I'm headed to Oxford

This week has been pretty crazy! President Packard is done and President Miller and his family arrives tonight. We're all very excited to see how he will improve the Kingdom here in Boston. I'm lucky enought to be one of the first missionaries to truly work with him since I'll be going to the mission home on Wednesday to get my new companion and head off to Oxford. I'm really excited and not really nervous anymore. I've decided I'll just do my best and say a lot of prayers and I'm certain everything will be alright. 

I'm currently in a trio with elder Nixon and Elder Lutkin. elder Lutkin is the one replacing me and I'm so grateful for him. I know that he'll do so much work here in Boston. He was made to serve in areas like Boston. Yesterday we gave away 10 copies of the Book of Mormon! I've never done anything like that before, it was pretty great. Elder Nixon and Elder Lutkin are going to do great work and I know that Boston english is going to be having quite a few baptisms in the upcoming weeks. 

I love Boston and I'm sad to leave especially after 6 months of my life has been spent here. I love the people, I love the lifestyle, I love the "T" and I love church in Boston. I have never seen a more diverse ward in my life than the Boston 1 English Ward and I don't know if I'll ever see one like it again. When I first arrived I was quite disturbed by how differently the church is ran here than what I'm used to. It has helped me get over myself and realize that although what people do here might not alwyas be culturally appropriate or even protocol but at the heart the people here love eachother and do what they can to help out where they can. I am grateful for their example. Every Sunday was filled with unique curveballs that I could never have imagined on my own and I am glad for those experiences.

I love New England and I'm going to love Oxford. The people here remind me of pineapples they might be a little hard and bumpy on the outside but once you get through that layer you'll find that their all pretty great. 

Anyway I love you too... bye

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

For the colony, and for oppressed ants everywhere!

Hello everybody,

This week has been pretty awesome as usual. We got a new investigator this week who's a former investigator and is a part member family and he came back to church all on his own. When he told us that he and his girlfriend were finally getting married he then added "that means I can get baptized and married in the temple too, right?" It was pretty great. I'll probably only teach him once more though since I'm getting transferred. That's alright the new Elder and Elder Nixon will do a great job. 

Well I'm finally getting transferred and I'm pretty sad about that but if you haven't mailed that stuff I requested yet then just hold off so I won't have as much to bring to my new apartment but if you have already mailed it then no biggie.

We had a Ward Barbecue and it was so great for us. It was the first ward event since I'd been in the area and it was needed. We played soccer afterwards in the field behind the church and we were trying to get one of our investigators Eddyson to come play too. Eventually he did but he was pretty shy about it but once he got in the goalie box he became a new man. He opened up and did a really good job! He was probably the best one out there. Unfortunatley he was on the other team so we lost. But so long as Eddyson had a good time with the ward members I'm content. 

We haven't been able to get a hold of Fred recently since his phone ran out of minutes but hopefully at the beginning of the month we'll be able to reconnect with him and set something up at that time. 

We were helping a member find his fathers grave so that he could go and give him flowers on fathers day using the website findagrave.com. It was a great experience and I'm grateful to have helped him do that. Afterwards we decided to see if we could do any work for Elder Nixon since he knows nothing about his family and the actual familysearch website hasn't had the records. Well lo and behold we were able to link 1500 names to Elder Nixons tree all becasue we found the missing links through findagrave.com, it was really awesome and Elder Nixon was so happy and I was too.

On Thursday Elder NIxon and I went to a Return and Report which is a missionary meeting for trainers and the new missionaries. It was the last one that President Packard will preside over and it was truly amazing. At first he spoke about consecration and Zion and what God expects us to do as missionaries and lifelong members in regards to living consecrated lives. Then we received training and stuff but at the end President spoke specifically about the relationship between Convenants and Ordinances and reasons why God uses them. Right after that we all went to the temple and boy am I grateful for President Packard for living the kind of life where the things that he teaches us about life he can testify of becasue of the personal life he has lived and the spiritual experiences he has gone through. 

Here we are at the temple with Harry who recently got baptized. 

Anyways thanks for caring for me and doing all that you can to help me be my best, I love you and pray for you.

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Hold on to that ball Petey!

This week has been one of the busiest weeks of my mission and it has been great! We set a goal as the English unit to have at least 1 member interaction per companionship every day. We've done it too and it's improved every aspect of our work. Last week a lot of our member interactions was us going over to their house to share a message with them but rolling into this week most of our member interactions are going to have to come from members who come out teaching with us since we've already filled most of our schedule with lessons with non-members. It's been a huge motivator and blessing. I attribute it to Elder Nixon who's not content to let things coast, he's constantly helping me and the area as a whole. 

On Sunday a less active invited us over on a bit of a whim but we could fit it in our schedule so we head over to her house planning to be there for maybe an hour or so but suddenly we're helping her with dishes and we're bringing food out of her pantry/fridge and then she pulls out the grill. Next thing we know there's a neighborhood barbecue going on and for whatever reason I was the appointed grill master. I have probably grilled like once before in my life but I figured it couldn't be too hard so I tried to wield the spatula confidently. I must say things turned out much better than I thought they would plus the whole neighborhood has the missionaries number and we have all their numbers too! 

We also met this guy named Fred at Boston Common. We were down there trying to meet with a potential investigator but he wasn't there so we decided to do a little planning before our next appointment. Fred was sitting next to us and he was noticeably stressed so before we leave we go talk to him. We didn't even tell him who we were but he just starts telling us about how poorly his life has been lately. It was really sad so many things happened to him that were out of his control. He wasn't homeless or drunk he was just down on himself. So we listen to him for a while he figures out we're missionaries and before we leave we give him our number and tell him if he ever needs someone to talk to the he can just give us a call. That night at 3 AM he called us. We called him the next day and he told us that he prayed to God looking for direction and he felt like he should call us. It was really great. Even though we're missionaries we didn't push anything on him. We didn't try to give him a Book of Mormon or invite him to church. We did what we could to meet his needs and as his needs change we'll do what we can to meet them. He wants to meet with us and as he continues to do so we will help him. Hopefully we will be able to help him find the restored gospel but until then we'll have to see where it goes.

I know that this church is true and that any need, challenge or concern that anybody might have can be met and answered through the right gospel principle found within our church. I pray for the gift of discernment to know what and when to share with those around me and as I move forward in faith I know that God will use me as an instrument in his hand.

I love you! 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

All you'll own is earth until you can paint with all the colours of the wind.

Well life has been real good lately. The weather has been wonderful and it seems that everyone's been coming out of hibernation! Yesterday we had about an hour of empty space before dinner so my plan was to just sit down and do some training with Elder Nixon that we've been asked to do but instead we ended up contacting with everybody that walked by and they were good solid contacts. 

Elder Nixon is great as always. We have a lot of fun together and he came out on the mission so prepared. I'm grateful for that becasue he has certainly jumped right into the work and continues to be a blessing in my life as well as the lives of those we teach. He does a remarkable job at being himself in the work which is something that I've really been working. My nerves tend to get the best of me. 

Yesterday we had dinner at the part member family that we've really been spending a lot of time with and we taught them all the Restoration! Everyone was very receptive except for the dad. He doesn't really belive in a God as we do but he does believe in a higher power. He told us he didn't really want to pursue learning more and we asked him if it was becasue he might be afraid that what he knows to be true might change. He said yes. It's important for all of us to remember that we may not have all knowledge but as we adhere to God's commandments we receive more and more light which turns to knowledge and truth D&C 93:28-32. We cannot be afraid of what we can become because we're comfortable with where we're at. 

Sometimes we think that our efforts in the past can carry us into the future. Not so! Although life has it's ups and downs we can never be satisfied with what we achieved in the past. God's plan is intended to put us on paths to experience miracles daily! There is work yet to accomplish and as we faithfully seek God's hand every day we can continue to experience his love as we help others find it as well.

I know that when we seek we will find

It's great to hear that you've been hard at work on family history mom. The spirit of Elijah is working through you. Keep it up. I haven't been able to do the family name you sent. If you guys want to go ahead with it that's fine. Not sure when I'd get to it. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Got this picture above from these cute moms below who were visiting Boston from Vegas. It was the best surprise. We also got a video of the 4 missionaries as well. Thank you fellow missionary moms. 

Don't be afraid when it comes to a prompting

Well this week has been a blast! Elder Holland came to the mission but unfortunately I never got to see him. He came specifically for a Latino Conference. It was pretty cool from what we heard. My favorite part was it seemed like he had finished and everybody was silent and then he starts banging the podium in sync with the words Hermanos y Hermanas..... Dios Vive. He also extended an invitation to every nonmember there to be baptized right there which I guess he can do since he is an apostle but nobody took him up on it but surely baptisms will come as a result of it.  It was amazing just hearing about it.

This week we also got to go on exchanges with one of the AP's and it was perfect because it was Elder Jackson who was my Zone Leader a transfer before that so he already knew the area and we went to town. We went and read Enos with Emma and she asked us why Enos was so easy to understand after like 3 verses and I tried to tell her it was becasue she was getting better at understanding the scriptures and she said "no that's not it, it's because Enos doesn't use 'Thee, Thy, or Thou'". Upon closer examination we realized she was right. The only time those words are used in the book of Enos is when God is speaking to Enos. That night when she was saying the closing prayer she promised to God that she would pray hard like Enos from now on. It was so fulfilling to hear.  

As we were leaving we ran into this lady who after we talk to for a little bit we realize that she needs to take a bus and we are going to take the train so she says goodbye and walks away. Elder Jackson says "go give her a card" and I said "no I'm not gonna chase her down that's weird" (go ahead call me a bad missionary) so He takes the card and he chases her down and we start talking to her again. We teach her the restoration in 15 minutes, give her a Book of Mormon and she says that she's going to start reading it the moment she gets on the bus so we give her Alma 32 to read as well as 2 Nephi 31 since she wanted more than one chapter to read and within 30 minutes she sends us a text telling us about how she knows Alma 32 is true. It was so cool and it was all because Elder Jackson wasn't afraid to chase someone down. Lesson learned, remember not to be afraid when it comes to a prompting. 

I figure I should tell you as well but I'm training a new missionary, his name is Elder Nixon and he's from Orem Utah. He went to BYU for a year and played basketball there. You can look up his stats because apparently he's pretty good for a Freshmen. He's very willing to jump right in and has immediately been a benefit to the area. I'm grateful for him and his open mind fresh out of the MTC. 

 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley