July 16th
Hey Dad, We’ve been way busy here in Chinampas! It’s full of people who want to listen to us and change their lives.
I have had a lotttt of awesome experiences here so far but one of them is a story about a little kid that we met in the street. Elder de la Rosa and I were eating pizza and this 10-year old boy selling peanuts on the street approached us. He asked if we wanted to buy a bag of nuts. Before I could respond, Elder de la Rosa said that we did not want to buy nuts, but that we would like to share our pizza with him if he wanted. He immediately accepted and ate half the pizza and 1.5 liters of water in a way that suggested he often went without enough food. His name is Alfredo and his mom sends him out each day to work and he doesn’t have a dad at home. He has been working in the streets and buses alone since he was 6 years old. I felt an immense amount of love for him and I wanted to cry because I felt so bad for his situation. We talked and joked with him and became his friends. I gave him my number and I told him to call us whenever he needed our help. He promised he would, but hasn’t called (I think his mom wont allow him to call us). I just hope he can find us again one day and we can help him make friends and find help in the church and more than anything that he can find peace in our Savior.
It was such a humbling experience and I have experiences like that each day and I just feel more and more humble. Also, I realize more and more how blessed I am; it’s insane. I am amazingly blessed because of what I have been given temporally and more importantly spiritually. I love this gospel soooo much and I love my family.
Also I baptized a little homie named Nelson on Saturday. Fue muy chido!
Grandma Nola! You are now 80 years old. 80 years of Christ-like attitude. 80 years of joy and smiles. 80 years of spreading that joy with everyone you know. 80 years preparing and being the best Grandma a person can ask for. I love you so much Grandma. You have taught me a lot in the quarter of your life that I’ve been alive. Most importantly, the things that you’ve taught me, that are priceless, are: God loves me, you love me and love is the most important feeling.
I always remember when I broke something in your house and you got a little mad. Then I looked in your eyes and saw the pure, loving, forgiving eyes of our Savior. You said “I love you Slade”, but more than anything I felt it much more than I heard it, if that makes sense. From these experiences I have learned just how important love is. I have expressed it to my investigators and to the members even when I didn’t know how to speak Spanish and they felt the Spirit and were changed. I know that love is the most powerful language (together with the Sprit) and I know that because I have felt it from you.
I love you more than I can express. 80 years more!
Love ya,
Elder Slade Turner, the boy you love!
July 16th
Hey Mama! Como esta?!?!
This week’s been a good one! We contacted another 50 and found a family of 20 that we’re gonna visit this week!!!! It’s gonna be a dope baptismal day.
We had a baptism!!!! Nelson is 8 years old and the funniest little sal ever. I baptized and confirmed him and i was shaking sooo much during the confirmation, hahaha. Luckily everyone had their eyes shut.
I have never been happier than I am now.
We have been doing a lot of searching and finding. A lot of miracle are happening! It’s been amazing this past month in Chinampas! I love it here and I love these people!
I talked yesterday about D & C 4:5 and it was dope. I had like 30 minutes to prepare and it went well! I used a lot of scriptures and I feel like it was easy to understand!
I feel really good about my Spanish and I feel like I’m close to perfecting it,; I just need to kill my accent (but most people think I’m from Chihuahua or Baja Cali now) so it’s cool.
Just know that i am having the best time ever here!
This week’s been a dope time!!! I met a sweet family that we found that has a kid that cant walk or talk or even feed himself. They insert food in a tube directly to his stomach. When we talked about the resurrection and read the scripture in Alma 40:23, the mom started crying and was so happy that her son would one day receive a perfected body. We told her that he has already achieved eternal life and all that she needs to do is follow Christ and they could be together in the kingdom of God for ever. It was an amazing lesson!!!
I have been studying in Book of Mormon, in Jacob about the Vineyard. Jacob was quoting from a Mediterranean prophet named Zenos. In the Mediterranean, there are so many olive trees and that the way the vineyard in Jacob is described perfectly describes what we know about proper olive tree grooming. However, olive trees don’t grow in New York or in that part of the US, so Joseph Smith would have had no idea how to tend an olive grove from his own personal experience as he translated that part in Jacob. Just something I learned this week. Also I am studying in D&C and the New Testament cuz I want finish both before Christmas.
I have also found that if I am focused on the proper objective, I will be happy and have success. In D&C 4:5, it says in order to be qualified for the work, we need to have an eye single to the glory of God, which, in the Spanish translation, means we need to look only to the glory of God. I always thought that was a cool scripture but now I studied a bit harder and I remembered the well-known scripture, Moses 1:39, which tells us that God’s work and his glory is the salvation of mankind. Sooo, we just need to focus on the path to eternal life for those around us. I have seen this work miracles in our area!
I looooooooooooooooooooooooooove this work and am more happy than I’ve ever been before. My Spanish is good, and my English is getting worse. Yeet!
It’s so dope down here and its only getting better! We have found so many people and they just keep coming! It’s insane how much the Lord blesses us when we work hard!
We climbed a huge mountain just to get to one new investigator that we found close to home. After the climb up, we found out that she’s got a family of 15! And then we contacted 2 other giant families and we now have a lot of work up there!!!! Looks like we’ll be climbing that hill quitr a bit.
We are finding people left and right here; we made another 40 contacts this week which puts us at 120 contacts in 3 weeks!!! We are talking with everyone!!!! and the members give us references!!!!! (That reminds me, you guys need to give more references to your missionaries!!!!)
I am in love with this work and these people (and this food). It’s the best 2 years for sure. Sorry you didn’t get to go to such a dope mission like mine, Dad 🙁
Love you so much,
Elder Turner
