This week has been quite amazing actually

I ran into Jason Gardiner and Chase Funk here in the MTC so that was cool. It's really been a lot of fun here and it's such a great environment. This week has been quite amazing actually. Last Sunday we had a devotional from the guy who's in charge of all the media. So mormon.org was through him as well as all the videos the church puts out. He was really funny and had good jokes and he showed us the new video that they're going to put out for christmas. Thats kinda confidential though anyway the song that went to it was inspired by the song "stay with me" by Christina aguilera. 

After that we watched another devotional by Elder Bednar about the character of Christ and it was so inspiring. It was all about thinking about others before yourself. In total those two devotionals were over 2 hours long but they were so interesting and engaging. It makes me wonder why I ever had trouble listening to general conference. I also wonder why I didn't study more. ( yes dad you were right) We have literally no free time to study and it's awful. Even still I want dad to know that I could totally rock an hour lesson on the restoration if he ever needs me to. So long as I'm led by the spirit. Our first lesson I totally over formulated everything I was going to say and it went awful. Afterwards our investigator said "wow you guys sure do know a lot" which is like the complete opposite of what you want. I did some soul searching after that lesson and read D&C 84:85 (go read it) which really helped me understand why it went so bad. After that Ive begun every lesson with a prayer asking for the spirit to guide and help me & that has made all the difference. 

My companion & I have two investigators and that is going really well once we got over our issue with way too much forethought. One of them half commited to baptism on our very second lesson! Our first lesson we taught the restoration for an hour and then for our second one we taught him about recognizing the spirit but it was only fifteen minutes long. At the end I felt prpmpted to ask him to be baptized and he said he wanted to but he wanted to learn more and we told him we'd be glad to help with that. Tonight is our last lesson with him so we're gonna try for a home run and teach him about the gospel of christ.

we got to go to the temple this morning which was fantastic by the way.

Above this is my mission zone. Below my companion & I. We were chosen on day two here to be the zone leaders which really doesn't mean too much here in the MTC. 

My companion is pretty funny. He likes to impersonate Yoda. He says things like "the word of God you must spread." And "Elders you are" Its pretty funny. Not everything's perfect though. My companion sleeps all the time. Ive given up on waking him up since he just goes back to sleep. But I love him still and there's no one else I'd want as my companion in the mtc. We have 4 sisters and 4 elders in our district but only 3 of us are going to Boston. 

I feel like I have a better understanding of the atonement after being here. it's all based off of our purpose which is to invite others to come unto Christ (which is to use his atonement) by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Christ and in his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We apply Christ's atonement by showing faith in him and praying for help and guidance. Repenting or changing our life to be more aligned with his. Being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost to teach us truth about God and his gospel. And finally renewing our covenants with him as we take the sacrament each week which helps us endure to the end. How simple is that? seems pretty simple to me. 

Our instructor lost her preach my gospel and we found it after she went home. This is what we did with it. Go read the scripture. 

Found this in the bathroom. Pretty funny. 

 Elder Christensen from the District came over and we got to meet him which was pretty cool. I got to sing in the choir for a devotional by Larry R. Lawrence of the seventy. He talked about the war with satan and what we need to do to defeat him. It was really cool because every hymn we sang was a battle hymn. 

Thank you to Sister Hunt for the Jokes. Sister Delong for the great insight about Boston. Stacie for the coolio handshake. Grandma for her awesome letter and the pictures. and everyone else who wrote me. I don't remember any of your questions though so sorry. 

I love you, Elder Turley

By the way if get a scripture for my plaque I'd like it to be Alma 26:22 (go read it)

If you'd like to send me some clif bars, that would be a real game changer for me. 

Also let grandma know that the missionaries purpose is the very first sentence on the first page of preach my gospel. Also tell her that there's a section specifically about how the members can help. I'm not sure where it is but it's near the back half

A final last thought. I know Jaron said to start out with a fresh set of scriptures but I am not Jaron. I need my seminary scriptures. I cant navigate these new ones, they feel foreign and have no valuable references or thoughts that I've written in. You may just need to send them to Boston though. I leave Tuesday at 3 in the morning. I don't think you'll have time to get them here to Provo. 
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