August 30, 2010

This first part is to explain what happened today.  It was part of the e-mail I sent to Crystal.

Hi Crystal, Wow, what a thrill it was to hear your voice this morning!!! That was so very unexpected. Bro. Connelly is a great guy to come and stop in to see us and let us "accidently" talk with you! You sounded very happy and excited to be serving the Lord! It was great to hear him talk about how well you are serving. He said you are a tremendous missionary. He gave us a little background about what was going on in the Burgess Falls Ward when you arrived and said you handled everything so well. It is fun to hear from those you have worked with. This just made my day!

Crystal's letter
Yes, it was a surprise to me too when Bro Conley called this morning. I told him the address and he said he'd stop by! He is a good guy. I wanted to ask him how Darby was doing, if she is getting baptized or not over there but I didn't have time to ask. Well this last week has been pretty great! I really like working with Sis Blackham, she is a hard worker! We have a lot in common too. We are both a little older, both a little more shy, and we both love movies. She actually wants to be a movie producer, just like Cody! What is cool is that we have had the most daily contacts than any other companion I have been with, which is weird considering we are both a little shy. We get a long great though! We found a guy this last week, his name is Bobby Sloan. He used to live a pretty rough life as a biker, and then one day came to a realization that his life wasn't headed in a good direction. So he now goes to different jails to minister to them about how they can change their life around like he did. He grew up with very little education and said he learned how to read and write by reading the bible. So we are teaching him and he is very humble! A little rough around the edges but he has a huge heart. He actually wrote a little poem about his experience, and I was going to bring it and write it out so you could read it but I forgot. I'll have to send a copy of it later I guess! Barry and Deborah are doing okay, still not deciding on what they want to do as far as getting baptized. While we were teaching Bobby, like 3 of his neighbors came and joined in the lesson. It was a little interesting and we ended up not getting far into the lesson, but we were able to get to know them and their experiences.
I am really loving Portland! The last week has been pretty rough as far as miles go and so we've been doing a lot more walking and staying pretty close to home so we are excited for a new month to start so that we can go out to Westmoreland and LaFayette. Yesterday at church Bishop Wade asked us to teach Sunbeams right before class started. That was interesting, haha. Trying to teach 4 three year olds where food and clothing comes from. They were so funny and cute though. It made me miss all the little cousins in our family. My companion is an only child and so teaching was an even more interesting experience for her! I think we barely had time to show them the seeds in an apple and let them color. They were quite easily distracted! :)

Dad is a scoutmaster? I think that is a good job for him! :) Thank you for sending those stickers and the cd! I always look forward to the letters I get from you! So, you saw Elder Maxwell's missionary plaque? I am pretty sure he is actually Cody's companion right now in Knoxville! I remember him saying his companion was from st george too, so it is probably him! Thats pretty crazy though! I didn't get a letter from him this last week, but he seems to be doing well out there. He keeps losing more weight, and it is not fair. It seems like he is losing chunks of weight and I am losing a little pebble here and there. Oh well, I am working on it! I do need to do better though. I don't have any other excuses other than it is hard to eat healthy here in the South! I got a e-mail from the doctor telling me I need to do better! He is a real good doctor, keeping me in line! Haha

I finally remembered to bring my camera so that you can see pictures from Emily's baptism and some other things. The first pic is a very large insect that looks like a fly but it is seriously the size of my whole thumb. It is HUGE! EW!

Sister Rigley and I made a music video one night, something she is famous for doing in the mission. You'll get to see the video when I send the memory card home! :) We had a lot of fun that night, haha.

Sister Blackham and I were taking pictures on a bridge hoping that a train would pass underneath. But it didn't.

Emily's baptism! It was awesome! She is a very sweet girl.

The Famous "Keep Portland BERRY clean sign." I think every missionary who has served here has a picture of it. Portland is well known for growing huge farms of strawberries. Too bad I wasn't here in the spring!

And 1 picture of me by the train tracks!

Well I gotta e-mail Pres Hutchings. Thank you again for all you do for me! I love you guys!

Love always,
Sister Turner