January 30, 2014

This week went by really quickly.  We went into Buenos Aries on Saturday and I talked to a bunch of people. It was cool because I gave out another Book of Mormon and a pamphlet, and I got three contacts.  I actually had three fluid conversations with people and all of them said they were amazed that I knew as much Spanish as I did since I had only started learning it four weeks ago. 

  

I had a really spiritual experience Sunday.  We are supposed to write a talk each Sunday and then if you are chosen, you give it in Sacrament Meeting.  My talk was on hope, but I didn't get chosen.  The new MTC Counselor gave a talk though, and it was pretty much everything I had written in my talk.  Then in class, we had testimony meeting and I was able to tell them about you, mom, and I started to cry and told them about how much pain you are in and the love you have for me, and how much I look up to you. Then I talked about how much worse pain the Savior had and how much he loves us, and how much I look up to Him. It was cool.

I can't believe how fast my time has gone here in the MTC. I go to Paraguay a week from next Tuesday. We get new Latino and American Missionaries in the MTC today, so that is cool. I met a cool missionary, Elder Ford, here. He is from San Diego and we are going to kick it when we get home from our missions. He left for his area last Thursday, so that was kind of crazy. We all get along so great. We made forts out of our beds and slept in it last night. We like to have "missionary" fun. Today we are having a district verses district basketball, volleyball, and soccer game. Everyone wants me to be on their team because I am a boss at volleyball.  

  We're pretending we are posing for a Missionary Ad

(Side Note:  Doesn't he look a lot like Bill in this picture?) 

 

We got a new MTC President, President Willis, last week.  He is from Arizona and he is really nice.  He was telling us that when he was flying to Argentina, about ten feet of their wing flew off of the plane and so they had to make an emergency landing in Uruguay.  He said it was pretty scary.  When he met me and saw my name was Turley, he told me he had dated a girl with the last name Turley.  I almost told him I had too, which I thought would have been funny, but I held back. Haha.  President Willis' wife makes us 
cookies and brownies every week. He is different from the old president because the old 
president kinda went by his own rules and the new president is very "by the manual," but I really like him.

There is a sister missionary here in the MTC, Sister Miller, who will be serving in Argentina, and she grew up in McGrath, Canada, which is like 20 minutes from Cardston. I asked her if she knew the Clark's but she didn't think so.  She is a cool girl ... I know, I am not on my mission to find my wife ... but we did swap email addresses.   Ask Austin if he recognizes her or knows her family.
 

 
     Side Note: I love how he has his hand behind his back -- 
Way to be a Missionary, Jon!

I have eaten some interesting things since I have been here. I ate cow head. There was also blood sausage, but I didn't eat it because I didn't want dry blood in my mouth.  I ate something really good, White Chocolate Alphajores. You should look them up, mom, because I think you would really like them, they are amazing.

                             Side Note:  I looked them up, don't these look delicious!

It has rained a lot here so I have had a chance to wear my raincoat, it works good. I am getting my hair cut again. It grows fast. Other than that, nothing really new has happened, the time is just going very quickly, its been chill.

  Jon wearing his raincoat and hat.

I love you mother and I believe in you and think that next year you will be really glad you started now.  Side Note: In my email to Jon, I told him I am exercising a lot and that I recently saw a post on Facebook that said "Next year you will be glad you started today."

Give Dad and Hurley a love for me.  I'll be thinking about y'all.

Elder Turley