March 16, 2015

Hey parents and family. 

So yeah this week was a little bit hectic. 

As you all know I have been 21 for a week, and as a newly turned 21 year old I thought to myself  ... "Hmm what would be a funny picture to send to the family," and then I thought "Hmmm I am going to go to a gas station and take a picture with a beer can as a joke (because now I am legal to drink beer in the United States)".  Right after I thought that though, I quickly realized that holding a beer can as a joke wouldn't be the best idea because as you know, I have a name tag that says "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," and I don't think it would be very good press for the Church to get a picture of me holding a beer can for my 21st birthday. So instead of a joke picture for my birthday,  you get the responsible action of a more mature son. :)  I figured y'all would like it if I was more responsible. Haha. :)  (Mom's note:  It's so exciting to me that he has grown to know that it is important to think before you act -- hooray)!!!! 

But yeah, so this week was a little bit stressful.  It turns out the community thinks that we, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aren't hard working because we don't give them donations of food or clothes like the Mennonite church, and so they are mad at us.  We have been working with the people on this and trying to help them understand that they need to do all they can and obey the Lord's commandments and the Lord will provide for them.


 

Also, as you know we have been having a lot of problems with the people out here and getting them to church, and when they do come to church they tend to fight with each other.  So this week we have been trying to reach out to the people and help them have a change of heart and to start loving one another.  It's frustrating because between our two areas (Neuland and Paraiso) we have about 130 members.  Out of the 130, we have like 20 people who come to church regularly.  What is amazing though is that the 20 who come to church are really solid and are paying tithing and doing all they can.  Unfortunately, the other 110 are very difficult.  I love them, I am just not sure what I can do to help them at the moment.  

For instance, we have a Primary President who is a recent convert, and it was so exciting to call her to this position because she was going to learn a lot about the church through her service to the people and to the children.  We thought that would be a great call for her because she would be teaching the basics of the gospel and at the same time, learning more about the basics.  But it turns out that one of the families in our branch doesn't like her and they are mad that she is the Primary President.  The other day, they actually called her a prostitute to her face.  The Primary President is really the coolest person, she is a single mom who is doing her best, but because she is a single mom, the members don't like her.  Anyway, now she is all flustered about the church and didn't come this week because she is scared that when she goes to church the people are going to yell at her and call her names. 

So I got thinking about how we could help the Primary President do the things that she needs to be doing, and I thought that if she had a friend at church it might make her feel more comfortable coming to church.  So my companion and I went to visit a woman who was similar in age to the Primary President, but who is inactive.  We figured this would not only help the Primary President, but also help the woman come back to church.  Well, while visiting this woman, we were shocked to hear that she can't be friends with the Primary President because she heard a rumor that the Primary President is a lesbian and all the women in the area are scared of the Primary President hitting on them.

I have honestly been so  shocked about all the things that have been going down in the ward, and it really bugs me, but I know that I am here for a reason and that I need to be patient and the answers will come.  Luckily for me, I have a lot of patience, right?  Haha. :)  (Mom's note:  I am so thankful that Jon has a patient, loving, kind personality, I have no doubt that he will figure out exactly what to do to unify these people.)

So yeah, we are trying to work with a couple of people on their baptisms, but don't really have anyone that is really progressing right now.  I would have to say that my focus right now is a lot on the members and helping them learn to love one another -- we will see how that works out. :)  

But yeah, so the funny story of the week ... So yesterday, Sunday, we went out to Paraiso to hold Sacrament Meeting there.  It took us an hour to get out there, and as soon as I got there I realized that we had forgotten to bring the bread for the Sacrament. So I went around to all the members to see if any of them had bread, and no one did.  About then, it started to rain hard, and I realized that if I were to try to go somewhere to get bread, I wouldn't be there for Sacrament Meeting, so I was trying to figure out what to do.  All of a sudden it came to me that I have candy!!!  So I look up the scripture D&C 27:2 about the Sacrament and it says that it doesn't matter what you use for the Sacrament, as long as you bless it in the name of Christ and do so in the right mindset.

D&C 27:2

For, behold, I say unto you, that it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory—remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you, and my blood which was shed for the remission of your sins. 


 

Well the Stake President happened to be at the meeting, and so I went up to him and told him that I didn't have bread and there wasn't any way to get any, but that I did have candy.  I then showed D&C 27:2 to him and asked him if it would be okay to use my candy as the bread, and he said it would be just fine.  So yeah, I blessed candy for the sacrament.  The sacrament prayer went like this "Oh God the Eternal Father, we ask Thee in the name of Thy son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this candy for the souls of all those who partake of it ..."  It is interesting to be in the Chaco, and the things we have had to do to improvise -- rain water for the sacrament water, candy for the sacrament bread, but what's interesting is the Spirit is always there and it is the same.  I have definitely had experiences out here that I don't think I will ever forget. :)

But yeah, I sure love y'all.  I am very happy to be here.  It is a little difficult, but I know that with faith and patience I will be able to help these people.  No igual no mas!!!

Love 

Elder Turley

Jon loves dogs and has expressed frustration over how poorly the dogs are treated in Paraguay, and how most of them have fleas and seem to be so miserable.  

Jon is always so happy and has the best attitude!

 

Jon's name tag in German.  He now has one in Spanish, Guarani, and German.  Funny thing, he tried to get one made in English, but was told he couldn't get one because they don't speak English in his mission.  :)

March 9, 2015

Hey y'all, so this week was a stressful one, haha, well kinda. ;)

So Monday we were in Abundancia for a little bit and that was interesting... Our District Leader just changed to Elder Torres, my old comp, and he is very "letter of the law," and I am more "spirit of the law," so it's a bit interesting. So we planned to play soccer, and Elder Torres said we could play until 9, but then they didn't even come out to the field until 8:45.  But we still played and actually ended up playing until 9:30.  It was nice to be able to do something physical because there are so few opportunities.  And it all worked out fine that we played until 9:30, because we still went to sleep at 10:30.  

Tuesday we pretty much spent the whole day just kinda chilling because we needed some guy to take us home, and we eventually got home at like 8 at night and by then the day was over. 

Wednesday we went out and visited a lot of the members, and they told us how bad of missionaries we are and that the reason our Branch doesn't function is because we, as missionaries, are racist ... and it is just getting old.  So I talked to them and said the reason the Branch isn't function is because the members and leaders will have a disagreement and their way of dealing with it is to stop going to church.  Consequently, we can't have success because the leaders and members aren't coming to the church because they don't like someone in the church.



Also, the members think that the church is there to give them money, and if they aren't receiving donations and money from the church, the church isn't true.  Their thinking is that the scriptures say that we need to be helping the poor, but what has happened in the past is that when the church has given the members money, they use it to gamble and play sports, and the church isn't willing to give them money to do that.  Yes, the scriptures says that we are supposed to help the poor, but they also say that we are supposed to go to church, and love one another, and pay tithing, and be obedient to the commandments, which the people aren't doing.  So, therefore, like it says in D&C 82, if we do what God wants we will be blessed, but if we don't do what God wants we have no promise.  It's kind of hard with the members, I know that I really need to work with them on Faith and Hope, and help them to understand that God works in His time and not theirs.

Thursday we did divisions to have our baptism interview and that went well.  We went out and visited a couple of people and then Mirna had her interview.  I was worried that Mirna would forget about her interview and not be home when we got there, and we were blessed because as we got there she was just leaving, but we got her to stay so that she could have her interview and the baptism could move forward.  :)  So that was super good, and she passed with no problems.  I could tell it was a little hard for Elder Torres because she and her family don't speak the best Spanish, but she has a really strong testimony and Elder Torres could feel that.  :)

Friday we had to do some stuff like clean the baptismal font, so we go to clean it out and it turns out there was no water.  So I called the owner of the building and he said he has put 5,000 liters of water in the font and that the missionaries just waste it, we missionaries are always getting blamed for something.  Anyway, I was a little worried that the font wouldn't get filled for the baptism, but as it turns out, the building owner got the water ready and we were able to fill it. 

 

Saturday. I had an audit for the branch and that took a while, but we were able to get everything closed up which is really positive for the branch president. Then we ate then got everything ready for the baptism.  So we get to the church at 5, and we waited and a couple of people showed up, but not Mirna (the girl getting baptized).  So we went over to her house at like 6 and asked her why she wasn't at the church, and her response was basically "Oh that was today."  Haha.  How does someone forget about their baptism? :)  But things came together and Mirna was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    

Sunday (Jon's 21st birthday) we went to church and there was another fight between the counselor of the mission and a member who was angry because he wasn't getting any donations.  It never ends. 

So yeah, other than that, it rained super hard and was really breezy.  It was really a random birthday, but it's igual no mas. :)   The highlight of my birthday was that I got to confirm Mirna, so that was super cool.  Sunday night (last night), we went to Filadelphia to be here for p-day. 

So yeah, the week was super stressful with the audit and the stress with the baptismal font and Mirna not showing up for her baptism and the members fighting us on everything -- overall it was a pretty interesting week. ;) 

Questions of the Week:

1.  Did you do anything special for your birthday? 
Not really .. there is nothing to do out here.. 

1a.  Did you have your baptism this week? 
Yes, it almost didn't happen, but I fought for it and it did, so it's all good. :) 

2.  How are your investigators doing?  Who are your investigators?
RIght now we are working on baptizing E.V.  He is like 35 and is super cool.  The hard thing is that he is starting to work a long ways from Neuland, so having lessons with him is getting more difficult. 

3.  What was your happiest moment from this past week? 
That Mirna was baptized. 

4.  What was your craziest moment from this past week? 
Everything that went wrong for the baptism

5.  Most spiritual moment?
We were having a lesson with our Branch President and the Spirit was there so strongly, it was really cool. :) 

6.  Hardest moment?
That the members seem to hate us missionaries. 

7.  What can we pray about for you? 
That the people will love one another 

8.  How is your health? 
I'm doing fine health wise

9.  What was your favorite thing you ate this past week?
 I don't know we pretty much eat the same thing every day ... probably a lomito 

10.  Do you have any pictures for me??? 
I have already sent them

Cleaning the Baptismal Font

Mirna's Baptism

Life is good here in the Chaco

March 2, 2015

Hey family how are you doing? 



So the mission had changes and I have been assigned to stay in my area with Elder Paniafo. He is an Elder who is a little bit younger then I am in the mission, and he is from Peru. So yeah basically it has been a little hectic this week trying to get to Asuncion and back and that is like hours and hours of travel (I feel like I am always traveling here), so that took up my Tuesday and Wednesday.



It's a little crazy because now I am in charge of thinking  everything out, like where to go and how to get there. On Wednesday I had to figure out where the collectivo was going to drop us off and how to get home and everything, it gets crazy! 

So Thursday we got home to Neuland and I basically went out and showed my new companion our area.  As we were out and talking to some of the members, many of them made excuses as to why they weren't coming to church, such as they didn't  come because they thought my last companion, didn't like them because they were Neviclay and he was German, which is really funny because he really liked the people.  



When I first came to Neuland, my companion, Elder Burger told me that the people like to make excuses and also that they really like to gossip about everyone else.  Right now the big gossip that is going around is that the Primary President is a prostitute because she isn't married, but has a child. Talk about fetching apostasy. It really is ridiculous out here as far as gossip and rumors go. 

Sunday we had 15 people at church.  We are trying really hard to work with the in-actives.  The 15 people who came to church are really solid and are excited to learn, so we excited about that.



So it is my birthday week and I am stoked to be 21.   I may have a baptism this week, it all depends if we can teach her all she needs to know before being baptized.  If we don't get all the lessons in this week, her baptism will be next week.  Si oh si.

We are doing good work out here.  I was only in my area like two to three days this week so there is nothing to really say.  I know there is a lot to be done out here in the Chaco and it is going to be crazy, but I know that I am supposed to be here.  It's really important to have a lot of patience serving out here, but it's all good because patience is something I have definitely been blessed with.  But yeah, all is good and I am very grateful to be here. :)




Here are the questions ...


1. Tell me all about changes, did you get a new comp? 
What is his name? Elder Panifo  
Where is he from? Peru  



2.  Who all is in the Chaco now?
Myself and Elder Panifk

Elder Kenechelo and Elder Torres

Elder Luke and Elder Medina 

3.  Who are your investigators?

Right now we are working with E. V.  He is set for baptism on the 14th, so hopefully that will happen.  Mirna Martinez is the girl who is hopefully getting baptized next week.  

4.  What was your happiest moment from this week? Eating Burger King in Asuncion

5.  Craziest moment from this week? The people calling the Primary President a prostitute.

6.  Most spiritual moment from this week? We had a good lesson with the Primary President.  The Spirit was really strong. 

7.  Most difficult moment from this week? Just all the excuses the people have.

8.  Do you have any plans for your birthday? No, I might make a cake or something 

9.  Did you love your packages? Yes I did, Mother.



10.  What was your favorite thing you received in your packages?  You can list more than one thing if you want. I was really stoked for all of it, especially the Mios.



11.  What did you think of the ties? I loved them a couple of them got dirty, from the rain and candy canes but i am going to wash them.



Will you please take a picture with each tie so that we can give it to the person who's tie you are wearing?



12.  Do you have any pictures for me?  I loved all your pictures from last week!

No pictures this week. 

14.  Did you receive any birthday emails? 
Yes, I got lots of them.  All the family wrote to me, and I got lots of emails from the missionary moms.

15.  How is your health doing?

 I'm doing good. I had a sore throat last week but now I am good. 

 

16.  What can we pray about for you? That I can have the wisdom and strength to grow the branch.



 17.  Do you know how much I love you? :) I love you too, mom.

February 23, 2015

Hey Family --

How are y'all doing?  So I am writing super early because we have a lot of missionaries who have to write and you know, it is my time to write. :)  


So we did not have a lot of spiritual things happen this week, but we had a lot of crazy things happen.

Monday ... We went out and did our p-day stuff  -- so basically nothing. Haha.  That night we had a family home evening with the Hermano Fransisco Martinez and his family and that was super cool because his sisters said that they really want to work in the church, and that is rare so it's cool that they want to. 

Tuesday ...  I "dropped fat Cain" (missionary language for spoke strongly) on a Mennonite because I read with him about what the true church of Christ should be like and then I read with him about prophets.  After we read these things, he told me that in his church prophets don't exist and I told him that is because his church isn't the true church of Christ.  I basically told him he was living in apostacy, and he didn't really like that. :) 

Then we visited "M" and again I had to "drop fat Cain" because she was speaking badly about all of the members. I basically told her that she needed to stop gossiping about and talking badly about the other members and told her that she won't get in to heaven if she keeps doing this. We have tried to tell her this before, but she doesn't listen to us and so we have had to "speak more strongly" with her.

I don't really like "dropping Cain" on the members, that is definitely not my personality.  Unfortunately, it has to be done a lot out here in the Chaco and I am probably going to have to do it a lot this next change as I am guessing my companion is going back to Asuncion and I will be getting a new companion and will need to lead the way and show him how things work out here.

Wednesday ...  We visited a couple of families and then traveled to Abundacia to be there for the zone meeting on Thursday.

Thursday ...  We woke up at 2 a.m. to go pick up the A.P.'s (Elder Gummersall and Elder Calderon), but they weren't there and so we went back to the apartment and went to sleep until 4:00 a.m.  Right as we were getting ready to leave to pick them up again, it started to rain, and rain, and rain.  The roads turned in to pure mud and it felt impossible to walk and we had two kilometers to go.  It was super cold and super difficult, but I knew I needed to keep going because along with the A.P.s, I had four packages waiting for me. :)  So we picked up the A.P.'s (and my packages), and then walked back to the apartment -- another two kilometers in the mud and rain and cold ... oh and we were just in t-shirts.  When we got back to the apartment, we all went to sleep for a couple of hours.  Funny thing, we had zone meeting in our flip flops because our shoes were too muddy and too wet to wear.  Haha! :)  Zone Meeting was really great and it was really nice to see Elder Gummersall again. 

Friday ...  We had just a normal day doing normal visits and things. 

Saturday ... We went back to Abundancia for a meeting with all of the ward counsels, and since I am the Secretary of our Branch I had to be there.  The meeting was really good, but we had to leave early because it started to rain and we were in a little Toyota that wouldn't do very well in the mud.  So it starts to rain super hard, and the Hermana driving the car started to yell about how she couldn't see anything, but she kept driving really fast ... so here we are in the middle of a storm, the driver can't see anything, and she is hauling down the road ... not a good combination.  Everyone else in the car kept telling the Hermana to "slow down" and she kept saying "No it's good," and she just kept hauling.   Luckily that little car had two missionaries, the Branch President, The Relief Society President, and the Sunday School President ... and we were protected. :) 

Sunday ... We get to church, and two families who were inactive had come and so that was super cool. We always get to church early so that we can help clean the church and get everything ready, so we did all that and everything was going great.  

So we have the Sacrament ... and then we had the sustaining of a new Relief Society President ... and then the fight started.  One of the Hermanas got mad because the new Relief Society President was Paraguayan and not Neviclay, and so she stood up in the meeting and yelled at Elder Burger and myself because we are white and we only call white people to callings.  She said we were racist and that the church wasn't going to function because the white people were trying to steal all of the power from the brown people.  It got really, really bad and it was just horrible. 

After church we calmed all the people down, and then Elder Burger and I did our studies and left to go to Paraiso for the church meetings there.  For some reason our driver took a different path to Paraiso and after we had been driving for about an hour, the car's steering broke and the car veered off the road and we veered into a muddy ditch ... and got stuck ... for three hours.   We tried really hard to push the car out of the ditch, but it was so deep it was obvious we weren't going to be able to do it and we weren't going anywhere until a tractor came and pulled us out.  

So, we asked our guide how close we were to Paraiso and he told us we were about a mile away and so Elder Burger and I started to walk because we wanted to get to Paraiso for the meetings and we didn't know how long it would be before a tractor showed up.  Well, we walked, and walked, and walked, and two hours later, we still hadn't arrived in Paraiso and so we turned around and walked back to the car.  Right as we arrived, the tractor showed up and pulled the car out and then we were on our way -- and it's a really good thing we went back to the car because we were really 15 miles away from the entrance to Paraiso ... our driver had flat out lied to us. 

So, we get to the entrance of the city and right before we got in, we got stuck again.  This time it was a 30 minute wait for the tractor, and we ended up actually getting in to the city at 10:00 p.m., we had left Neuland at 3:00 p.m.  We were obviously too late to go to the meetings, so the driver got the steering fixed and then we left Paraiso to return to Neuland.  Luckily on the way home, the roads weren't quite as muddy, but there was one bad part where there were five trucks and three semis that were stuck, and we didn't think we were going to be able to go any farther until the morning, but fortunately there were a bunch of drunk people who were really nice and who were able to push us through.   After a very long day, we arrived back in Neuland at 1:00 a.m. -- it was quite a long and crazy trip for no purpose. Haha.  :) 

So, yeah, this week wasn't a really spiritual week, but we definitely had a lot of crazy things happen that only happen out in the Chaco. Haha. :)  Even though we had a crazy week, I am doing good.  I have a lot of work to do out here in the Chaco, but you know what, I am sure that I can do it. :)

Well, I sure love y'all and I hope y'all have a wonderful week. :)

Elder Turley

 Scenes from the Chaco 

Zone Meeting in Flip Flops
(Can you tell Jon is wearing a new white shirt he got in one of his packages?  It almost glows it is so white).  :)

This car isn't going anywhere soon!!!

 

On the way home from our crazy trip to Paraiso!

February 16, 2015

Hey y'all --

I hope that all is going well over there in the Newport. Not gonna lie, it was looking like a great week this week -- we have kinda been without rain and so everyone has been like "Y'all are from God, pray with us so that we can have rain," and so we have been praying with them and we received rain, and it has been raining the last couple days so that's good, right? So yeah, we went out this week and we were having a lot of success ... me and Elder Burger are killing it ... we have raised the attendance in our branch a ton since I have been here, and we are just overall doing really well. 

We have a guy out here named F.M. He has been having trouble with the church because the last misson presdent released him from his calling.  So for the last two years F.M. has just been kind of trying to find fault with the branch president and with the missionaries, and so Elder Burger and I have felt that we need to focus on being more like Christ and how to develop the attributes of Christ with him.  Our lessons have been super good and we were finally getting progress with him ... he has made a lot of progress ...  and we thought that maybe this week he would come to church, and other less actives we have been working with would come as well ... we felt that we had finally gotten to them which is an amazing feeling because as missionaries that is what we pray for! 

So Sunday comes and we are stoked (excited) to go to church.  We woke up and got ourselves ready and we went to the chapel.  It was raining super hard and and the lights didn't work and the water was out -- we actually had to fill the Sacrament cups up with the rain water.  Elder Burger and I prepared everything for church and then we sat there and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... NOBODY came -- not ONE person came to church.  It was fetching ridiculous! President McMullin has given Elder Burger and I the authority to direct the meetings if the Branch President doesn't show up, and so Elder Burger and I had Sacrament Meeting! Elder Burger directed and I said the prayer, and then we blessed and passed the Sacrament, and then we both gave talks. After the talks, we sang a hymn and ended with a prayer.  So it was pretty interesting ... no members showed up, but we still got to have Sacrament, so that was cool. 

So after the Sacrament Meeting in Neuland, we were supposed to go out to Paraiso with the Stake President in the afternoon to have church with those members.  So we called the Stake President and asked him when we were going to go, and he said "I postponed my branch this morning because of the rain, so I have to go to my church this afternoon."  So we were kind of confused because we had never really heard of church meetings being cancelled because of a little bit of rain, and so we decided to call President McMullin, and he gave us the permission to go to Paraiso and hold their Sacrament Meeting.  

So Elder Burger and I went to Paraiso and we went to everyone's house and told them we were holding church at 5:00 and asked them to come.  We thought the people would be excited about having church, especially since they thought it had been cancelled, and we really thought we would have a great attendance, but NO, about half of the people we talked to told us "It's raining and we really don't want to go to church today, we will come next week."  Elder Burger and I were super bugged about that because since the members didn't think they were having church, they decided to use the day to gamble and do sports.  They chose to do those things over what they needed to be doing on the Sabbath.  So Elder Burger and I were kind of upset, but we went ahead and prepared the Sacrament and got things all ready.  

So 5:00 rolls around and one of our investigators, E.V., showed up ... and he was the only one!  Then about 20 minutes later, F.M. shows up ... then at 6:00, two more families show up.  At 6:00 we were still waiting for the Branch President to come and preside and we didn't know what was going on and so we called him and told him we were waiting at the church to have Sacrament Meeting.  So we call the Branch President and ask him when he will be there because there were people at church waiting to have Sacrament Meeting, and Branch President says "You know, I am just not feeling church today, so let's just cancel if and have it next week."  At that point, Elder Burger and I tried to explain to the Branch President what his responsibilities were and that he needed to come to the church and preside.  His response was "Yeah, but I am a little tired today and I just want to enjoy my Sunday."  So once again, we called our Mission President, and after he had a good laugh about the whole thing, he gave Elder Burger and I permission direct the meeting, which we did. 

So here, this week, we had done such good work with the members and were so excited to see what our attendance would be, and we had a total attendance of 13.  Elder Burger and I were a bit frustrated, but we got over it -- however, we will definitely be having some intense conversations with the members this week.  

So all in all we had a good week and made a lot of progress, but it all got forgotten because of the rain. I was thinking about how ridiculous this all was because the people have been praying for rain because they need it so badly, but as soon as they got the rain they were like "Yeah, we can't go to church because it's raining."  The people really should have been thanking God for the blessing of rain, but instead they just decided to forgot Him.   I have been reading a lot in Helaman and Third Nephi, and it really is crazy how exact our situation on Sunday was with the people in those chapters.  The "pride cycle" is real, and our Lamanites are in a state of wickedness right now.  One thing I know for sure though from reading the scriptures is that they can and will change.  I just need to keep working super hard with them. :)

Anyway, I hope you all are doing well. I sure love y'all!!!

Love --

Elder Turley 

Filling the Sacrament cups with rain water!!!

 

February 9, 2015

Hello parents ;) 

So this week was super interesting.  Backing up to last p-day, we were in Abundancia and it was so amazing because I got chips and salsa ... like legit chips and salsa ... it was amazing ... like the Totinos chips and salsa ...  I was so happy ...  it has been way too long since I have had chips and salsa ... I loved it! (Mom's note: I think he really liked having chips and salsa. Haha). Anyway, we stayed in Abundancia until Tuesday then we returned to Neuland.  So the week started out good.  We had a bunch of good lessons, and we were very blessed -- we met a man named Philip -- but more about that in a minute.  

So on Wednesday the day started out a little bit rough, but we went out and did our visits and everything and kept moving forward. At one point, we went over to an investigator's house, but he wasn't home and so we talked to his dad for a little bit. Then we were just walking around and we happened upon a home where apparently the people don't like the missionaries, so the missionaries have typically not visited, but I felt like we should visit and we did talk to the owner for a few minutes and then we went on our way. 


  

So nothing really out of the ordinary was going on.  But then, we passed by a home and I remembered that I had wanted to purchase a "pen drive" (USB drive) -- it's a third generation and so it will copy things to it and so the missionaries are all trying to get one to hold our music and talks, and right then we were passing by the home where the pen drives were sold.  Last week we had gone by this home, but the guy selling them didn't have any and so he told us to come back this week.  Anyway, so as we walked by this house, I saw that there were lights on and a different guy had just gotten off of the phone, and so I went over to him to ask him if he knew anything about the pen drives.  Well the new guy is actually from Australia and speaks English and does not speak Spanish, so I was like "this isn't a problem ... I speak English," and so I went over and asked him about the pen drives.  He told me his brother was the one selling them and he wasn't home and so we would need to come back another time.


  

Then out of the blue, the guy said "You all are missionaries, right," and I said "Yes, we are from The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints."  Then he invited us into his house.  He name was Philip and he was very friendly and we had a good contact with him.  We talked about the Priesthood and other things, and this guy is super cool -- we ended up talking to him for three hours.  He is 21 and divorced and has a child.  He has had a lot of the same problems that I kind of went through, and so it was super cool to talk to him.  At one point he said "honestly, I have been trying to quit smoking and live a better life, and you guys are the answers to my prayers."  He said that like five times!  It really was a super good lesson ... he is a super cool guy!  And the crazy part about all of it is that it was in English.  It was one of those lessons you have that you know you will never forget.   It really was a miracle that we ended up talking to him, and that I noticed he was home.  And the timing was perfect ... we were going to try to go by there earlier, and his brother might have been home then, but he wouldn't have been.  So we just happened to be there at the exact time he needed us.  There were so many little things that all went "right" that day that led us to meeting him ... like the fact that I spoke English because he didn't speak Spanish, or the fact that we stopped by the man's home who typically didn't like the missionaries and that delayed us a few minutes so we would just happened to pass by this home at the exact time the guy was getting off the phone.  There were just a ton of crazy things that happened so that we would be able to meet this Philip -- really, it was pretty crazy, I'm not going to lie, and I definitely thanked the Lord for the blessing he gave to us to meet him.
 

So this week, other than meeting Philip, a good thing was that we had a combined total of 85 people in church -- that's Paraiso and Neuland together. We are getting a lot of people to church and that's really good.   The attendance in Neuland has jumped up from 10 people to about 40 people every week.  We are definitely doing work out here. ;) 

Also, mom, I just wanted to tell you that we have been recieving a lot of clothes from Hermana McMullin. The help that you and the moms have been, and the clothes and things you all sent, are really lightening a burden for the Nivacle people." 

So all in all, it was a super good week. ;)

Highlights of the week:

We had 5 investigators in church

I got my hair cut 

I almost killed a kid on a moto, not really "almost"

I ate mac and cheese. 

I ate chips and salsa

We are doing good work with the people out here

I have a feeling that Elder Burger is leaving this next change, and that's going to be hard because it is a little hard to speak German, but I know that it will all work out.  ;)

I love y'all, and now I'll answer the questions.

Elder Turley 

-----------------

1.  Who are you investigators and how are they progressing?

 We have five investigators -- three of them are ...

Elida -- She came to church on Sunday

Viviana -- She came to church as well

Mirna -- She didn't come to church, but we have a really good feeling about her.

 2.  Who is your favorite person this week? 

Philip 

3.  What is your happiest moment from this week? 

Chips and Salsa -- all the way 

4.  What was your most spiritual moment from this week? 

Running into Philip 

5.  What was your toughest moment this week? 

There really weren't any hard moments.  In one lesson, the investigators tried to blame everything on the fact that they are different than us and we just don't understand their lifestyle.  That was kind of frustrating. 

6.  What can we pray about for you? 

 That we can keep working with and help Philip

7.  Any special requests in your birthday package? 

Beef jerky ... I don't know ... A full package of 5 Gum

8.  Are you eating well? Getting enough food and water? 

Yes, I eat well enough we cook for ourselves.

9.  How is your health?  Any specific concerns?

I am good for right now ;) 

10.  Have you received any packages from us? 

I have four from you that are sitting in Asuncion, hopefully I will get them soon. 

It's Raining in Paraguay

The only ride way we could get from Neuland to Paraiso for Sacrament Meeting was sitting on chairs on a bed on the back of a motorcycle -- the ride was three hours long and just a little dangerous, but we were protected.   It was so dusty that we covered our heads with t-shirts.

On our way to Paraiso

How we get around ...

Getting my hair cut!

Jon having fun!

 

Holding an Armadillo

Everyone is fascinated by my Rubick's Cube
With the Children of the Chaco