April 7th

Dear Family,

How are you all? I´m good! Thanks for asking! It makes me oh-so-very-happy hearing about all of your most excellent happenings at home!

To clear it up, no my companion is not a midget, haha, I guess that´s what I get for hyperolating and  saying he was half my size. He´s 1..71 meters or.... 5´ 7´´.

Conference was great!! Yes, mom, to answer your question of ¨is Brad watching this conference right now¨, yes, I was. (Except the Priesthood session because it was way too late for us at 9 or 10 at night... I don´t remember)

I loved conference and I hope all of you were listening to what the Prophet said, it´s important. He´s the prophet.

I hope you guys appreciate how easy it is for you to watch conference and that you guys make it something important. Here in 25 de Mayo, La Pampa, Argentina, we watch it all together in the chapel. We finally got internet in our chapel here and so we hooked it all up and watched as a branch.Technology is a miracle. It was great to watch conference,even if it was dubbed over with spanish, but I was depressed and frustrated with how many people didn´t find it very important to come and listen to what the Prophet of the Lord has to say. In other words, according to D&C 1:38, what God has to say directly to us. We are consistently asking for guidance from the Lord, but when he talks to us conference are we listening? *Sigh* I sent messages and invited and I´ll give it to them, that it was raining with a significant amount of rain, but we even, for some of them, went to their houses to pick them up in a car. Fa... (Fa is the same thing as ´´Wow´´ or ´´Jeez´´ or a sigh in Latin America) It was frustrating for the moment, but it just gives me an even greater appreciation for conference and the guidance of the Prophets that I CHOOSE to listen to.

Okay, so yeah this week we spent a whole day out of our area at a Zone Conference and 2 days out of our area in a area close-by staying with a solo missionary. Also, these last 5 days we´ve had a whole bunch of rain, and wind. More rain and storm than we´ve had in 40 years. Luckily where I am there are all asphalt streets, but in other places not so much, and it did a lot of damage in Neuquén, but where I am (Mother, listen to this) everything is fine, except for lots of big puddles and a mud.

A question for everyone, that means you, reading this.

What was your favorite talk or topic in General Conference?

Don´t forget to go back and watch, read, or listen to conference, even if it´s one talk, listened to in the shower and during breakfast, at a time! (That´s how I do it.)

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Cordially,

Elder Bradley Turek

P.S. My companion sends his regards to all of you. He didn´t want to take a picture today, but here is a picture of him washing the dishes to give you a good idea.

March 31st

Dear Family,

How are you all. I loved hearing about how things are going. The festival of colors... sounds and looks very colorful. ´Makes you´re pearly whites so much pearlier and whiter.

Here in Argentina, we´re finally arriving in Autumn. It´s getting less hot and I actually used a sweater the other day.

This last week was transfers! My companion left all the way down to El Bolsón (getting down towards the south pole, okay not THAT close, but the limits of our mission), and I recieved a new ¨mini missionary¨ companion from Trevelín, even more south of El Bolsón. 

I was really worried at first. I was thinking how this is some kid from Argentina, who hasn´t even been through the MTC, and I don´t know what I´m going to do with him... To make worries worse, I heard a few hours before he came that he is 28 and that he got baptized 3 weeks ago. Can you imagine what I was thinking? I don´t remember. But I remember feeling worried and praying multiple times.

Well, despite my worries and the like, everything turned out quite well. Raúl Hilari, my new companion is ´´un capo´´ (very cool kid). A little more than half my size living, at 28 years old, he was quiet at first, but he´s really ready to go to work and to share his testimony. This kid´s got faith. He was baptized a month ago and even though he can´t leave on a mission full-time, for his age, he listened to the spirit´s promptings to take advantage of this oppportunity to leave on a ´´mini-mission´´.

Well, I sadly am out of time... again.

Sending love and prayers your way,

Elder Bradley Turek

 My face...

March 25th

Dear Family,

Things are good. Te cuento. 

Firstly: Adriana, that lady who I said was going to be baptized last week. She was doing well with quitting smoking until one day last week when she had a really stressful day, because of family problems back home, and she smoked. Well, she stayed here in 25 de Mayo just to get baptized, and so when we helped her to understand that she`s going to have to wait a little longer to get baptized things went south. I told her before we left that the devil was going to work on her, and that she should be aware of it ``because he does not want you to get baptized``. 

The next day we saw her. She looked totally different; depressed, upset, not the same.

We went to visit her that night and she told us. ``Honestly, I`m just going to leave it all behind. I`ve already made the decision and I`m not going to change it.`` My mouth dropped. I could not believe what I was hearing.

She explained. Among a lot of other things, like how she couldn`t talk to the missionaries because her neighbors will make fun of her, the main reason surfaced that she was doing this for her son, Christian, who has problems with drugs, and that he hasn`t gotten any better. That she was mad at God.

Shocked, we tried to help her understand, one, where these feelings are coming from, and two that she should think long and hard about this before taking such a rash decision; that she should think about all the times she was feeling a change in herself and how she said that this church is different than any other, and all the times she felt the spirit.

We talked with her for a few hours and I used every scriptural, logical, spiritual tactic I could think of to help her change her mind, or at very least think about this before making a final decision.

We left her with this thought and my testimony ´´I didn`t say it would be easy, I only said it would worth it``, I told her how I knew that it WAS and IS worth it. More than that, we left a few scriptures, and prayers, and told her that we would (and have been) praying for her--alot. 

We prayed--alot.

I finally came to a conclusion. I wrote in my Journal on the very last line,

``We did all we could, and will continue to do so. I have to trust that God will let happen what needs to happen.``

Sounds dismal, no?

Well, I`ll end this. We went to visit her the next day and guess what...

she said ``I thought about what you guys said last night. I was thinking all night and all of today... and... I decided that...

I`m going to do everything you guys taught me and listen to the missionaries.``

Yes!

Bottom line: God answers prayers. Sometimes he just tests us first.

Other than that we had transfers this week. I am going to have a mini missionary for my new companion--a young man from argentina who is thinking about serving a mision and wants to try it out for a few weeks. 

God`s testing again.

I`m a bit nervous, but everything will work together for my good. I know it.

Love you all,

Elder Bradley Turek

March 17th

Hello Family,

I hope your week is moving along just swell.

News: We have a baptism planned for this next saturday. Her name is Adriana Ruiz. She lives way far away in Tucuman, but she has been here in 25 de Mayo picking pears for the last month or two. She`s going home this next monday, but she want`s to get baptized before she goes home. With her, I`ve seen the spirit working more than with any other investigator I`ve had. We`re going to be visiting her every day this week.

Other than that, Transfers is this next week. I`m ready for transfers.

I`ve been praying for my future companion every day this week. I hope that I`ll be prepared for him and him for me. Who knows? I might even train a new missionary.

Yeah, sometimes the mission is tough. Life`s not over, and I`m not dying or depressed, it`s just hard sometimes.

I pulled out my mini For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, and began to read it on the colectivo.

After reading it, I decided to repay the kind, soft, colectivo seat by giving it my wallet. It gratefully accepted and promised me an opportunity to buy myself a real argentine wallet, if I did so. He took such good care of the cell phone that I gave hime last month, I even tipped him 250ish pesos, my mision debit card, my driver`s liscence, and my temple reccomend, becuase his idea was so good.

 Who need`s wallets anyway? If God wants, it`ll show up. If not, I will still live. Things. Are. Replaceable.

Thanks for your prayers,

Elder Bradley Turek

March 10th

Dear family,

I love the photos that you all sent me of you guys and your trip in the Cayman Islands! Wow, that water is super, super pretty! Ah, I about died. But, you can´t beat the argentine sun, omnipresent dirt, sharp rocks, numerous dogs, and huge spike plants that I got here. Nope, not even close. Haha, okay maybe it does, but does your sunset look like this?

 

Yeah, they´re great here. And, the dogs, spikes, dirt, sun and rocks you get used to, so it´s pretty good here.

I don´t have lots of time today, but I will share with you one experience this week,

We have an investigator, the same one who we traded pear-work for baptismal service attendance. She came to church again, this week. Our recent convert, Jorgelina, was confirmed by Elder Lopes, my companion, as well.

When we went to Adriana´s house later that day, she told us that while Jorgelina was being confirmed that she felt something ¨Hermosa¨ or Beautiful in her chest! She said she felt like she was the one there, sitting in the chair! She told us that she has been to lots of churches, I mean lots of churches, and that never has she felt, what she feels here. She told us, no promised us, that if she doesn´t get baptized here in 25 de Mayo, that she will when she goes back to Tucuman, where she lives! 

Bottom line: the Lord has a hand in the work here in the Argentina Neuquén Mission.

This last week we, as a mission, had 45 baptisms, which is one away from breaking the record. We´re seeing lots of good things, and we just have to be ready and prepared to recieve what he has in store.

Lots of love,

Elder Bradley Turek