Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!!! 

Just kidding. They don't have Halloween here. Except some people did trunk or treat at the church and that made me really happy. I am surprised at how much i miss Halloween. and kit kats. Guess you don't miss it till it is gone haha Hope you all had a great time with fun fall festivities though!

 Since most of the people here in the Philippines are Catholic their big holiday is All saints day when everyone goes to the graveyard to visit their dead. It's a really big deal here. The florists and the liquor shops sell out and the sister missionaries have a 6pm curfew. haha Halloween day was still interesting for me though. My companion broke a mirror, a black cat showed up at our apartment and we met a guy who's wife died the day before and insisted on showing me pictures of his dead wife in her glass coffin. (I'm completely serious. That happened ) Soooo yeah. It was a hoot.

One funny thing that happened was we literally ran like 3 miles in 15 minutes from a way out rice field to the church to teach one of our investigators and we get there and i am so gross and dying and can't breathe and we all sit down and are about to start teaching and he goes(in broken English) :" Sister Turner. Why are you perspiring so much??" hahaha and I'm just like "sorry!" but in my head I'm like "Because I care about you and your salvation enough to run 3 miles from a rice field! geesh!"  hahah It was a great lesson though and he now has a baptism day and is progressing so much! 

This week I was studying the scriptures where it tells us to "take p our cross" and follow the savior. (Matthew 16:24-5) This life is really hard sometimes. It really is. But I find great comfort in knowing that we are never alone in what we go through. I read in D&C 122 where Joseph Smith had been praying tot he Lord for help and the Lord tells him that even if he experiences the worst trials possible, everything will be for his own good because it will give him experience. D&C 122:8 really hit me hard. It says: "The son of man(Jesus Christ) hath descended below them all(trials). Art thou greater than he?". This isn't supposed to be easy. And when we have hard times we should only hold our heads up higher because we are walking the road that Jesus Christ walked, we are in good company with the savior and we are never alone. 

Last night we watched an area broadcast to the Philippines with Elder Oaks and one of the things a speaker said really stuck out to me. He talked about how the quality of life we have has nothing to do with our lives or the world around us. It all has to do with the way we choose to look at it. We make our own happiness. He talked about how Lamen and Lemuel and Nephi both had the same glass of experiences and trials but Nephi tried to look at it half full and found joy and happiness. Laman and Lemuel saw it as half empty and were miserable. I know that is is so true! I have found that even in the worst experiences if you can still laugh and smile and keep going then you can be happy no matter what is happening. Sometimes my companion and I will go through a day and just look at each other and literally say "Why are we so happy right now? Today has been awful!" But I know that that happiness is a gift from the spirit and that if we try our best, heavenly Father really will help us in every single aspect of our lives. Even being happy when it doesn't logically make sense to be. 

So i'm just going to keep smiling and when the rain falls down, remember where the rains falls from. 

It's a good day to have a good day so I hope you all have a wonderful one!

Mahal na mahal ko kayo lahat. 

Ingat!

Sister Turner

Machetes and Miracles

Kumusta!

Siege so this week was so crazy. We found two new families to teach this week! They are both so awesome and really progressing. They are really seeking to know if our message is true and are recognizing the answering to their prayers!! It's such a miracle because this week almost all of our investigators are either progressing (reading, going to church,etc.) or have baptismal dates. IT'S SO EXCITING. 

Before I left on my mission one of my friends said  that missionaries who go to Asian countries learn how to be humble. But I really think that is true for missionaries anywhere. I have never been aware of how little I know and how incapable I really am until I came here and tried to speak a new language and work crazy long days and understand new culture, etc. etc. But I also have never been so aware of how real and tangible and accessible the Lord's help is to us. My new favorite scripture is Luke 18:27. Heavenly Father really can make the most impossible things possible and he really wants to help us if we just turn to him. I think I have relied on him this week more than ever and we have seen such great miracles. He can open doors that have never been opened before and give strength to us so we can accomplish what we need to even when we really think we can't. It's pretty great.

Also we did community service this week and we were weeding and cutting down trees and stuff and they just handed me a machete and told me to get to work and I just cracked up at how they just give a little white american girl that with no instruction book. Too much trust if you ask me. I have no idea what i'm doing just whacking away haha It worked though.

Anyways sorry this is short this week.

Mahal Kita,

Sister Turner:

The Spider

Hello Family and Friends.

This week was another fun and interesting week in the Philippines.

 One night this week I was heading upstairs to change into my PJ's when I went to turn on the light and I see this HUGE BLACK SPIDER (for real hand size)crawling right next to my hand. I was so surprised that I screamed probably the loudest scream in my life. Like those blood curtling screams they do in those black and white scary films.  Anyways after that everyone yells to me if I'm okay and then I go downstairs and tell them what happened and my companion just starts laughing at me and is like "Welcome to the Philippines". But I could not force myself to sleep in the tarantula room right? So I recruit sister sasagi to come upstairs and try to get this spider so we can go to bed. Anyways, after about 30 minutes of terror, tears and screams and discovering that our new spider friend has like super-spidey- jump-4 feet powers we gave up and I layed awake all night just on the look out and so scared and wondering how I found myself living in a country where it is socially acceptable to sleep with a tarantula 2 feet from your head. 

I consider myself lucky though because this morning I walked into the office to drop off something and saw Elder Winkler! He is here for some random reason in my area but we were talking and he said in his apartment they had two rats and he said "It's okay now, they are dead" I asked how they had killed them and he responded "Well we got one with a trap and the other one I stepped on" HAHA Oh man. Life is hard. Also he said they don't have any water at their house so they just wait for this cute little lady with a water cart to come around and sell them water. Somedays she doesn't come and they just don't have water that day! haha I love hearing my fellow missionaries stories because it reminds me to be more grateful. 

My companion wants me to tell you all about our weird food experiences but I think I will save that for a later email or for Christmas or something but don't you worry because I definitely have stories. haha

I am writing later today than usual because this morning we had a really neat experience to volunteer at a medical screening the church medical mission was hosting. We weren't allowed to proselyte or talk about the gospel which is basically as debilitating to a foreign missionary  as cutting off an arm since we literally only know gospel language and vocabulary. It was a really neat experience to help out though and I was able to meet a lot of amazing people and struggle to speak broken Tagalog to them:) The people here are always happy and grateful no matter what. I really admire that. One man came in to have his eyes checked for cataracts and the doctor told him his eyes were too far gone and he wouldn't not be able to reverse his blindness and instead of getting angry or upset he just graciously thanked the doctor for his time and walked out so dignified and awesome. If I can come home more like a Filipino I would consider myself so honored. 

Also Sorry if it seems like I only write crazy silly stories. I promises I have real life awesome spiritual missionary experiences all the time. I will try to get better about writing them. 

That's it for this week! Love you all!

Sister Turner:) 

Conference and Cooking

Hello Friends and Family!

So last Monday after emailing we went to one of our investigator's houses so she could teach us how to cook Filipino food but it basically just resulted in us eating for literally 4 hours. Like she would teach us how to cook something and then we would eat it and then we just kept doing recipes and we couldn't leave because she was the sweetest lady and had spent a bunch of money and time to buy us stuff and so we just stayed and ate. And I now understand why unlimited yummy food really isn't a good thing no matter how it sounds. Oh the bright side we now know how to make more than hot dogs and rice! woohoo improvement.

Monday night we had a Family home evening and it was the best! I am going to have astig FHE's all the time in my future family for sure. It was with our neighbors who are members (it was their son's 10th bday) and we had a lot of our investigators there. It was so fun! We played games and gave a spiritual thought and were all outside under the stars like singing hymns and having a great time and I just had this moment of realization of how lucky I was to be in the Philippines. (I have those moments alot)

Tuesday was sweet because we got to do exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. I had the honor and privilege of working with sister De Guz Man (one of my roommates/sister training leaders) the last week of her mission. It was such a great experience and I learned so much from her. She was a really great example to me of Christlike love and just being an awesome missionary in general. She left of Sunday to leave early from her mission to go home and help her family. I really miss her.

Also random side note but conference was SO GREAT! and we had six investigators come. it was amazing!

So the Filipino people are super blunt and tell you how it is, especially about your looks. One of our lessons this week was great because in the middle our investigators just cuts me off and says "you're beautiful. you look like Anne Hathaway". BEST COMPLIMENT EVER! hahah as we were walking back home I told my companion I hoped she was referring to cute Princess Diaries Anne Hathaway and not dying in Les Miserable s Anne Hathaway. haha Either way I guess I'll take what i can get.

Sorry I don't have much time today but this morning was cool because we had a district activity where we went to cagsawa which is the ruins from where the last volcano eruption happened. It was insane. Look up google pics. I took some sweet pics that i will send next week because I don't have my camera right now. 

It really is so beautiful here.

Sorry lots more happened this week but i'm in a rush. 

Love love love you all!

Have a really fantastic week!

-Sister Turner:)

He Has A Plan

Hello Family and Friends! 

      I was so excited to hear so many of you say general conference was so astig! In the Philippines, we watch all broadcasts like general conference and stuff a week later. So we saw the General woman's broadcast on Saturday and it was SO GREAT. Oh my gosh I can't wait for more conference this weekend. It's like Christmas. Thanks for the quotes, I feel like I got a sneak peak:) 

Okay so I'm going to be real with you all: Missions are really hard. And you learn so much. This week Heavenly Father has really been stretching me and I have grown a lot but it has been really hard.

   One of our investigators who I just have grown to love so much decided to drop us because her family wants her to stay a Catholic. She called us over to tell us she wanted to still be friends but she couldn't meet with us anymore. It literally broke my heart. She really loved hearing our message and how she felt at church but she just didn't want to break her families wishes. As we walked away, I just started crying because I literally love her so much. And I don't care how many people reject me or mock us or laugh at our message. We are missionaries and that is our job, to persevere even when times get tough. To share our message because we know that God lives and loves us. We know God has a plan for all of his children here on the earth and we share that plan and gospel with our fellow brothers and sisters because we love them. So I wasn't really sad that she had decided she didn't want to hear our message anymore. My heart broke because I knew what she was giving up. Our message is everything! The restored gospel of Jesus Christ holds every answer to life's questions, it provides a way for us to be with our families forever. So that's why things like that break my heart. Because I love these people with my whole heart. And I know that this message will bless them so much. And so I just get really sad for them when they turn that opportunity down.  it's really hard. 

   Also this week most of our investigators stopped progressing and no one came to church on Sunday. woohooo sad times=growing opportunities. But, I know that things will get better. In the meantime, Heavenly Father is just helping me develop the Christlike attribute of patience. 

  At trainer's training, our mission president gave us a really great analogy that really resonated with me and i thought i would share. He told a story about a man whose master told him to move this bolder and so every day the man went out and pushed and pushed with all his might and just kept trying and trying. Then one day, an old man walked by and said to him "What are you doing? You can't move that bolder." The man replied " My master told me to push this bolder". The old man laughed at him and said "Your master must think you a fool. Because you could push that bolder every day of your life and never be able to move it an inch. you are wasting your time." The old man walked away but the words he said stayed with the man and he began to doubt his master and became so discouraged, thinking "why would he give me a task I cannot accomplish so he sat down and stopped trying. A little while later, his master came by and asked him why he was sitting and pouting. The man asked his master why he would tell him to move this bolder if it was impossible. He said "Do you think me a fool, I know this is impossible". The master calmly and lovingly responded " I did not tell you to move this bolder. I told you to push. And what has happened to you when you obeyed and did what I told you? Look! Your arms have become strong, you have gained much strength because you have pushed against this bolder. I told you to push because it would make you better, but I never promised you that you could move this.That was not my plan"

This story is so powerful and true in our lives I think. A lot of times, God gives us trials and hard things and he doesn't intend for us to conquer them. Sometimes, our weaknesses,shortcomings or hard times are simply there to make us stronger. So I've decided that I will keep pushing, and keep trying to be exactly obedient, even when every single person turns us down. Even when I try harder and harder and just feel like the more I try to learn this language or learn how to be a good missionary the worse I get at it all. Because I know that God has a plan. And I cannot understand why this has to be so hard or what his plan is but I know that everything he does is for our benefit. He loves us so much. We are so blessed everyday. 

    I know everyone who reads this email faces different struggles each and everyday but please keep pushing. Don't give up. We can do hard things!! Because we NEVER do them alone. You have a loving Heavenly Father who has a plan and if we do our very best to follow him, he will always lead us to a better day, a better life, and a happier ending where we can one day be with him again.

     I love you all so much thank you so much for the encouragement and love if your letters each week. It literally means the world to me and helps keep me going! Thank you for your examples of faith and Christlike love. Have a wonderful week.

Mahal Kita!

Sister Turner:)

Miracles Happen Once In A While

If you read the title of this email and started singing that song from Princess Diaries then you are awesome. and I love you.

Okay so. This week has been crazy. 

Last Sunday as we were walking to an appointment in the dark, this dog started barking and going crazy(it was tied up but i questioned the strength of it's rope) so in trying to protect myself from getting rabies(which we received like a whole lesson on how a heck ton of dogs here have it and if you get it you will die.) I was quickly walking and keeping my eyes on this dog so i would know if it was going to attack me. ANYWHO because i was distracted and tired and it was dark I didnt see this huge tire in the road and I tripped and fell (gracefully, may i add. I asked my companion if I was as graceful as Jennifer Lawrence when she fell at that award show and she said yes so I felt better). Anyways, so I fall down and twist my arm and crazy scrape my knees and hands and it was just grand. There were also two ladies literally sitting right in front of me and apparently Filipinos like to talk because like 3 days later we went to teach a lesson and the investigator had heard about me falling from like her neighbor's cousin. Word travels fast. Also I was almost hit by a jeepney and then another time i was trying to avoid a motorcycle and fell in barbed wire. (why is there so much barbed wire here? seriously. )I think i'm giving my trainer grey hairs and no kidding about the tetnis shot thing. Woohoo adventures. I'm fine though. 

We have a lot of funny experiences with guys thinking we are cute and saying stuff to us because they think we can't understand Tagalog haha it so funny. But sometimes it's better when they try to speak English to us. Yesterday we were going to an investigators house to teach and this guy followed us for like ten minutes calling us cowgirls. And the other day in the store they were playing country music. Like legit country. Like Garth brooks and stuff. haha Everyone loves country because it is the best. obviously. I guess you can take the sister missionary out of the south but you can't take the south out of the foreign country that she is serving her 18 month mission in. I love it.

This week was really special. We have had so many miracles. When we go tracking, we knock on random doors and talk to random people and hope they will let us share our message. It's usually not too successful but this week we found way golden people who were so prepared the gospel but here's the best part. every person we found was FLUENT IN ENGLISH and actually preferred to be taught in English. Most Filipinos understand some English but not really so this was a huge miracle. I was able to teach them and really 100% follow the spirit. It was like Christmas. Really it was. If God sent me half way around the world to find every English speaker in the Philippines and teach them the gospel then that is fine by me and it was well worth the trip. 

Annie's baptism was great! She is so wonderful. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to share such a special day with her. One of the speakers didn't show for her baptismal service so last minute I was chosen to give a ten minute talk in Tagalog. I don't know why they keep doing that(making me speak). I'm probably the comic relief but it went alright and I think she really felt the spirit and had a good experience so that is all that matters. 

This week we will be having trainer's training where I get to see sister wilkinson and elder winkler so i'm really excited to see them again and exchange stories. Also general conference this weekend! Woohoo. gonna be a great week

Love you all!

Mahal Kita,

Sister Turner

Volcano and Pants On The Ground

Hello Family and Friends!

Here's some fun facts about the Philippines for you:

1. Apparently the word "sexy" here means cute. So there's no need to be alarmed when your mission president's wife tells you repeatedly in public how you and the sister's you are with are the "sexiest sister missionaries she's ever seen"

2. Traffic here is crazy. Like I literally can't even describe it. My mom would probably have a heart attack if she saw me crossing the street here. They don't have stop signs or stop lights and maybe not speed limits either so it's kind of a do or die situation. Sister Mccord always says "If you hesitate, they will hit you, and if you don't hesitate, you have a better chance for survival". Soo yeah. haha I'm getting pretty good at it though.

3. They have super awesome transportation here (google jeepney and trycees). Last pday we went a couple towns over to buy wilderness explorer supplies(waterproof bags) and we rode a jeepney. It's so funny here. You know that tv show "pimp my ride"? I swear there need to be a show called "pimp my jeepney". They are so swagged up. Like the one we rode in had disco lights and music blasting and they are basically party buses. Confession: Every time we ride in one I silently pray that the new taylor swift album will come on the radio(Sorry I know that's not a good missionary thing but i'm not a perfect person) But apparently according to my companion it takes like 4 months for new songs to get here. Dang.

okay so last week Caree Campbell sent me an awesome quote(Love you caree! Hope your first week in the mtc was good!) She said to expect miracles, and then pray for them. Because Heavenly Father has so many blessings to give us but we have to ask for them. So anyways, this week I was so determined to have so many miracles. I was so pumped. Right before I got to this area it was split and so all of our investigators were basically lost so we do A LOT of tracking(which is when we go around to random houses/people and ask them if they would like to hear our message). So on Tuesday we go to track this area and it was so hot like so so so so hot as the sun hot. And we are walking through these rice fields and get to this way far out jungle village and we are going around trying to talk to people and no one will listen to us so we keep climbing up this mountain and it's literal hiking because there are fallen trees and stuff but I'm so excited because I was so sure when we got to the top of this mountain on the hottest day of life that we would have a miracle. So we go to all the houses and then we get to the top and the lady that lived there told us she wasn't interested and then as we were walking away she warned us to watch out for all the snakes on the path. OH THANK YOU. #ignoranceisbliss I think hiking 2 miles down a mountain in a skirt on a snake path validates my self proclaimed woman warrior title. haha I was definitely a lot more cautious of my surroundings as we walked down. 

It's funny because they saw the Philippines has two temperatures: hot and hotter. But I think that "wet and wetter" describes my life better. You are either dripping from sweat or rain 100% of the time. haha The day after the super hot day we had a mini typhoon and we were walking through it and the streets had like a foot of water in some parts so we are trying to jump from edge to edge because the water is poop water essentially. haha it's so fun. I am single handedly testing the effectiveness of the tentus(sp?) shot. 

Then Tuesday night we went to teach Annie! She is the best person ever. Her husband recently died and she is a single mom of 6. She is so strong. Last week I had the opportunity to extend the baptism invite to her and she will be getting baptized this Saturday! She is literally so strong and has the most inspirational faith. I will send you a pic of her baptism next week! Her little girl is so cute and as we were leaving she tried to come with us and then when her mom made her come back she yelled "BUHBYE,GOD BLESS,INGAT(take care)". She is so cute. I love that family.

When we were walking home from Annies, we saw Mount Mayon Erupt. It's so crazy that I happened to be in the area right next to the Volcano when it erupted. haha Let all the jokes about my bad luck with things catching on fire around me start when you read this. But yeah it was pretty crazy. We went and watched it erupt on the roof of the Elder's apartment with them and as soon as we got up there, it stopped. It was so anti-climatic, but at least we saw it a little aha.

Okay this is random and not really missionary like but I was thinking about it this week and my life here is literally Lord of the Rings. Here's why: We are on a quest(telling people about Jesus), Satan is trying to kill us, There are volcano's erupting, the spiders are huge, my feet are so gross nasty blister hobbit feet, and i'm like always hungry and wanting second breakfast. Also, I am a huge person living in a tiny world. Like I literally hit my head at least 4 times a day on doorways, roofs, you name it. I need a helmet. Maybe if it's classy enough they will add that into the missionary dress and grooming guidelines. haha it is so funny.

Oh man I have got to tell you about Nanay Mercader! She is this cute little old woman who is too frail and sick to go to church now so we go and visit her but she is just the best. She was the very first member of the church here but she tells me every time we visit her "Sister! Did you know I am the first member of the church"(like in the world.) It's so cute! So this week we went to visit her and her like 30 year old son was there and she was standing up and talking to us and all of the sudden his pants just FELL OFF. Like I don't know how and I don't why. Don't worry, my pure missionary eyes looked away quick enough and didn't see anything they shouldn't have but I saw enough to know he was not wearing anything else. But here's the amazing part of this story! I didn't even laugh. I just looked away and kept talking about Jesus Christ until he got everything figured out. I am so proud of myself. Missions really do change people. hahahahha My companion and I have lots of fun stories like that. 

We went to teach some people who lived by the railroad tracks here and there were all these cute kids playing outside and as we walked by they would run after us saying "Sister sister!!" and then take our hands and put the back of our hands to their foreheads which is the sign of ultimate respect here. And it was the cutest moment of life. The kids here are so cute they make my heart melt like a Popsicle on the fourth of July. I am going to adopt them all after my mission. 

Because of the Volcano erupting, the Sister's from the area closest to the lava flow had to evacuate and are staying with us. It is so fun. I love them. They are sister Sesagi and sister finau and are from somoa and tonga. 

Here's a funny story. So it's my second week right? And we had to do exchanges with the sisters staying with us and split our appointments. Which meant that my second week here I had to be senior and lead all the lessons and find them. Fun fact about the Philippines: there are no addresses. It's like when my mom gives directions "turn right at the blue gate and left at the big tree". haha so I'm trying to lead and have no idea where the houses were and was completely reliant on the spirit. I would literally stop on every corner and ask my new companion "which way do you think we should go" and just kept going to houses that might have been right and then when it wasn't right I would just talk to the people in that houses and get referrals and return appointments. We actually had so much success that day and found everyone and got alot of new investigators. It was the most evident example of "blind leading the blind" that I've ever seen in my life but I guess the spirit was the one really leading so it was all right in the end.

The past 2 weeks have mainly taught me how I can't do a single thing by my self and if I think about myself there is no way I could serve a mission here. It is so hard. BUT I'm so lucky because the Philippines is a really great place to loose yourself in the work and serve others. I love the people here and look forward to when I can understand and help them 100%. 

Thank you all for the love and support! I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Mahal Kita,

Sister Turner:)