Hi my lovely family and friends,
How are you all? I love hearing from you and I will print off your emails. I'm looking forward to reading them :). Thank you!

I'm a little tired right now, we just got back from shopping like crazy, we (Sister Steenblik and two other companionship's) went to Sushi (for Sister Steenblik's birthday), Costco (YAY food thank you for the gift card - I got yummy canned salmon, blueberries, granola, chicken and other yummy things - thank you so much for the gift card), and then to Walmart because that is where the Sisters like to shop, I got a tooth brush, tooth paste and some bananas. Anyway my day has been crazy and before 1pm Guest Services was ridiculous - so many people calling in! I like Guest Services but I am looking forward to leaving it after next transfer. I wonder what I will be doing next transfer. I'ts on the 18th so I still have like 2 and 1/2 weeks but the time goes by so fast here. Especially P-days! 

Sam is getting baptized today!!! I'm so happy for him and I really hope that everything goes well with him today. I wish I could be there. But England is unfortunately more then 30 mins away (that's how far we are aloud to travel for a baptism). I could have gone to one today for Shaylee but it was 35mins away. Sad but it is alright. She is so sweet. 
This week has been good. Nothing super exciting but a good week. I love teaching. There are so many amazing people that come to the square every single day. Also over the phone. It is such a blessing to be able to talk to so many amazing people. Of course being summer there are a lot of "friends of other faiths" or in other words anti that come to the square but it's alright because they only try to hurt you with your words but really it's just an opportunity to strengthen your testimony as you bare it more frequently and you feel the Spirit and then leave them and security deals with them if they are really being argumentative. I love my mission. 

I'm a little sleepy because I've been so busy today and it's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOT! Oh my goodness it's been like 38 degrees everyday! People say it's going to get hotter but I don't know if I can believe them. I don't remember Utah being so hot , but then again when I think about it when I was in Utah with Sarah we went to the pool all the time. AH no I can't think of the pool. Sacrifice. 

 I love the pictures you sent, ohh they are so cute. 

I'm tired often but I like it.  I like it because it's a way that I can really SEE Heavenly Father helping me. Because I am tired and I think ahhh I don't know if I can talk to another person right now my feet hurt, I'm sweating, I've been up since 6am and I only get 7 hours of sleep a night and I do this 27/7. But then I pray. I say a super quick simple prayer sometimes all I can manage to say before I talk to the next person is two words but I completely trust that He will help me, that the Atonement will help me and then the miracle happens time and time again I start talking to someone and the words just come to me and I'm happy and smiling and sharing what I know with them and everything is not just good but wonderful. I love that Heavenly Father will give us trials so that we can learn to rely on him and really try our best. I think trying our best is the key. If I said a prayer and then sat down on the grass and said I can't do it anymore I know He wouldn't help me. I have to push just a little harder and that shows that I am acting on faith and then He is able to help me. I hope I am making sense. It is really wonderful to me and I'm so grateful that I have learned this type of faith on my mission. I always knew acting of faith was important but it's different when you actually have to act. 

I love Temple Square so much. The Spirit is so strong here and it is such a blessing to be serving here. 

I'm getting my hair cut next p-day! I'm so in need of a hair cut! Oh my goodness my split ends are like an inch. I think it's the dry air and chlorine in the water. Anyway I was talking to a sister and she said that there is an Aveda place that has new stylists that only charge $20. I'm excited to get a trim. 

Well I'm out of time. I love you alllllllllllllllllllll soooooooooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch. I hope you are all well and happy :) I pray for you everyday! 

HUGS AND KISSES xoxoxoox

LOVE Sister Turner 

June 23, 2012

Hello dear family and friends!!

Things are going well here. We have a zone activity after I send this email to you. I made spice cake last night so I'm excited to eat it! And be with the Sisters of course :) I'm just really hungry right now.

This week was good. We have been teaching a lot of new investigators. Heavenly Father has really been blessing us with finding people to teach. Because we serve in Guest Services 6 hours a day sometimes it is hard to find people but this past week 2 people called in with questions about the church so we set up a time to call them again and set the referral through to meet with the missionaries. And then just today actually a woman called in and asked us to call her mom- Her mom's name is Emily too, she is an elderly lady and she just found out she has cancer. It was wonderful to be able to talk to her and help her feel the love God has for her, I got her address and explained that missionaries could come by and teach her more about the church and give her a priesthood blessing. I explained to her that it may not heal her but that it could bring her comfort, and that it was the same power that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles. I love being a missionary and being able to bring hope into peoples lives as I explain the restored gospel. It is such a blessing to be here.

Oh did I tell you in the last email that Sam (from England) has a baptismal date!!! June 30th! He is so great and has an amazing testimony of the restored gospel and of The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion - every concern Sam had whether big or small we were able to resolve with the Book of Mormon- It's like the introduction says, men will get closer to God by reading it then by any other book! I love the Book of Mormon.

We had a really fun mission FHE last Monday, half the mission went on Monday and half the mission went on Tuesday! It was so fun. We went to President Sepi (on of President Gillettes counselors) house and it was so nice. He had a gigantic park backyard where we ate yummy food and played games. We then walked to the church for a fireside. The fireside was amazing, a couple talked about their life and the trials they went through but how those trials really brough them closer to Christ. They had 4 children all with muscular dystrophy 4 of 7 cases in the world. It was so sad but so touching and they were so positive about their life. It was really an amazing fireside. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE serving my mission here!

I can't believe I only have a year left! I will never have another June,23 on my mission. I know I shouldn't think about that but it's crazy. Anyway I'm only in my 4th transfer and I have a total of 12 full transfers. It's good though, I'm not near ready to not be a missionary.
I've been reading and studying my patriarchal blessing lately and I love how well it matches up to my life and how I learn something new every time I read it. We are so blessed to have such an amazing gift from out Heavenly Father. Family I encourage you all to prayerfully study your patriarchal blessing. Praying beforehand to be able to recognize what it is you are meant to learn from it today. It is amazing and I invite you to all to read your patriarchal blessing again.

Well I want to send you some pictures from the zone activity so I should go. I love you all soooooooooo much. xoxoxoxoxoox You are amazing and remember Heavenly Father loves you and is always there for you no matter what you want to talk about with him. He truly is our father in heaven
Love Sister Turner
P.S I haven't got a chance to find a dentist, but I will look this week
P.S.S Thanks for the make up! That's what I picked for my birthday present - I wrote you a letter about it last week.
P.S.S.S I've been really enjoying all the yummy food you sent. THANK YOU


 
Hello dear family and friends!!


Things are going well here. We have a zone activity after I send this email to you. I made spice cake last night so I'm excited to eat it! And be with the Sisters of course :) I'm just really hungry right now.

This week was good. We have been teaching a lot of new investigators. Heavenly Father has really been blessing us with finding people to teach. Because we serve in Guest Services 6 hours a day sometimes it is hard to find people but this past week 2 people called in with questions about the church so we set up a time to call them again and set the referral through to meet with the missionaries. And then just today actually a woman called in and asked us to call her mom- Her mom's name is Emily too, she is an elderly lady and she just found out she has cancer. It was wonderful to be able to talk to her and help her feel the love God has for her, I got her address and explained that missionaries could come by and teach her more about the church and give her a priesthood blessing. I explained to her that it may not heal her but that it could bring her comfort, and that it was the same power that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles. I love being a missionary and being able to bring hope into peoples lives as I explain the restored gospel. It is such a blessing to be here.


Oh did I tell you in the last email that Sam (from England) has a baptismal date!!! June 30th! He is so great and has an amazing testimony of the restored gospel and of The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon truly is the keystone of our religion - every concern Sam had whether big or small we were able to resolve with the Book of Mormon- It's like the introduction says, men will get closer to God by reading it then by any other book! I love the Book of Mormon.


We had a really fun mission FHE last Monday, half the mission went on Monday and half the mission went on Tuesday! It was so fun. We went to President Sepi (on of President Gillettes counselors) house and it was so nice. He had a gigantic park backyard where we ate yummy food and played games. We then walked to the church for a fireside. The fireside was amazing, a couple talked about their life and the trials they went through but how those trials really brough them closer to Christ. It was so sad but so touching and they were so positive about their life. It was really an amazing fireside. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE serving my mission here!


I can't believe I only have a year left! I will never have another June,23 on my mission. I know I shouldn't think about that but it's crazy. Anyway I'm only in my 4th transfer and I have a total of 12 full transfers. It's good though, I'm not near ready to not be a missionary.
I've been reading and studying my patriarchal blessing lately and I love how well it matches up to my life and how I learn something new every time I read it. We are so blessed to have such an amazing gift from out Heavenly Father. Family I encourage you all to prayerfully study your patriarchal blessing. Praying beforehand to be able to recognize what it is you are meant to learn from it today. It is amazing and I invite you to all to read your patriarchal blessing again.


Well I want to send you some pictures from the zone activity so I should go. I love you all soooooooooo much. xoxoxoxoxoox You are amazing and remember Heavenly Father loves you and is always there for you no matter what you want to talk about with him. He truly is our father in heaven


Love Sister Turner

 

 Thank you so so so so so so so MUCH for the amazing BIRTHDAY parcel! You know me sooooooooooooo well. Everything in that box was exactly what I wanted or needed! Thank you a million times. I wish I could go through every single thing and thank you for all of them individually but you can know that I'm super happy with everything.


I've had a good
 birthday day so far. We had a safety training this morning at 7:30 and they gave us all muffins YUM! And had a reminder of how to be safe on our mission and all the procedures of what we need to do to stay safe. They also told us that this is probably one of the safest places in the world because all the security have the priesthood and we all have the holy ghost to guide us. I like that thought and mom I thought you might like that too :).


 After that I went to guest services and opened my package :) : ) :) Sister Steenblik took some pictures for me that I will send to you! And now I'm emailing you!

Mom thank you for the very sweet letter. You are so wonderful and good to me I love hearing from you. I will hopefully have time to write you a hand written letter in response after I have time to read it all. Thank you thank you!


Dad thanks for the letters, I was excited to hear from you twice! I love that you are doing missionary work, keep it up! It is so important, like you said, to pray for guidance, because there are so many times when I am teaching and I have no idea what to say but then the words just come to me and I know that is Heavenly father leading me allow with what I need to say. I know he will help you the same way. That's great you are giving a talk! What a great subject, I'm sure it will be amazing! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! I'm so sorry I can't call. I'm quite sad about it but I also know that the mission president makes these rules for a reason so it will be okay. I will talk to you on Christmas :)


I feel like I'm not expressing my gratitude and thanks enough as I feel them in this email but I want you to know that I'm so grateful that you are my family and that you love me so much. I'm so happy that even though I am far away and can't call you you still do all you can to help me have such a happy day. Thank you! Hey and next year I will be coming home 3 days after my birthday! Crazy.


Sometimes being a missionary is harder then usual but I am still happy no matter what circumstances may arise because I know that the only way to grow and to become better is through adversity. I'm grateful that Heavenly Fathers knows me well enough to give me trials that will make me stretch but that won't be completely overwhelming to me. Also lately I've been praying a lot that I will be able to more fully reach my potential as a missionary and so I think he has let me have harder times so that I can come to that point of being better. Don't worry or anything I'm happy and I love being able to know that I can always trust in the Lord to ease any burdens that I feel I have (Mosiah 24: 12-14.. I think? or somewhere around there). I think that anything that I do go through begins with my attitude so if I notice myself having a hard time the first thing I need to do is look at the positive and it will make everything brighter and better.



I'm so grateful that you have always taught me to not gossip or think bad of people but to love everyone and try my best to make them happy. Thank you, I really think it makes my life a lot easier as a missionary and really as a person. If ever I do have a hard time with someone I know, because you have taught me, that I need to serve them. Even when it may feel hard, the end result will be wonderful and really everything does go back to your attitude. Also I've noticed that all the companions I've had so far have had a hard companion before me and it seems they come to me to help them cheer up, it made me quite happy when I realized that and I'm grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me that way.

Well I have to go because I want to send you some pictures from this morning.


I love you all so very very much thank you for being the BEST family in the world! Truly though, you are.


Love Sister Turner ... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm 23!
 
Hello my lovely family and friends!

I got the birthday package a couple days ago and I'M DYING TO OPEN IT! I actually left it on the square so that it doesn't tempt me at home! I'm so excited and I can't wait to open it - only 1 week left! I love the anticipation of seeing it though :) Thank you.

So I have a lovely new companion :) Her name is Sister Steenblik and she is from Spokane Washington :) So a lot closer then Korea, Hawaii or Arizona. She is very sweet and I'm excited to be her companion. I've been training her on all that Sister Pickrel and I did in Guest Services and she catches on really quick so it's great :) 

And guess what! It's her birthday this month too! It's on the 30th so we are going to have a Canada Day/Birthday celebration for her. I'm not sure what to do for my birthday, but I'm really happy that it's on a P-Day. maybe I will take a nap- that would be nice, it's been a long time since I've had time to nap. And of course on my birthday I will OPEN MY PARCEL!!!

Wow I read your email about the barn. That's no good, but I'm glad you have insurance and just think it could have been so much worse. It's great that you were home mom so that you could catch it before it go out of control.

Matthias's baptism sounds like it was really nice :) I'd love to see pictures! I'm so happy for you Matthias.

Oh guess what! Elder Holland came to the mission on Monday! He gave an amazing talk. I was literally sitting like 3 feet from him and it was great to hear him speak in person. He looks you right in the eye and speaks with such power and authority. He talked about how this really is the only time in our lives where we will have this responsibility to share the gospel like we do and truly be representatives of Jesus Christ. It was amazing. I'm not explaining it very well but I took like 5 pages of notes so I know I got a lot out of it. Listening to him speak just made me so grateful to be on a mission. He also promised us that this will be the greatest summer Temple Square has ever seen. I'm excited to work hard and to be a part of this great work. Also after he spoke he shook all of our hands and told each of us that he loves us. It was such a neat experience. I LOVE TEMPLE SQUARE!!!

Guest Services is getting more and more busy as summer approaches and I love it. I'm constantly arranging tours and scheduling appointments. Sometimes it's a little crazy but working with the Spirit is amazing. This past week I've had so many instances where sisters will come and tell us about the miracles that happen on the tours. Like I mentioned before, we pray before we assign the tours (aka walking lessons) and it's neat to hear the sisters come back with stories like - "That person lives two blocks from my house, how did you know?,  We were able to connect and the Spirit was so strong"  or on "The tour you assigned me to there was two people who were deaf and I know ASL, did you know that? Because I was there the people said that they have been traveling around on a bus but they weren't learning anything because no one knew ASL"  etc. It's amazing to see Heavenly Fathers hand in the work. He is truly preparing his children to receive the restored gospel and he wants to bless there lives and they come to accept him as thier Heavenly Father.

Oh I have two new room mates. One of them is my district leader, her name is Sister Dotterer and she is so sweet, I love her. She is from North Carolina and of course her companion is in our apartment as well. Her name is Sister Bowden and she is from England. She's so sweet and so funny. We laugh a lot and it's fun. She's so funny and every once and a while she will say Harry Potter to me, haha because she knows I love it and that I love how she says it. She has the funniest random comments too. I can't think of any right now but they are so British and funny. Oh also we decided that we are related becaues she has family that were Turners that moved to America. I had to move all my stuff to a new room but luckily it was just one door over :) I will miss Sister Pickrel and our roommates Sister Kyle and Sister Jardine but I see them all the time on the square to it's all good.

Well I love you all very much :)  I'm so grateful for the love and support of my amazing friends and I love you all soo much :)
Love Sister Turner 
xoxoxoxoxo
 
HI FAMILY & FRIENDS,

 I had another wonderful week of miracles but I never have enough time to write them all!!!!

I will start with the awful news and then tell you the good - Don't be sad and know that there is a reason that there are mission rules - So I can't call on Fathers Day. It was something that the old mission president used to allow but with President Gillette he only wants the Sisters to call twice a year - once on Mothers day and once on Christmas. BUT I get to email you like the day before Fathers day so that is good! Which is also the day of my birthday! Well at least I'm pretty sure my P-day will stay the same.

 Transfer Conference is coming up on Monday so I will have a new companion next time I write you but I'm pretty sure I will be in the same zone. Not sure yet. I'm excited for the transfer conference there has been rumours going around that there will be a special speaker! No idea who but it's exciting.

Thank you for your note this week mom!  Sister Pickrel is really excited to go out to eat! We are actually going right after email :) We are going to the Olive Garden! I'm excited, we really wanted to do something fun for our last P-day together and going out to eat is perfect! Not many restaurants will accept my Canadian debit card so I will take the money out before I go. Sister Pickrel loves you by the way :)

Have a wonderful time at Matthias's baptism. He is such a wonderful boy and is getting so grown up. Give him a hug for me and tell him I love him and I'm so happy for him to make this very important decision in his life.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH You NEED to call Raven and just scream in her ear for a few minutes!!! Then you can ask her to tell you why!!! hehehheheh tell her I love her and then jump up and down and scream again. She will understand and I will write her today but it won't get to her for like 2 weeks and so I hope you can do this a little sooner.

So this week was so amazing! We took an amazing girl around Temple Square. Her name is Leanne and she is getting baptized on Sunday!!! We taught her about the Atonement and it was amazing to see her transformation from being scared of baptism in the beginning to be excited and anticipating baptism after only an hour at Temple Square. The Spirit is so strong here I'm so grateful that I'm able to serve here. The elders brought her to Temple Square and so we did the lesson with them and it was so good. They were good Elders as well they were able to join in the lesson and share testimony. I'm really excited to go to her baptism tomorrow.

Also we helped with a Mandarin Motorcoach this week. It was so amazing because the people were just so willing to learn. We have very specific rules with the Mandarin busses that come like we can't offer them a Book of Mormon but if they come take one then it is okay, and we can't call and teach over the phone but we can email them if they live in certain parts of China and lots of rules like that but at the end of the tour we stand at the gate with a basket of Books of Mormon and it amazing to see the people line up to get one. What other mission in the world would that happen! The sisters that speak Mandarin are amazing. There are only a few of them and they are always accepting to take tours so it was nice to be able to help them. 

Also we went to a baptism last night! Sister Chen invited Sister Pickrel and I to go because it was Sister Pickrel who had assigned the tour to Sister Chen. It was so nice and we sung in Mandarin! I love baptisms. Sister Chen has been teaching her for a while over the phone and it was so nice for her to be able to go and attend the baptism. And one of Sister Jung and my former investigators came and he said he really felt the Spirit so I hope that will help him to progress.

There were also two amazing mission meetings this week. The people who are in charge of visitor centre training came and taught us how to be more effect missionaries by being ourselves and some changes they were making in the mission to make it even more of a Preach My Gospel Mission. They also talked about how people say Visitor Center Missions are easy missions and how wrong they are and how Sisters at visitors centers have to work very hard and are busy 24/7. Which is true but I thought that is what all missions are like. I guess I'll be surprised when I am outbound. I love Temple Square so much it will be hard to leave when I do go but I am also excited to experience that type of mission as well. It won't be for a while though. I'm guessing I will go in October or December.

This transfer has been amazing. I love my companion so much and I love my room mates so much and I feel like I love all the Sisters here even more then I did before- I guess that comes by serving them for 6 hours a day.  I love it here, it is such a unique experience and something that I'm sure I will remember at least once a day for the rest of my life. Temple Square is incredible and I'm so happy.Well I want to send you some pictures so I will do that now and if I have time I will write you more after, if not then until next week :)

xoxoxoxooxSister Turner