Week 4/Week 5 Techiman

Hello everyone!! I realized I sent “week 3” last week, but I've been out for a month so I don't know if I should do week 4 or 5 so I did both! Next week will be week 6! hahaha! This week was a good one! I love the missionary life!  It's hard work, but its super fun. I love waking up and being able to read the scriptures, every single day.  Its something I regret not doing at home! It brings me so much peace, and I know it can do the same for every single one of you as well! Also… I freaking love the MoTab and EFY albums! hahah! I think when I come home my playlist is going to be Coldplay, the 1975 and MoTab. hahah!

Ghana is sweet! Still crazy and I think it'll forever be crazy, but super fun! The people love their language, Twi. They know how to speak English, but some of them refuse to because they love Twi.  So I’m learning a lot of Twi.  For all you Twi speakers "etesane" hahaha! That means “how are you?”  The food isn’t bad. The only food that I’ve been having a tough time with is fufu, as expected. It’s basically a dough that you put on your tongue and let it slide down you throat. It took me a good 16 years to take pills, so this is gonna be a new challenge haha! The food here is really just ton and tons of carbs so the 30 minute workout is useful.

My area is sweet! DWUMOH 2! The people are super nice. They all know and love the missionaries. They just have a hard time remembering or wanting to do what they commit to do, like coming to church or reading and praying. But you just gotta keep checking in with them, and have a smile on your face and they'll do it. I said last week that we had 30 people at our branch. We rounded up a cool 39 this week. For real tho, that is a nice accomplishment. We had every seat full, plus kids on laps! Our goal is 60 people by the end of the transfer, which is possible. We just have a ton of less active members, so we meet with a lot of them everyday. The area, as a whole, is sweet. It’s pretty ghetto, but fun. I’ll send pics of the area next week.

I seriously love the mission though. I can’t believe I’m already a week in! The days go by so fast when you’re constantly doing something! Even the nights go by fast. 8 hours of sleep feels like 1 hour out here hahahah!

Something that really stood out to me this week was "you can accomplish anything you want in righteousness." Being a missionary you set tons of goals and you can accomplish them if you have faith and are righteous! I know that applies to anyone in the world! If you want to accomplish something, have the lord on your side, and always remember him!

Love you all! Thanks for all the support!

Elder Turner 

Week 3 Techiman

Well, week 3 was good! I got out into the field safely! My trainer is named Elder Mbithi, From Kenya! He’s a funny guy! He also can cook! Hahaha! so that’s good! We are in a place called Techiman in the Dwumoh 2 area.

A little about this place... It constantly smells. The streets have shops all over like Canal Street in New York City, and there is constant music playing. What’s nice is, notice my area is Dwumoh TWO. That means we have two areas in Dwumoh, and ours is in the residential area, so it’s quiet. 

We also got here and our area book was completely empty, like not a single new investigator haha! So we've been trying to build that up, and actually having some good success. We already have 6 new investigators with baptismal dates.

A little more about Dwumoh, the branch has 100 members, so I was expecting church to have like 70 people haha! We went to church and it only had about 30 people!  Our goal by the end our the transfer is to have about 70 people attend church.

The kids here call me OBRUNI, that means white. The place I’m in is a small town, so most of the kids haven’t even seen a white person before. They constantly come to touch my skin, its nuts!  It’s nice though because I use the kids to get to the parents to share them a quick message and talk about the restoration.

Anyway this place is crazy, but one day I’ll be able to say I lived in Techiman, Ghana!

Love you all! Sorry the email is so short!

Elder Turner

Week 2 ELDA TURNA

Well week two is in the books and it was full of good stuff.  

First of all, the reason behind the subject "Elda Turna" is all the Africans call me Elda Turna. Their accents are so thick that sometimes it’s hard to understand them! I love them though. It’s fun to mess with them, especially on the basketball court. Some of them have never seen a hoop in their lives. The hoops here are 9 feet with no nets. All of the American Elders just throw down. The Africans think we should all be in the NBA hahaha!

The food still blows out here, we had the chance of looking up the prices of groceries out here and they are super cheap. Like 1.5 liters of water is 50 cents haha! 12 eggs is 2 bucks. They have most all you need. So I'm just grinding every meal out in the MTC! If you were wondering, literally all we eat here is rice and some sort of meat, primarily chicken. So it’s not too bad. You'll occasionally get fufu thrown down on you, that’s when all the American elders hit the suitcases with their food they packed hahaha!

We had the pleasure of hearing from Elder Dale G. Renlund, an apostle in the quorum of the 12! It was amazing! He talked about what President Hinkley talked about, “forget yourself and go to work.” A quote I loved is; "you’ll have all you need if you keep your eye set to the glory of God." Another is; "the thing that will help you the most in the next two years is focusing on blessing someone else’s life."  Man, it was amazing, just shaking his hand was amazing. An elder explained that his hand felt as a warm loaf of bread, and I couldn't come up with a better explanation. HA!  It seriously was amazing, his wife, and the western Africa President also gave amazing talks. 

The MTC life is just a grind! haha! But something I heard that keeps replaying in my mind is "a missionary is someone who leaves their family for 2 years, to HELP OTHERS LIVE WITH THEIRS FOR ENTERNITY!!!"  In the MTC you just sit and learn, but thinking about the field and literally being an instrument in the Lord’s hands keeps me going. 

I hope everyone at home is doing well! I love and miss all you guys! I hope that you read those quotes from Elder Renlund and think about them, they are amazing! I'd love to hear your thoughts on them, so email me!:)

Elder Turner

Week 1 - MTC

 WOW! What a crazy week! Hahaha!! I can't believe I'm in Africa. This went by fast but slow. That makes zero sense but that's just how it went. The flight over was good. It started on Wednesday night at 9:00PM.  We went over to The Netherlands and then down to Accra. It was good because we had, I think, 17 Elders fly over with me. So…we got to Accra around 9:00 PM Thursday night and I get my first bag, so that was good. But I was looking for my second bag, and out of the corner of my eye I see a bag that's shriveled up in the middle of the terminal. Hahaha!! Like no joke! This bag was TORCHED. I walked over and, of course, it was mine. The whole side of the bag was popped, like the seam ripped up the entire side of the bag. So they just taped it up hahaha! Luckly nothing was lost, at least I don’t think so. If I haven't noticed it yet then it probably wasn't important. I sat at the airport for like 3 hours just waiting to file a report! I got to the MTC at about 12:30AM Friday morning and had to unpack everything out of my bag! This was stressful because they said protect your stuff because the Africans might steal it. Nothing was stolen and they replaced my bag with a brand new one.

The MTC is crazy! Like literally you think that this MTC would be organized, not even in the slightest! hahahaha! If you know me well you know that I like organized people and things. I’m learning you just gotta roll with the punches and be patient out here.

THE FOOD!!! Wow!! The food out here is nuts. I literally was eating like a freaking tweety bird for the first 4 days. It’s just a different taste for everything out here, but I got use to it, so that's good. It’s mainly just chicken and rice. OH! but the breakfast is horrible. hahaha!  It’s just like a soup. idk.  The food is whatever. I think it’s only going get worse in the field. They asked if we wanted fufu, if you don't know what it is, look it up. It’s cray, but I’m going try it next time.  

The average day at the MTC is simple. You wake up, eat, go to class, eat, go back to class, then you go out for sports(ha!), eat, then back to class, then go to your apartment and go to sleep cause you’re so tired. I’ll go into detail though. "Sports" is literally just the white elders trying to play bball while the Africans go “WORLD CUP” on the field. It’s hilarious! Class is literally just role-play all day. They have us teach as much as they can with the Book of Mormon. Class isn’t that bad, its just really long hours throughout the day. 

My companion is a 250-pound Tongan. He’s sooooo smooth. His name is Elder Pahulu! He’s about the most patient guy I know. I'm not kidding. He’s super caring as well. It seems he always worries about me, and others, before himself. He’s the perfect guy for me. Also, he’s serving in my mission so maybe you’ll hear more about him. 

Overall this week has been super fun but I couldn't have done it without my Father in Heaven. The power of prayer is real. I know that because I’m functioning out here well! hahah! If you are reading this, after you’re done, say a prayer. I've found out that if you have a strong relationship with your Father in Heaven, you can get through anything. God isn’t going to put you through anything you can’t handle. That's the mindset.  Also, "roll with the punches". 

I love you all!!! The church is true!! Please email me!

Elder Turner