Beach Baga!

Okay I'm going to type so fast to try to fit all this stuff in:

This week we had exchanges in Abuyag and I went there to work with Sister Tuiloli who is my batch coming in the mission. She is so awesome! We had a ton of fun and had some good work. (and their apartment is haunted so that was fun) Then the next day was our one year mark sa field and our kabahay threw us all a party at lunchtime and it was awesome. 

The work is slowly progressing here. We keep getting "sorry we are catholic. Come pick up your book of mormon, we don't want it anymore" texts from all our new investigators so that's a bummer but so is life as a missionary. But I won't spend time talking about that, I wanna tell you about our SILVER LINING: Elmo. So Elmo is the boyfriend of a member who has been coming to church activities for over a year and wanting to be baptized but his parents are devoted Catholic and really against it. When we met him he said the missionaries would never teach him because he told them he couldn't be baptized. But I remembered Mom's conversion story so I figured if he has the desire to learn then we should teach him. So yeah, the miracle is he now has a baptismal date for October and his parents started coming around. (but please keep praying for their hearts to be softened so he can be baptized). ELMO IS SO GREAT! He already has a strong testimony and last week without us even inviting him to, he and his girlfriend fasted and prayed that his parents would allow him to come to church and they did! He said he even cried he wanted to go to church so bad and their hearts were soften and they gave him permission. He loves the church. He understands the doctrine. He is so stinkin' smart. He is definitely a golden investigator. We saw him walking one day on the street and I asked him if he had walked all the way from his school to the church and he smiled all cute and responded "yeah... but I need to practice walking if I get to serve a mission one day, right? missionaries always walk." WHO IS THIS KID. I can't even explain how powerful his lessons are. I'm so excited for him. Gonna join him in fasting weekly for his parents because his baptism will happen if they can come to terms with it. I know that even if his parents aren't ready to accept the gospel, if Elmo is we need to help him get there! He is the same age as mom when she joined the church and I just know he will have a happy ending like her! Also side note but they are both totally going to serve missions and then get married in the temple its gonna be great! 

Friday we had zone training and it was really good. The ZL's here are awesome and all the missionaries are awesome and participate a lot so it's fun to have our meetings:) Saturday we had a CSP planting trees with our branch and I even got to see the Manahan's! 

Sunday nanay Patria came to church!!!!!!!! We came to pick her up and then saw she had already started walking there all by herself. Even though she is super old and weak and blind. She was determined to get there and i was so proud of her. That was maybe the best moment of my week. Because she has been struggling with feeling the love of God for her and after sacrament I leaned over to her and was like "nay, how was church?" and she just had the biggest smile and is like "It was beautiful" and then I said "do you feel how much he (God)  loves you now?" and she said "yes!" 

IT WAS SO GREAT!

Today we went to Gubat for a zone activity on the beach. It was so fun and the elders had set up this scavenger thing and one of the tasks was "bury sister turner in the sand" so yeah gotta love the elders. I was wet and sandy the whole day but it was so fun! Also I wore jeans for the first time in a year and felt alot more Journey than Sister Turner as I played with the other missionaries on the beach. SO YEAH that was weird but I'M JUST TRYING TO FOCUS. I love the beach still:)

Next week we have transfers. I think I should stay here but we'll see what happens. I've learned I really can't tell ever what is going to happen with transfers. 

Love you all!

ALSO I CAN'T BELIEVE DAVID IS GETTING MARRIED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND AMRON CAME HOME FROM HIS MISSION ALREADY????????????????????????? what in the world. Time moves so fast. I can't believe I'll be home in four months. What is life. 

Sister Turner:) 

The Exemption

So earlier this week we were teaching a less active nanay about forgiveness because she was offended by family and won't come to church because of it. We explained how Christ wants us to forgive everyone no matter what and she goes "oh yes sister, that's true.. but there is an exemption." and I'm like wait what? And ask her to explain and she says "We should forgive everyone UNLESS they are really bad people or we really don't like them. Then we have an exemption. It's okay to hate them..." haha oh man. After a long lesson, more expounding of what the scriptures say and some interesting comments from nanay, we were finally able to help her understand that there are no exemptions to following the commandments of God. And after that it got me thinking that while it is true that there is no exemption from certain commandments just because we don't like them, there is also no exemption from the blessings Heavenly Father promises us as we follow him. We can have the faith and trust in him that he loves us and we are his children so why wouldn't he want us to be happy. He's got our back, we just need to follow. It's a concept so easily said yet so hard to apply in our real life when the trials set in and the doors start slamming and we start feeling lonely and sad. 

This week I've been trying more to apply what I know into things I actually live. So I've been learning a ton. 

This week we had MISSION TOUR. And it was so AWESOME. Oh my gosh. I can't even. I learned so much and all the things Elder Haynie (area 70 for the Philippines) said was so timely and perfect for what I needed to hear to get things going in this new area. He just came in basically for two days with spiritual awesomeness and was like "ask me any question about anything and I'l give you an answer". (sorry that my paraphrase makes him sounds like a gene or something) haha So yeah, it was basically a two day sister turner show I was asking so many questions. I felt like Sister Hermione Granger (and not just because my hair is in a desperate need of a deep conditioning treatment). It was probably slightly obnoxious to the other missionaries that I was talking so much but hey, when a General authority is willing to teach like that you gotta make the most of it right? It was great. I could really see how Elder Haynie is a representative of Christ. He is so awesome!

There was so much good stuff I learned this week but it's kind of impossible to write it all. MISSION TOUR WAS JUST SO GREAT! And I just really love Jesus Christ and want to do a good job to serve him here. Even when it's hard. I realized this week that I don't have to understand everything or know exactly what his plan is. I just have to keep working hard and applying the gospel of Christ to my life and then I have the promise that all of my trials and afflictions will be "swallowed up in the joy of Christ". Is that a great promise or what? So this week we were having a really hard time with our area. I really didn't know what to do because I had been trying everything I did know how to do and NOTHING was working. So I decided I needed to apply one of Elder Haynie's sayings that "you need to pay the price and show God he can trust you and that you are willing to do anything for him and then when he sees your acts of faith he will think- hey she is serious- I'm going to let her help me in gathering my sheep. I'm going to give her guidance". So I figured maybe nothing was changing because I wasn't doing anything new. I knew we needed some guidance for our area and I knew I didn't know how to do it so I decided to really study it out. I did a 2 day fast and I just read the scriptures and studied the words of the living prophets and I was praying for all these answers and you know what happened? I didn't get answers to all my questions but I did receive an increase of faith and an increased desire to work hard and be obedient and trust that God will make a miracle of this situation. And even though that wasn't what I was looking for, it was good enough for me. God knows what we need best so I'll take what he gives me and run with it. 

I testify that Jesus Christ is our savior, that he loves us and no one is exempt from that love or his atonement. It is available to us all. I know that our Heavenly Father is bound to keep his promises when we do what he says so we need not be afraid but just have the faith and patience to keep on keeping until he sees fit to give us that desired result. I love being a missionary because I love feeling close to my savior. This week I really felt the promise that if we follow him and try our best "we shall abide in him and him in us, therefore walk with him."

I'm grateful that Jesus Christ walks with us always as we seek him and we never have to carry a burden alone. 

Love you all!

Sister Turner:)

p.s- Funny moment this week: I was trying to be domestic again and cook this week and I burnt rice TWICE and set the fire alarm off. The thing was my kasama and I were so beat from tracting like all day we fell asleep waiting for it to cook and woke up to the house like on fire(that's an exaggeration it was just smokey) and then the second time when it happened I was officially fired from being the house chef:( haha But it reminded me of David trying to cook mini pizzas and  burning them and I laughed realizing how we really are related! Good thing he is getting married in a couple weeks! Hopefully his wife knows how to cook and take care of him! I love you David! Send lots of pictures:)

Oh and this picture is my kasama and new kabahay sa sorsogon. they are awesome and so funny.