Surgery Day

Hey guys

So this week has been pretty good only taught 13 lessons, but all round it’s been a good week. Monday was good, we went to a place called Spur, and it’s just like the Harvester in England. But on Mondays they have a buy one burger get another free, which is an awesome deal. But this week I got a t bone steak, it was really nice but nothing compared to the steaks back home. But it was pretty nice

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Tuesday until Sunday was the same as usual. On Tuesday I went on an exchange with elder Sipiri, he came to my area and Elder Kolditz went to his, we only had the one lesson with Thabo Mashishi. He was confused at some of the stuff taught in the previous Sunday’s lesson, so we helped him to understand it.

We have done a little bit of trackting and it has been quite successful, we found people who were taught by the missionaries 20 years ago. Which is crazy and in the past we have found people who have been members for 8 years and haven’t had a visit from anybody since they went less active 8 years ago. Which is really crazy?

Abraham who is our recent convert is making good progress; he is starting to remember stuff which is really good. Also something new is me and Elder Kolditz are teaching mission prep class at church every Friday. It’s really good because we just teach them about what we do every day :)

 It brings back the good memories of me preparing for a mission. I’m loving mission at the moment and what helps keep me going is your weekly emails :)

Off to see the Dr this afternoon hopefully have the surgery and get my foot sorted out once and for all.

Look forward to hearing from you all don’t forget the missionary snail mail we love our emails but love letters also, hint, hint J

Love you guys, take care 

Love Elder Turney xxxx 

As Promised Baptism Pictures

Hi Guys

So this week has been another slow week, we are working hard but not getting the people at the minute but I know it is just Satan trying to stop us, but we keep going and hope that things turn around again soon. That’s the difficulty with the work one minute you’re on a high with lots of people to teach and baptisms, then it just seems to hit a brick wall, with all the riots etc that have been going on its not helped

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We have had some appointments. so I think I said this but the guy we were teaching a little while ago called Tony he is back and were teaching him again. He kind of lost his testimony of the gospel so we are trying to help him bring it back which is nice because he loved the gospel before. :)

Also we are still teaching Thabo Mashishi and he is making a lot of progress which is good, he will be a very powerful member. He could become a Bishop one day.

So although this was a slow week compared to some of our other, we are still doing a lot of work with trackting but  it we will get better. 

Some other news, so before my mission I had a problem with my ingrown toe nail on my left big toe. I knew I would be walking a lot so before mission I got it sorted out so it wouldn't cause me any trouble on my mission. Then about a month on my mission the same problem came back.

I went to a doctor in a place called Kempton park. I got there and she didn't even inject it to take the toe nail out she just sprayed it with something but that didn't make a difference, because I felt it a lot and it was not pain free :) . So I thought that would be the end of my toe problem, but I was horribly wrong. About 2-3 months ago it came back and it was both sides of my big left toe. So it became too much so I asked Sister Omer our mission president’s wife who is our medical advisor so make me an appointment at the doctors so I could get this taken care of so it won’t hopefully come back.

So on Thursday I had an appointment with Doctor Brunke at Flora clinic across from the mission home. I won’t go into any detail but what they want to  do will make it permanent for sure so it won’t come back. So he made me an appointment to see another doctor for Friday. I went there and he wanted to do an x-ray on my toe to make sure nothing is wrong with the bone and thankfully there is not.

               

So Next Monday the 10th I have an appointment with a doctor at the same place and hopefully it will be taken care of then. So what he will hopefully do then is I'm going to be knocked out and they are going to do surgery on my toe. So that should be a fun experience.

I have never had surgery, so  hopefully it will all go ok. Hopefully I will recover quickly.

If you could keep me in your prayers next Monday the 10^th that it  will all go ok that would be much appreciated guys.

So we have been out of the area a couple of days this week.

We haven't had an  amazing experiences this week, but that not what the work is about its about sharing what we have with others and we sure are doing that.

 It has rained quite a lot this week and when it rains it  REALLY RAINS :) 

Love you all 

Elder Turney xxxx 

Baptism,Talk and Priesthood all in one Day

Hello Guys,

The above pictures are of the none healthy diet we missionaries live on pizza is a safe food to eat, but not cheap so a nice treat, the other pictures are view from the Johannesburg Temple looking over parts of Johannesburg

 Like i said in last weeks blog this week has been better. we haven't had as many lessons but the lessons we have had have been really good. 
Yesterday we went and visited Tshidi and Vuo. we took brother and sister Madlingozi with us. we focused on families and we watched together forever. It really touched them, they said they are going to come to church in 2 weeks, which is really good.

Taking members with us is really helping they can relate to the people we teach :) Abraham who was baptized and confirmed a few weeks ago, was at church yesterday as usual and he received the Aaronic priesthood, which was really nice to see.

 Also at church i gave a talk on the plan of salvation. I also got to baptize one of the people taught by the other missionaries in Khutsong, it was a really good experience, i will hopefully send some pictures next week :)or as soon as i can>

We also have this other investigator called Dudu, she is making some real progress, we did some service for her Saturday, we moved this big pile of sand for her. it was fun but our hands hurt afterwards, but it was nice helping her.

The sad thing about this country is that nobody and i mean nobody here does anything for free which is really sad. so they were happy that they didn't have to pay us. It's nice to do service here even though not many people want you to help them, people here are very stubborn. 

Africa really is a beautiful place, even though there is a lot of poverty, its still a very beautiful place. i would definitely come here on a holiday :) 

The culture is very different to the UK but the people here are so nice even though most Africana's (the white people) never look happy,  you just have to smile and wave and hope they smile back :) 

I love you guys 

Elder Turney xxxxx 

Slow Week but the work goes on

Hello guys,

This week has been OK, quite a slow week nothing exciting really happened, so not much to write this week.

A  Couple of things have happened.

 So on Wednesday we were walking to our next appointment and this guy called us into his house. We sat down and he said he knew about our church, about Joseph smith, about the gold plates and some other stuff. So we began teaching him and he seems like a really nice guy. He could become really powerful member, he seems keen to learn and of course we are always keen to teach people.

 Its a wonderful experience as a missionary when people call you over and what to know more about the church because you know they have a genuine interest in learning, we will see where this goes.

                We also have one of our investigators called Dudu, she is really doing well so much so that, we put her on date for baptism at the end of April. So hopefully she will make :)

Not much more has happened our lessons numbers have been quite low this week, we have been working really  hard but everyone seemed to be avoiding us so that's always fun :)

Such is the life of a Missionary it becomes part of the job of a missionary to have people avoid you we try not to let it get us down, if only they would stop and take the time to listen for a few minutes they would realize it could change there life’s for the better the way it has changed mine.

                I will make sure I write a big one next week cause we shouldn't have anything interrupt us. 

I love you guys; keep looking for missionary opportunity's :) 

Love Elder Turney xxxx  

No internet but the work goes on

Hey Guys

Sorry this week’s blog it’s a day late, but the internet café near us didn't have any internet signal at all yesterday. The week before we were late because of power cuts, but its all part of Missionary life.

 So this week has been busy but good. On Monday we emailed and shopped but because my companion was becoming district leader we had to go to the mission office in Roodeport for his meeting.

Tuesday was transfers so all but me and my companion went to the office, Our old district leader went, that’s why my companion has now become district leader, the new Elder that replaced him in our district is Elder Whiteside's he is a missionary that came out with me and we were in the MTC together, which is awesome :)

I also found out that I will be getting transferred on March 18th, and the postal service is on strike so if you send me a letter it may not get to my flat before I get transferred. So I would suggest that you send it to the mission office, for the time being, just to be safe.

So the rest of this week has been normal no amazing experiences. Abraham who was baptized and confirmed recently is making good progress he is slowly but surely remembering stuff, which is really good :)

Also I’m not sure if I told you guys about Rafilway she is a pastor’s daughter. She is making good progress. She told her dad that next week she will be coming to our church and not to her dads which is really good, but I also appreciate that that must be hard for her family we know how we feel when family members of our church go else where.

 Also she has an older sister who is in love with me and apparently I’m all she talks about, so I will have to keep a close eye on that, not a good situation for a missionary to be in.

 Just got to remember Mission rules always stay with your companion don’t put yourself in situations of being on your own with people now you can appreciate why we have these rules.. And why we must stick to them. Hopefully it will all be ok :)

I’m continuing to love my mission; I really know why they call it the beast 2 years. I would encourage anyone who has that desire to serve a mission, go talk to your bishop, and get the process started.

You will not regret it I promise you :)

Love You All

Elder Turney xx

Another Week of Riots but the work goes on

Hello Guys 

This week has been a good week. we have had some really good things happen. On Sunday we had one of our investigators. Thabo Mashishi who is the brother to a very less active member. 

Thabo got up and bore his testimony he said he knew the church is true. Last week we gave him a blessing to help him over come smoking, and he said that he hasn't touched it since we gave him the blessing. 

That was really powerful. Also his brother who is really less active, we saw him and his wife Saturday and he said when we saw him the other day when he was outside his house, that he isn't coming back to church till next year, and when we saw him Saturday we got the impression he is coming back very soon. he said the only thing he is doing wrong in life is not coming to church. everything else he is keeping to :) so we keep praying for him.

Also we have been out of our area due to some riots so some days we have missed being in the area but the days we were in the area were good :) 

On Sunday we had Abraham confirmed so that was nice to see. on Wednesday and Friday we had exchanges and i was in Carltonville, so it was a fun couple of days spent here. 

They rides bikes in Carltonville, and my bum was so saw from riding the bikes but it was a nice change from sitting in the car :) 

Sorry there has not being much to write this week as i told you, we have been out the area a few days this week due to riots and it's been very dangerous so we have not been able to get as much work done. 

The riots seem to have stopped for now so we are hoping this week will be more normal. 

Transfers are tomorrow but me and my companion are staying here, he is becoming the new district leader so that's fun. 

The church is true, without any doubt in my heart. I love you all 

Elder Turney xx

The Dangers of Life In South Africa

Hello Guys,

This week has been another good one. Not so many lessons to teach but a lot of great things happened. I will share a couple.

On Tuesday we had a great lesson with a lady called Dudu, her daughter joined in and also a girl who lives round the corner from Dudu. We taught about 'The Restoration'. It was a really good lesson they asked lots of questions, about the restoration and why there were so many churches and about the Great Apostasy. So it was a really good lesson :)

About 3 we went back to the flat because i was feeling really really sick, so I went back and rested, but I'm all better now thankfully.

We have a new  investigator, he is the brother of Brother Mashishi who is the second Councillor in the elders quorum, but he hasn't been to church for many years. his name is Thabo.

He has been to church 2 times and he is accepting the gospel very well, as soon as we introduced the word of wisdom, it was good because he does not drink alcohol, he does not take drugs. He drank 6 cups of tea a day but has said he will change to Rooibos tea which we can drink, so that was good. Also he smokes and is willing to give that up too, we gave him a priesthood blessing to help him, so hopefully he will be able to stop very soon. 

This guy is powerful :) he has accepted to be baptized :)

We also have this new guy Johannes, we met him the other week he is a really powerful guy, we first came into contact with him when we were out tracting,  he also has a wife and child so hopefully we can encourage both of them to join in with the lesson. That guy will be a stake president one day :)

On Friday we couldn't go to the area. A little while ago the community burnt some members of a gang here and recently 8 of the people involved got arrested and there court case was Friday and the people from Khutsong protested at the court.  The court case was postponed till sometime this week. So the people went back to Khutsong and burnt tires, threw big huge ones in the road and the area was a riot so it was to dangerous for us to be in our area.

So we ended up spending the day in Carletonville and went with the elders here so it started off quite a scary day with everything going on in our area but we had a good day in the end. We just have to have faith that the LORD WILL PROTECT US  in situations like this.

Saturday was safe to go into the area thankfully. At 7 we had our last appointment with a guy named Isaac. We turned up and there was a birthday party going on, we were going to leave but the brother said no you have to come give a speech.

 So we go in stand there for about 20 minutes listening to people give speeches and sing songs. Then my companion Elder Kolditz was asked to give a speech and they all loved it they called him Trevor Noah :)

Afterwards they fed us, then the party started and there was girls who started to talk to us so we got out of there quick :)

Sunday we had 1 baptism and the other elders in khutsong had 5 so it was a full baptismal service. I will try to send pictures next week of the baptism :)

This week has been good.

We have had a lot of fun :)

I’m loving being here in south Africa

Love you Guys 

Elder Turney