Heading Home!

25 April 2017

Well, it’s that time. I’m so very grateful for your support and prayers on my behalf.  I’m super excited to see everyone.  Hopefully, everyone can make it out to the airport, and if not, since my arrival will be late and it will be a school night, I hope to see you all sometime soon.  – Elder Turner

sam

Elder Turner’s missionary service in Spain is coming to an end and he will be heading home on Tuesday, May 2nd – arriving at the Orange County Airport around 10:30 p.m.  He will be speaking in the Oak Creek Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Sunday, May 14th at 12:30 p.m.  The address for the church building is 5353 Bryan Ave., Irvine, CA  92620.

Reincarnation – Gerona 2016

21 November 2016

Well hello world. It’s been a while I guess so I thought I would throw a quick email out so I guess a little update is in order.  I finished up in Pamplona and arrived to a city called Gerona last week.

Gerona:
🙂  It’s really close to another city I served in called Vic.
🙂  It’s about 30 minutes from the French border.
🙂  The Church here is a branch (a smaller group of members that meet together).
🙂  Parts of my area touch the beach and, apparently, we sometimes go to other smaller cities that are on the beach.
🙂  It’s cold here, but it is warmer than Pamplona so that’s good.
🙂  Super pretty with a lot of nature and a decent sized city.
🙂  Catalan . . .
🙂  70% of the city is from Honduras.
🙂  My new companion is from St. George, Utah . . . back on the streak.

We were driving back from a city that was kind of far from Gerona with President Theilke (our branch president) on Saturday night around 9 o’clock and he asked me if I had spoken in Church last week. I told him no because this was my first week here. He then replied, “You’re giving a talk tomorrow.” I just chuckled a bit and asked him about what and how long. “You have to ask the other sister who is talking so you don’t talk on the same thing, and 15 minutes.” So, it was a warm welcome in Gerona when President announced from the pulpit, “our next talk will be given by Elder . . . what is your name again Elder?” Classic. He’s not the most organized guy but he’s a hoot.

Another super weird story . . . there was a family from San Clemente visiting here and it reminded me just how small our world is. After talking with them, I figured out who they were and I realized that I had been in their house once or twice. Pretty interesting. Never a dull moment on the mission.

Mosiah 2:41
“And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal andspiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”

This scripture has been on my mind a lot lately. I bolded and underlined the keywords that stick out to me most. It’s super true though, when we do good we feel good. When we are obedient to God we receive blessings. Some happiness is temporary, and some happiness can last forever. The happiness we all are looking for, whether we know it or not (the kind that never runs out and reaches the highest heights) is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

John 6:67-69
“Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This scripture has also been on my mind lately. Look at this response the Senior Apostle Peter gave – surely with little to no hesitation. It’s a pretty simple scripture. I add my testimony to that of Peter, that Jesus is the Christ, He is the Son of the living God, and it is only through and by him we can attain eternal life.

Shout-outs:
😮  Thanks for the memories Pamplona.
😮 My brother Nate for having a birthday on the 22nd.
😮 My Grandma and Mamas for always writing me (they’re the reason why I’m writing this one).
😮 Big Nance for getting an iPhone 7.
😮 Elder Chase Kimball – Kimballs never quit – what do we do now?
👌🏼👁

Elder Turner

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Zone Conference in Bilbao

8 August 2016

Not much to write about this week cuz it was mostly a lot of traveling and meetings and what not. But here is what I wrote down …

Specialized Training – We had a meeting with our zone and the zone of Bilbao, another zone up here in the north.  I have a lot of good friends in that zone, so it was great. We needed to be there pretty early and there was no way to make it from Pamplona to Bilbao on Monday, so we had to go up on Sunday and sleep in the apartment of the zone leader in Bilbao. Their piso is super huge and set up to sleep a bunch of elders because anyone going through the north usually sleeps there before transfers and for meetings like this. So, there were about 16 elders in this piso.  It’s not big enough for that many though. It was super fun though because we were all just in the same room basically and we were talking about everything that has happened since the last time we had seen each other. Then we had a very inspiring zone meeting, as always.

Maté with the Michel – The Michel are a family from Bolivia, but the wife lived in Argentina for three years so she learned how to make maté during her time there. The husband grew up in the south where they drink maté normally.  We went over to eat at their house (some incredible and healthy food so it was SICK!) and it was super fun.  After dinner, they just whip out the maté and I got as giddy as a child on Christmas morning. We had a great experience, talking about life and the gospel. Pretty hard to explain if you have never really had the experience. Spain is so cool because there are people from lots of different countries here and we get the chance to learn about so many different cultures.

To anyone out there going through hard times, don’t let yourself get discouraged. Hard times are inevitable, but discouragement isn’t. Discouragement is like the irritant in the clam’s mouth that brings a pearl.

CREATE YOUR OWN WEATHER.

Lovies

Elder Turner

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All Good in Pamplona

1 August 2016

Noche de Hogar (FHE) Tie Failure:  So we were doing a family home evening lesson with a necktie where you need to tie a knot in the tie, but it’s almost impossible unless you know the method (this relates to prayer) and so I said “if anyone knows how to tie it already don’t do it.”  A boy went first and couldn’t tie it, so he hands the tie to his dad and then his dad, who already knew how to tie the knot, just did it. Lesson down the drain. Luckily I’ve learned a lot of lesson ideas so I just emptied my bag out on the floor, told everyone to close their eyes, and then put some stuff back in my bag.  They had to draw something out of the bag and then explain how that item relates to Jesus Christ or the Gospel.

Elder Mendoza’s Top:  All of the little kids here are obsessed with these little plastic tops you spin and do string tricks with, so Elder Mendoza caved and bought one and he always plays with it.  Before he throws it out he always yells “one of these” – super funny.

Piso FHE:  We started doing family home evening every Monday night with the four of us that live in the apartment and it’s pretty funny.  We give everyone an assignment each week. This week I have to give the lesson.

People Call Us Angels:  I think this is one of those moments that makes everything worth it … when we are talking with some old grandma who was converted to the Church and she starts talking about how much she loves the missionaries and what not and then starts to cry a little bit and with tears in her eyes says, “you are my angels.” Those moments just make me stop and think to myself about the impact that we missionaries have on so many people.

Cecilia’s Pics:  We met with a woman that the missionaries taught a few weeks back, and at the end of the lesson we ask if there is anything we can do for her, as normal, and she just goes off on this tangent about how Elder Mendoza and the previous missionary stole one of her pictures and how she won’t come back to church until she gets the back.  In the moment I was like “freak elder why didn’t you tell me this” but then after 25 minutes of accusations and us telling her that we didn’t have the missing pictures we left.  As soon as we walked out of the door, I turned to Elder Mendoza and muttered, “so you took her pictures elder?” and we both just cracked up.  We have decided we won’t go back until she finds her pictures because none of us have ever touched them.

Diego’s Food:  We got to eat with this old Spanish man – a picture of the food will be included. Enjoy, because you all know I enjoyed eating it. Use your imagination – that’s what we did. I’ll give you a hint, there are muscles, shells, octopus tentacles, and other surprises in there.

Ceviche:  We got to eat this classic Peruvian dish (Ecuadorians have one called the same but it is prepared differently).  Catch me living like Wyatt Turner over there in Peru.  It was super good – fish “cooked” by the acid of lemon juice, with potatoes and sweat potatoes and a salad and some other goodies. I guess I like sushi now.

Elder Mendoza Drinking Sparkling Water:  At one of our lessons, we got some “aguita” but it turned out to be sparkling water and I cannot describe to you Elder Mendoza’s face after he drank it – it really is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. His hand shot over his mouth and his whole body shook as he swallowed his first gulp. He was a champ and finished it all.

Hole in My Shoe: Classic.

Ping pong:  All of the youth from the Church started playing ping pong after an activity. Don’t worry I still got it people. UNDEFEATED. 😉

Elder Turner

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Pamplona

25 July 2016

This past week was good. I’m in the same zone I started the mission in.  Kind of weird.  Pamplona is a big city and it is very pretty. My area is mostly Dominicans, Peruvians, Spaniards and Ecuadorians. I love Dominicans and Peruvians and Spaniards and Ecuadorians – so it’s cool.

Church this week was good.  The ward here in Pamplona is massive and about 200 people attend every week.  There was a YSA (Young Single Adult) sacrament meeting after our sacrament meeting and they asked us to sing in the choir, so we got to go. It was a good meeting and I was able to see someone that got baptized while I was serving in my first area.  It was really nice to see him.

Elder Turner