Bowling by the ocean

Magandang aral! 

Can you believe it is 2015??The year has just flown by... especially the past 5 months! I'm so excited for this year because I get to be a full time missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints for the whole thing. It's gonna be the best!

Anyways, I hope you all had a really great new years eve. I really had a lot of fun on December 31 because every time I left an appointment or ran into someone i knew on the street, I got to say "Goodbye, see ya next year!" and just like on Christmas eve lots of nice families fed us lots of yummy food. I decided I wouldn't even make the annual "get skinny" resolution this year because I know better than to diet as a missionary. Instead my goal is to eat more fruits and vegetables and remember to take my calcium pills so my bones don't break in a typhoon. So yeah, I'm excited to be healthier this year! And maybe learn how to cook. I'll just go for a general "be more domestic" rule haha:) 

We had a 6pm curfew on new years eve and once we were inside and about to make dinner we all realized that we had NO RICE. which is a pretty dire situation to find yourself in. We had to call the APs and have them bring us rice (because they are the only ones with no curfew...and cars). I felt like i was living the real life story of the 10 virgins and the 5 who didn't have oil... yeah. We will be getting our food storage again today during grocery shopping. They were really nice though so we were able to eat that night. I can't believe I didn't stay up till midnight. I think we were allowed to because the fireworks/celebrations were so loud they didn't expect us to sleep but I was out of it and slept all night so I woke up in 2015 and kind of felt like I missed it. haha my companion said she had fun though.

I guess I gave my companion the sicknesses I had to my companion so we spent some more time inside this week as she tried to get better. I made good use of the time though and read 2 church history books. Today was fun because we went bowling for our district activity. We went to this big mall by the ocean and it was SO PRETTY. I wanted to stay there forever. I actually bowled a pretty good game and even got a strike which was pretty awesome. It felt like a bowling ally back home except for the fact that I was wearing flip flops."It's more fun in the Philippines":)

Not all too much else really happened this week. We honestly had a rough time with ALOT of rejection. It was kind of really hard to be honest. The hardest moment of the week was probably when we were teaching our GOLDEN investigator family who i love so much and they are so great and excited to learn more and be baptized and the lesson went great. As we were walking out (they live in the top floor apartment of the husbands' mother's house) the mom came out of the house down stairs and stopped us. She said "Can I talk to you both?" oh course we said yes and she goes "Could you please never come back to my house again? If Jessica wants to listen to you she can meet you somewhere else but I never want to see you here again". OUCH. OH course we tried to be respectful of her wishes and just thank her and head on our way but it was so sad. I had met the mom when I tracked Jessica my 3rd week in the Philippines and she was so kind and gracious to us. I guess when Jessica told her she knew our church was true and right for her so she and her husband wouldn't be attending the family church anymore, she got very angry. It was crazy to see how much her countenance had changed. I tried to understand her point of view but the whole situation is just so sad. The couple wants to be taught still but I don't want to tear this family up more. I have been fasting and praying about them and still have no idea what to do. Hopefully I don't get transferred next week because I really want to stay and help them figure things out. I know that this work isn't supposed to be easy because we are representatives of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't expect everyone to like us because not everyone loved him. We can't feel angry when people go crazy and turn their backs on us because he dealt with that too. I'm really grateful for the experiences I have been having because I am truly able to understand better and a little more clearly the savior's atonement for us. I'm grateful that someone out there knows exactly what it feels like to walk around for hours in the rain and talk to everyone and everyone rejects you. I'm glad I'm never alone in his work. 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful 2015!

Mahal Kita,

Sister Turner:)

p.s- i'll send lots of cool pictures next week!