6.12.12

Today I am writing early because this afternoon we have a fire side with Elder Maines of the 70. This week seems like it will be a bit more busy than normal for me because Wednesday and Thursday I will have a training meeting which only happens every 3-4 months so it is a bit out of the normal, but I'm looking forward to all of the inspiration and spiritual guidance that I will receive. 

This week we began to change our way of working with the members and so far it seems to be working well. I pray that we will see the fruits of our labours and that we will soon be able to bring God's children to the waters of baptism. We began to visit the  members of our ward and share with them a very brief message of the restoration of the gospel and then we ask them to think of all the blessings that they have received from the restored gospel and after doing that we ask them who they can invite over to their house so that we can share with them the message of the restored gospel. We have some visits set up with the members to bring their friends over for a family home evening where we will share the message. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and all the blessings that we will receive from the Lord. 

Yesterday I saw what to many might be a small miracle but to me it was great because I saw the hand of the Lord work quickly and I felt my faith increase as I put my faith to the test. Yesterday was preparation day and we had an activity planned as a zone where we went to the institute building and played soccer, ping pong, foosball, and air hockey and we ate lunch and had a great time. When we were playing soccer I got into a little scrabble with another missionary as we were both trying to get the ball and I pulled my foot back to kick the ball away and I ended up kicking him as hard as I could in his leg sweeping his feet out from under him (that's what happens when you don't know what you're doing). Luckily he caught himself and didn't fall and we just kept on playing. Later in the afternoon my foot started hurting me because I had kicked him with the outside of my foot, the part that's soft, and it made it difficult to walk. I couldn't put a lot of pressure on my foot and was walking with a funny limp. I was really worried because we needed to go out to work and we had a lot of walking to do so I took some ibuprofen and said a little prayer. As my companion and I were leaving the house we prayed as normal, but I asked that the Lord would heal my foot so that I could walk. We left the house and as I was walking down the street the pain was gone and I was able to walk normal. From the time I said the prayer to the time I realized that I didn't have anymore pain was a matter of 2 minutes. No matter how small the situation might apear to humans, to the Lord it is important and He truly does care for each one of His children and He does hear and answer our prayers. I know that miracles do exist.

Last Tuesday I was with my companion talking to people in the bus stop sharing the gospel. Like normal I had my poster of the first vision on one side and other gospel pictures on the other and was contacting someone when a chinese man got close to me and in english asked me what the first vision was. I began to explain to him what it represented and he responded saying "but you're not Catholic so why do you have that image?" It made me laugh, but then I told him that it was a representation and we by no means adore the image nor do we pray to it. I began to explain more about the gospel and the blessing that I have received through the gospel and asked him when we could stop by to visit him. To my surprise he told us that he lived in our area (the majority of the people we talk to at the bus stop don't live in our area) and he said that maybe Wednesday, the following day. I wrote his number down and when we got home that night I called him and set up the appointment for 12 noon on Wednesday. His name is Max and he is a very cool guy. He wants to know more about the gospel and he wants to read the Book of Mormon, but it will take about 2 months for us to get one in Chinese so for now we will have to explain and read what we can in English. We invited Max to church and he showed up. Max has been a blessing and a miracle in my life. At church on Sunday Max said to me in his chinese accent  "Tank you Tuney. You teach me lot."

I love the Gospel of Christ. I know that it is true and that the Lord Christ lives. 

Love,

Elder Turner