :)  We are hoping to pass by his house next week and see how he is doing and help him be able to grow as person. :)  We also worked a lot with our Branch President's sister-in-law's family and four of them came to church.  We had another family of three come to church -- so yeah, we had seven new investigators at church this week. It was super good and I am stoked to still be here in Neuland this change --  it looks like we are going to have a lot of success. :) 

But yeah, other than that not much has really changed. I have been writing in my journal more, so that's good. Haha. :) 

I love y'alll and I'm so grateful to be part of your family. :) 

Love 

Elder Turley

 Elder Turley's "accidental" transfer trip to Asuncion!!!

May 17, 2015

Hey family --

So this week was kinda super crazy and a couple super cool things happened. 

So we were in Filidelphia on Monday for p-day and we stayed until Tuesday.  

Tuesday when we got back to Neuland we visited Francisco Martinez.  Apparently he has been saying a bunch of weird things to the people of Paraiso which are contrary to what the branch president has been telling them.  What we think is that he is trying to take over Paraiso by telling the people a bunch of lies.  For instance, he told the people that my companion and I were planning to come to Pariaso mid-week and sleep over there and bring them good things and work with them.  Honestly, this would not be a bad idea, but it really is not in the cards right now -- we are struggling enough to get out there on Sundays.  Apparently he thinks that if he tells the people we are going to do these good things, and then we don't, the people will turn on us and he will gain power over them.  It is really kind crazy, and even after talking with him, we aren't exactly sure what he is doing, but it's been super interesting.  

This week we taught a lot of people.  One cool thing is that ever since our branch president went through the temple, he has really changed and is focused on sharing the gospel and on getting his extended family converted.  Recently he said that his grandmother has been showing interest in being baptized, so who knows ... maybe we will have some baptisms coming up soon. :)  That would be super cool.  :)

One thing that kinda threw me off guard this week is that we went by the house of a member that Elder Burger and I had just reactivated. As we talked to them, they kind of bluntly told us that the reason there hasn't been much success with the members and why there haven't been any baptisms was because the previous branch president had been buying the new members clothes and paying them to get baptized.  He said that before President McMullin came to Asuncion, and when they had their old branch president (way before I got to Neuland), they were having a lot of success -- like one or two baptisms every couple of weeks.  He also said that they use to have a lot of activities where there would be food, and so the people would come in order to feed their families.  He said that ever since the mission and branch presidencies changed, there hadn't been many baptisms because the people want to wear "rich clothes" when they go to church and they want to church to provide their families food.  The man told us that if we start to do those things again we would start to have a lot of success.  At this point I thought ... "Hmmm I can definitely have more activities, but I am not willing to buy people clothes or pay for them to get baptized".  I figure if I am not getting paid to baptize people, I shouldn't pay the people to get baptized.  Haha.:)  It's kind of interesting because it all makes sense now.  When we have talked with the inactive members, they have told us that they don't come to church because they don't like the branch president because he isn't "doing his job" ... he isn't paying the people to get baptized or to come to church.  It definitely makes sense because the only people who really come to church are family of our branch president.  That said, I would rather have people come to the church who understand the real reason we have the church, rather than come to eat or to receive donations. Haha. :) Just another interesting story from the Chaco.

So another interesting story from this week ... On Wednesday we had to go to Abundancia to fix the money problems that the branch has been having because apparently they won't give us a computer because they don't know where our money has been going.  So I get to Abundancia and I log on to the website where we inform them of what our expenses are (Mom's Note:  Jon is the Branch Secretary ... it is only him and the branch president in the branch presidency), and I'm looking at how much money they need records for and I see that we are yet to inform them about 13,000,000 Guaranies -- which is like 2,600 dollars -- and for Paraguay (and more specifically the Chaco) that is a TON!!! So I was trying to figure out what to do because these expenses are way before I got here and the branch had since had an audit and the auditors took all of the receipts and records, and I have no idea what to do and so I just kind of went with it.  I informed them of everything I had done since I had been there ... and apparently it worked because our debit card is working again.

So anyway we spent all day Thursday doing that, and we aren't feeling good and we need to get home and the busses aren't running, and so we start walking to the highway to hitch hike home -- and the highway is like a mile and a half away from where we are -- and it starts to rain!  So we start walking and a couple of cars go buy and no one will stop.  So we keep walking and all of a sudden a van stopped and I looked at the van and was like "no way" ... it was our landlord's van.  Abundancia is like 50 miles away from my house, but it just so happened that my next door neighbor (and landlord) was driving down this particular road at this particular time ... so he picked us up and took us home.  It was definitely a miracle because it was Mother's Day in Paraguay and so no busses were running, and it had just started to rain and in the rain not many cars go out because of all of the potholes, and our landlord happened to pass by us right at that very moment.  Our landlord told us that he usually takes a different route when he goes from Abundancia to Neuland, but that day he thought "I should take a different route today" ... our route!   Really, he literally found us in the middle of nowhere! If it wouldn't have been for him, we would have been sick and stranded 50 miles from home in the rain, and that wouldn't have been good.  It just goes to show you that The Lord is aware of all the things that are happening in our lives and that He is always helping us! :)

But yeah, this week was a good week. We were able to go with our branch president to visit the family of his wife, and they all agreed to listen to a lesson, and the Spirit was there.  It was a little bit different than what we are use to because we went with a couple of  Neviclay Indians who could interpret for us, and we were able to give the lesson and to teach them the first principles of the Gospel.  So the lesson was good, and after the lesson we asked if there was anything we could do for them, and one of the women asked if I would give her a blessing. :)  So my companion annointed and I gave the blessing and the Spirit was there so strongly.  It really showed me that even if we don't know somebody, we can still receive revelation for them if we are worthy and doing the right things.   I love the opportunity to give blessings because it really helps me think about my P. Blessing where it admonishes me to always be ready and willing to serve with my priesthood when called upon.  It's always such a good feeling. :)

So now we are in Filidelphia and all is well.  We receive changes tomorrow and that's gonna be interesting to see if I stay or if I go. I think I will stay but you never know. :)  It has been a struggle out here as far as the work goes, but things are starting to improve and it would be a shame to have to leave now that things are looking up ... but wherever the Lord wants is where I shall go. :)

I love y'all --

Elder Turley

May 11, 2015

Hey family so this letter is going to be a little shorter then it should be, but it's all good. :)

So basically this week was a ton of traveling.

Monday we went out and were in Filadelfia to pass our p-day because we still don't have a computer.  So we were just kicking it, doing to the normal stuff and then we went to sleep.

Tuesday we went to Abundancia and had our distrcit meeting, nothing really too cool. Jusr the same old.  We need to be finding the people to baptize.  Nothing too cool.;)

Then Tuesday we get on the bus to go back to Fili, and when we get there to go take out the money to pay for our rent they said that my money wasn't in my account, that it was in the account of my companion’s card who was in Asuncion.  So that was pretty interesting, haha.  So that was interesting because I was like “okay, I’m going to go and pull it out on Thursday because the DL’s wanted to do a division... 

Wednesday we went out and we did our thing, talked to some families.  Our branch president was out of town and we couldn't talk to him, but we talked to Leonardo and Isabelle and they ended up coming to church so that was super cool. ;)  Nothing too cool just some good teaching. ;)

Wednesday the district leaders called and wanted to do some divisions, and to be honest it is almost the end of the change and I just didnt want to do it, haha.   So I told them I had some things to do in Filidelfia, but sure we can do it.  But on Thursday morning my desires to do a division were still not the highest.. So I then told him that i dont want to do the division and that we should just do it the next week, to which he responded that we needed to do one.  So I accepted it, and I went in to Filidelfia to take out the money and to start our division. Turns out as soon as I got to Fili on Thursday I didn't have my passport so I got to not have the divison and they did one with Fili instead, haha. It was super sick because I just really wasn't feeling one and I ended up tossing it onto Luke.  Haha

Friday we went out and did some work, then went to Fili in the night - nothing too cool. We went to go take out the money on Saturday morning, but I realized that they didn't give me the code to be able to go back and take the money out.  That was frustrating because they  closed at like 11:30 and I wasn’t able to take out the money.  And then we went to go get onto the bus at 6 and turns out that the bus wasn’t  there.  So we had to come back to Abundancia at 5 o’clock in the morning on Sunday to go to church, then we went back to Fili on Sunday night. 

So as y'all can see I am traveling a lot, and I realized that the money I am spending on all the traveling is actually super crazy because I am paying for my comp as well.  Hopefully he wll be able to pay me back when I pull out his money. :) 

But ya not much happened this week due to all the traveling ... I love yalll 

And hopefully I can write y'all a little bit more next week.. I loved seeing y'all, and I’ll be seeing you in like seven more months!  Haha

Elder Turley

 

 

 

 

What was your happiest moment this week? Seeing the family of menos activos in the church 

What was your funniest moment this week? Just all the problems and traveling it’s super funny. Haha 

What was your most spiritual moment this week?  The talk I gave yesterday was super cool. ;)   I felt the spirt and could tell that they listened to me 

Why was your biggest challenge this week? Fransisco Martinez plotting against our branch president 

Who are your investigators?  Don’t  have any progressing at the moment, but our branch president gave us a couple of good references that we are going to go visit with him.

Who is your favorite person this week? Probably my branch president, he is changing a lot ever since he got sealed and that’s awesome 

What is something you have learned from this past week? That God is in control of all things ;) and that things will happen in His time

What was your favorite scripture from last week? 

I really like 2nd Nephi 32:5.  I think it that is the one that talks about how now we have been baptized we need to live by the Spirit to tell us what we should do