July 12, 2010 2nd letter

Hello! It has been a busy week, but a good one. I will be transferred to Gallatin, TN tomorrow with Sister Rigley! I am excited to see a new place and get to know more people. That is the area Sister Green was in before she came to Cookeville and said it is a great area, so I am real excited! It is about 5 minutes from the Kentucky border.

In our last week here, we did a lot of service and had a lot of fun. We helped Ann weed her garden, and so she gave us all garden hats to wear, and Elder Lyon looks like Gilligan!

Haha, we had a lot of fun and she made us lunch which was probably the best meal I've had out here so far! She is so funny, probably one of my favorite people I've met out here. She is very spiritual, and she loves learning about religions but she thinks there is too much contention about church doctrine. It was so hot and I am more sore from doing a couple hours of gardening than doing 75 flights of stairs, haha. Gardening is not easy! Weeds everywhere! But it sure looked awesome when we were done!

The work is going pretty good. They are white washing our area, so elders will replace us here in Cookeville. I sure hope they take good care of our investigators and recent converts. Darby came to church and brought her son with her, she is so cute. She wants an answer so bad and is such a good person but I think she is scared of getting the answer. But after sacrament Wanda came and gave her a hug and whispered to her, "the book of mormon is true, and it will bring you so much peace in your life." She was very emotional through the whole service, which is usually a good sign that she is getting her answer. We just have to help her recognize it! Wanda called us this morning and told us Robert had a seizure or something while she had all of her children over there, and so she had to rush him to the hospital. We are still waiting to hear back from her to find out exactly what happened but they think it had something to do with his heart. It really is one thing after another after another with her. But she is holding out strong and the sisters in the relief society stepped in to take care of all the children. I am so glad the ward was able to step in because there was nothing we could really do. That is one thing I have learned so much about on my mission. I had no idea how great of an impact the members have on investigators! I will always remember to help out the missionaries as often as I can when I get home! And make sure that the investigators feel welcome there.

I am glad you had so much fun in Chigaco! Tell Amanda congrats on her gold medal, that is awesome!

I love you all so much!
Love Sister Turner

July 12, 2010

Here are a few more pictures, I can't remember which ones I sent in the last letter. Wanda's baptism and Sister Cecil! She is a jewish convert and she has done so much for Sister Green and I!

One thing I forgot to mention is that I will be a senior companion! Which doesn't mean a whole lot other than I will be driving, in an area I know nothing about.. haha. So, I may need a GPS soon. I probly wont use it around town, but when we have to drive clear to Nashville and to zone conferences, it would be nice to know how to get there. :) I know they are expensinve, and I don't need a super nice one. Let me know what you can find I guess! I can't believe we are about 1/2 way through July already! In August I will hit my 6 month mark! Which is in this transfer. I can burn some nylons! Thats the tradition anyway. I probably have a couple pair I could burn. Nylons are a hassle I've decided. They are expensive and they don't last very long!

I feel pretty good about the mission. It is extremely hard, and I feel like there is no time fore anything, not even to think. But it is very rewarding and I feel like I have grown alot since I have been out here. I see all kinds of people, relationships, choices they make, the environment they live in, and I have realized how blessed I am to have been able to grow up in such a good loving family. There are so many single mothers out here, and so many divorces. I have been able to see what I can do to make sure I live a happy life. But it has also taught me how much these people need love despite the bad decisions they've made. I have also realized how much I would do for these people. I would do just about anything for them! I feel like my time out here is being well spent. There is a million and one things to remember and do, and I am terrible at it, but there are a lot of good people out there who need the gospel! Another thing I have realized is I am way too hard on myself. In my last few interviews with president hutchings, he has told me I expect too much from myself and that if I am not having fun, I am not doing it right. That I shouldn't dwell on the things I did or didn't do, but rather improve each day and do my best. So I think that is my new motto! If I'm not having fun, I'm not doing it right.. no matter what it is!

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right! :)

I love you all
Sister Turner

July 6, 2010

Hello!

We didn't get a chance to e-mail yesterday because the library was closed and the computers at the church were down. Happy 4th of July! I hope you all had a great weekend and that mom and Amanda are having fun in Chicago.

We finally had Wanda's baptism on Saturday and it went really really well. She was a little disappointed because the only member of her family who was there was her cousin who baptized her, but she was sure some of her family that have passed on were there. It was a very neat baptism!

Robert was able to sit through the whole thing. It is really cute to watch how well she takes care of him!

Our apartment is okay, haha. It is a little inconvenient to have to do laundry somewhere else, but it is part of the experience. I took a picture of "the cave" in our apartment, but the picture didn't quite do it justice. But you can at least get an idea of what it looks like.

We had a fun 4th of July. We had a ward breakfast at Cane Creek Park and it was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect, and surprisingly not as humid as it has been!

The work is going okay, but I feel like it is going fairly slow right now. It is probably a fault of our own since we have been moving and getting Wanda's baptism done. We have been teaching a nice girl named Darby who moved here with her husband. They had been meeting with the missionaries in Missouri and so we got to start teaching her. She has a cute little 6 month old who is adorable and she wants him to grow up in a stable home. The only issue is her husband isn't interested in our church and is reluctant to become involved. But she is very nice and a very good mom! We have quite a few new referals we are going to contact within the next few days so hopefully we will see the work pick back up again.

I am on the last week of the transfer already, so this will be my third one down! I have a strong feeling I will be transferred, and I will find out where most likely on Saturday night. I feel like it will be refreshing to be in a new area, although I am sad to leave Sister Green. We have had a lot of fun together, and she is a great missionary.

I don't have much else to say this week, but I do love you all!
I love you!

Sister Turner

June 28, 2010

I will start with the pictures first. We had just gotten back to the church from interviews and these tornado clouds blew over the sky incredibly fast! It was very cool, but very eerie. No tornadoes though! We just stood there and watched while the clouds flew past us. I hope the pictures work, I forgot to make them smaller first.

The next picture is Sister Green and I in our new apartment. We found some 2009 party glasses laying around haha. Our new apartment is... interesting. I will have to send pictures of it next week! We did get moved in, we spent friday night, and all day saturday, and a few hours sunday to pack/move/clean/unpack. It was definately exhausting. The first night we slept there we both just laid in bed and laughed because neither one of us could sleep with the streetlights shining right through our window, our window coolers making noise, and the ambulances that drive by with their sirens going... and it was sooo hot. It doesn't have central air, so it took about 24 hours to cool off. I decided I don't think I could handle a foreign country with no air conditioning. That is one thing I am definately grateful for!!

Some of the members in the ward wanted to take us to the zoo, so we actually went today for p-day! It was pretty fun, the zoo is kinda small but it was nice to do something a little different for a change!

I tried to get as close as I could to a little tropical bird, the name of it started with an L... haha.

Sister Reisender and her husband were the ones who took us, and the old house in the background actually belonged to a family who dedicated their land to educating people about animals in order to keep their land.

I guess they lost their business and were in poverty so they made a deal with a science foundation of some sort. It was pretty interesting. We went on a tour of the house and they actually had a slave house in the backyard. It was interesting to think back to the times when there were slaves. So the next picture is of the house the slaves lived in.

A goat tried to eat my pants! He was a cute little guy! I guess I'll have to send other pictures in another e-mail because I can't fit anymore in this one. It was quite an adventure though.


Ok, well I guess since what I am doing out here is supposed to be missionary work.. haha. Wanda's baptism got postponed, again! It will be this weekend and if it doesn't happen, so help me! We have never had to schedule the building in the past, but I guess someone was having a baby shower at the church all day so we had to reschedule. We were really bummed about that, but Wanda made it to sacrament meeting on Sunday for the first time since January with her husband! We have been doing a service at her house a couple of times, but she felt it was important to come to church. It was good for her too because the talk that was given was on the sacrifices we have to make to further the kingdom, and her mother had just disinvited her to her uncle's funeral. She is still puling through and it is amazing. We had a really good lesson with a guy named Tim. He basically soaked up everything we told him and he said it really makes sense. He is getting married in October I believe, and so it could turn into teaching his future wife as well! Other than that, this week has been just busy busy busy. Probably the busiest I've had on my mission so far. The temple was wonderful as always, although I had to go to the bathroom really bad through the whole session and didn't know what to do so I just held it. Probably too much information, but it taught me that it is much better to get there early enough to go beforehand. Our ride decided to take us to breakfast because we got there a little early and then it took too long so we had to rush.

There isn't nearly as much going on this week. We are doing a 40 day fast of things we need to overcome to have the spirit with us more and it has been interesting how hard Satan will work on us. We had a conference call last night and Pres Hutching said that satan doesn't know our thoughts, but as soon as we write it on paper, he knows. So we had to write down things we wanted to give up or do better on and so he is going to do everything he can to throw things in our way. I had never thought of that before, but I guess it is true. The goal is to be able to overcome things that are holding us back from our full potential as missionaries. Well I guess that is all for the moment! Let me know if the pictures worked. I have a feeling they might not since they are all so big.

I love you all!

Love
Sister Turner

ps---Josh, i love the new glasses! they make you look just like harry potter! ;) Oh, and have fun in Chicago! You'll have to send me pictures!

June 21, 2010

Hello! Well congrats to Julie and Jennie!! That is exciting! I am just waiting to hear from brittany and tyler.. ;) haha. Last week was a pretty good week. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the last one but it went by pretty fast This week however will be very very busy! We had a service project today, we have district meeting tomorrow, we are going to the temple on wed, thursday we have interviews in McMinnville, friday is our weekly planning, saturday we have a baptism, and on top of doing those things we are supposed to be getting 20 new contacts everyday, we have to plan and prepare the baptsim program, we also have to clean/pack/move into a different apartment, we have a list of 10 families in the ward we are supposed to teach every week, plus doing the regular missionary work. Yep! I don't think I have ever felt so busy in all my life! And then we will only have 2 weeks left of the transfer already. It really feels like this transfer is going so fast. The thing that stinks about packing and moving is I'll probably have to pack up again 2 weeks later because I am pretty sure this transfer will be my last out here. I think I already told you this, but just send mail to the mission office for the next few weeks and I will tell you where I will be after transfers, since I will only be in our new apartment for like 2 weeks.


We will only have one baptism this weekend because Cynthia called and told us she wanted to let up on the lessons because they are struggling and too tired to have us come over. Plus they were starting to call us to find rides for them all the time and the ward feels a bit apprehensive about them. Hopefully they will want to come back in a future day. But Wanda is still going to be baptized! She is rock solid it is amazing. I wish you could meet her! She has had a long journey to being baptized, but she is so ready for it now. It is amazing to see the difference in people's attitudes toward being baptized. Some are real hesitant about giving up their lifestyles, some jump right in, and then there is people like Wanda who wants to make sure she is fully ready to be baptized. She wanted to do her best to clear up all of the wrongs in her past, wrote letters to some of the people she thinks she may have offended, and she soaks in everything we give her.

I am glad girls camp went so well! I bet it would have been neat to have it up at the cabin. I miss the cabin alot! I am glad Amanda got to see the fruits of her labors.. :) It IS a lot of fun to plan it all and see how everyone enjoyed it. Have so much fun in Chicago! I can't believe that vacation is already here. I feel like you just told me about it a few weeks ago. Last week was the week that members decided to feed us. I think we had 8 meals with members last week, and alltime high for me. It was great but man they like to feed us everything I DON'T need. I still was able to lose 1.5 lbs last week! Pretty good I think. The goal was to lose 2 lbs but there were a couple days I didn't really exercise in the morning.

Well I can't really think of anything else at the moment. Oh, I wanted to send both grandpa's a card for father's day but I couldn't find any good ones and so I am going to write a little note instead sometime this week...But tell them I love them and I hope they had a wonferful Father's Day! Did dad get the card I sent? I think he'll like it! :)

Well I love you all!

Thank you for everything you do, i really appreciate it.

Love

Sister Turner

This is the only picture I have for you for now. I was going to send it last week and I forgot. This was at zone conference and this is all the sisters that were there. From L to R: Sister Hutchings, Sister Green, Sister Larsen, Sister Austin, Sister Blackham, me and Sister Goff. It was fun to have so many sisters there. We all lined up in order without even trying. It was pretty funny!

Thats all for now!

I love you!

June 14, 2010

I know, we tried e-mailing earlier but then there was a random storm that messed up the internet so we couldn't send anything... so we did our shopping first instead. I definately had a good weekend! :) We left here at about 11:45 and made it to Madison at about 1:30 and went to Dairy Queen. We got to the stake center and there by the Greyhound bus was standing Elder Williams! I thought that it might be weird seeing him after 9 months, but it wasn't at all. It was like old times, he is still my best friend! :)

We didn't get to talk long, only about 25 minutes or so while everyone was rushing around talking to each other. It was really neat to see him though! He did put his arm around me for a picture on his camera but thats about all the physical contact we got, so no worries mom! haha :) I laughed and smiled alot while we were talking and then after we left I cried. So I did both! I cried mostly because it felt weird to not have the goodbye I am used to! I am so glad I got to see him and it gave me a glimpse of what it will be like to see him again in 15 months! Even though I am in this weird time warp right now and it feels like it will never end, I know when the 15 months are up it will feel like I just saw him! No news of combining the missions though. I am kinda glad though because I want to be able to write him. Haha, it was funny because President Hutchings looked me straight in the eye and he said, "Sister Turner, I know we wont have any problems, but this is the only warning I'm gonna give you. Be careful! And go say hi." It was a good meeting. Elder Ballard spoke to us about talking to more people and getting the members involved more in missionary work. He asked us questions about what we were doing, and basically called us to repentance to be doing more. It was really neat to have an apostle amidst all the missionaries. He got up and told us to stand up put our right hands out and shake it. Then he said, "now you can tell your families you have shook the hand of an apostle. I love you but I don't have time to shake all of your hands." Haha, he is a funny guy. He was actually President Hutching's mission president way back when! So he also poked fun at him during the meeting too.

Last week went by super fast! This week is a normal week, and then next week we get to go to the temple and have our interviews as well, so next week will go by fast as well. We reset a date with one of our investigators to be baptized on the 26th of June. We should have 2 baptisms that day which would make 3 for the month of June! It is pretty exciting. We have met a lot of new people this week that we are excited to teach. Wanda's mother had more elders from the church of christ come over to her house and they demanded she go get baptized again because she got baptized for the wrong reason years ago. So she asked them to show her why she needed to be baptized into their church and they showed her something in Acts, which talks about baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost (which they don't even believe in), and she said that her faith has been comfirmed that she is doing the right thing to be baptized by the proper authority. They were not too happy with her, but she is amazing that even before her baptism she has a solid foundation. It has been amazing to see her stand up for truth!

It is getting really really hot here. I thought I might die when we were in madison. It was probably about 100 degrees plus humidity. I may need money to go by some cooler skirts.. I know, I am trying real hard to be good with my money. I had to buy more postage and print out some pictures. I just don't know how to budget my money that well. 135 dollars a month is not very much to have to buy food plus laundry detergent, shampoo, toothepaste, dish soap, toilet paper, and whatever else we need. I'll probly get it down eventually. I feel like I was a little more careful this month. Plus our mission doctor told us we needed to start loosing weight because missionaries were getting too fat, haha. So he set up a program to eat 500 calories less each day and burn 500 more. So we are trying to buy healthy foods, which seem more expensive!? If you have any good advice, please share because it is HARD. Haha! We did find an old scale and if it is working correctly, I have lost about 8 pounds since the MTC! So I am just going to say it works just fine, haha. He told us we could lose about 2 pounds a week, so Sister Green and I are going to help each other stick to it.

I did get the superman bear in the mail! :) Thank you! I should have remembered to ask you earlier but we can wear headbands and stuff and I wish I would have brought the ones I had from home. I don't know where I put them, but if you find them or if you could even get more to send that would be awesome. The ones Janet makes, if she still does. It's not a necessity, but it would be fun to have.

Also, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! I LOVE YOU! I really appreciate all you do for me.

I Love you all, and I hope everything is going great. How is the back porch coming along? Is there anything new on it yet? I am interested to see what it looks like.

I am really going to try and remember to send Britt and Tyler an anniversary card, but if I forget tell them congrats on their first year of marriage! :) I can't believe it has been a year already! Geez!

Well I love you all! Hopefully I will have more pictures to send to you next week.

Love,
Sister Turner

June 7, 2010

Jana's husband got baptized on saturday night! He is a really nice guy, and it was really neat. We also met a family from Nigeria! They are so adorable. We had a really neat lesson with him and he said he has seen members of our church in Nigeria and always wondered what we believed. His name is Christian and his wife's name is Chinyere Chukwuu! Don't ask how you pronounce that. I am so excited to teach them more! They also have a daughter but I can't remember her name, it was something hard to say. It is starting to get pretty hot here, and HUMID. I pretty much feel sticky all day long, haha! I don't really appreciate the humidity at all. The last week we also had some random rainstorms in the afternoon. I LOVE the storms here! We were at Walgreens and from the second we stepped out and ran to our car, about 15 seconds, I was completely drenched! It was awesome! We found out that we might be moving sometime into a different apartment, but I don't know when. So if you send anything, send it through the mission address for now I guess. Not even President Hutchings knew when our lease was up, he just knew it was soon! This week is a pretty busy. We have zone conference tomorrow in Smyrna, and then thursday we are doing a service project for a lady in the ward for part of the day and then saturday is the big meeting with Elder Ballard. I am really excited about it! Pres Hutchings has asked that each companionship get 17 new investigators by saturday, so that as a mission we'll have 1,000 when Elder Ballard comes. So far we have 6!


Jana's grandaughter Foofi got really sick and the poor thing hates nurses now. Everytime a nurse walked in the room she would start screaming and reaching for the window waving her arm goodbye. She did NOT like being there! It was funny too because one of the nurses was like, ok well then I'll just leave, so she turned around and Foofi stopped screaming and smiled and waved goodbye. Little kids are so funny!

Wanda is planning on being baptized the 26th still, and she is still doing so awesome. She is such a strong woman, I don't know how she does it all. She even made us a full course meal, dessert and all on top of taking care of 6 kids, her husband, and dealing with her mother. Her mother also brought her brother over and basically told Wanda she needed to get on her knees because she was going to hell... and called the missionaries all sorta of names. We weren't there but she called us really distressed and hurt. But she says it is making her realize that she needs to be baptized even more.

I love the signs at the churches out here. We thought the soldier one was a good reminder on memorial day.

Cordell's baptism went really well, and he is such a good guy. Very soft spoken and gentle!

We had quite a few missionaries there! Sister Winder and Sister Whitehead showed up as a surprise for Cordell and it was fun to see my trainer again! T to B L to R: Brother Elliott, Brother Conley (our ward mission leader. He also lived in St George!), Me, Sister Green, Jana, Cordell, Sister Winder, Sister Whitehead, Vince (Jana's "grandson"), Elder GIlbert (love his face, haha! Jana had said "Jesus!" right before the picture was taken.), and Elder Pantelakis (he's a greenie, haha!)

The other picture of Sister Green and I out to lunch with the Elders after district meeting. Which is a weekly tradition!

The last picture is when I got drenched in about 15 seconds of running from Walgreens into the car! Only 1/2 of my body was soaked because the rain was coming down hard on an angle. It was fun!

Well I love you all! Thanks for everything! And just a reminder, I'd really like to have my super man bear.. :)

Love

Sister Turner

Oh and tell Grandma and Grandpa Happy Anniversary for me! Have fun at girls camp!