March 17, 2014 -- First two Baptisms

March 17, 2014

Hello Family, how are ya’ll doing?  

Here is a re-cap of my week.

Monday:  Monday  was a pretty chill P-day, we just kind of went around and bought stuff and that was pretty legit because I got some really cool socks and I was able to get a watch and that was sick.   After P-day was over, we went to the Palma Ponce family (Grandma Ilsa and Matias) and when we got there we learned that Grandma Ilsa had smoked after we talked to them on Sunday and that was really sad because the daughter and the grandma both lied about her not smoking, and it was a little heart breaking because they lied. Luckily, 10 year old son, Matias, called out his grandma and she confessed.  We told her that we couldn’t baptize her if she had been smoking and she said she would quit. 

Tuesday:  We had a district meeting so we didn’t really get going until a little later, but we talked to the Soto Family and that was pretty cool because they are all inactive and the one sister wants to come back because her mom and her son have been going to church and her son is 7 and wants to get baptized as soon as he turns 8, which is this month, so we are working with them.  They have been a little difficult, because they say they will do things, but then they don’t do them, but we still feel very hopeful that they will come back to church.  Next, we talked to the Florentine Duarte family that is going to be baptized on April 12^th,  they are super cool – they are “Golden” – and don’t have any problems they need to fix.  They asked US for a baptism date … which was so cool, we just need to get the dad.   We taught the girls English tonight – they are so worried about not passing their class and having to retake it and they don’t have the money for it – but here come the Lord’s Messengers to the rescue!  We are reading The Book of Mormon with them, and it’s a promise that if you read The Book of Mormon in the language you want to learn, that by the end of the book you will know the language (so if you and dad are going to Italy, you should for sure read The Book of Mormon in Italian).  Lastly we had a family home evening with a family, and it was kind of hard, because I taught the lesson and I messed up – I’m still learning.  That family gave me a cake for my birthday and that was pretty chill. 

Wednesday: Wasn’t that cool, but we talked with a family of menos activos “less actives” and they said that they know that they need to come back, it is just hard for them because church is so early. It’s kind of sad, but I think that they can for sure come back.  Next we talked with the Soto Family.  They are really nice and they gave us passion fruit juice which was pretty good. Lastly we went and talked to a member and her dad, and he was hammered and was talking to me and my companion, and my companion wouldn’t let me talk to him because I apparently need practice talking. HaHa.  But the dad was really funny and would like throw the bible above his head and then open a random page and yell at us to tell him what it said.  It really was sooo funny!

Thursday: We had a Zone Meeting and that was really long and so we didn’t get out of the house until 5 when we went to visit with the Soto Family.  After that we talked with a guy name Ariel, who wants us to baptize his family, and so that would be pretty cool.  We then taught another guy and it was really sad because he was like quoting the Bible but then was like “You Christians are liars, and I don’t believe in God, and I only got baptized because my family wanted me to.”  Apparently he had gone through some tough things in his life and blamed God for everything, which kind of sad, but it was chill because we promised him that if he prayed right now he would know it was real, but he wouldn’t, and I feel like the only reason he wouldn’t is because he did believe and didn’t want to be proven wrong.  I did hear some American music while I was out walking around and so that was pretty cool.

Friday: We talked to Soto Family again, and then we talked to a mom who has a menos activo “less active” in the family and we are for sure trying to get the kid back to church because he is 19 and can serve a mission.  The kid prays and reads The Book of Mormon, he just doesn’t go to church which is weird.  So Friday I was so tired so I got an energy drink called “Dark Dog” and it was terrible!  I didn’t like it, but I drank it because I am a man and I am pretty sure that overrides everything. J  Next we went to the Palma Ponce family’s home and Grandma Ilsa had stopped smoking and so we were really excited about that.  Finally my companion and I went to go interview some people from our District because they had a baptism the next day. 

Saturday: It rained the whole day .... we didn’t teach ... we didn’t do anything!  Haha.  Saturday evening we went on splits, and I was asked to be the witness for a baptism the Hermanas were having.  It really was such a mess.  People in Paraguay don’t ever go swimming, and apparently the baptismal font was filled too high and the lady being baptized freaked out because the guy baptizing her held her under the water too long.  But what was sad was that her foot popped out and so I told him that he would have to redo it, but she got scared and didn’t want to be re-baptized.  They tried to talk the woman into having me baptize her, and I was getting ready to do it, but they said that she didn’t want to be baptized anymore.  It was pretty sad. 

Sunday:  We baptized Ilsa de la Cruz Palma and Matias Jose Ponce Palma (Elder Gummersall baptized Ilsa and I baptized Matias).  It was super cool and you could feel the Spirit really strongly!  There were a couple of other people there and it all went really well.  After the baptism, we taught them another lesson, and they told us that felt really, really good!  It was super cool.  After the baptism, we taught a lesson to a guy who initially didn’t want to let us in (he is 16 and has a huge smoking problem), but by the end of the lesson he accepted to be baptized if God gave him an answer, so that was pretty cool!  Finally we went to the Eva’s house (Eva is a member) and talked to her and her daughters.  Her daughters want to get baptized, and one wants to serve a mission, but the dad doesn’t want them to, which is really sad.  We feel really good about them, though, so we will see what happens.

Monday:  Today we ate at Burger King, then we walked around and I bought another watch, so that was super cool, and now I am writing to you.

This week my comp and I made French fries and potato chips and I burned my finger in the oil.  I realized I didn’t bring any melaleuca with me, I had a little peppermint that I put on it, and it seemed to help a bit, but if you can send me some melaleuca, that would be great.  

 

 

I really like it here in Paraguay, but the more I think about it, I don’t think it is somewhere you or dad could ever live, it’s very different than Newport.

We talked to President McMullin’s wife and she told us that she had heard that Elder Gummersall and I are doing fantastic things.  It’s kind of interesting because we came newly into an area which had been closed down because nothing was happening and it seems like there is so much happening now.  It’s really super cool.

Thanks so much for the pictures of Emma.  She is so cute, it’s crazy to think that she will be two when I get home and get to meet her.  I really like the picture of Hurley protecting her.  Tell Chantelle “Good Job,” and that I love her.

Well, email time is over.  I love ya’ll mucho, and I will be thinking about you!  I love you mom and dad, have a good week, and let the family know that I love them! 

Love –

Elder Turley 

March 10, 2014

March 10, 2014

Hi Family –

So this week has been pretty cool, we did a lot of walking around.  We didn’t get our goals for this week, but we have five “Goldens” so that is pretty sick.  I know that Mom has asked for a more detailed account of my week, so I have been writing things down on a card so my emails are a bit more specific.  So here’s a re-cap of my week.

Monday we had P-day and I played Piki Volley (which is like volleyball, but you play with your chest, legs, feet, and head) and that was pretty fun although I wasn’t very good at it.  I am used to playing regular volleyball and so my instinct was to go for the ball with my hands, but after a little while I got better and it was super fun.  After volleyball, we got some food to eat and that was good.  We ended the night with a “Noche de Hogar” which is Family Home Evening in Spanish – “Night at Home” which actually doesn’t make sense to me because it doesn’t say “family” at all, with the Lopez Family and that was a lot of fun.   As I was leaving the Lopez Family’s house, they cracked eggs on my head and threw flour all over me.   It was pretty funny!  The Lopez Family also made me a birthday cake, which I wrote “Happy Birthday” in Guarani on, which was pretty cool!

 was pretty funny!  The Lopez Family also made me a birthday cake, which I wrote “Happy Birthday” in Guarani on, which was pretty cool!

Tuesday:  On Sunday we had a family come to Church that we had never talked to before and they weren’t members, so we made an appointment with them for Tuesday.  Tuesday’s appointment was so amazing because after we taught them, they asked when they could be baptized.  This practically never happens and we are so excited.  The family is super into the church, they are “Golden.”  They are going to be baptized on April 12^th for the wife and two daughters, and we are trying to get the dad ready to be baptized as well so we can complete the household.  On Tuesday, we also taught a less-active member, and it was really cool because she is so ready to come back to church.. 

 

Wednesday:  On Wednesday, we walked a lot.  That wasn’t very fun, but we apparently need to learn diligence, so I guess that is chill.  We did end up talking to one guy and the conversation was easier than it has been in the past, so my Spanish is definitely coming along.  But other than that, it was just a lot and lot of walking.

 

Thursday: We had lunch at the Lopez home, and then walked around a bunch.  We didn’t get that many lessons in this week, so we had to walk a lot and that was pretty boring.  A sad thing, we saw a dog that had a ton of fleas on it, and it looked like it was about to die, and I felt super bad because there are a lot of dogs just like this all over the place. Thursday night was had a Noche de Hogar with the Prietto Family and that was pretty cool.  My companion cooked soup and apparently they had never had it before. HaHa.  But yeah, that was pretty cool.  A crazy thing, while we were walking around on Thursday there was a guy that was having a bowel movement right in the middle of the street.  It was gross, but really, really funny. It is so different living in a third world country.  Other than that, it was just a normal day.  A lot of our lessons have been falling through, and so we do a lot and walking and I may be losing weight so that would be cool. 

 

Friday. We walked a whole lot again with little to no success in trying to get lessons, but it’s all good – I am getting in shape.  We did hit our goals on Friday, so our week was 1/5.  While out, we stopped by a member’s house, and it was her grandpa’s birthday so they were having a meal for him, and her husband was drunk and kept giving us lots and lots of really good meat, so that was fun.

 

Saturday:  Well Saturday was my birthday, and that was pretty fun.  We had a chill day and cooked steak (they have this thing called asalido or whatever and it is just steak marinated in soy sauce and some salt and it is super, super dank for like homemade kebabs) and made French fries for lunch, and then had dinner at the Bishop’s house, and he got a cake and everything so that was really cool.  We taught a few lessons with less active members on Saturday, in particular, one family we taught embraced what we were saying really well and when we left, they had planned to come to church the next day, which was sick.  Funny thing … While we were cooking lunch for my birthday, the next house had some American music playing, so I got to listen to American music on my birthday and that was super sick.  Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, they meant a lot.  It is really, really nice to have the support of all of you! ;) 

 

Sunday, we had five “progressing investigators” in church and they all have baptismal dates, and we feel like they are super solid.  We taught Grandma Ilsa again Sunday and she was with her brother and asked us to teach him, which we did.  She then bore her testimony to him about how she feels so much peace and guidance when we talk to her and about how she wants us to baptize her whole family because she knows that it is the right path to be on, so that was super cool.  Please keep praying for Grandma Ilsa because she is struggling with the Word of Wisdom, but really wants to be baptized.  Finally, we taught the family who we are going to baptize in April, and they asked us if we were still going to baptize them, and that was pretty cool.  The dad is kind of “iffy” about being baptized, so we are still not sure about him.  Anyway, it turned out that the two daughters in the family are taking an English class, and if they don’t learn it, they have to re-take the class, so who better to teach them than the Mormon Missionaries.  Hopefully we can serve them and in the process convince the dad to be baptized as well.  Sunday we also had pizza with the Lopez Family.  The Lopez family seems to be the family in the ward who likes to take care of the missionaries.

 

Monday: I went into Luque and got a fake Rolex, so that is sick.  I also bought some sick Chelsea Soccer socks, and now here I am writing to you.

am writing to you.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this more detailed email, I will keep writing like this in the future.   

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Turley

March 3, 2014

March 3, 2014

Hi Parents –

This week was kind of a blur.  We contacted a ton of people -- it seemed like all we did was walk around trying to meet people, but we did find like eight new people we are working with and whom we think will be baptized, although they don’t have dates yet.  We found a family that is very interesting and we feel really good about them, so that was super cool.  The days all blend together but it is all so worth it!

Ilsa (the Grandmother) and Matnias (10 year old Grandson) are still on to get baptized on March 16^th, so please pray that Ilsa can continue to not smoke, she loves the Gospel, but smoking has been very hard for her to give up.

So something random, when I arrived in Paraguay, I received a packet and in the packet it said my release date is December 17, 2015, so it looks like I will be home for Christmas 2015.  I don’t know if I want you to come pick me up because I really want a Ps4 for Christmas. HaHa

One exciting thing we did this week, we went to a family’s house for dinner and they had cooked some “bomb” meat.  It was so good.  They also had a parakeet as a pet, and I was able to hold that, so that was fun.

Thanks for all the birthday messages and for the birthday package.  I actually set the presents on my window sill and then it rained really hard and soaked the packages so I opened them early.

Please tell Grandpa Turley thanks for the birthday message, and tell Nonnie and Grandpa thanks for the card and money.  For my birthday, I bought a couple soccer jerseys (soccer is huge here) and they are pretty sick.  Today I am going to buy a Rolex watch.  Where I am is similar to New York, in that you can buy stuff really cheap.  The Rolex watches are like $5 which is pretty gnarly.

Today we had a district meeting and that was cool.  I totally understood the Spanish from the Latinos and Americans, but not from the Paraguayans. Because Paraguay is a third world country, a lot of the people are not educated and have bad grammar.  On top of that, they slur their words together and talk super fast (comparable to if I mumbled a bunch of words together and talked so softly so you couldn’t hear what I was saying).  The Paraguayans also speak two different languages (Spanish and Guarani) and so when they combine those, it makes it even more difficult.  Each week, the language seems to get a little better, so I know that in a couple of months I will be just fine.  The important thing right now is that I can bear a strong testimony in Spanish, so that is good while I work to understand the language better. 

Last night we had a Family Home Evening and it was really good.  The dad, one daughter, and one son are inactive, but the rest of the family goes to church.  The Spirit was there so strongly that the inactive son cried during the prayer, so we have hope for them.

Hey, when you send me my next package, will you please include tortillas and spices.  They don’t have tortillas here and the Paraguayans don’t put spice on anything – they do have a form of hot sauce, but it just isn’t the same.  So like some hot sauce, taco seasoning, Cholula, and Lawry’s would be so great. Oh and please send some more candy, chewy candy is the best.  Also I need some hair putty, Axe Messy Putty is the best.  The hair gel I brought doesn’t work in this humid of an environment, so I had to trade a package of Alphajores for the putty I am using now. Haha

Here is a picture of a random horse just standing in a field. There are horses all over the place here.

Hey will you please send me some recipes?  They don’t have salsa here and so dad emailed me the recipe and I am going to try to make that.  But send me recipes like Tortilla Soup and Hot Fudge.

Well, that is all the time I have for this week.  I love you, thanks for being such good parents.

Elder Turley

February 17, 21014 -- Tengo dos bautismos el 15 de marzo -- I have two baptisms on March 15!

Tengo dos bautismos el 15 de marzo -- I have two baptisms on March 15!

Dear Family

I arrived in Paraguay and I really like it! The climate at the moment is just like Newport, so it isn’t hot, and there is a lot of humidity and a breeze.

My companion is Elder Jace Gummersall, he is 19 and he is from Spokane – a place called Liberty Lake or something like that.  I’m not sure if Bill served in his area.  I asked him if he knew Bill, but he was only nine when Bill was there, so he doesn’t remember.  My companion is super cool!  He keeps telling everyone that I am famous because I was in High School Musical. (Side note: Jon was a basketball player on the same team as Zac Effron).  So apparently I am pretty cool within the Missionary Crowd. I really like my companion and we get along really well.

My Spanish is doing decent, but I have a lot to learn.  I understand the people of Paraguay less than I understood the Argentina people, but it is coming along – I can bear my testimony in Spanish so that’s all I need. Haha. The people in Paraguay speak super fast and super slurred and it’s kind of crazy, but I will get it, but please keep praying for me.  Also, please pray for my cough and sinuses to get better.  My cough was gone, but it came back two days ago.  It’s funny because they use “Hauls Cough Drops” as candy down here, so it is super cheap and they are all over the place, so I got like six packs today.   I think I have allergies, so I am going to buy some allergy medicine and see if that helps.  I use Breathe at night and it works great, but during the day while we are out, it wears off.  My area is nice we have water and the main street is gravel so that is pretty cool.

So President McMullin sent Elder Gummersall and I into a brand new area of the mission, a city called Luque in an area called Laureltyl (about 30 minutes away from Asuncion). This area has been closed for a while because the last missionaries that were there didn’t really work it and so nothing was getting done.  Our President sent us there to open it back up.  My companion and I had no contacts or anything to work with because the last missionaries there didn’t keep a record.  It seemed kind of crazy to me to open a new area as a greenie, but my companion and I were up for the challenge and we are on fire.  In the last four days, we have contacted over 100 people, have hit all our goals, and have committed two people to baptism. 

The two people we have committed to baptism are a grandmother and her grandson.  The grandson told us that he took the lessons a long time ago and wanted to get baptized, but his grandmother said “no” and so he never did it.   When we met with the grandmother and grandson (side note: I wish he would have told us their names), we talked to them about the Joseph Smith Story and told them to pray about it, which the grandmother said she would do because she was able to feel The Spirit strongly with my companion and I.  When she did pray about it, she had a spiritual revelation that Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet and said she would be baptized.  We are pretty excited about it and are looking forward to keep working with them and seeing them enter the waters of baptism on March 15^th.

It is really cool here in Paraguay, I like it more than Argentina. Everyone down here drives crappy cars, but they have really sick sound systems -- like really good.  It’s funny because everyone here sits in front of their house drinking Te Te Te, which is an herb with cold water like a tea. I think I am going to bring some home because they won’t let us have any down here because it’s passed around so much they don’t want us to get sick.  Most of the roads are dirt and my companion and I walk a lot and we talk to a lot of people. A cool thing, there are a lot of horses, dogs, and cows, just walking on the road every day.

We are talking to another guy named Bruno right now.  He started not believing in God about a month ago, so we are trying to get him to believe again.  Right now he is pulling that “I don’t want to accept your message because I want to be right” type thing, which is kind of stupid, but we are going to keep working with him because we both think that this kid understands and that it is just going to take a little diligence.  

My first day in Laureltyl, we went to lunch at a family’s house who is pretty poor, but they were super nice.  They showed us a video of the last missionaries killing a goat. Apparently that is a thing they do on birthdays here, so looks like I am going to have to take a machette to a goat’s throat in a few weeks --  I will be sure to get photos of that and a video (side note:  mom will not be watching this).

My companion and I walk a lot and teach a lot of first lessons, but it is hard to get people to commit to a second lesson.  I really like the people here in Paraguay, though. 

I live across the street from a Pizza Hut, so that’s cool.  You can get like a specialty pizza with breadsticks and soda for ten dollars.  Everything is super cheap and I don’t think I’ll have any problem living within the budget the mission gives me. The weirdest thing I have seen is cow stomach.  They bread it like chicken in the states.  I ate some in the MTC, when I didn’t know what it was, but I haven’t eaten it here yet, and am not sure if I will.  But Paraguay is pretty dope and I am glad I am here.  There are always people playing volleyball and soccer and having fun.

I live on a main road and it is like a bunch of dirt roads.  We are responsible for part of a city and the area we have reminds me of downtown Los Angeles.  My apartment is pretty clean.  It’s two bedrooms with a bathroom and a kitchen, so it is pretty chill – nothing too out of the ordinary.  There are some mosquitos around, but I have been using repellent so I haven’t been bitten.   The mission has us spray something all over our house so we don’t really have many bugs, just some spiders, but they aren’t really a bother.   There are chalk marks all over our apartment walls, and I wrote my name on it, so that was pretty cool.  We have a dumbbell and the weights are made of a steel pipe and two rocks on each side of them. Pretty cool, HaHa.   Our Church Building is nice.  Sunday’s are cool.  I had to bear my testimony yesterday, and a guy came up and said that they have had missionaries who have been in the ward for a long time who don’t talk as well as I do.  That was cool and made me feel pretty good.  So something funny, the Sacrament started, and I looked down and a dog had run in between my legs.  Apparently if anyone leaves the door open, dogs will come into the building.

Everything here is super cheap.  Apparently I can get solid gold or silver rings and necklaces down here for $10, so if ya’ll want something, let me know before I come home. Haha.

I wanted to send some pictures but this computer is really slow, so I will for sure send some next week.  Well, I love ya’ll.  Thanks for all that you do for me.  You are amazing parents and I am so grateful for you guys and all that you do.  By the way, mom, how are you feeling?  Read D & C 42 verse 40ish something.  It talks about how if you have faith, you will be healed in God’s time if it is His will.  In that scripture it says if you die then that was God’s will, but don’t read that part because you aren’t going to die. Haha! 

Dad, I love you.  Thanks for all you do for me you are the World’s Best Dad! ;)

I love ya’ll, I will be praying for you.

 

CON MUCHO AMOR

ELDER TURLEY

February 14, 2014 - Email from Jon's Mission President

What a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise to open my email and find an email and pictures from Jon's Mission President!

President and Sister McMullin picking Jon up at the airport

 
Dear Family of Elder Turley:

We are so happy that your son has joined us here in the Paraguay Asuncion North mission.  We know that as he commits to work hard and be obedient to mission rules, and continues to study and seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost, he will have a great experience on his mission.  He will grow to love the people, he will be willing to pass through difficulties, and he will come to know and love his Savior in a more profound way than he has ever known.

All of the incoming missionaries received some training on staying healthy, finances, mail, etc. Your son was also interviewed and met his trainer, Elder Gummersall, who was specially chosen for him.  His trainer has proven himself as someone who can help your son develop the skills he will need to be a good missionary.  We hope you will enjoy these pictures that we are attaching as well.

Thank you so much for raising such a fine young man who is so willing to serve his Father in Heaven and be a blessing to the people here and to his fellow missionaries.  We truly pray for them every day and are also committed to working diligently to help them in whatever they need to be happy and successful.

May the Lord bless you, and your son, for the sacrifices and the love that you are extending to the people here.  Thank you for all of your support.

With much love,

President  and Sister McMullin

Jon with President and Sister McMullin and Jon's Trainer, Elder Gummersall

February 11, 2014

Elder Jonathan Turley has finished his time at the Argentina MTC and is now in Paraguay, I don't know which city yet, or who his companion is, and can't wait until email Monday! Jon would love letters, if you have a minute to write, which should be sent to the mission home address below:

Elder Jonathan Turley
Paraguay Asuncion North Mission
Casilla de Correo 1871
Asuncion 1831
Paraguay

Postage is $1.10 an ounce

You can also send a single page letter, folded in 3 with the top taped, and the following address on the front: 

Elder Jonathan Turley
Paraguay Asuncion North Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Postage is regular a US Stamp

February 6, 2014

My MTC experience is coming to an end, I leave for Paraguay on Tuesday.

This week has been really cool actually. In one of our classes we do a thing called IP where, with our teacher, we simulate talking to an investigator and teaching them random lessons about the Gospel.  I have enjoyed these, and up until now I felt like I was doing a decent job.  This past week, however, I have been reading my scriptures a lot and have been pulling random things out of them that have been boss -- (translation ... that investigators will be drawn to).

Anyway, the last two IP's I have done, I have been able to commit my teacher to baptism -- not everyone has been able to do this.  In my last IP, the teacher was simulating a dad and was saying that he had problems with his back and stuff and was losing work because of it.  The lesson we were giving was about the Restoration and about how Christ had the authority to heal.  I told my investigator/teacher that my companion and I have the same authority that Jesus Christ had and told him we could give him a blessing.  He said he would like that and so right there in class, we ended up giving our teacher a blessing.  My teacher said that had never happened before and was a very cool experience.    I did the simulation in Spanish, but gave the blessing in English because I didn't want to mess it up. Haha.

This week we were given a new area in Buenos Aries to tract and I finally found a store that would take Visa. I bought myself some more Alphajores, they are the bomb. They have some Oreo ones that are semi-soft Oreo cookies dipped in chocolate, and they are freaking awesome! Apparently you can only get Alphajores in Argentina, so I think I may need to get some on Saturday since I leave for Paraguay on Tuesday. Haha

Estoy listo para mi viaje a Paraguay. Soy un poco nervioso, pero Dios me ha enviado aquí por una razón. Mi español es malo, pero cuando hablo con los investigadores y para la gente de Argentina, el Espíritu es fuerte y me entiende. Estoy muy emocionado de estar con mi familia después de mi misión y vivir con mi familia increíble para toda la eternidad.

So basically that says "I am ready for my trip to Paraguay. I am a little nervous, but God sent me here for a reason.  My Spanish is bad, but when I talk to investigators and to the people of Argentina, the Spirit is strong and they understand me. I am excited to be with my family after my mission and to live with my amazing family for eternity."

I am stoked to go to Paraguay!

I love you mother, you are a huge inspiration in my life. Thank you for doing my blog and for all that you do for me.  I am super, super happy that you are feeling better. I have been praying for you ... that you will get feeling better, so that is an answer to my prayers. :) I love you mother, you are amazing.

Please tell dad that I am thankful for all he does for me, it means a lot to me. Tell him that I love him, that he is an huge inspiration to me too, and that I am praying for him.

Elder Turley