August 31, 2015

Hey family --

So this week's email is going to little shorter because not much happened.  Basically my companion and the other missionaries we live with got sick, so this week was a lot of kicking it at home and reading the scriptures.  Haha!  So as you all know, it is every missionary's favorite thing to be in the house all day. Haha!  There isn't much we can do and there are only so many church movies that are allowed, so we just had to kick it and pretty much do nothing.  Haha!  But we are super excited to go and be able to work and hopefully we will be able to affect the people in a good way;)..

So funny thing, last night the EPP (Paraguayan rebels) apparently attacked two electricity towers in San Pedro last night and knocked out all of our power, so we didn't have lights until just a short time ago.  It was super crazy because it gets super hot at night, and if you don't have lights  and you don't have air conditioning, you are just out of luck.  So last night we had to sleep in a super hot house, and because the lights went out early in the evening yesterday, we had nothing to do.  So we were kicking it and we decided that we wanted to watch one of the church movies so we put it in the DVD player and start watching and 15 minutes in, it decides to die on our.   Luckily we live right next door to another set of missionaries and so we decided to go get their DVD player and after about 30 minutes their DVD player dies.  So we were like "hmmmm we have nothing to do and it's still early and we have no lights" ... and so we decided to go crazy splicing some cords -- because I have a portable charger for my Ipod -- and we figured out that if we could make this work it would be so cool.  So with the candle we had and the flashlight we had on our phone we went to work.  We ended up using batteries that we fastened to the DVD charger and we were able to get it working and were able to finish our movie.  Overall it was a huge success, and something crazy that we were able to do this week.

Another interesting story from this week.  So as you all know, I had a baptism scheduled for this upcoming weekend in Tacuati.  I had it all planned out, and how we were going to get there and do the interview and the baptism and everything.  Then on Saturday, I received a call from Elder Simao and he said he had talked to President McMullin and they had set the baptism up for the next day ... which would have been yesterday, Sunday.  This was all surprising to me because I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and so I called President and he explained his reasoning, and we were able to get things figured out having the baptism the next day.  So we had District Conference yesterday and I arranged to have a bus bring the people from Tacuati to Concepcion for it, but at the last moment the Branch President found out that he didn't have enough money in his budget to pay for the bus, so all the plans I made for District Conference and for the baptism all fell through and none of it happened.  So now I have reset all the plans that I originally had for the baptism, and we are planning to do the baptism this coming Sunday in the river in Tacuati like we had originally planned.  We are still waiting for the President's approval on all of this (because Tacuati is an area now closed to the missionaries and so the President's approval is required to return to the area), but I'm not worried.  I have faith that it will all work out the way it's supposed to and if he doesn't get baptized this Sunday, it will just be a matter of time until we can actually get him in the water.

But yeah, that is pretty much all that happened this week, because of the sickness thing, I can't really think of anything else we did.  Haha.

I love y'all.

Elder Turley

August 24, 2015

Hey what's up family and friends --

So this week was pretty interesting, we went to work and we were able to do some good. So this week was super cool, we really focused on the non active members and our attendance went from 42 one week ago to 61 yesterday.  So our hard work this week paid off and we were really able to see a difference.  

At the moment, we are teaching a girl who is a sister of a recent convert (I can't think of her name right now) and it is so exciting because she was so excited to come to church.  My companion and I arrived at church right on time and she was there before us ... that is very impressive because in Paraguay it is super rare for people to be on time -- like nobody shows up early or on time.  But we think she is going to progress.  The only problem is that she has a one year old child who doesn't like to sit still and wants to walk around in the parking lot, so she didn't get to listen to all of Sacrament meeting. Haha. 

But yeah Concepcion is so cool, it's more like a real area instead of a small, outlying town and the people seem to like me so that is good. Haha.  One cool thing is that I am with Elder Crandall, it is really nice to have a companion who is a friend, haha, because that doesn't always happen.  I feel like even if we don't have more than one change together, it will be a really good change for us. :)  But yeah, life is going well.  I am working hard to learn the area.  Honestly, it does get kind of confusing being switched so often, but it's okay -- I am sure that it's all happening for a reason. 

I am planning on going to Tacuati on the 5th of September for the baptism that we had scheduled before I was emergency transferred, and I have talked to some of the members and they are super stoked for me to come back for the day.  It is also District Conference this week and so all of the members from Tacuati should be coming and so I will get to see them there as well.

One cool thing that happened this week is that we had our interviews and President McMullin said that he was glad that I am in his mission, that he really wants me to finish strong, and that he is proud of me. That was nice to hear.

But yeah, I love y'all so much.

Elder Turley 

Questions of the week:

How are things going in Concepcion? 

They are going fine.

Do you have a certain area in Concepcion?

Concepcion 2

Who are your investigators? 

The sister of Roque

Your most spiritual moment? 

My interview with President McMullin

Your most difficult moment? 

I didn't have any I can recall

Your funniest moment? 

There is a Brazilian here and he is learning English and we were making some food and he said "hmmm it smells like struggle."  It was super funny.

What was your favorite scripture this week? 

D&C 115:5

Verily I say unto you all: ^aArise and shine forth, that thy ^blight may be a ^cstandard for the ^dnations

What was your favorite food you ate this week? 

We ate some steak that we really good.

Do your members have you over to eat? 

Yes, we have a lot of lunch appointments