Hey Doug's Friends & Fam

Elder Brian is turning 20 next Sunday!
If you have a second sometime this week to write him a little note and send some love that would be awesome!
His email is douglas.brian@myldsmail.net
Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hermana Turk's version of Peruvian Abbey Road with all the Office Elders

November 1st

Hey famiry.
So the earthquake thing. It was in Lima. not bad at all. There was one a couple weeks ago that we felt a little more but they didn't do anything here... just kinda cool.
So got a phone call last Friday. And then I was suddenly talking to president. And now I'm in the office. Someone please ask Ian what a financial secretary is supposed to do...!?
So that's why I haven't written you yet, cause I'm trying to figure out how to manage vendors and receipts and memorize account and safe numbers. So I got two weeks to train in all this stuff and then I actually have to start doing it. So that's weird. And odds are pretty good I won't get sent out of the office till my mission is more than half over. Unreal right? But I'm not that bummed about it cause I like working in here. Plus, we get a cool apartment and have our own kitchen and stuff. Plus, I get to make my own breakfast and dinner. Plus, Hermana Turk is extremely generous with candy. So that about makes up for not getting to proselyte very much. So anyway, a kid who's never written a check is now running finances for the Trujillo, Peru mission; if it wasn't inspired it would be absolutely irresponsible. 

How Great is My Calling

Doug sent this to me last week, he says they quote it in Spanish at every meeting. I thought it was really powerful so I thought I'd share it with the rest of the blogosphere...

I am called of God.
My authority is above all the kings of the earth.
By prophesy I have been called as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

He is my master and He has chosen me as his humble servant.
To put me in his place. 
To say and do what he would say and do if he personally we're 

here ministering to the very people to which he has sent me.
My voice is his voice. 
My acts are his acts.
My words are his words.
My doctrine is his doctrine.
My comission is to say what he wants said. 

To do what he wants done. 

To be a living, modern day witness of his great and marvelous work in these last days. 
How great is my calling.

-Bruce R. McConkie

October 3rd

So Elder Erickson just died. Sad times. but he lives in Oregon and is gonna go to BYU so in approximately 18 months i'll be seeing him. He was a way good guy. Super focused on loving other people and trying to tell them what Christ would have them do to be happier and feel more of his love. 

So pretty much a normal day: we get up at 6:30 or 6 if we want to go running. shower get ready and walk three blocks to the pensions house. Then we eat go back and study until 10. then we work til 1 and go to the pensions house to eat and leave at 2:30 to work again. This pensh is one of the better ones. she'll make about anything and thern throw on a side of rice. we got that package of food and stuff you sent this week so we made the mashed potatoes and pancakes and all that, but normally she makes chicken or eggs or beef with some rice. you get used to it really.


 P-days are pretty dope. we play fubito at 6 and then shower and come here to write letters and whatever other random purchase and stuff we've gotta do. then at 6 it's like a normal day and we go eat and leave at 7 to go work again. and that is roughly what I do everyday. and it sounds really boring now that I go over it again... this is due to lack of detail and extreme lazyness in writing on my part. sooo sry. ha but really it's pretty awesome.


The people don't let you in their houses as easily as in Huamachuco but the people that do are way more prepared to make and keep commitments. Which is everything. Conference was way good. The four of us that speak english in our stake got our own room and watched most of it in english. It was mind blowingly good. Ask someone how intense Holland was in priesthood session. "He went on a burning rampage of glory." -Erickson  


Anywho.. I am totally drawing a blank on what happened this week... oh Cinthya got baptized. and yes that really is how you spell Cinthya here. We thought it was going to be so stressful to make sure she was prepared in so short a time but it honestly was super easy. Sometimes the spirit isn't a rushing of mighty wind. Sometimes it just makes it so you can understand clearly and then make a choice. And when people make right choice they receive blessings and further witnesses. Agency is kind of a big deal turns out. 

Elder Brian

Yesterday

(This is a post from Doug's Mission President's Wife. You can read her blog at 

                        http://terryandjanetturk.blogspot.com)

This is Segundo and his family.

He is the security guard at the Institute downtown.

His wife has been a less active member for a long time.

He had been given many Book of Mormons by the institute students.

He had listened in on many of the classes.

But to no avail.

The Missionaries were passing by his house one day

and his wife was outside and asked if they had any pamphlets for 

Segundo to read

while he was in the hospital recovering from surgery.

They of course had several, they gave her and they were on their way.

They followed up with the family

and he had read the pamphlets and wanted to hear more.

Segundo knew that it was time to make a change in his life

and get his family on the right path together. He and his daughter were baptized yesterday by Elder Erikson and Elder Brian. 

The church is not an obligation

It is a path... to a glorious destination.

September 6th --Transferred to Trujillo

....We contacted this guy that worked in a tire shop and started teaching him and his niece. Anyway after like two lessons we we´re startng to read bits of the Book of Mormon together and he saw the picture of Joseph Smith in front and stopped the lesson and asked, "that's Joseph Smith right?" We were really surprised cause we had barely mentioned his name and didn't really expect him to know that.. We answered that it was, and then he started telling us about a dream he had that he'd forgotten about till just then where he was walking through a crowd and picked out the face of a man (guess who) as he walked toward him through all the people and they just locked eyes as he passed, so the man turned out to be Joseph Smith.


....and then me and Elder Erickson about passed out.

...When we call our district for their numbers every wednesday thursday and sunday, we added a new category that I'm gonna apply to you guys. We ask every companionship how many times they told their companion they loved them. Which is weird at first right? But expressing love to the Lord or other people is honestly one of the best ways to get the spirit. So do it if you want to be happier people. And if it feels weird or like too much work think about this quote from President Eyring "If you knew how hard we worked in the quorum to have the spirit, you would be embarassed with your own efforts." (I'm told it was said with all humility so don't take it wrong.)

Everybody pray for Trent. For some reason I've been super preoccupied with him lately.

That is all.

-Elder Brian

August 15th -- The Good Samaritan

Cool thing in the scriptures this week:  K, so I found a cool Plan of salvation reference that´s way too complicated to teach to investigators. So guess who has to listen to it. Yep--you guys. Ok so it begins "a certain man (Adam/all of us) went down from Jerusalem (heaven) to Jericho (earth). Along the way he fell among thieves (Satan and his angels) who left him naked and half dead (spiritually dead) and awaiting physical death. And then comes a priest (law given to prophets before Moses) who passed by and couldn´t/wouldn´t save him. Then came a Levite (law of Moses)...also couldn´t save him. Then came our boy, the Samaritan (had no comliness that when we looked upon him we should desire him. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him) and he bound up the wounds and poured in water and oil. Placed the man (Adam/us) on his own beast (his own merit and righteousness) and walked the path that we couldn´t. Then he comes to the inn, which is a place to take care of the man (us) and watch over his healing process, (inn=the church) and he gives to the owner of the inn two pence (two priesthoods) to care for the man until he comes again.

Bit of a stretch? Maybe, but there it is: plan of salvation in the New Testament.