We found a family

Well hello. This week has also been great. We continued to apply what we learned at MLC which was to act like we know nothing and we had an extremely good week as far as Key Indicators go. In fact Sunday was the first day on my mission that we met all of our daily key indicator goals. We had a lot of fun doing what we learned. I think the one that had the biggest impact on me was the principle of asking everyone "who do you know who would be interested in and benefit from this message" and that's yielded a lot of fruit, it's fun asking people on the street that question and many of them refer their neighbors to us. Another principle is that when we visit media referrals to knock on their neighbors doors. Oftentime the person who requested X item on any church website will frequently change their mind but we're to have faith that we were put in that neighborhood for a reason and it's panned out! We had a media referral that we had contacted already but we went back to the neighborhood we found a family! Only two people in the family speak english and the rest speak kinyarwanda.... You've probably never heard of it. It's from Ruwanda. Well they're a wonderful family and I think every time we go over we'll be graciously accepted into their home but unfortunately we don't know how much we can help them since we really can't communicate and the church has nothing translated into their language. But we found a family!

I can't say I have too many experiences to share this week but I think this has been one of the best weeks of the mission. We tried really hard to do everything right. We looked at Preach My Gospel many times because we realized a lot of what we did was cultural or habit and not really the best way to do things. It's been helpful. 

On Saturday Barry was baptized into the fold of God. I don't know if you remember him but I taught him in Oxford. He was so great and he really digested each step of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had lots of Faith so that was easy and he had lots to Repent of, but that's why we have the atonement and now he's been baptized and has been confirmed a member of the church. I have complete faith that he will successfully endure to the end as well. I was planning on going and I had permission to go but on the day of his baptism I received a distinct impression not to go. It was odd but I was reassured that if I went I would regret it. I tried to work really hard that day to find the miracle God had instore for me but I don't know if that's why he had me stay. We had an awesome day and that's when we found the family but I never felt a confirmation that some event that occurred on Saturday was the reason I didn't go to the baptism. I don't know why I stayed except the Spirit told me to and I pray I'll be able to recognize why someday. 

I'll send pictures of the baptism next week

Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and/or stuff. I really do appreciate it. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Do you know a family we could teach?

Well this week was very good for me, it was an extremely difficult yet positive week. As far as numbers go our week didn't go to well but as Preach My Gospel says success is measured by our willingness to serve the Lord and we certainly had that. We talked with a lot of people but most of them weren't interested, actually out of all the people we were asked to visit none of them were interested. Thankfully at one of our  last visits we saw an advertisement for an old lady who makes alterations on clothing and we wanted to see what she had to offer. Well she wasn't home but we knocked on her neighbors doors to see what they could tell us and we met a nice old lady named Ruth! She's 91 years old and her husband died when she was 54. I think she said 5 times during our ten minute conversation with her that she was ready to see her husband again and she wanted to hurry up and finish what God wanted her to do so she could die. It was slightly humorous because she had a lot of spunk. Thankfully I was so desperate after all the doors being closed on us I said "Ruth we can teach you how to ensure that you'll be with your husband forever, when can we come by?" She responded well to that and we'll be seeing her this week. 

On Thursday we had the director of Proselyting come to our mission which was super great. I felt like a new missionary again with all the new things I learned! And he only taught from Preach My Gospel. I realized how over time I had altered missionary work and there were many points that weren't in line with PMG so I set a goal to forget what I know and see what PMG has to say. It's been good. The director of proselyting said "if you want to teach a family, pray and ask God to help you find one" well we did and spent Saturday looking for the family. We visited a lot of people, knocked on a lot of doors and asked for many referrals! My door approach was "We prayed that we could teach a family today, do you have a family that we could teach?" I figured my honesty would allow the Holy Ghost to testify more completely. Well we found no family, I don't know why but we tried really hard and it was a really good learning experience. I hadn't felt so close to the Lord in a long time. I'm still praying for a family and we're even knocking on doors that have multiple cars in the driveway because we think there's a family at the house. I'm sure they'll turn up eventually. I'm hoping we'll have an ether 1:12 experience, that would be nice.

You can pray for the family too, that would be helpful

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

I decided to rename Soup. He looked more like a Sriracha to me. He is having quite the adventures here in New England territory. 

He & Chiao get along very well. 

Great week!

Well this week was very good. We taught lots of people and found 3 three new investigators. They are Jared, Steve and Amanda. They're pretty great people and all of them are at various stages of their conversion. 

Amanda is great and is totally on track to be baptized. She had requested a Bible online and we had been having a really hard time getting ahold of her. For about 4 weeks we had been trying to visit her and it had amounted to nothing. Her neighbors said she worked odd hours but they couldn't really tell us more. Well we found her on Thursday, literally. She was home and excited to meet us! We gave her a Bible and she told us about how she was intentionally raised without a spiritual background. She's a single adult mom with a three year old daughter and really wants to raise her in a good environment. So she started looking for a church. She couldn't find one that fit her needs but thankfully the church is true so it totally fit her needs perfectly and we invited her to come and have a tour of the church the next day which she accepted. After calling people for like 30 minutes we got sis. Marks to come with us.  Crazy story, Amanda and Sis. Marks are both Nurses! and they know some of the same people, it could not have been better. The church tour only made things better for Amanda and she said she would come to church this Sunday. We told her we'd like to visit her on Saturday as well for like 15 minutes just to help her feel more comfortable at church but unfortunately she couldn't because of traffic and stuff but we texted her a lot. Come Sunday we walk out of Ward Council and there in the pews thirty minutes early is our friend Amanda and her daughter. Well her daughter wasn't there a lot she was running around sitting with ever other family that had kids her age meanwhile half the relief society was talking with Amanda, it was absolutely perfect.

Tonight we're going to dinner with the Hoods and Amanda is coming too! She has expressed that she really wants a church that would help her daughter and conveniently The Hoods have a 7 year old son and a 5 year old daughter and they're in charge of the family home evening lesson tonight so we're really excited to see how that turns out. 

We had a mini missionary this week, his name was Drayton Troop he was cool

Also we went to a Thai restaurant and we were the only ones there, it was really funny and the food wasn't very good

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

More snow & fun

We had a Zone Conference this week and it was super great. We have a new senior couple here named the Knechts. Apparently he was like the head of Institute over the state of Utah or something like that. Anyway he gave a training on receiving revelation through the book of Mormon and it was allstar. He read D&C 84:85 which says "neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man" He proceeded to talk about how as missionaries you don't always have to study what you're teaching for the day. It's important but the promise is that when you read you are able to "treasure up the words" then when it comes time for the lesson "you shall be given." Of course that doesn't mean we don't plan but it was an interesting perspective to take on in regards to studying for the people we teach. 

I'm still undergoing somewhat of a training process in regards to being an effective Zone Leader and also being productive in the area but I think things are becoming easier and I do have a better picture of what's expected of me.

Steve is doing well. He changed a bit after his Confirmation which has been one of my favorite parts about helping people through their conversion. he's much more open with his comments and the stuff he says is right on the ball. Next Sunday we're going to teach a lesson with him about Repentance in Gospel Principles. We're still trying to teach his son Justin who really has a lot of potential to join the church but we've had a lot of troubles in meeting with him. We were talking with Steve about it and he said "I don't think it's a question of 'if' he'll join but more of a question on 'when' he'll join," Good to know we have Steve on The Lord's side too. 

This morning we went to the temple with another recent convert. he had been to the Temple before but this was the first time he brought his own names so it was really great. We had a lot of fun and we definitely felt the Spirit. 

It snowed a lot and we shoveled a lot and we had lots of fun. Whenever we finsihed shoveling we would have a snow fight throwing snow at each other with the shovels and we would make a mess that we had to clean up again, but it was totally worth it. 

Monday was the chinese new year and we have an elder we live with who is from Hong Kong so we had a celebration for him. One of the members provided all the stuff and we set it up at the church as a surprise for him. It was good 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

A picture

So I'm probably not going to write a letter this week. I'm doing fine but I'm really not feeling like writing and I don't think I could do justice to my adventures in Nashua. 

It snowed this week. More than we were expecting, which was cool. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Life is going well

This is Steve with his son

Steve was baptized. There was a lot that went down that I don't think I'd be able to convey very well over email but suffice it to say he was successfully baptized. We had a throwback to the last baptism I was a part of with Keegan, we had no hot water. It was extremely cold even though we spent two hours boiling water and carrying it into the font. I was able to baptize Steve and it was freezing! I told him to focus on the Spirit because that warms the heart. I don't think he felt the same way haha. Bishop confirmed him on Sunday and it was very Spiritual. In Gospel Principles Steve was bearing solid testimony of the need for a Restoration which is the first time he'd really stepped out of his shell and that was so good to see. It made me really happy to see his progress. 

Our latest district picture

Last picture with Elder Corpus. 

Life is going well. I'm not perfect but I keep chugging along and I feel quite content with that. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Life is good

So I'm just going to write one story and it will be good and then I'll be done.

We have this less active lady with a nonmember husband who came to church for the Christmas service and it was great. We've been trying to set an appointment with her since then and it's never worked out. Well her home teacher is awesome and invited us to go with him to a lesson at her house. So we're there and she's talking all about health issues and surgeries and how she's recovering which is great. Well she mentioned that she was at the Massachusetts General Hospital which happens to be in the Boston first ward. I thought about it more and I realized that she had a really good chance of being there while I was serving there and I knew that we had only ever given one lady a blessing at that hospital and she also had a nonmember husband. So the home-teacher asks if we have anything we wanted to add so I said "this is weird but were you in the hospital during late May or June?" to which she says yes how did you know? and I responded with "because Im the one who gave you a blessing while you were there" to which all the dots started to connect and we had a joyous reunion. I was happy to see that things have gone well for her and thankfully we're best friends now. We've been having a hard time with establishing a good relationship with her but neither of us realized that we already had one so I think from now on things will go better there.

Also the assistants in the mission are finally getting there own area and it's the Boston first ward so I'm excited to go on exchanges there. :) 

Life is good!
-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Winter is here

We had a good week. Some highlights were

Interviews with President Miller

Stake Conference

Teaching people

Our Stake President, Pres. Holland, is amazing. He is just everyone's best friend. The theme of Stake Conference was developing Christlike relationships with those around us. At the adult session of Stake Conference he got up and said "well for the first time I'm in the uncomfortable situation of literally having nothing to add" so he had the tech guy set up a mic and for the last fifteen minutes the 2 counselors walked around with the mic and gave it to people as they felt inspired. Although Pres. Holland did pose theses two questions 1.What blessings come from a Christlike relationship? 2.If this is something we want what gets in the way of us having them? It was cool, I've never really seen that before but that was only the second time I'd been to the adult session of stake conference so who knows maybe it's a little more regular.

For the general session we sat on the stage with lots of crying children and I couldn't really hear even though I was trying. The reason we sat back there is because we had invited a less active man named bro. Comella that week to come and he said he might but he wanted to sit with us in the back so we took the furthest back we could find. He's a train guy that works for Amtrak and he's like the equivalent of lead flight attendant in an airplane.  He showed up 45 minutes late in his train outfit which was super cool and he joined us in the back. Now I've read lots of stories of people unjustly being agitated by noisy children and for the first time I was annoyed by them too. We had promised lots of blessings to this brother if he came to Stake Conference and the children were really throwing that off track. It certainly didn't go unnoticed to our friend and he got up and left quite unexpectedly which really derailed me and I couldn't help but get frustrated with all the little kids. After a short time though Bro. Comella came back with a stack of amtrack junior conductor hats and gave them to all the little kids. At first they didn't pay any mind to it but after some time they figured out what they were and it was a hot topic. I'm not too sure how it worked out but they stayed quiet for the better part of 45 minutes after that which is all the time Bro. Comella had before he had to get back to work. I was grateful for Bro. Comella's patience when I wasn't and hopefully we'll be able to help him have more spiritual experiences at church.

This is Sis Favey. Her mom is pretty old & sick. She's forgotten how to speak English so she just speaks French. I like them. 

It's been cold. Winter is here. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

The resurrection

This week was hard balancing everything. We had a lot of mission meetings which took up over half of our week but we did what we could to cram everything into half of a week.

Our good friend Steve is progressing well. He's still on track to be baptized on Jan. 30, it's super exciting. Although he still has some gaps he will be ready by then. He lives out of our area but he's dating a member in our area so hopefully we'll get it all worked out for him to be baptized in the Nashua ward. He has great faith and it's cool to see him make connections in the gospel. He's getting more out of the scriptures and his prayers are much more personal and he's always at church so with that combo his conversion has been steady. It's great to be a part of it. 

I gave a talk last Sunday on the resurrection. It went well and I think most people liked it. here's the talk

Through the merits of Jesus Christ we will all be resurrected. “both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame,” (Alma 11:44).  This is a gift promised to all of us and it accomplishes the first half of God’s work and glory to bring to pass the immortality of man” (Moses 1:39). We receive this gift because of Jesus Christ, all of the works of God are accomplished through Jesus Christ even that of the resurrection. Jesus Christ had power over death because of his divine sonship and he also had the capability to die because of his mortal mother. With this he paved the way for the resurrection of all. We see Jesus testify of this in John 10:17 when He says “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” This simple statement testifies that Jesus knew and understood his role in the resurrection, Jesus knew that he had the ability not only to die but also to rise again in triumphant glory. Jesus was the first one to be resurrected with a perfected and immortal body, although others had been raised from the dead no one had been resurrected. He was our example in that regard and perhaps some of the most reassuring verses of scripture teach us of this when Mary seeking Jesus in the tomb hears the words of an angel saying “He is not here for he is risen” (Matt. 28:6).

We have other examples of this in the scriptures which paint for us a wonderful image of how glorious the resurrection will be. One such example revolves around the story of Lazarus. Lazarus was a sick man who had had some exposure to the ministry of Jesus Christ, we don’t know too much about him before this story but we know that Jesus loved him and his sisters Mary and Martha. Upon hearing that Lazarus was sick Jesus testified among his disciples that “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby,” (John 11:4). Still, Jesus knew that Lazarus would die and he even foretold this to his Apostles. Upon arriving at Bethany, the town in which Lazarus resided, he found out that Lazarus had lain in the grave for four days. As soon as Martha, Lazarus’ sister, heard that her savior was near the town she ran out to meet him saying that if he had been there her brother Lazarus would not have died. Nevertheless she humbly accepted that her brother Lazarus would rise in the resurrection. To this Jesus comforted her by saying “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26). To this Martha again testified that she knew Jesus was the Christ, the son of God knowing that with those credentials all things are possible. With that miraculous setting Jesus made his way to the tomb of Lazarus with a procession of many people anxious to see what the outcome would be. Upon having the stone removed from the tomb he commanded Lazarus to come forth from the tomb. As the scriptures say in John 11 “and he that was dead came forth” (John 11:44).  I know that Jesus Christ brought back Lazarus from the dead and that the same power used to accomplish that miracle will be exercised at the time of our resurrection.

I also know that our actions today are very important in regards to the resurrection. Speaking of this Alma said to his son Corianton “If he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness….Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness,” (Alma 41:6,10). We cannot suppose that at the time of our resurrection that all of our mistakes will be forgotten or that we will magically be perfect. In fact we will be even more burdened with our sins at the time of our resurrection if we do not repent in this life, “even a perfect knowledge of our guilt and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment” (2 Nephi 9:14). Fortunately God loves us and has promised that as “we repent we will be forgiven and the Lord will remember them no more,” (D&C 58:42).

May we all live our lives in such a way that we can look forward to the resurrection. Where we will be filled with the knowledge of enjoyment and will rejoice with God and all of our loved ones. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

There was a bit more to it but this is the condensed version. I hope you like it. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Kinda a big deal

We've been cooking this week and that's been fun. It's been great to go out and do stuff even though it snowed quite a bit. We've been able to use it to help us. The day after it snowed we walked around with shovels and just shoveled peoples driveways and gave them our cards telling them to give us a call next time it snows. We also invited them to learn more about Christ but we have yet to have someone take us up on that offer. However, we saw a lot of miracles and we're in a great place to see more this upcoming week. We're accomplishing work in many different ways whether it be through finding, teaching or baptizing. It's a great thing! 

One of the miracle stories this week was with a man named James. Last Sunday he was at church with his girlfriend Cindy. Cindy is a member of the Boston Spanish Branch but James is not a member at all. Well when James would spend the weekend with Cindy they would go to church in Boston and they would go to the English ward. Which means that I knew James and Cindy already, in fact I'd taught James a few times in Boston during church. I didn't know that he lived up here in Nashua but we had a wonderful reunion and recognized each other. We were able to set up an appointment for Saturday finally and we taught him the Restoration with Cindy! It was a great lesson and we all felt the Spirit. When we asked him to be baptized on Jan. 30 he said he wasn't going to say yes or no but he wanted to ask God. Great! We set an appointment for Monday and committed him to come to church again. Unfortunately he doesn't actually live within our ward boundaries so we needed to hand him off to the Merrimack Elders. We had him go to their sacrament meeting and made sure the Ward Mission Leader in their ward made contact. Well the hand off went wonderful and the Merrimack Elders are going over tonight to talk with James about the chapters that we asked him to read (Alma 32 and Moroni 10). He's one that's been prepared for the Gospel for a long time and it's something that I could see when I first met him in Boston but I never got to see his conversion through because life got in the way. Thankfully I'll be able to witness his conversion now even though I won't be the one teaching him form now on.  It's pretty exciting. 

Elder Franca and I hgave set some goals for us that we think will really help us focus on the work. I'm going to tell them to you now in an effort to make myself more accountable.

They are: 

find 3 new investigators per week

through personal contacting get one persons contact info every day

extend an invitation to be baptized every week

We had it in our minds last week but it wasn't official yet and we found 6 new investigators and invited three people to be baptized so we started off well. 

I know the church is true and that this work we're doing is much greater than we often treat it. As we do missionary work we fulfill covenants that we made to gather the house of Israel and prepare the earth for the second coming which is kinda a big deal. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Merry Christmas to each of you

Well Christmas was good. I had a wonderful time with great members and even got to open presents. I was very well received into this ward. Just about every house we went to had gifts for us and they were great gifts. I have all new socks and a few more ties and even some new shirts. Skyping home was great fun too. Thank you to everyone who sent me cards & gifts. Merry Christmas to each of you.

 

We had a great week again and we did lots of service. We helped two people move that weren't members and we have return appointments to teach both of them which we're excited for. With the way this area is set up we seem to always have something to do. It's strange, since my greatest struggle thus far has always been filling our day with productive work to do but here it's been more about choosing the best things to fill our schedule with. It's a great problem to have. Elder Franca and I decided to force ourselves to plan even more effectively so we can be assured that what we're doing is exactly what the Lord wants us to do. I know I've been talking a lot about planning and scheduling and setting goals as of late but it's really become a huge part of my mission and I feel like it will really help me after my mission as well. 

At the Christmas Conference we even gave a training about goal setting and it was amazing. We presented the training to three different groups but by the end we had presented the training to about half the mission. We really felt inspired and we asked hard but achievable things of the missionaries and for the rest of the day missionaries came and thanked us for the training and the spirit we helped them to feel. I was grateful for that confirmation that we had taught by the Spirit.

I'm happy to be here and I know I'm exactly where the Lord wants me to be. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

I'm in Nashua & life is great

Well I don't think I've ever had a more hairbrained transfer than this one. I was in a really good routine in Oxford and it all got reset. It was strange, I felt like I'd never been transferred before. I think I lost pretty much everything after I unpacked it but I think I'm settled a little more now so that should be good.

I had a great final week in Oxford. Our final lesson with Barry was great! We went over the importance of Joseph Smith since every time we tried to teach that it never really stuck. So we started our lesson strong by telling him that we were going to teach him why Joseph Smith is an important part of the restored gospel. By the end of the lesson which was filled with testimony bearing and dot connecting we asked him to pray and ask god if Joseph Smith was a Prophet to which Barry promptly said no. He proceeded to say that he needed to read the entire Book of Mormon which he had previously been opposed to. Now he had a good enough reason to read it and he committed to read a chapter a day. We asked him why he didn't want an answer because we told him he could pray and get an answer without reading the whole book and he said he wasn't ready for an answer and we asked him to explain. He said that once he gets that answer there's nothing holding him back from jumping in the water. So at least he understands what it would mean if Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God but he's not ready to make the commitment associated with that knowledge so he's taking his time which is understandable. It was basically the best last lesson you could have in an area and I was grateful for that opportunity.

Nashua has been wonderful. It's a great ward and environment to do missionary work. We're in a city but it's big enough to have a car so it's really easy to make daily contact with everyone! This has been the easiest area to fill our planner but I'll have to make sure that I continue to focus on priorities so I don't get caught up in just filling the planner. Also regarding our car, we drive a minivan which is pretty great. We use it for carpooling to distrrict meetings and stuff since we have three companionships in this area. I feel like a mother driving it but it's fun.

Elder Franca and I are going to have an amazing companionship. In all honesty all of my companions up to this point has had some special need that I was forewarned about but not Elder Franca.  He and I have had so much fun doing work. We really are able to work together and I don't really have to worry about him as well as the people we're teaching which is completely different for me and a welcome change.  He's helped me to be more obedient and already I just feel much more happier as a result of it. 

Life is great. 

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Last week in Oxford

Well I'm getting transferred to Nashua New Hampshire. I'm excited and my companion is quite renowned as one of the greatest missionaries out there so I'm excited to serve with him. His name is Elder Franca, he's from Brasil and we will be the zone leaders. 

This past week was good. We had a Zone Conference with Elder Packer of the seventy which was awesome. He laid down the law and helped me get some aspects of missionary work into a better perspective which I'm grateful for. 

I was really grateful for this past week in Oxford. It's my last week here and it was a blast! To be honest when I first arrived here with Elder Acosta we had very little work to do and it was very hard. I was happy to see how the area has grown and I pray that the new missionaries will continue to improve and help others come closer to Christ.

At church they asked me to give somewhat of a departure testimony/talk which I was happy to do. The last time I gave a talk was when I served in Pittsfield and it was absolutely terrible. I did not prepare because I was a missionary and I thought that meant I could get up and give a great talk without preparation. It was a stupid idea. Anyway I put a bit more time into preparing and I thought it went well. I even made someone cry haha. I think I'll just tell you what I talked about and then be done with my letter.

As far as determining my topic I was reminded of the prophet Jacob who said "for why not speak of the Atonement of Christ and attain a perfect knowledge of him" (Jacob 4:12) 

Many people use the phrase "Apply the Atonement" it's not a phrase that's used in Scripture and rarely is the time ever taken to explain the how of the application. It's like being given medicine to cure a disease and not knowing whether you're supposed to ingest it, take it through an IV or apply it as a cream, etc. Without that knowledge it doesn't do us any good.

A phrase that is commonly used in the Scriptures and I believe holds the same meaning as "apply the Atonement" is "Come unto Christ" (Moroni 10:32) when I discovered that it was very revelatory for me because our purpose as missionaries is to "invite others to come unto Christ...". In other words we invite people to apply the Atonement in their life. The best part is that the rest of our purpose teaches us how to apply the atonement. It is through "Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end" (PMG, 1) as we focus on developing and acquiring these principles and ordinances we are able to apply the atonement. 

Ultimately "enduring to the end" is the faithful observance of the other four points of focus and it all culminates with the reception of the holy ghost "which bringeth sanctification because of [our] yielding our hearts to God" (Helaman 3:35) If we aren't feeling that sanctification then take a step back and look at the preceding ordinance: baptism, or for those who have been baptized it is partaking of the sacrament. What is wrong with our participation in that ordinance that hinders our receptiveness to that Spirit?

If we struggle with feelings of worthiness or doubt in partaking of the sacrament then take a step back and repent or change your life to be in greater harmony with Christ's teachings. Then proceed with assurance that you are worthy to partake of the sacrament.

If we recognize the need for repentance in our lives but lack the conviction to make the change then remember that faith is unto repentance. As the prophet Samuel said "And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins," (Helaman 14:13). When we struggle with repentance take a step back and work on developing your faith! Paul understood the importance of faith as he resolutely testified "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians4:13). Faith is the first building block of our testimony. If you struggle to have Faith then find whatever desire is within you and "let it work within you until you can give place for a portion of [the scriptures]" (Alma 32;27)

As we focus on these principles and ordinances I know that they will lead to the development of Christlike attributes and ultimately life eternal (Moroni 8:25-26).

I hope that makes sense and that it will help you gain a better understanding of how to "apply the atonement"

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Thanks so much for sharing your son with us!  He has been a great missionary and we have really enjoyed having him in the Oxford Ward!  He's been fun!  Even if he does have to give me a hard time about my beloved Utes.  I'm a big Utah fan and that is always one of the first questions I ask the missionaries from out west.  Where does your allegiance lie?  When he first got here, he didn't really have an allegiance.  Now I think he does.  Even if it's just to get at me!  

The Burt family

Here is Elder Turley with his new companion Elder Franca. At least I think that's his name!  Elder Turley has a great looking tie on!  . We will miss him in Oxford! I had to give him a red and black tie!  Then he won't forget us!  And the Utes! He is a great missionary!

Hello everybody

Hello everybody who reads this. I don't have much time and my letter will be short. 

Barry believes everything we've taught him. He often will try to argue but the Spirit has always been there to quell any objections he has towards being baptized. We were teaching him about the covenant of baptism and he interrupted us to say that although Baptism would bless him spiritually it would hurt him temporally. He proceeded to tell us that the house he's living in is owned by his rich brother. Barry's fear is that if he joins the church he would face being disowned from his family which is devout catholic. If that happens he'll be homeless. He looked at us and with real fear told us that he didn't want to go back to that again. It was really humbling and I feel really bad for the guy. There's not much we can do except help him develop greater faith in Christ insomuch that he would be willing to face those consequences as a result of being baptized. He told us he wouldn't keep it a secret either if he was baptized because he felt like that wouldn't be standing as a witness of God at all times which is part of the covenant of baptism. 

He continues to read and pray about what we teach him and he'll continue to be converted but I pray that his conversion will be deep enough that he'll trust in the Lord enough to be baptized. 

Please keep him in your prayers. 
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Elder Trevon Turley

Thank you to Sister Graff for taking good care of these elders. She is the primary chorister in Trev's ward & the primary kids got to earn items like (deodorant, soap, toothpaste & so on) Such a great idea & sure makes this mama happy. 

Awesome Week!

We had an awesome week! We were super busy and even when appointments fell through we always found some way to be productive. We made the best of it and had a lot of fun keeping busy. One of the people we're teaching (Barry) has been moving along very well! I love the guy and he always makes the most original comments. He has some remarkable faith in Jesus Christ and almost every time we talk about Christ he tears up and it's cool to see. He also loves the Book of Mormon and continues to be amazed by it and what he reads there. Much of what we teach he already believes. In fact he already believed in the Plan of Salvation. He has a different name for everything and his ideas were a little off but everything we teach he readily accepts. Except Baptism. He'll get there though, he came to church this past Sunday and had a wonderful time. He had previously come to a baptism on  Saturday so when we asked him to come to church he said "of course! I loved the way I felt there, why would I deny myself that feeling again," so that was really cool.  Why has he not been baptized you might say? Well I don't really know, he always has a few excuses most of which revolve around his Catholic/Italian heritage but I think that it's deeper than that. Thankfully God knows and it's very easy to see how much the Spirit has been working within him, his knowledge in the Gospel is increasing tremendously but his actual conversion is taking more time. When he met our bishop he compared himself to a Marlin and said that I was like the fisherman reeling him in. I felt like one of Christ's disciples in Matthew 4:19!  Of course we both know that it's the Spirit that converts but I'm certainly doing all that I can to help bring that Spirit into Barry's life. 

Elder Whittle got his birthday package and it came at the perfect time! Not only did you get the day right but it came while we were home and the mailman rang our doorbell so he was able to open it right away. He was very impressed with the package so thank you very much. I don't know if you knew this but cherry cake is his favorite which was quite amazing that you sent that. The triscuits were too strong for him but that's fine because I think they're great! He loved everything else. Thank you very much Mom. 

This picture is from a couple months ago but here you go. 

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Elder Trevon Turley

Received this from a family in Trev's ward. They write that Elder Turley is the greatest and their kids really enjoy him.  They are hoping he won't be transferred just yet. 

Got these pictures from another Ward member (sister Graff) she is so great to send me pictures weekly. She says this was her sneaky shot of them vacuuming (completely unsolicited) after her sons baptism. She sent them home with a big plate of cinnamon rolls which I'm sure he loved. So grateful for these members who look after them. 

Come unto Christ

I got to go on exchanges this Friday with the zone Leaders and it was super great! I guess I should also say that Elder Nixon who I trained in Boston has become my Zone Leader here in the Springfield Zone. He and I are super close and we were so excited when we figured it out. Naturally when exchanges came around we went together. I went to his area and it was great to almost have flipped roles. We had such a great time catching up and talking about people that we used to teach but our best moments were when we were teaching together. we'd already been companions so we knew how to work together but in 6 months the two of us have both changed a lot. It was almost like being on exchanges with someone else. We were both super happy to see the changes in ourselves and overall it was really good for both of us.

Although I should also add that meanwhile in Oxford Elder Whittle and Elder Cagle were able to commit one of our new investigators to baptism! It was the first time we taught him and I guess it went well enough that he accepted an invitation to be baptized. His name is Belmiro and he committed to be baptized on January 2. So we had a good week. 

This week my ponderizing verse is Omni 1: 26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

So yeah that should be good

-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Received these pics last Sunday from a fellow mom in Trev's current Ward. My eyes immediately welled up with tears cause it's the holidays & I'm missing my boys. It also made me feel like I had a little visit from him & that brought smiles. 

Is that Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling? Why yes it is.

Well we already have our Christmas lights up! Elder Whittle was very gung ho about it and it didn't bother me so we just did it. I'll include a picture in this email. This week has been a lot of fun and we've accomplished a lot.  We set a goal to have six lessons with investigators this week and we put a name with each goal. We worked hard to achieve this and set an appointment with every single person! By the end of the week though only one of those lessons actually happened. Only One. Interestingly enough though neither I nor Elder Whittle felt bad or disheartened because we could both honestly say that we did our best to make it happen. We still had great contact with each of our investigators and did what we could to help them progress. 

President Miller been advising the mission to have more frequent and shorter meetings with those we teach. Those that we've been able to apply this with has been very beneficial. Even though we really didn't see any of them this week we still had contact. I'm trying to help out where I can and I pray God will bless me with more of those opportunities. 

This week my ponderizing scripture is Deuteronomy 6:18 which says:

18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lordsware unto thy fathers,

I've been working hard to be more accountable to God and this verse has really helped me to find strength in doing that. It seems to me that it's basically just saying, do what you know you need to do, stop complaining and wait to see the miracles happen. I still have my moments where I may not be as diligent as I should be but I know that God has blessings on store for me as I maintain faithfulness. So just do what's right and everything will be well.

Thank you to Sister Graff for snapping this picture of us in action setting up an appointment with a new member. 

Here's our Christmas lights. You might be asking yourself "Is that Tree hanging from the ceiling?" Why yes, yes it is. I remember hearing somewhere that it was a new fad so we decided to try it and we think it looks pretty good.

Have you been able to request any of our ancestors patriarchal blessings. It's a pretty cool thing and I challenge you all to request at least one. Just go to the church website under patriarchal blessings. 
-- 

Elder Trevon Turley

Find when you teach and teach when you find

Well it's been another six weeks and I'm staying in Oxford. That means I'll be here for six months! It definitely has gone by super fast and I'm excited to be here another transfer. This transfer we're going to revolutionize our relationship with the Ward Leaders and it's going to be the best thing for us and missionaries in the future. We're still working out a lot of the who, what, where, when and why but we're on a good path and God will help us out and that's comforting to know. 

I've done a lot to try and improve my ability to find people to teach! I was tired of not feeling good at it and I was tried of disappointing myself with unrealistic expectations so I took a step back and set simpler goals. For example if I know we're going to an event with nonmembers I set a goal to testify of a gospel principle to at least one person there. Then I increase and improve from there. It's really helped me out with overcoming fears that I have. Heaving a deeper testimony has also been very good because I'm not afraid of what they might say in opposition because I know that the work I'm doing is true so what is there to be afraid of? There's a principle that's really helped me to feel successful in this endeavor and that's "find when you teach and teach when you find" it's all over Preach My Gospel and my new motto. 

This is Palmer from one of the families here that take good care of us. We planned last week to wear our purple ties to church together. I won mine from his mom in primary singing time. 

We had a lesson with Joe and his family again. We watched the Restoration movie and then taught them how to pray. The Spirit was present and we testified and taught with power and I know that they understood what we taught which was very rewarding. We couldn't get the DVD player to work so while Elder Whittle was fixing it I read some stories out of the Children's Book of Mormon to the kids. It panned out really well because one of the stories that I read was about Joseph Smith so when we watched the movie the kids actually knew what was going on. Booyah! I have real high hopes for this family and we plan to set a date for their oldest daughter to be baptized in December. 

Have a super week!

Elder Trevon Turley