Week 15 2nd post

4/29/2012

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HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!
:)I was so excited to see all!!! my letters. Mom I'm eating healthy - I ate sushi made with brown rice, cucumbers, peppers and chicken for lunch so I'm eating healthy. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Sometimes when sisters are snacking it makes me want to snack but I'll just eat an apple or something instead or WONDERFUL trail-mix I got in the package you and Sarah sent!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! 
I was so excited!!! I love what you picked out!! SO good :) My companion and room mates are really excited about the C.Ds, oh and I am too of course. Also I love the arm warmers. They are so pretty! Ah just everything was so good. The hair pins are so pretty :) How did you know that I really wanted more hair accessories.  You know what I love to eat and it makes me so happy that you send me such wonderful things. I'm super excited to try those beans, only 15 minutes to cook!!! YAY. I LOVED GETTING IT :) And Sarah I'm happy you didn't put a hot-dog in it but that's so cute that Benjamin wanted to send one ;) I sort mail now so I get to see everyone's mail and I get extra excited to get mine. 
Guest Services is going really well! I AM SO BUSY! Wow it's crazy. I'm in there for 6 hours a day 3 hours of Square and 3 hours of phone/online teaching. It is very different from what I have been doing but it is really good and a great opportunity to serve the Sisters. I talk to lots of Elders and Sisters who call in for tours for their investigators and lots of people who call in to tour Temple Square. AND Elder Hinckley, yes that is President Hinckley's son. So neat, he is so nice. He is in charge of VIP tours (when someone of high rank (usually from another Country) comes to tour Temple Square. I love scheduling those tours :) And the Salt Lake City Elders, and sometimes Sisters, have been calling a lot because the mission is changing a little, they are trying to help the SLC missionaries more. So when an Elder or Sister from the mission has an investigator they call and schedule a tour and their is a list of questions I have to go through with them. Then I assign the Temple Square sisters who I feel inspired to give the tour to. I pray for every single tour. I really do like how busy I am. It feels quite different from what I have been doing and I am a little sad I don't get to teach as much but I am happy that for these 6 weeks I will be able to help out the Sisters and it has been a good experience. And because I talk to the Sisters on the phone all the time I feel like I am really getting to know them better. Also because I am serving them I feel like I am able to love them more, even if I don't know them that well.  More importantly I know that this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. 
Sister Pickrel is amazing! She is so goofy and so much fun. I think guest services would be harder if it wasn't for her. Oh my gosh she is so funny I love her. She is taller then me too!!! Haha. Ah she is so nice and loves all the sisters so much, and she knows all of their names!! 200 Sisters, that should be one of my goals this transfer, to stop cheating with the name tags and remember.  We will have fun this transfer. My roommates are also very lovely and we have been having a good time together. I guess the time that we have ( about 1 hour at night) but it's so good. Like I said I'm very busy but loving it. 
I went to a baptism today! It was a Sisters tour that Sister Jung and I took ( A sisters tour is what I explained above, how when the SLC missionaries have investigators they can bring them to Temple Square and we do a tour or in other words a walking lesson and help them feel the Spirit and build their testimony). Her name is Sara and she is a single mom and has two children age 7 and 3. It was so nice to go to a baptism. She asked me to give the Holy Ghost talk and it was a really great experience. I'm so excited for her and for her decision to be baptized. It will bless, not only her life but her children as well. 
 I'm giving a talk at another ward on Sunday and we are singing as well. I'm excited about it. The Sisters that Sister Pickrel and I are going with are Sister Oh (from Korea) and Sister Larsen. Because Sister Oh is from Korea we are going to sing the chorus in Korean :) I love Korean! We are singing families can be together forever. 
Can you pray for Mario. He is one of my investigators and he really wants to be baptized but he has some difficult decisions to make and I really want to do everything I can to help him. 
I love this mission!!! It is so wonderful! I'm so happy and so busy! Thank you so much for all your love and support and everything that you do for me. Your encouragement through email or mail always strengthens me and helps me to be so happy. 
Mom I'm excited that you are giving a talk on Mothers day. I wish I could hear it. Can you email me a copy? I always feel the Spirit when you teach and talk. I was recently reading about the Holy Ghost and studying about how when we teach with the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost testifies to the listener what we are teaching is true. It talks about this in Doctrine and Covenants 50:22. Really good scripture. 
Any ideas for a really short exercise/ stretch to do while I am in guest services to help my back? 
Oh yes the shoes I got at DI are very new. That is why I bought them. I remember your shoes that were from the DI and how long they lasted. We went to a DI that was in rich part of Salt Lake so the clothes were nice and new. The skirt I am wearing in the picture I sent last week is from the DI, the one with the orange shirt and belt. 
 Well my time is up. I love you so very much. Thank you for being so wonderful. I am so blessed and so happy and just full of love to all of you. 
I'm looking forward to mothers day!
:)Love Sister Turner xoxoxoxoxoxo
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Week 15

4/25/2012

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Hello Family and Friends!!!!
Sooooo transfer conference was on Monday and I will have a new companion come tomorrow! Her name is Sister Pickrel, she is from the US, I'm not sure where, but I know she is super nice and really nice to everyone. I don't know her that well but everyone who I tell I'm going to be companions with her gets really happy for me and tells me she is so nice. I will miss Sister Jung but I'm excited to for the change so that I can learn and grow even more.
 Also I'm going to be going into Guest Services so I will be busy, busy, busy. I will be on the Square, teaching on the phone as well as answering the phone to organize tours and do office work for the mission. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Before I was in a zone called North 3 which meant the my day would be divided between The Square and Motors (teaching over the phone and chat) but now I will be in the zone called extended which means I have another assignment as well - that being Guest Services. I don't know too much about it but I have TWO P-DAYS this week (only this week, because of transfers):) yes I am excited and the other one is on Saturday so I will be able to tell you more then.
I'm really grateful to be in this mission, the experiences I will have serving here will be different then any other mission in the world.I was a little nervous for the transfers but the night before I just prayed that and told Heavenly Father that I knew he knows me and to please help me accept any changes that were coming to me. I was greatly blessed and have felt very sure that it was Heavenly Father and no one else that has called me to this change, I am very excited. I know that Sister Pickrel will be a great companion and be able to help all those whom I am teaching progress in the Gospel. Even though I will probably be a lot more busy I know the Lord trusts me with this challenge.
Sister Jung's new zone is the Beehive house and her new companion is from Brazil. I only moved about 7 doors down from her so we will still see each other often :) I have learnt a lot while serving with her and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to serve with her and get to know her better. We will be close friends forever, even though she is all the way in Korea. It is a wonderful excuse to travel :) She goes home in Oct and is thinking about going to Hawaii for school so that would be great if that happens because then I could visit Sister Wong and her at the same time!
Oh I almost forgot to tell you. My new roommates are both from Canada! So there will be three Canadians all in one apartment :) One of them is Sister Kyle who I was facebook friends with before my mission. She is so much fun and her new companion is really nice too. I'm excited for that. We already have Canadian flags on the living room wall.
This week was so great. Really busy but great. On Saturday I had my first training experience. Every Saturday before the MTC sisters come they come to Temple Square for about 5 hours and learn what it is going to be like. So I was able to train Sister Brown (She is actually going to the DC visitors centre but she was in the class with the Temple Square sisters because it's practically the same thing in DC) She was so nice and it was a great opportunity to realize how much I have actually learned over the past few months. We were able to teach quite a few people together on the square and she is already a great missionary. I will send you a picture of her. She was so sweet.
I'm giving a talk on Sunday! At temple square we have the opportunity to go to wards near the square and speak. I'm excited I will be talking about strengthening family relationships. I was asked to go with my new companion and another companionship and also prepare a musical number. It will be so nice to go.
I'm loving my mission. I want to send you some pictures and maybe some videos if I can get them to work so I will end now but you will hear from me again on Saturday!
Lots of Love
Sister Turner
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Week # 14

4/18/2012

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Hello family and friends :)
Thanks for your letters! I love hearing from you :)
 It sounds like you are all doing great which is wonderful :) 
This week was so great! We had a Zone conference yesterday that was amazing! I loved it! We went to Presidents house from about 9am-2pm and learned all about how we can become better missionaries and just better people in general. I LOVE THIS MISSION!!!! President and Sister Gillettes house is so cool! In the room for the grandchildren to play in there is a attic and a fire pole to slide down! They have traveled ALL over the world so they have so much stuff- it was like a museum. Anyway when we got there Pres Gillette spoke to us about how we need to 'take the long view' and that the friends (investigators) we teach need to be viewed as friends and not just another baptismal statistic. Also not to be afraid but to have the faith to see miracles- It was soooo Good. Sister Gillette also talked to us, she is so sweet, every time I see her I just want to hug her. Anyway she likes acronyms so she told us the story about Noah (the ark) and how like him we need to have great Fatih, Endure to the end (no matter how long that feels sometimes) and to be Willing to follow the Lord- which is a FEW good things that we need to do. She also has a saying that she likes to mention whenever she talks that I love and it is that -We need to do good and be good ALWAYS- I love her. 
The assistants also spoke to us and told us ways that we can become better missionaries through obedience. 
We then had lunch (provided by the local relief society) which was so yummy and so nice of them, we sat outside and it was SOOO nice to sit on the grass and eat, haha the things that are exciting as a missionary :) After lunch Elder and Sister Palmer spoke to us, they are a senior couple that serve here on Temple Square. They are amazing their talk was so good- they talked all about how we really need to rely on the spirit but also increase our spiritual knowledge every day so that we can draw from that at a time of need. They also gave us ideas of how we can ask questions that will make those we meet, either on the square or on motors, really think about a response. It was so helpful and so good. Elder and Sister Moore also talked to us and they spoke about the importance of faith as well as the importance of working in unity. They are so sweet! Oh I have to tell you something really cool that Elder Palmer said. He said that when he went on his mission he got to go to the upper room of the Salt Lake Temple - The huge assembly room where the prophets and apostles meet. Anyway he was there with President Harold B. Lee and President Lee told him and the missionaries that were with him that mission calls are truly an inspired call and that when we are called on missions angels on the other side are also called to assist us! Isn't that so neat! I had never thought about it that way before and I thought it was so neat to hear! I have angels that were specificly called to help me with this great work!
I have met some wonderful new friends that I have been able to teach this week. It is such a blessing to serve here to be able to meet so many prepared people everyday. I love getting inbound calls as well. Hand out the free Book of Mormon and free Bible cards, even when someone may not seem interested at the time you never know when someone will change their mind and desire to learn more. I talked to a really nice man today who had gotten a card in passing from a missionary and he had never thought to call but he recently lost his job and is having a really hard time so he picked up the card to look at the picture of Christ and decided to call. I was able to teach him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and how the church can bless his life, he agreed to meet with missionaries and he wants to learn more over the phone as well. We never know when someone is going to be ready but we know that Heavenly Father is preparing people all the time. I'm so grateful that those missionaries gave him the card even though they didn't have time to teach. They will probably won't know the outcome until the eternities but because they invited him his life can be changed for the better. He can know his Savior better and that he has a Heavenly Father who loves him. I love the GOSPEL!!
Temple Square is so amazing. I get to teach so many lessons all day. And even when people don't refer to learn more I can know I did my best in helping the Lord in his work of preparing His children to accept the gospel in their lives. It brings be great peace to remember this and I have confidence that a lot of those wtih whom I come in contact with will one day accept this message and receive the same happiness and peace that I feel everyday as I rely on the atonement. 
I love the Temple too! Sister Jung and I went this morning and it was so nice. The temple is beautiful and it amazes me the amount of faith the pioneers must have had to build something so beautiful when they themselves had nearly nothing. I'm so grateful for their example and that I can serve on Temple Square so that I can be reminded of that daily.
Family I love you so much! Mom and Dad I will write you better individual responses to your letters when I get home today. I think we are going to go to the High School where High School Musical was filmed today. But after that I will have time to write letters. 
Dear friends thank you for all your letters kind words and encouragement, I love hearing from all of you!!
Until next week :) Love you all.
Sister Turner
P.S it's transfer week again ALREADY next week. So I will probably have a new companion and P-Day next week.
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Week #14

4/13/2012

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Hello!!!
Happy Easter!
Thank you for the fabulous Easter feast! Sister Jung and I went to Taconos-I think that is how it is spelled (Sarah might know what it is) and we ate and ate and ate. It's a brazilian grill and it was so good! I ate so much that I'm in a little bit of a food coma right now so this email may not be as excited as they usually are, but at least you know I'm happy and full. It was a really neat restaurant, they had a huge salad bar and then the servers come around with all different kinds of meats and slice little bits off for you to try, it was so good and we ate A LOT! Thanks again and a big thank you from Sister Jung as well to Sister Mary :)
 Oh and yes all missionaries were asked to write their testimony on the mormon.org/facebook site. We didn't actually go on facebook it was connected with mormon.org it did take me like 100 tries to remember my password though, haha.
I'm happy you are listening to conference. I finally got to read part of it and I LOVED President Uchdorfs talk from Sunday morning with the two word parable 'stop it' SO GOOD! I'm excited to be able to read more of conference.
Oh guess what, I went to Music and Spoken Word on Easter and it was so nice and the prophet came too! We get to go to Music and Spoken Word once every transfer so Sister Jung and I decided to go on Easter and it was so great!
 I will tell you a story - it was really funny in the moment so I will do my best to explain it in such a way that you will find it funny as well. So yesterday Sister Jung and I had planned to contact people over at the Navoo bell (which rings every hour on the hour to celebrate religious freedom) Anyway there wasn't anyone over there so we decided to stop for a moment to enjoy the beautiful flowers. We were so happy looking at all the pretty flowers and completely in our own little world so it completely took us off guard when the bell chimbed SO loud RIGHT behind us, it surprised us so much that we both jumped so high. Just then a couple rounded the corner laughing so hard at what they just witnessed :) Ah I'm happy that my embarrassing moments can make others so happy. We laughed together and it actually turned into a great way to begin a conversation.
I love being able to talk to so many people every day. They come from all over the world and it's great to meet so many amazing people. I love bearing my testimony to them and sharing with them all the ways the church can bless their lives. When people come to the square and we take them around we call it 'tours' but in reality it is lessons because everything on Temple Square can relate to a gospel principle for teaching. I love how there is always someone to talk to. If ever I am feeling at all down for any reason I know that if I am able to talk to someone and bear my testimony to them I always become so happy. The Lord truly does bless us when we put in our all. I'm so grateful that I'm able to do what I do each and every day.
Getting mail as a missionary is so exciting! I just have to tell you it is so nice to recieve mail, thank you everyone - family and friends for your wonderful letters of encouragement and love.
All right time's UP!
LOTS OF LOVE!!!!
 Sister Turner
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Week #13

4/5/2012

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Hello friends and family! 

My family is all together this week - How wonderful, what a wonderful blessing to be all together! We have such an amazing family! 
Also I wrote this in my letter to you last week mom but thank you so much for 'taking' Sister Jung and I out to dinner for Easter! We are really excited and are going to go next P-DAY! We aren't sure where we are going but we think we want to go to a Brazilian place at the gateway- we want to eat MEAT. haha She was so excited when I told her you want to take us out again! I was really excited too :) thank you! 


CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!!! Oh my goodness it was so wonderful! So many wonderful members of the church came to Temple Square this past weekend :) I love how happy everyone was! Especially after coming out of the conference centre they were all just glowing! We had a VERY high goal as a mission for member referrals and we worked REALLY hard. Through sunburns on Saturday to snow and freezing rain on Sunday. It was the best hard work I have ever experienced. We worked from 7:30am to 9:50pm with two 20 minute breaks to eat. Yet it was wonderful! I love conference. I'm happy that I worked at Tristan before I came on my mission so that I knew what it was like to work really long days (when I think about my life before my mission I realize just how many experiences were preparing me to serve on Temple Square). We got to talk to so many wonderful people. I talked to lots of people from Canada and I saw a bunch of people from the Langley YSA. It was nice to see them :) Oh and we reached our mission goal!!!!  The whole mission got together for the announcement of it and it was amazing!  What I blessing! We prayed so much this weekend :) It made me try really hard to think of more people that I know that I want to refer to have the wonderful sisters on Temple Square call. All day long I talked to members and told them how important it was to share the gospel with their friends and family and  read them scriptures on why it was so important. Then on Sunday morning I thought to myself I need to do this too. After I decided who I wanted to share the gospel with it really helped me connect more with members and receive way more referrals, I understood that it can be scary but that it is too important not to do. And it's just a phone call a way that these wonderful children of God can have their agency increased as they hear more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to share what we know it is the most important thing we can share. It is called the plan of happiness because it is a way in which Gods children can experience the pure joy that comes from living the Gospel. I'm so blessed to know that this church is true. I share this with people that I don't know everyday. It is so important that I share this with family and friends that I already know as well.  So all and all it was an amazing weekend! I went to the Saturday morning session of Conference and it was wonderful- I loved how much they talked about missionary work! Or maybe that's just what I heard :) Henry B. Eyrings talk was amazing. I love how he talks with so much emotion. It was great! I loved being in the conference centre with 21,000 members of the church all singing "How Firm a Foundation" together. It is so true the gospel is our foundation and when we build upon the rock the steadfastness of Christ we will be blessed and our burdens will be made lighter. We will still have burdens but the Lord will be there to help us as we strive to overcome, when we give it our all he will do the rest.

I love being a missionary!!!! I am learning so much! So much more than I ever thought I could learn. I knew I would learn a lot about gospel principles and that I would come to know the Savior better but I don't think I realized how much I would learn about becoming a better friend, sister, daughter and one day wife, mother and grandmother. I'm so happy that I took this time to serve and I'm excited for the next 15 months! I can't believe it's been 3 months already! I'm so happy to be a part of this great work. It is hard work but the best kind of hard because through trials I know that I am learning. And I know that if I keep having the same trial I'm not learning and it makes me realize what I really need to work on. I love seeing the results of my hard work. The lord truly does bless us as we put in the effort!

HAPPY EASTER!!!! Remember to eat lots of chocolate for me :) and to take the time to remember what Easter is about. The Savior and the atonement are the reason we are able to be blessed with so much happiness and joy. He is our older brother and he loves us more than I can comprehend I encourage you to remember him and what he has done for us. I know that he lives and loves us, when times are hard it is him who lifts us up and gives us the strength we need to continue onward. 

Thank you for teaching me these things.

Love Sister Turner :)
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