Solid Week of Missionary Work December 18, 2017

Down at the German market

Shelby is from the Waffle Truck that takes care of them.
 She is Mark and Stephanie's daughter.

Elder Pond bought us shoe laces for Christmas.

We bought chop sticks because now we will have less dishes
to wash and so we can be cultured.
(I hope he knows you still need to wash them.)

On top of a parking garage downtown.
oh man that looks cold!!

Attempting to warm up. ( Elder Pond)

This week has been a pretty good week!

We have found a new potential family that we have become really close with. They work the waffle hut at the German market that we always go to! We are super close with the husband and wife (mark and Stephanie) and their two oldest daughters.  They are constantly asking us questions about our missions and very good questions about the Mormon faith. So we have been able to tell them a little about what we do and what we teach.  They are fairly interested so it will be excited to see what the lord has in store for them. They want us to come over for dinner and Mark said he will cook us whatever we want!

   This week we had prime rib fed to us and they gave us a whole gallon size bag full with left overs so we are stoked about that. Also they have a 18 year old kid who just started his papers and he picked us up in his moms brand new bmw. So we made it a convertible and we were cruising. It was sweet. (perks of living in a rich area ha).  This week was a solid week and we are excited about Christmas and the awesome families that we will spend it with. We are definitely blessed here in Carmel. The members are so kind to us. 

  Sorry this week is kinda short. but i love all you guys. I love my mission, I am so glad that I came out here to served the lord.Ii have definitely grown so much and I wouldn't have been able to get this experience any other way.

Elder Turley

The Hook Ups December 11, 2017

The entire Indiana Mission was able to meet
 Elder Neil L. Anderson (an apostle) and his wife.

Elder Pond and Elder Turley were front row center.

Got these in a package today for New Years!
ya we drank them. They didn't make it thru the night.

At least he is organized.  Showing off his wall art.  Which he will
happily except more. hint hint

This week has been a really solid week! I will try and make this brief. but quick story about my title for this email. there is a German market in downtown Carmel area. So we go there every night and talk to people.  The sister missionaries were down there and Elder Pond and I are known for mooching off people, and we get so much free stuff down at this place all the time. So the sister missionaries were like hey you guys should see if you could get us some hot chocolate. So all we said was "give us 5 min" and we walk away and we met a cool guy from Austria, his name is Rolland. We talked about our purpose as missionaries told him that I had brothers that served there missions in Europe. and.... he offered us free hot chocolate! So we walked back to the sister missionaries with hot chocolate in our hands 5 min later. It was sooo swaggy. it was awesome! 

Monday: we played some b-ball. the usual. 

Tuesday; honestly I don't even remember, that was so long ago.

Wednesday: at the German market we talked to someone for the first time and miraculously put him on date to be baptized which was kinda cool. the spirit was so strong telling me I needed to ask him.  but we found out he doesn't live in our area. so we passed him to the sister missionaries but we still occasionally see him. 

Thursday; it snowed for the first time but only like a few inches, if that. I don't remember what we did that day, probably the same thing we did on Tuesday but can't remember either of them. 

Friday:Today was pretty cool. Elder Anderson, from the quorum of the 12 apostles, came and talked to all of the Indiana missionaries and we got to SHAKE his hand. Its cool teaching people that our church is run by prophets and apostles, and then actually being able to meet one of those apostles.

Saturday; We had a dinner with a member and their nonmember friends. and that was AWESOME. They are Indian.  The nonmember made the best Indian food I have ever had in my life. and she made PLENTY. so we have 72 hour food storage in our fridge of Indian food basically.

Sunday; A day FULL OF MIRACLES. We had 5 nonmembers at church. That is my record so far. One of our investigators brought his pastors. lol they liked it tho.  Then a girl that we put on date to be baptized like a month ago came to our ward and she also went to her ward that she is supposed to go to.  She texted us and said that something clicked in her mind and all the doubts about baptism are gone and she knows this is true and she is ready to make the leap of faith and be baptized. so we will be getting a baptism soon. be on the look out. also at the German market we have made friends with the waffle hut. and they are our secret waffle dealers they gave us 15 Belgium waffles and bought us dinner.  They asked if we wanted to come over for dinner and have STEAK. and there daughter who is a senior in college had a lot of questions for us so they will be a good potential family. 

 The Christmas spirit is so awesome here. Everyone is so giving and welcoming to us and they are thankful for us. btw I would love letters for Christmas or even packages :) 

 i love all you guys

Elder Turley

Send me Christmas cards or presents. December 4, 2017

The dream team is staying together for another transfer!

Brother Lambert gave them matching ties for Christmas.

One of their investigators owns a doughnut shop. 
Yay to free doughnuts!!

With the Sister Missionaries helping out at the Keystone Ward Christmas party.

Pictures sent from members of the Ward.  I love getting these.
Here they are with a few of the youth in the ward they have gotten to know.

MY ADDRESS IS  520 cool ridge dr. Carmel Indiana 46032. I would love to see your family Christmas cards or even a letter or even a present :) but yes send me something

I went on exchanges this week because I am a district leader and I went down to crossroads, and crossroads is like downtown Indianapolis.  It is super ghetto. There is a street called 10th street. and one of the intersections on 10th street is called 10th and drive by because so many people get shot out here. its crazy. so we went tracking off 10th street, and we talked to these druggies on the street and one said to us in a really sketchy voice. "y'all be safe out in the streets" then later we ended up talking to him and he asked us "so what do you guys think about death?" as he slowly walked towards us with his hand in his pocket. hahaha but we ended up talking to his friend named spider. He wouldn't tell us his real name but we gave him a Book of Mormon because he said he liked to study religion. I doubt anything will come from it, but you never know. 

Back in downtown Carmel there is a huge German market going on and they have a outdoor ice rink and its pretty cool, so we go down there about every night and talk to people.  We get so much free stuff down there from people its sick. Everyone loves us. There is this waffle stand that gives us free waffles. The owners are Mark and Stephanie, and they love us.They see us ad they go "HEY PEYTON AND GAVIN" its cool. and all the missionaries in this area go down to the market and they see Mark and Stephanie. So Mark always gives everyone free waffles because the missionaries know us. So we are like the connection. He asked if we could help run the store on Saturday so we are going to go and help run the stand on Saturday its gunna be fun. and he is giving us shirts. also we got free cookies from the stand next to them. and the place where you get your wristband to ice skate, said that he can get us in for free if we want to go and he will give us free skates because he likes us and we talk to him. so next we are going to go to the Zamboni driver and see if he will let us ride on the Zamboni with him. that's our goal. hahaha so we have fun out here in Carmel. 

We just go transfer calls and Elder Pond and I will be staying here in Carmel, and we are super stoked about that. We love serving with each other and the members love us here. We already have 4 offers for us to come over and spend time with their family on Christmas and they told us that they will have presents for us. So we are pretty spoiled here.  

But this thing is getting long and I doubt anyone actually reads the whole thing because I know I wouldn't. but I like to share my fun and cool experiences. We have someone on date to be baptized on the 16th so hopefully we can continue to work with her. 

Elder Turley

Day 148/730 November 27, 2017

Elder Pond and Elder Turley with the kids that they played with in the Turkey Bowl.

Two different people sent a text home with pictures. 
Looks like they had trash duty.  They got the scarfs
so people would know they were volunteers.  

A very nice Return Missionary saw these two young men serving down town Carmel.
He was so nice to send this picture with a nice note thanking us for having such
a great young man serving a mission in Indiana.  We love getting pictures from
new friends who support our missionary.

Down town Carmel where the ice rink is and shops where the Elders
like to go to do service and talk with people. 

Everyone says this little boy is my mini me.
 His name is Aden Kemp.

I hit 200 lbs!!  (A goal he was trying to reach) Still going
strong on the low sugar diet!

Transfers are coming this week so we are anxious to see what happens!

November 27, 2017

yeah so fun fact. Its day 148. That has nothing to do with my email but ya.

This week was full of turkey, football, tennis balls being dunked, and ALOT of missionary work, so grab your ATHLETIC TAPE and go buy some CRUTCHES because your ankles are about to be BROKEN.

Monday: we taught Alex ( a girl that we have on date to be baptized) and the sister missionaries next to us came to the lesson because they are going to start teaching her because Alex lives in their area. so solid day.

Tuesday: idk really remember much. but i know it had something to do with missionary work. 

Wednesday: there is an ice rink in the city center, like downtown Carmel, and it is outside so it is the perfect spot to go and talk to people. so we volunteered there and we walked around and picked up trash. they gave us free scarfs. 

Thursday: we started play playing football with our ward. and a priest brought some non member friends that played football because he keeps trying to find people that will beat elder pond and I in a sport. and yet again he failed! but it was good competition, but knew had Jesus on our side so of course we are always going to win. then we ate some good thanksgiving food and hung out with the Lambert family (the guy that we work out with all the time (btw I hit 200 lbs this morning so I have officially gained 20 lbs since being out and we are still going strong on our little sugar diet, and yes, this a parenthesis inside of a parenthesis)). but thanksgiving was very fun. 

Friday: we did some missionary work. weird huh? but we went down to the ice rink again. 

Saturday: did some more missionary work. and a recent convert and her husband made us athentic chinese food. and it was sooo good. we ate roasted duck. and last week they took us to get japanese food and we ate raw yellow-tailed tuna, raw squid, raw sea urchent, raw striped bass, and i loved it. we also had sushi. i love sea food now. so they are giving us a variety of food. they have also fed us vietnamese food.

Sunday: we potentially told people goodbye because this is our last week of the transfer. Elder Pond and I are hoping we stay together but we never know. Everyone was sad that we are leaving so that was good because it shows that they liked us and we told all the youth and they were like noooo you guys cant leave yet. it was cool. 

 I know that this church is true. I know my heavenly father loves me and he has a plan for each and everyone one of us. and he has especially given us certain talents so we can use them and help share the gospel with others and we can be the light in their life and help lead them through the darkness. find out what your talents are and how you are personally going to light the world this Christmas season. i love you all.

Elder Turley

This week has flown by! November 20, 2017

What a wonderful fireside. Indy North and Indy West Stakes "Why I Believe"
made these missionaries happy.  We heard some inspiring stories.
 (face book mission page)

The Ice Rink that is downtown Carmel.  It's huge!
It's freezing here in Indiana!

November 20, 2017

This week has been a good week... we have someone on date for DEC 16 and her name is Alex. She is 16 years old. Unfortunately she doesn't live in our area so we have to hand her over to the sisters and they will continue teaching.  I am still excited to see her progress and go to her baptism and who knows maybe elder pond or I might baptize her. but she is awesome.  Not much else has happened. We found out our area has a fashion mall so all the super expensive stores that clothes cost like $2000 dollars for a jacket, they are there. So we go there on Friday and Saturday night and we talk to all the people.  Not much else has happened.This week is thanksgiving. and i'm excited for all the good food. and we have a turkey bowl for our ward and the Indy stake missionaries all get together and we will play football. so that will be cool not much else is happening right now. I love you all and thank you for everything you do for me. I love this gospel. I love spending the joy that it brings me. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I love reading the Bible and seeing Jesus rebuke everyone. he taught with such a great power. and its cool to think I have that same power. and I can be just as powerful.

Elder Turley

I Got Jokes November 13, 2017

This is Olive she likes catching and holding the chickens at her house.

Splits with the Priest Quorum

Meeting Santa with Elder Allred. 
Santa was pretty cool and from Ohio.

My District the Indy North District
(Elder Fuller hates his picture taken that's why he is on the floor)

Its starting to get cold.

11/13/17

 So i have a joke for you guys.... A bear walks into a restaurant, and the waiter says to him "hello bear what can i get for you" and the bear says "I would like to have a burger and some fries" hahaha lol

So this week has just flown by. We didn't do much crazy things. We've been struggling to find new people since the cold weather seems to make the people more grumpy and the time change has made them not answer the door past 5. We ended up going door to door with rakes asking if we can rake their lawn, we got two people to say yes and spent almost two hours raking their leaves for them, both were really appreciative and honestly pretty curious about what we do, but were too busy and didn't have time to really talk, so it sounds like were gonna be doing a lot more raking in this next week to get some new investigators. 

Last night we had a fireside called 'why i believe' which is where all of the recent converts within the past few months basically tell their stories and share their testimonies. Super cool and its good to bring people who are struggling or who are investigating to realize that they are in a common spot and there are people that can help. The investigators can sometimes feel intimidated by the missionaries, so its a good thing so see them lean on other members who are new to build up their own testimonies and push through. We did not have any investigators there since all of them were busy, but its cool seeing other ones there and beginning to see the light in their eyes. The spirit was so strong. The youth from our ward sung the EFY melody and it was super cool. Since choir is so big here its easy to be able to bring in the spirit through music since the kids really know what theyre doing. 

on wednesdays morning we go to a members house and he feeds us breakfast until we cant stuff any more food in us. and then we go and do service for him and his wife. they are ancient. like i mean ancient, ancient. and he is hilarious. he loves us. his son was less acrtive and he married a non member and she got baptized and he came back to church and this happened before i got here. but they are awesome and we love to talking them them.  

but i love you guys back home. i miss everyone, BUT i love my mission and dont want to come home. this place is awesome and i love the work that i am doing!

This week we ended up figuring out that if we tell a joke on the doorstep to break the ice that it make it much easier to talk to them and have them realize that were normal people and they shouldnt slam the door in our face since we got good jokes, which reminds me of the joke i sent before this 

"And a large coke please" the bear says. "why the long pause?" asks the waitress. The bear holds up his hands "THESE?  I'VE HAD THEM MY WHOLE LIFE!"

Elder Turley