This week has been stellar

Elder Acosta's gone and Elder Whittle is in the building!

Elder Whittle and I came out together but we didn't know each other in the mtc. He's also a middle child but he has 6 other siblings. This is his first area in Massachusetts. He's a computer whiz. He's my fifth companion.

This week has been stellar. We've been working hard to do better at bringing members out with us which has been hard but has had a lot of payoffs for sure. I feel bad asking members to help because I don't like to inconvenience them even though I know that we need their help. Well I guess you could say I've mostly overcome that. Yesterday at church we went into Priests quorum and told them about various appointments we had that day/week and asked them which ones they wanted to come with us to, it was actually really effective. We're also still working on going on splits with the High Priests but unfortunately one of them has always cancelled last minute but this week has the greatest potential of splits actually happening. 

So this is a cool place like 5 minutes from our house. 

Honestly I don't really know what else to write about, it's not like we aren't doing anything, we're doing a lot but I don't think there's anything I can write about that I haven't already written about. Things are going really well and we're having lots of fun. I'm learning lots and trying to give my very best always. 

Could you please send me a copy of Papa's poem that he would always share at reunion. Also I'm sending you the info on which medical I.D. bracelet to get. I'm thinking size large. Thank you. 
-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Life is good

I got to go on exchanges twice this week and that was a lot of fun but it's going to make miles super rough for the rest of the month.  The first exchange was with our District Leader and the second time was with one of my zone leaders. 

Elder Cagle and I had a blast though! Pretty much everybody cancelled but we were so fired up we just stayed busy. I don't really know any better way to explain it. We were getting hungry so we randomly went to this pizza place. We're sitting there eating and this guy walks in and he just starts talking to everybody about anything, he's one of those guys. Well he sits down right by us and asks us where we're from because he knew we were missionaries. We ended up talking to him for 45 minutes and sort of taught him all about the gospel in a nutshell. Well suffice it to say we got his number and he left with a book of Mormon. As he was leaving he told us that every single day he packs his lunch but today he didn't, he said God wanted us to meet so that was cool. Hopefully things go well with him.

Steve got the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday which was great. Bishop asked the 1st assistant in the Priests Quorum to meet with him and teach him about it. I thought it was really cool how the Bishop did that, it impressed me a lot. Steve's 54 years old and the 1st assistant is 17 but it didn't matter because it was his responsibility. He'll do a great job. 

Elder Acosta is getting transferred and he's psyching himself out! It's a little comical and I wonder if I was like that when I got transferred for the first time. Nevertheless I'm doing what I can to ease the transition for him and I'm sure he'll do well. Our companionship has been very difficult and it's taken a lot of effort to make things work but that's ok because we both put in the effort and now we're really good friends too. I have complete confidence in him that he will be a successful missionary.

I've also been working really hard to memorize the Book of Mormon. It's been a lot of fun! I'm nowhere near having anything more than scripture masteries committed to memory. However, after hearing up to 5 consecutive verses I can identify the chapter and the book. I'm not trying to be boastful but this is literally what I do for fun on the mission! I would never say anything like that before the mission that's for sure but it's cool and it makes me feel confident when it comes to being thrown on the spot with scriptures. 

I know that the  Book of Mormon is true. I know that even more than it being true is that the events in it actually happened, it's not a big parable but it's actually historic events. The people in it are exceptional at choosing the right but they are still flawed to some degree. They held fast to what was right even unto death. I love the Book of Mormon for this reason and more. 

Elder Trevon Turley

I received these pictures from Sister Graff tonight. Their family is in Trevs ward & they were lucky enough to have dinner in the Graff home this evening. 

They even got to have a little cooking competition. Not sure who won. So fun though. 

Don't give up

I made nachos in my chef hat. They were really good. 

This week has been good, it's probably been filled with the most stuff to do than any other week in Oxford which is good because it means we're really starting to integrate into the area. Even though it may have taken almost three months since we got here I guess it takes time to figure out how an area works especially when both of us are new to Oxford. 

Even though we were busy we had a lot of disappointments but we took them remarkably well. On Saturday we went and visited four media referrals and all of them said no and not in a very nice way either. It was hard because normally media referrals are easy contacts because they have to go online and request something from the church whether it's a book of Mormon a bible or even just the missionaries. But when we got to the door all of them changed their mind and turned us down. To help us feel better we listened to "don't give up" by Josh Groban and we went to KFC and got some Baja Blasts.  The hardest part though was when Linda called and asked us to stop visiting/calling them, she said that when they wanted us to visit they would call us so that was a huge bummer. But regardless she's had a seed planted and we've done all that we can and I feel content with that.

We've begun to go splits with both the High Priests and the Elders Quorum every other Thursday night and that's been helpful to us. Last Thursday we met two families that we had never heard of before and I'm pretty sure would have never let us in if the member wasn't with us.

Today we planned to go to a shpping center with some Elders and they called and told us President Miller was coming along too so we'll see how that goes, I'm not too sure how much I believe them but whatever it should be fun if he comes.

Life keeps on going so that's good too. Steve is doing much better and he's even done with Radiation. Last time we saw him he could speak well enough to read all the verses which was huge since he had throat cancer. 

I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the people who wrote it saw our day and wrote the words that would be the most convincing to us that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Nephi is a boss and Moroni is a trooper. 

I am really enjoying the yoga DVD, thank you. I'm getting really flexible and it's a great stress reliever. 

Elder Trevon Turley

So it turns out President Miller really did come as you can see. It was fun!

Temple day in Boston

We got to go to the Temple Yesterday! That was wonderful and I learned a lot and received a lot of revelation about the work here in Oxford which is always needed. The Temple was so busy that they stopped following the schedule and started having sessions as soon as they could fill an entire room. It was cool to be a part of that. Since we were near Boston we explored there for our Pday and that was great to be back. I really miss it and it was good to know that I can still navigate the city without a map. Granted it's been less than 3 months since I left but I was still a little worried. We got to visit a few old investigators as well and even though they're no longer being taught it was still great to see them. I also got to see Elder Corpus which made me much happier than I was expecting. We didn't always agree on how to go about the work but after serving with him for over 4 months and then not seeing him for almost the same period of time really brought us together I guess. I could tell he was happy to see me too.

We've been doing well here in Oxford but it still seems like a lot of the work we do is with members who are already very active. I understand that we can help everybody but sometimes I feel like there are people out there who need us more. If members are the key to missionary work than maybe I need to turn the key a little more to unlock the door because we certainly have lots of member help.  

As of late I've been doing a lot of studying in the Epistles of Paul and that's been very rewarding. It's easy to read the words but I've really been trying to understand why Paul felt it nescessary to write what he did to each group of saints that he wrote to. It's helped me learn a lot about the history of the early church as well as the struggles that the early converts had. Most important it's helped me recognize how synonymous the role of the church was back then versus the role of the church in our day. 

We started teaching this lady named Linda and she's fantastic. She met a member from Utah in an airport and talked for an extensive length about the church. The member referred her to us and upon arriving at her house she pulled up behind us after getting home from work. We had a wonderful chat outside her house about a lot of her initial questions. A lot of her interest was centered on our churches claim on living prophets and apostles as well as our churches belief on marriage. Conveniently we were able to use the "Family: A Proclamation To The World" to answer both of her questions. Her husband was very interested about what we define salvation as in our religion as well as what it takes to achieve salvation and he does not currently believe in modern day prophets and apostles but with careful study and preparation I'm sure we will be able to satisfy all of their questions. It's a good thing I've been studying Paul I guess because I'm sure that will come in handy.

I appreciate all the mail I've been getting these past few weeks, it's been very helpful and uplifting. Hard days are made lighter when I get mail. Now don't send me mail everyday mom just because I said that, if I got mail everyday then it would lose it's effect. Besides I usually get it on the hard days already so just keep doing what your doing. It really has been great. 

One last thing. I feel like I need a medical bracelet. I don't know what it takes to get one or what all information needs to be on it. I'll let you figure that one out. I do think it would be important for me to get one. Could you help me with that please?

Thanks and have a great week

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

yesterday we had a pday in boston and it was great becasue I got to visit a few former investigators and stuff and these pictures are from when we helped some of them move.

The stairs were too narrow to use them so we just picked up the couch and took it out on the roof