Hi Family and friends!
I had a great week! I love doing the little service acts on my advent calender each day! Sister Hinton and I had soooooooooooooooo much fun at the Garden resturant! We had deep fried pickles for an appetizer and they were so yummy, at first I was reluctant to try but Sister Hinton was on her outbound in the South so she knew they would be good and they were! I've also sung a few people Christmas songs, given lots of hugs and I gave my companion a foot message last night :) I just opened the final # 7 last night so we will go out for a piece of cheesecake tomorrow during our lunch hour and think of how awesome Sarah is because it was her birthday on the 7th! HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY by the way! I've been having so much fun doing all the activities thank you!
So many sisters in our zone have been sick this transfer so I wanted to thank you mom for the awesome first-aid kit! Now half our zone knows what slippery elm is and it has been helping them get better. Especially the international sisters are very grateful for some medicine that is herbal instead of a medication that they have never taken before in their lives. So thanks again they are very appreciative and much healthier now!
Oh we had an awesome mission meeting this past week! Elder Evans http://www.lds.org/church/leader/david-f-evans?lang=eng came and spoke to us about missionary work and it was so wonderful! I love the church and the leaders that God calls to lead and guide us and to help us fulfill our potential on this earth. Elder Evans talked a lot about the missionary age change and how it was more then just an announcement but that it was a revelation from God. He is the in charge of the missionary dept along with a few other general authorities including Elder Holland and so we explained to us how the age change was made and the reasons why. It was so neat to hear. He told us about our mission and how we got our mission calls here to Temple Square and why. He promised us blessings and we remain faithful missionaries and members of the church. Sister Hinton and I left feeling like we just went to the Temple, it's a great experience to have a general authority stand up and promise you blessings. He also told us something that I found comforting, he told us that our mission will not be the greatest thing we will do in this life but that is to complete our covenants and get married in the Temple. It made me feel a bit better about only having 6 months left to serve. I knew that the mission wouldn't be the greatest thing but I think at some point I forgot and thought that nothing could be better then serving the Lord 24/7. But there is and as long as I serve faithfully to the end of my mission and continue to serve throughout my life all the righteous desires that I have will be granted to me.
Sister Evans also briefly spoke to us. She didn't talk for very long but something that she did say that really stuck out to me was that we have a precious gift from our Heavenly Father (the gospel) and it's up to us and missionaries and members of the church to give that gift to someone else. I liked it because she told us a Christmas story about when Elder Evans and her were young. They had dated before he left on his mission to serve in Japan just before Christmas. She had worked endlessly on knitting a white cable knit sweater for him to wear during the cold winter days in Japan. She had taken every spare minute she had to knit the sweater so that she could be sure he got it before Christmas and then packed it up and shipped it off in plenty of time to get there. Then she waited for what might be coming from him, she waited, and waited, and waited until it was Christmas eve and nothing came (she added at this point in his defense he had just got to Japan about a week before). The morning of Christmas eve she woke up still hoping the mailman would have something for her that day however when she looked out the window it had started to snow and continued to snow so much that the busy road she lived on eventually had to be closed and there was no cars going down the road including the mailman. She still stayed up until about midnight hoping that somehow her Christmas parcel would come, but it never did. Christmas morning came and her teenage brothers tried to cheer up their disappointed sister but she said that nothing helped she was sad and sad was all she could be. She was sitting in her bed that morning when her dad came in her room after shoveling the walk and told her softly that there was a parcel sitting on the doorstep that had her name on it. She said she leaped out of bed and ran downstairs to see, sure enough, her Christmas parcel from Japan! It had a beautiful little Japanese doll that she still has to this day. After her story Sister Evans went on to say that for years she had always thought of Elder Evans as being the hero in this story, making her Christmas wonderful and getting the parcel sent right on time, it wasn't until one day as she was thinking about it that she realized it was the mailman who was the hero. She didn't know who he was but he had spent his night, well past mid night, delivering Christmas parcels. He could have been home with his family enjoying a Christmas eve together nice and warm in his home but instead he was out in the cold delivering parcels to strangers. He didn't know what that box meant to her but he was willing to still walk through the cold snow to make sure she got it. As missionaries we have the opportunity to change someones life for eternity by sharing with them the Saviors message. That is what we are called to do and it brings us great joy!
Lately as I've been writing emails I've been trying to figure out what to say so today I brought my journal and it's so much easier remembering all the things I learned this week that I wanted to share with you!
Something else I experienced this week was that I was able to strengthen my testimony of the importance of planning. As missionaries every week we have a weekly planning with our companion. We plan for investigators and set plans of how we will help them continue to progress towards baptism and lasting conversion. Sister Hinton and I have some amazing investigators right now who we love so much! Anyway we also set plans to find new investigators and it's something that we decided to really work on this week. So first we had a desire, then we set plans that was something that WE could do to increase our ability to find new investigators and the rest was left up to the Lord. That day we found 2 new investigators in the Beehive house! I love Heavenly Father and I love that we have the opportunity to always be learning and improving!
Speaking of our investigators Enoch is getting baptized this Saturday!!! Please keep him in your prayers! I am so happy for him and this decision he has made that will bless his life for eternity!
Sarah thank you for your letter this week! It was great to hear from you! Also I got a few Christmas cards this week from dear friends thank you! Mom it was nice to talk to you for a couple of minutes the other day! I think it will be okay that I will call on Dec 30th so that I can talk to EVERYONE! I hope you are all happy and safe.
I love you all so very much!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Mosiah 3:5-8.
Love Sister Turner
I had a great week! I love doing the little service acts on my advent calender each day! Sister Hinton and I had soooooooooooooooo much fun at the Garden resturant! We had deep fried pickles for an appetizer and they were so yummy, at first I was reluctant to try but Sister Hinton was on her outbound in the South so she knew they would be good and they were! I've also sung a few people Christmas songs, given lots of hugs and I gave my companion a foot message last night :) I just opened the final # 7 last night so we will go out for a piece of cheesecake tomorrow during our lunch hour and think of how awesome Sarah is because it was her birthday on the 7th! HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY by the way! I've been having so much fun doing all the activities thank you!
So many sisters in our zone have been sick this transfer so I wanted to thank you mom for the awesome first-aid kit! Now half our zone knows what slippery elm is and it has been helping them get better. Especially the international sisters are very grateful for some medicine that is herbal instead of a medication that they have never taken before in their lives. So thanks again they are very appreciative and much healthier now!
Oh we had an awesome mission meeting this past week! Elder Evans http://www.lds.org/church/leader/david-f-evans?lang=eng came and spoke to us about missionary work and it was so wonderful! I love the church and the leaders that God calls to lead and guide us and to help us fulfill our potential on this earth. Elder Evans talked a lot about the missionary age change and how it was more then just an announcement but that it was a revelation from God. He is the in charge of the missionary dept along with a few other general authorities including Elder Holland and so we explained to us how the age change was made and the reasons why. It was so neat to hear. He told us about our mission and how we got our mission calls here to Temple Square and why. He promised us blessings and we remain faithful missionaries and members of the church. Sister Hinton and I left feeling like we just went to the Temple, it's a great experience to have a general authority stand up and promise you blessings. He also told us something that I found comforting, he told us that our mission will not be the greatest thing we will do in this life but that is to complete our covenants and get married in the Temple. It made me feel a bit better about only having 6 months left to serve. I knew that the mission wouldn't be the greatest thing but I think at some point I forgot and thought that nothing could be better then serving the Lord 24/7. But there is and as long as I serve faithfully to the end of my mission and continue to serve throughout my life all the righteous desires that I have will be granted to me.
Sister Evans also briefly spoke to us. She didn't talk for very long but something that she did say that really stuck out to me was that we have a precious gift from our Heavenly Father (the gospel) and it's up to us and missionaries and members of the church to give that gift to someone else. I liked it because she told us a Christmas story about when Elder Evans and her were young. They had dated before he left on his mission to serve in Japan just before Christmas. She had worked endlessly on knitting a white cable knit sweater for him to wear during the cold winter days in Japan. She had taken every spare minute she had to knit the sweater so that she could be sure he got it before Christmas and then packed it up and shipped it off in plenty of time to get there. Then she waited for what might be coming from him, she waited, and waited, and waited until it was Christmas eve and nothing came (she added at this point in his defense he had just got to Japan about a week before). The morning of Christmas eve she woke up still hoping the mailman would have something for her that day however when she looked out the window it had started to snow and continued to snow so much that the busy road she lived on eventually had to be closed and there was no cars going down the road including the mailman. She still stayed up until about midnight hoping that somehow her Christmas parcel would come, but it never did. Christmas morning came and her teenage brothers tried to cheer up their disappointed sister but she said that nothing helped she was sad and sad was all she could be. She was sitting in her bed that morning when her dad came in her room after shoveling the walk and told her softly that there was a parcel sitting on the doorstep that had her name on it. She said she leaped out of bed and ran downstairs to see, sure enough, her Christmas parcel from Japan! It had a beautiful little Japanese doll that she still has to this day. After her story Sister Evans went on to say that for years she had always thought of Elder Evans as being the hero in this story, making her Christmas wonderful and getting the parcel sent right on time, it wasn't until one day as she was thinking about it that she realized it was the mailman who was the hero. She didn't know who he was but he had spent his night, well past mid night, delivering Christmas parcels. He could have been home with his family enjoying a Christmas eve together nice and warm in his home but instead he was out in the cold delivering parcels to strangers. He didn't know what that box meant to her but he was willing to still walk through the cold snow to make sure she got it. As missionaries we have the opportunity to change someones life for eternity by sharing with them the Saviors message. That is what we are called to do and it brings us great joy!
Lately as I've been writing emails I've been trying to figure out what to say so today I brought my journal and it's so much easier remembering all the things I learned this week that I wanted to share with you!
Something else I experienced this week was that I was able to strengthen my testimony of the importance of planning. As missionaries every week we have a weekly planning with our companion. We plan for investigators and set plans of how we will help them continue to progress towards baptism and lasting conversion. Sister Hinton and I have some amazing investigators right now who we love so much! Anyway we also set plans to find new investigators and it's something that we decided to really work on this week. So first we had a desire, then we set plans that was something that WE could do to increase our ability to find new investigators and the rest was left up to the Lord. That day we found 2 new investigators in the Beehive house! I love Heavenly Father and I love that we have the opportunity to always be learning and improving!
Speaking of our investigators Enoch is getting baptized this Saturday!!! Please keep him in your prayers! I am so happy for him and this decision he has made that will bless his life for eternity!
Sarah thank you for your letter this week! It was great to hear from you! Also I got a few Christmas cards this week from dear friends thank you! Mom it was nice to talk to you for a couple of minutes the other day! I think it will be okay that I will call on Dec 30th so that I can talk to EVERYONE! I hope you are all happy and safe.
I love you all so very much!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! Mosiah 3:5-8.
Love Sister Turner
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