I tell you what, it sure is a great joy to hear from you and to know how the family is doing. It brightens my spirits to know that you are all safe and that for the majority you are trying to do all you can to follow the Lord. The mission has truly changed me in a lot of ways and the great thing is, is that I have changed for the better. I feel as though I am becoming a true disciple of Christ with only one purpose in this life, to serve those who surround me. I have been in Patzicia for about 18 weeks or 4.5 months and i will be here for another 6 weeks. At the thought of being here for another 6 weeks I was a bit frustrated, but I knelt in prayer and Heavenly Father confirmed to me that it need to be here and I need to be with the companion I'm with because the Lord needs to teach me still. In this past week I felt loved. Loved by the Lord, loved by the people and loved by my family :) I know that you are praying for me and I can feel your prayers.

This past week as we worked and worked and worked, it was difficult. We didn't have as many new investigators as we had wished and we didn't have tons of success as far as lessons go, but we did give a lot of service. I felt very accomplished as we served others and showed our love for the Lord as we served His children in need. On thursday we did some service, but it was real service. I didn't know what I was getting myself into until we got there and started working, but what we were asked to do is to help a member cut down 2 trees in the forest. These trees were just regular little trees, they were well over 60 feet tall and at the bottom, the widest part of the tree was about 3 feet wide. We started at 6am and finished loading the wood into a truck at 3pm. We had to haul the pieces of the tree about 30 feet, not too far, but they weighed a ton, probably 70lbs each. I felt accomplished and as though my efforts were worth while. The man is going to use parts of the trees to build a house made of sheet metal (we would call it a shack) and the rest of it for fire wood because thats how they cook. It will last him about 5 months for 2 people.

The work continues and the Lord blesses us. There is no better place to be than here on the earth in the service of our fellow men. The Lord knows us personally and He is here to succor us in our times of need. I enjoyed the talk in conference about the gardner who cut back the currant bush (made me think of grandpa Ron) and how he expressed his thoughts of the currant bushes felings after being cut down. Feelings of sadness and lonliness because he looked so beautiful and the gardner wanted him to give fruit so he had to trim the bush. The Lord is the Gardener and He will cut us down as He desires so that we can become fruitful servants of His. We must be willing to accept change and to accept critisism or we will never be able to be the person that the Lord knows and wants us to be.

Elder Turner