A mission has changed my life and helped me to find true happiness

Hey so transfers came and I'm staying here with my companion for another six weeks.  Although we're picking up a third missionary for about two weeks. He's a"mini-missionary" although he's not sure if he can handle the stress of a mission because of medical reasons so he's going to come live with us and be a missionary for two weeks and see how he does. We'll pick him up either tomorrow or Wednesday so that's exciting. 

Well this week has been pretty great and it was so aweosme to finish it off with conference! I really like the guy who talked about the music of the gospel. Pres Christofferson came and had a discussion at Harvard a few weeks ago so Pres. packard went to it and he told us that pres. Christofferson was asked what the biggest struggle of the church currently and he said that too many saints are just going through the motions. He said that we need to internalize who we are as disciples of Jesus Christ so that when we're put in a situation where it may not be convenient by the worlds standards to be a disciple of Jesus Christ that we won't back down but that we'll proudly remember who we are as children of God. I also really like the talk where the guy who was called as a mission president went and told his boss that he would be leaving and when his boss asked him when did he make the decision to leave the future mission president told him the he made the decision when he was 19 years old in the temple of God where he convenanted to follow Jesus Christ wherever it led him. i thought it was some pretty powerful stuff. On Tuesday we had exchanges and that was great. I was with Elder Welker who's a Haitian missionary in my District but he used to be a Zone Leader and he only has like 4 months till he goes home so I felt like he was teaching me a lot more than anything I was doing to help him. 

I'd been sick for about 4 days and I wasn't getting better so on Wednesday I  basically spent the whole day sleeping until the evening when we went out with our Ward Mission Leader to visit Auxiliary leaders. I love our ward mission leader. He got his Md from harvard but he's no longer a practicing doctor he didn't like the stupid logistics of Healthcare so he started his own non profit company that's working to revolutionize the competition of healthcare. And on the weekends he goes sledding with his kids and comes out teaching with us. He's super smart obviously and has established a wonderful system for us to build good relationships with the ward to help hasten the work. He's not content to rest when things aren't efficient as they should be so we're constantly revising what we do in order to make things better.

I love Boston and the people in it. Everybody has a story that needs a happy ending and the Gospel can give it to them regardless of how unique their circumstances are. I know this to be true because of how it has changed my life and helped me find true happiness. As we continue to seek ways to refine our character we can experience a greater degree of freedom that comes from living God's commandments. 

So these are photos from just us and the sisters who share a unit to our district including the Haitian elders to including the senior couples within the district as well. 

I also have a testimony of repentance in our everyday lives. In the Septuagint which is the greek bible which is the one used during the time of Christ the word for repentance was metanoeo which essentially means a change of breath, mind, heart and soul. It's not a tangible change and it comes from the little efforts we make in our lives that make us better people. We don't need to sin in order to feel the soothing effects of repentance all we need to do is seek for ways to improve who we are. For example someone who doesn't have a good habit of reading the scriptures and then undergoes the change will allow them to have the fortitude and strength to develop good study habits is also part of repentance.  

Anyways I hope that makes sense but I've gotta be heading out. I'll send pictures

I love you and am praying for you 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

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