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!

May 31, 2010

Hello! This past week has been pretty busy. I found out I will be in Cookeville for yet another transfer! Only they took a set of missionaries out of our ward so we will be covering all of Cookeville now! I will be with Sister Green still. It is nice because I don't have to pack my bags, haha. So our teaching pool just increased by quite a few numbers. We now have 7 set dates for this month! This will probably be a very busy, but very good month. It has been confirmed that the meeting with Elder Ballard will be combined with the Knoxville Mission! Haha, so I will get to shake Cody's hand! I am not sure what the Lord is trying to do here, but I am going to take it as a huge blessing! Not everyone gets to experience something like that, haha! Don't worry, President Hutchings already knows and so does Cody's mission president! :) I am not sure if I will laugh or cry when I see him, but I am excited either way!


Life as a missionary is really random I've decided. We find ourselves in some of the most awkward situations. We were over at a lady's house and Sister Green told her she has diabetes and the lady was like, oh I know just what to do! So she grabbed Sister Green and put her hands on her head and started to pray that she would be healed of her diabetes... That would probably only happen here in Tennessee! Unfortunately the blessing didn't quite work.. We were both taken a little off guard! Today we wound up with 2 dinner appointments, almost 3! All of the sudden people want us over for dinner, which is fine with me! Somehow we made it through the month on our miles even though we used 200 to get to zone conference, which is pretty amazing.

The mosquitos out here are everywhere. I am getting eaten alive by them! I guess beauty comes with its flaws, haha. We talked to Jana's husband the other day and he is wanting to change his life around so he can be baptized! I really hope everything there works out because he is a really nice guy and they would make a really cute couple in the church. We had alot of people at church yesterday, and then realized it was probably because we were getting a new bishopric in the ward! It was good to see so many people there. They even had the gym 1/2 way full! I don't know why but I feel like everytime I go to e-mail my mind goes blank and I can't remember what happened over the week. Time blurs together so much out here!

The other day we met a lady who had just moved in from Sevierville (Cody's old area) and she said she knew him! It is really cool some of the connections we have through different people. It makes me feel like he isn't all that far away. Well, I guess he isn't but it feels like he is half way around the world. So I thought that was pretty cool! We went over to one of our investigator's houses on tuesday night and ended up talking to her daughter who had a load of questions about repentance and the atonement, so that was a really neat experience. Only they are leaving for vacation for 2 weeks, so we won't ge to talk to them for awhile. Yesterday we met a few people the elder's were teaching, and they have some pretty neat people too. I think it will be a good transfer. It will be different without the elders being so close though, which is kind of sad. They were good missionaries, but thats the way it goes I guess!

Well if I think of anything else to tell you, you may get another e-mail. But I will send this one off so you can reply if you are on!

I love you all so much!

Love

Sister Turner

Moday after e-mailing, we walked outside the church and saw this cloud that the sun was behind and the rays were beautiful! The sky out here is so pretty!
 

The big white flowers are magnolias! Grown on trees apparently! Gorgeous!

We came home one night and the moon looked so cool. This picture, as cool and blurry as it is, just didn't do it justice.

Our last District Meeting with the Elders! They were so awesome! Top to bottom L to R: Elder Gilbert (he is staying and he is the new DL), Elder Pearson (our old district leader!), Elder Reimchissel, Sister Green, ME, and Elder Syme!

We had a lot of fun as a district! Syme, Pearson, GIlbert, Green, Turner, and Reimchissel!

May 24, 2010

Hello! It has been a "wild and ferocious" week, as President Hutchings would call it. It was up and down and all over the place, but it was good. Monday we went to go help a less active member do some stuff at her house and she took us to dinner, which was really nice! Tuesday I did my second training at our district meeting and it was about overcoming our fears and sharing the gospel, which is something I continue to struggle with! Then on Wednesday we had interviews with President Hutchings. It is funny because Sister Green told me she never cried in interviews until her 3rd month in the field... well I think it is a trend because I thought I was doing just fine until he flat out asked me how I was feeling. So I just decided to let it go and tell him what was on my mind, haha. I told him our ward is struggling to help us with rides and it is really frustrating, and always feeling like I could be doing so much more even though we do our best everyday it felt like I just wasn't doing enough... a typical me thing to do! But I am glad I let it all out because he told me a lot of things I needed to hear. He told me that he knew I was already a "queen tut" in the field and that he knows that the Lord is pleased with all the effort I have put forth, which made me feel a million times better! Then he gave me a priesthood assignment to write down 15 positive statements about myself, as a future missionary what I want to be and then to read them every morning right after I do the "hulk." He is really a great mission president! So that same day we went and reset a date with Wanda! She actually picked her own day to be baptized too! We also let her know we are willing to do whatever we can to help her. We had some members of the ward do a little church meeting for her at her house, kind of a condensed version of the meeting we had at church. She called us last night and told us she absolutely loved the meeting and said it inspired her to do more to make it to church and said it felt like an answer to her prayers about being worried about coming to church so she can get baptized. We were really excited to hear that! We also gave a blessing to a lady we have been teaching a blessing and as we talked to her, she said she had been reading the book of mormon and said she understands how we believe in a prophet today, just like in the bible and then she said, "I think I believe that too! I think I might be a mormon someday." That was a pretty big breakthrough with her! She is like a white version of Jana, haha. She loves "rowdy churches." She is a sweet lady. There are really a lot of good people out here.


We also did alot of service this week which I love doing. I could just do service for the rest of my mission and be happy! We helped a boy in the ward paint a playground at the local elementary for his eagle scout, and had a blast doing it. It was so funny, Elder pearson was up on the ladder and he yelled out, "Did anyone else see that!?" And right as he said it, his ladder started falling and he fell into a saummersalt (spelling?) roll. Yesterday we went over to Jana's house to visit her and she had taken some medication, and so she told us to come upstairs and she was laying in the dark in her room and kept talking to us and falling asleep mid sentence. It was really funny, we wind up is some awkward situations sometimes. But then she'd wake up from the noise of her own snoring and then finish her sentence. It has been a good week!

We were also told that M Russell Ballard is coming out here June 12 to speak to us! He is supposed to be in the Nashville and Knoxville Mission. Then Cody wrote me and told me that he'd be able to shake my hand on June 12th! I am not for sure if it is a combined meeting or not, but now I want to find out! It also got me thinking about how his mission president is going home in July.. and there have been rumors of combining our missions! I guess for now it is all rumor, but it sure has my brain going. That would be really cool though! He has changed a lot since he has been out, and it is really cool. He was cool before, but it is amazing to see the change in him. He is making a really good missionary!

We only have one week left before transfers, so anything you need to send can be sent to the mission address rather than where I live. I don't know if you are even using that address or not, but just in case!

The end of the month is really hard, being out of money and out of miles, and almost out of food. So, just for future knowledge if you could check my account at the end of the month and make sure there is money in there in case we need milk or something, that would be great. Thank you for everything you guys are doing for me! All of your prayers and letters are greatly appreciated!

I love you all!

Love

Sister Turner

The first picture is just a pretty sunset I saw. The sky is beautiful out here!

We were out driving in the country and saw this house that was abandoned, I think it may have something to do with a tree branch that fell on it?

We had a lot of fun painting. It was hot, and sticky, and paint everywhere!

Sunday for dinner we ate in our car due to a lack of miles to go home, and took pictures of an old rail road track! Right in the middle of town!

Sister Green and I are pretty cool.

Thats all the pictures I have for this week! I will probably be sending some my memory card home soon. I never got the pictures in you e-mail either.. :(

I love you though!

I'll e-mail you again next week!

Love,

Sisiter Turner

May 17, 2010, pictures

It has been a pretty good week out here in Tennessee. We had to drive ourselves to Zone Conference clear in Nashville, well Franklin, but it used up 200 of our miles this month because we couldn't find any rides from the members. We may just have to use our bikes by the end of the month! We were a little frustrated but zone conference went really well and we enjoyed it. It always gives us another boost!


We have done a lot of service this week at member's houses and I am making myself an oath that I will never become a pack rat. People out here have the randomest junk and they keep it all. It is really fun to clean up other people's houses though and see what a relief it is for them. There is a family, the Nortons who were baptized just over a year ago and have been struggling in just about every way possible in life, and we went over to help them clean and I didn't know where to even start. There was stuff literally everywhere! They are a really nice family, the mother is from London and she has a really cool accent so it is fun to hear her talk. I have learned alot out here about what I do not want to do! :)

We decided to go over to some former investigator's houses to see how they are all doing and we were able to visit with a few of them. We ran into Mitchell who Sister Winder and I tracted into the beginning of last transfer and never could get in touch with him again and so we decided to try again this last week and he was home! So we got to teach him a first lesson and he was pretty receptive and felt the spirit alot as we taught, and wants us to come back this week. He is an extremely humble guy and he has a really great love for his family. Him and his wife said they've been married for 26 years, which is an amazingly long time out here. I swear everyone in tennessee has been married, divorced, remarried, etc several times. Its pretty sad how much divorce there is out here, and single mothers. But the work is still going. We have a goal as a mission to increase our baptisms each month. This month it is 35, next month is 50, July is 75, and August is 100!

This transfer is going by pretty fast. All we have left is this week and next and then it is time for transfers again! Time is really weird out on a mission. Sometimes it feels like I have been here forever and other times it feels like it has gone by so fast. It is really weird! I don't really know how to explain it. My companion told me to just not even think about time and just focus on the day, haha. Today is actually my 3 month mark though! The time that Sister missionaries are out is weird too. It is actually either just 17 months or 19 months because if we left exactly at the 18 month mark it would be in the middle of a transfer. So I probably wont get to come home until the first week of September unless they send me home a tansfer early and it would be the end of July. I think it is really weird. Not that I am thinking too much about the end already, it is just weird haha!

Well I have rambled on and I need to write to President Hutchings. I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and your letters, I really appreciate them. I like your hair btw mom!

It isn't a huge rush for the GPS, but I do really want the superman bear. :) Thank you!

The first picture is the sisters in the McMinnville Zone and the Franklin zone at zone conference. They are a really fun group of girls!

The picture of the old rusty trucks and condemned house is an address we had of a less active member on our ward list we tried to visit... I sure hope nobody lived there! We didn't even dare go knock on the door! It was really creepy... so we took a picture of it instead.

We were driving down this road and all of the sudden saw a row of beautiful wild flowers, so we stopped and took pictures! They even had poppies!! My favorite flower! They had red an pink ones. The flowers out here are so pretty, I have never seen so much plant life before. All kinda of trees and flowers just about everywhere!

Love,
Sister Turner