October 10, 2016

Week 34

Yeni Yoldasimi cok seviyorum!
(I Love My New Comrade!)

Hey family!

Soooo for transfers, my new companion is Volunteer Nahle, the one who is half Lebanese :)I love him a lot. We are opening an area which is super far west Istanbul. The area is called Bakirkoy. We don't have an apartment yet so we are still staying with the Levent Volunteers. It's a pain because it's about an hour long bus ride just to our area, and our area is ginormous! Volunteer Blair is training again! His trainee is from Argentina and the only English he knows is what he picked up at the MTC. So, it's about as good as his Turkish right now but he's an awesome guy! There is another new volunteer whose dad spoke in General Conference last week-- Elder Nattress. Speaking of conference, we still haven't watched all of it, we still have to see the Priesthood session and Sunday afternoon session. My favorite talk was Elder Ballard's. Oh man, he laid down the hammer! There are so many people who have left the church because of stupid theories and things they've heard about church leaders or whatever! I loved how he kept saying, "Where else would you go?" I also loved how he compared living the Gospel to being on a path of diamonds and we shouldn't let "pebbles" interfere. Mom, as far as the ties go, I haven't really been a fan but Volunteer Nahle loves them so I gave them to him, haha. But I really do love everything else so thank you! Also, thank you so much for your support and testimonies you share with me! I'm super stoked that Alli gets to be in the cultural celebration on Saturday. The one for the Freibug Temple was just  kids dancing around in lederhosen. I'm sure the FOCO  one will be much better! Other than traveling a lot to our area and General Conference, there isn't much to report sadly. I'm just so happy to be back where I belong. We actually have found a Syrian friend who loves to meet with us. He has four teenage kids and he's the only one we can talk to because none of them know English or Turkish. They are a great family, though, and we hope to continue to visit them. I'm sorry this might be a little short this week but we are super busy today. I love you all so much and thank you for everything!

Transfer Day!!!