Can you turn on I cloud syncing from your phone?

Yes. The syncing options are at Settings > [username] > iCloud (e.g., iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, Contacts, Notes, etc). Turning those options on will affect syncing to and from the phone where you turn it on but will not turn on syncing for any other devices you own; you need to turn syncing options on in each device that you want to sync.