New Companion New Area

Hi Guys,

Sorry its quite a short letter this week. 

So I got transferred and my new area is Soweto the biggest township in the mission, my new companion is Elder Barendse who is from Port Elizabeth, he seems like a very cool guy, he is very excited to be on his mission which is really good, he has been out three months.

So Soweto is a really nice place its a huge area that's why we have 2 sets of elder here that how big it it. 

We have met a lot of really cool people and there is a lot of work to do here we have lots of recent converts and less actives, so a lot of work to do to bring souls back and keep souls there. 

So me and my companion have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will make the time go by so quickly. 

I'm loving my mission life is good, hopefully I will have a better email next week when I'm more used to the area. 

Take care, have a great week. 

Love you guys  Elder Turney xx 

Saying Goodbye's are always hard but new challenges ahead

Hi Guys, This week has been a really great week. 

Monday  was awesome for p day we went laser tag. It was really fun we had the whole zone there which was really good. In the evening we went to the Armstrong's.

Tuesday:  In the morning we had Sister Matapelo we spoke about eternal marriage. Then we visited with Kabelo and spoke about why he went to work instead of church, we shared about the Sabbath day. We then came back to the flat for lunch. We then went and visited with Musa a worker at abbey cross, we did BRT introduce Lesson 1. We then visited with Silvia a long time member staying at abbey cross also. We then went and visited with Siabonga a less active member. We then had our dinner and coordination with our ward mission leader.

Wednesday we went on an exchange I went to Rand burg. We saw Prince, Granny Mags, Yan and Nathan and Nancy.

Thursday, In the morning we had weekly planning which always goes on for too long but it is very useful. Our first appointment was with Elizabeth the referral from Kabelo our recent convert. We spoke about the Book of Mormon. We then visited with Eloise and went over the baptism and who she wanted to do the talks and baptize her. We then visited with Kabelo another referral from Kabelo our recent convert, we spoke about tithing, and he seems very interested. We then visited with Linda and Masana and they are making a lot of progress. We then visited with the Pearls, it was just a check up on how there missionary work is going. 

Friday, was good we had district meeting in the morning, then afterwards we went to Mexican fresh it was terrible. We then visited with Musa again but didn't get to teach much as she was very busy. We then visited with Silvia and her family. Again we didn't get to teach much. We then went and had a braai with some members, I love braai's, (south African BBQ’s)

Saturday was our last zone conference with President Omer, they go home June 30th. It’s going to be sad but apparently the new mission president is very nice. After zone conference we went and visited siliva at abbey cross again, she is very nice but we are there so long because she can’t hear very much and so when we say we need to leaver she doesn't hear us. We then cycles down passed our chapel to visit with the mazibuko's. We then got transfer news that I'm leaving North Riding, I'm very sad about it but I accepted the call to be sent where the lord needs me :) 

Sunday: today was obviously the baptism of Eloise and then the rest of the day was going and saying good bye to people. 

I love my mission it’s the best choice I could have made.

love you guys 

Elder Turney 

10 Months down already time is flying by

Hi Guys so this week has been pretty good.

Today was pretty cool we went ice skating which was really fun, i have not been in over a year so it was fun to get back on the ice. We then has Linda and Masana that evening. we had our ward mission leader come with is to that visit.

Tuesday  was really good we had a referral from our recent convert Kabelo so we went and visited her with Kabelo. she is a very nice girl. Her name is Elizabeth and she seems really interested in the gospel. Later that day we had Eloise, who is our investigator on date for June 8th she is doing really good, she is progressing really well.

Wednesday we were on an exchange with Weltervreden I was with Elder Nherera. Firstly we had singing at abbey cross the elderly persons home. that was nice. afterwards we did the exchange. We then saw Elizabeth again, we taught the whole of the restoration. We then visited with Kabelo and he taught us all of the restoration. it was good. We then went and visited Eloise again we taught about priesthood and auxiliaries. We then exchanged back and my companion got a puncture so we had to go back to the flat cause we had no more patches.

Thursday was weekly planning so thats always fun. We then went and saw Noel our recent convert. We started teaching lesson 1. We then went and visited Silvia, and there were like 12 other kids there. We taught them how to pray. we then went and did some finding at a garage. It was quite productive. we then went and visited with the Brentot's. We spoke about faith.

Friday was district meeting. There always fun. After district meeting we went out for lunch at Romans. Afterwards we saw the lowes and spoke about prayer followed by the Maredis and we spoke about obeying and honouring the law.

Saturday was good we saw linda and masana and we set a baptismal date for June 29th for them. We also saw eloise again and spoke about service. We then saw the shoko's and we spoke about charity. We then went and saw Rob and Bev and spoke about baptism.

Sunday was good, church was good afterwards we went to a members house for there sons birthday party. afterwards we went to rob and bev's again for dinner.

This week has been good, its the last week of transfers so me or Elder Reed will be leaving here next Tuesday which is sad I have had fun serving with him. I love you guys take care. Thanks for all your support and emails

Love Elder Turney xx 

New Look for us Missionaries

Hey guys,

The two little girls in the pictures are the ones responsible for our new look, the really enjoyd themselves.

So this week has been an ok week not much special gone on this week. 

Monday was really good we got to go, go karting which was really awesome, it was fun going fast and just letting go. In the evening both of our appointments fell through so we came back to the flat and cooked apple pie it was so delicious. 

Tuesday we met with  a new investigator and just introduced The Restoration and she seems really interested which is really awesome. We did some finding near our flat. We then meet with our Recent Convert also which was really good, he got a calling recently as the north riding male YSA rep so that should keep him busy. Then in the evening we went and visited Sister Van Vliet to follow up on the 40 day fast which our ward finished recently. It was good to be able to meet with her cause we went with our ward mission leader so we could visit single sisters. We then had dinner with our ward mission leader and his wife. 

Wednesday In the morning around 11 we had singing at Abbey Cross the elderly peoples home owned by members, that was nice as always. We then went and did some service at Irena's the lady with the baby baboon, that was fun. We then did some more visiting with members with brother rob. We visited nday who gave us 4 names which is awesome. We then visited sister viviers and introduced the 10 day plan. 

Thursday was weekly planning day so 1-2 hours talking about how we can improve the area and ward. we then went and visited Lara a girl in our ward but lives 5 minutes from another ward and being a student has been going to that one and not ours, so we are trying to help her have that desire to drive and come to her own ward, it’s tough. We then met with our recent convert Kabelo again. We then visited the Pearls and spoke about the 10 day plan with them. We then saw the Linton's and the same thing the 10 day plan. Our last appointment was with the Muvavarirwa's and it was the same thing the 10 day plan. 

Friday: I was on an exchange with one of the zone leaders. We had district meeting, followed by Chinese for lunch. We then saw noel our recent convert who has been in Cape Town for the last 2 weeks. We spoke about the law of chastity. We then went and saw sister Maredis and spoke about missionary work. We then went to the Marais and spoke about the 40 day fast and 10 day plan and we got a couple of names. We then went to Daniel McKnight's home coming, he returned from the Birmingham England mission so it was good to see him
 

Unfortunately I'm out of time but the rest of the week was good. Sunday was stake conference which I really enjoyed. 

Love you guys. 

Elder Turney xxxx  

Another fun Week in Africa

Hi Guys,

So this week has actually been a really good week for us. Our investigator Eloise is making great progress. She in on date for June 8th which she will make for sure. ON Wednesday we received 2 referrals from Cosmo City, we have called both of them and have return appointments. We actually met with one of them yesterday.

Their names are Mary and Wesley they are on their 2nd year of bible school, so they are very good with the bible especially Wesley. So we get in there and we start talking about the Bible and things that went on in the bible. Then we introduce the Book of Mormon. And it seems to really interest them.

Also our investigator Rob lives in the same complex as them and he gave them a triple combination which was really awesome, then they met missionaries, how much more prepared could they be.

It just builds upon my testimony of the lord is preparing people to hear the gospel. Also they can’t wait to learn more, there excited to see where this goes and so are we. It really is awesome.

Hopefully i will be here to see the progress. We also went on a couple of exchanges also which is always cool. The first was with Elder Wilkerson from Missouri which is a change from Utah :) The next was with Elder Asay from Orem Utah. Both are very cool missionaries. We also got to do some service for a lady called Tracey from South London which is really cool, she still has her accent even after being in SA for the past 10 years. She has lots of parrots, we went over there and we shared something about our church. She is a very nice lady but she is very spiritual, which is pretty cool. She then showed us all of the birds, a lot of them love to dance if you sing to them, so I will have to try and get a video of one dancing the next time we go over for you guys to see how funny it is. We then got to clean the floor of the cages which was ok.

I love doing service and here in Africa you have so many services you can do which is really awesome. This week has been really cool, I really loved it.

I really love my mission and encourage anyone thinking about going on one, don't hesitate, talk to bishop and get the ball rolling. you won’t regret it I promise.

 I love you guys, till next week. 

Elder Turney 

Excited to See the Family

Hey guys,
          A very exciting week this week as I got to Skype with the family, it was so good to see everyone even thought the signal was poor and we kept loosing it, it was still fun to hear everyone, my companion spent some time trying to say English sayings with his Australian accent it was quite funny. he also spoke some African and clicking language although the family did not have a clue what he was saying, I have not learnt very much yet but am hoping to at some point.

          So this has been a really great week. We have been meeting with a lot of great people. Wednesday was an awesome day we had the Elders from Alexandra with us because of elections they couldn't go into there area cause of rioting. so they came to our area. we had 2 of them go to the lowes to do some service for them, Elder Reed took Elder Riley and went to Irene's the lady who has the baby baboon and they did some service for her and i took Elder Delahoy and went to meet a new guy we came across outside of our complex. 

          So we get there to his complex and its a Golf Estate with a full 18 hole golf course, it has a gym, a swimming pool, everything you would ever want, his apartment it on one of the holes where you tee off. So we get into his place sit down start chatting to him. he tells us all about himself, he has been homeless, lost his mum at 12, lost a best friend, he has been through a lot, he then gets a job as a sales man and won best salesman in South Africa. he then left that company he was working for. he now owns his own business, he is supporting 4 YSA aged people at metric level and payed for there university fees, he is also supporting 4 kids in his home town in cape town to go to private schools. he is helping a lot of people, so we start teaching him we introduce ourselves and what we do as missionaries and then we talk about the restoration and introduce the book of Mormon and he says he will read and pray about it, he is a really powerful person and if we could get him baptized he could be an even more powerful member of the church. So we are seeing him this Friday which will be awesome, hopefully he will see the truth of our message.

           Also with having a car that day we could visit single sisters which was nice cause we could take a male member with us. i can really see this area is growing.

I'm loving being on  my mission, I love every moment. 

Thanks again for all your support, remember Missionaries Love real letters hint hint  :)

Love you  guys 

Elder Turney xxx 

Me and The Monkey

Hey guys,

So this week has been really good we had some cool experiences. On Tuesday we were doing some finding and came across a lady. We introduced ourselves and started to talk to her, we asked her what church she went to, said she doesn't go to church cause she does need to. She said god is all around, which is true.

We then asked if we could come and share a message with her, and she said no, we then got into a conversation and we found out she owns an animal sanctuary, so we asked if we could come and do some service for her and she said we could, so we agreed to go back the next day.

We got there and she gets us to unload a butt load of lettuce from the back of a Mitsubishi truck. So it took us like 2 hours, there was so much of it, but it was nice to help her.

After doing that she showed us all her pets she has in the house and we saw snakes, tortoise, bearded dragons, but the best part is she brought out a baby Baboon it was so cool, I saw baboons in the wild but they were big, but this one was so small. So each Wednesday we are going to go and see it and maybe when it trusts us we can hold it, that would be really awesome.

We then hope we will get the lady to trust us and we might get to teach her one way or another.

Also in a couple of week we will be going to a game reserve with a member so I will get lots of pictures with animals hopefully.

This area I'm in is really nice, I love the people here, I love my mission, I would not change it for 1 million pounds. 

I love you guys 

Elder Turney