November 4

Dear Family,

Wow, what a week! The Temple was AMAZING! And that's an understatement. Its exactly what I needed. It really boosted my spirits, and gave me an extra drive. I just was overfilled with gratitude for him and all he has ever done for me, and I couldn't help but feel his love and is approval for me. 

There were other tender mercies that happened in the temple. Many of the temple workers there were in my first area "Regal Park" in Lubbock, and it was such a reunion for me! It almost felt like family was there with me.

That night for Halloween all of us missionaries got together and played games. ha ha. I was grateful for all my years in student council and other activities because I knew of some games we could play, we did bobbing for apples, candy bar game, etc.

Teaching MLC was very humbling. It took me all week to prepare my lesson, and I still was really nervous, but it turned out pretty good. Of course as the teacher you learn more than the student, and it really helped me focus more on my investigators.

We are working with L. He used to be a member of the church, and its so amazing to see how hearts soften, and people are prepared. He wants to come back, and he says he's missed it so much. He is an amazing guy, with so much potential and we are really excited to start working with him.

There is a talk by Brother Wirthlin. "Thanksgiving Daily" I believe? There are clips from it as well on Mormon Moments. You should def. check it out. What a great month to remember what we are thankful for, but really how we should be grateful and thankful everyday! (Alma 34:38)

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Sister Turner

The field is white and ready to harvest! D&C 4:4

Sisters at the Temple!

October 28

Dear Family,

This week was a busy one! But then again when is there not a busy week in the life of a Missionary! ha ha.

Rickey got to speak in a high council priesthood meeting for the stake and shared his conversion story! 

We are now teaching one of his friends!

Heavenly Father must really love me, because he knows how much I love Halloween. So this year he is blessing me by letting me go to the temple!!! Our zone is taking a temple trip this Thursday! I am so excited! It is much needed, and I have lots of things to reflect on and questions to ask! I know it will bring me a lot of peace!

MLC is Friday, so I will be driving up to Lubbock twice this week! ha. I will be teaching at MLC as well! I am a little nervous and intimidated to be teaching all these amazing Zone Leaders and sister Training leaders throughout the mission! I have learned so much since I've had leadership positions out on the mission and its really humbled me in many ways.

Its amazing how the spirit softens hearts. I have seen that time and time again throughout my mission and I saw it again this week. The first time you teach them, they aren't really listening or open to the spirit, but as we have come back they now are beginning to listen and have the curiosity to find out for themselves. I see many tender mercies and it just strengthens my testimony of this gospel more and more.

I love and miss you all!

Sister Turner

My new companions, Sister Bennion and Sister Greenwood

October 21

Dear Family,

Well its official... I am never leaving Midland. ha ha. I am staying yet another transfer making it 7 1/2 months here. This transfer we are having a temple trip to Lubbock with our zone, and also another zone conference, so its going to be a very exciting transfer! :)

Both of my companions will be leaving. Sister Tooley going to Lubbock, and sister Lagrosa going to Monahans. (Ihopefully will be her sister training leader! Since I cover Monahans) I will be getting Sister Greenwood (my MTC companion), and Sister Bennion who has been out 4 1/2 months. This means for the first time since I was trained, I will have a break from training new missionaries! I will still have my responsibilities as a sister training leader.

This week we got 5 new investigators and had 6 member presents!! The work is really taking off, and its the best I've seen since being out on my mission. So I really want to try and keep this going in this area. Lots of potential!

Yesterday we taught gospel principles and relief society! Who would of thought but I love teaching. However I do think being set apart makes knowing at the last minute a little easier. ha.

Love and miss you all! Sad I am missing my favorite holiday with the family, Halloween. Dress up and get lots of candy for me ;) 

Love you all!
Sister Turner

October 14

Dear Family,

Wow was this an eventful week. On Tuesday I taught Zone training, and it went really well! The assistants to the President decided to show up and so it was really nerve wracking teaching in front of them. ha.

 

Then straight after that my companionship and I headed to Monahans to go on exchanges with the sisters I train there. We stay there for 24 hours and the following morning I get a phone call from the other sisters in Midland that I cover that Sister Fife (my previous companion) is in the hospital with Appendisitis and is going into surgery. So we had to end our exchange a little short so I could make it back in time to be with her!

 

We were completely out of gas on the way back and we prayed so hard that we would make it. The lord provided a way and we made it to the hospital on an empty tank of gas a few hours after her surgery. She got her appendix taking out. When I got there I took her hand, and tears filled her eyes, She told me she wished her mom was there, but she was glad her other mom( her trainer) was there. 

 

On Sunday I gave my talk, and Rickey passed the sacrament! He was wearing a shirt and tie and looked so sharp and was just glowing!

 

Transfers are this week! I can't even believe how fast this transfer flew! I only have 4 transfers left and trying to enjoy every minute of it. 

 

We got RAIN yesterday. The streets were completely flooded it was crazy! We wished we had a canoe cause we felt that would have been more useful than a car. ha ha.

 

We are working on some investigators right now, just trying to get them to become more solid, there are tons of peole here from Berma who speak the chin language. I have been trying to learn it. They actually don't have a Book of Mormon in Chin yet..... which kinda shocked us. But there are enough Bermise people here to make a stake, so we are doing our best working with them! We have talked about maybe starting an English class soon for them!

 

Love and miss you all!

Sister Turner

 

October 7

Dear Family,

So first off let me start with some stories I wanted to share from last week of the power of prayer.

We were fasting and praying for our area, and we had some amazing experiences.

We received a Media Referral in the mail. A women, D who just moved here from Fort Worth area, she was taking the lessons there, and so it was awesome meeting her and now we are teaching her!

We also had another man A just move into our area, who is ready for baptism! He's been taught all the lessons, we are going to hold off a few weeks baptizing him though, so he can gain fellowship in the ward. I feel like the Lord truly is blessing us for our hard work and practically handing us people. ha ha.

We have been working with a less active, Sister Gibson in our ward. She hadn't prayed in over 20 years, and the other night we had a very spiritual lesson with her and got her to pray for the first time in 20 years! Tears were falling down her face and she couldn't stop smiling. Gods love filled that room. It was undeniable. An experience I will never forget!

Many more but for sake of time I will just have to share them with you later in life ;( ha. Thank goodness for journal writing right!?

I went on exchanges with the other Sisters here in Midland. It was lots of fun. I also had MLC this month. (Missionary Leadership Conference where all the sister training leaders and zone leaders get together and we get instructed.) Its awesome! We now have 6 Sister training leaders instead of 4, so covering the 50+ sisters in our mission is getting a little easier... ha ha.

Since you've all been asking.. yes my Birthday was great!! In fact I felt very spoiled this whole week!!

On Monday our ward mission leader took some of us to the Petroleum Museum. Tuesday our car got decorated. I received at least one package every day from people. My companions made me breakfast,  A family fed us lunch in between the sessions of conference and got me gifts, and our ward mission leader also got me a cake and so after conference all the sisters in Midland got together to eat it! ha. So very spoiled indeed.

Definitely the highlight of the week was Conference! Wow so amazing! Rickey watched it for the first time too and he loved it!! His exact words. "Wow, I loved my prophet! For a white man he sure is powerful! " ha. Rickey is doing really well by the way. Its going to be hard to say goodbye to him, he truly is one of my best friends.

I honestly couldn't tell you a favorite talk of mine, there were so many I loved. But I loved Uchtdorf when he said " Doubt our doubts, before doubting your faith." And then he just spoke of how this gospel is for everyone, and all come join! As a missionary that of course got me way pumped! ha ha. The focus definitely was a lot of missionary work, and I am not sure if you noticed but every prayer that was said they blessed the missionaries. Every time they blessed us the spirit would feel my chest and I would get emotional, It was as if God himself was giving me a hug and letting me know he was here for me every step of the way. I know I couldn't do this work without him!

I love and miss you all!

Sister Turner

Birthday Cake!

Sep 30

Dear Family,

Wow lots to write about this week!! Texas FOOTBALL has started... man everyone is crazy about their football here. The high schools play on a HUGE stadium bigger than a lot of college sizes, and you have to get season tickets! Its a big deal. People don't like us too much on Texas football nights. ha ha.

New things are happening and changing and it is SO exciting. We had our Zone Conference this past week, and 7 of my previous companions were there! It was such a great reunion! We had a special guest with us! Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy!! He is amazing! I got so much insight and ideas for the new area and for our investigators! 

We were just informed that we all will now have the opportunity to go to the temple! I almost started crying with tears of joy!!! DONT take it for granted, once you don't get to go, you miss it so bad. We still dont know when, President told us to be patient as they work out details.
We also for the first time are having Spanish-speaking sisters in the mission! Right now only Elders in our mission speak Spanish, so that will be very useful and its super exciting!

We got to watch the Relief Society broadcast! That was fantastic! I was sitting next to Sister Phelps a 90 year old woman in our ward! She is the best. So funny! She is one of my favorite. I was taking notes and she turns to me and says. Wow I am surprised you know how to write!!? And I go why is that? She replied, because today its all about those dang computers! ha ha. Oh man good times as a missionary.

We saved a turtle this week that was crossing the road. That was an adventure. I got sick also this week. That was no good. Its hard for me having to stay in, but I know my limits and I knew I would have passed out on my bike that day if I would of gone out. 

Today our ward mission leader is taking us and the elders to the Patrolium museum for my birthday! So that should be fun!

We had 53 baptisms in the mission this month! This weekend our Elders in our ward (we share the ward with them) baptized two, and next week they have another, so That is 4 baptisms in the ward within a month! People are so prepared here! Its amazing!

I am SO excited for General Conference! Its going to be great stuff! Ya'll better take good notes and I would love to hear your thoughts on your favorite talks!

Love you all!!! Have a great week!!

Sister Turner

Sep 23

Dear Family,

Rickey is still doing really well!! He recieved the priesthood Sunday and next Sunday he will help pass the sacrament. He already is sharing the gospel with so many others and has given us a few other set of missionaries referrals. He is planning on going to the temple soon to do baptisms, so we are really excited and happy for him! The ward has really embraced him and he is finding many friendships.

 

We are beginning to make progression in the ward. Things in the missionary program are beginning to progress. Slowly but surely. There were no active ward missionaries, and our ward mission leader was doing everything on his own, so we have been suggesting getting an assistant and some new ward missionaries, so thats in the process. I helped our ward mission leader come up with a new ward mission plan which I think will help in many ways, and we have begun working a lot with the Relief Society presidency. We worked out a system to visit every women in the ward within the next 5 months. The presidency is fairly new and hardly knows anyone, and there really is a lack of unity I've seen so I know this will really help. I've done an exchange program with a previous ward that we are now doing too, so good things are happening!

 

A mission sure is preparing me for future callings, I can already feel it.. haha.

 

We are working pretty consistantly with three less active famililes. They are all great, but its going to be a slow process with them. Nothing the spirit cant handle though ;)

 

We have a few new investigators we've found, and we are working really hard to continue to find more and find those solid ones who are prepared and ready.

 

This week we have Zone Conference, and all but 3 of the 8 zones in our mission willl be here  at this conference in Midland! This will be the biggest zone conference yet! I am so excited! Besides my trainer Sister Sekona who is now home, all 7 of my previous companions will be there, so I def. will have to get a pic! It will be a fun reunion for sure!

 

I am so grateful to know I have a loving Heavenly Father, and a loving family with so many blessings in my life. I have no room to complain. It was a humbling experience for me for sure! Love and miss you alll! Until next week!

 

Love,

Sister Turner