Surprise! An Early Email

Hello Everyone!

I am emailing on Saturday because we have been advised to email today because later today a major super typhoon is supposed to hit us. I don't know if you have heard about it or if they are talking about it on world wide news but they say it is supposed to be as big as Yolanda, which was the biggest tsunami storm to ever hit the Philippines. Right now the typhoon "Ruby" is 40 provinces wide and headed in my direction! haha Don't you worry though. My apartment is very safe and we should be fine there. It's so safe in fact that we currently have 15 evacuated sisters from other parts of the mission staying with us. So it's like a big slumber party with lots of saltine crackers haha We have been told to have 7 days worth of food and water and have everything ready for emergency evacuation if need be. I am mostly just sending this email to assure you that I will be just fine but we do expect some pretty big repercussions from this storm so we may not have power for up to a month, meaning I might not be able to email or communicate for that amount of time. I'm sure my mission president will keep my family informed and if there is a way of communication still up after the storm and maybe I will even be able to call home! woohoo silver lining!

 It's so crazy because everyone is running around trying to prepare for this storm and church services have even been canceled for the prolonged future and we are setting up all church buildings as safe spots for evacuees so we will also evacuate there if our apartment becomes unsafe. I don't want you to worry about me because I know that Heavenly Father is with me and I will be safe. I know everything is in the Lord's all knowing hands. Please pray for all the people of the Philippines because there are many who are unable to have safe shelters or be well prepared due to their poverty and various situations and I am worried for them. I pray the Lord will protect these wonderful people that I love. 

This week I got a new companion, Sister Vi from Tonga! She is pretty awesome. I feel like I will be able to learn a lot from her and really become a better missionary and I am excited for the next six weeks. This week we got to teach Mierna and Grace and Ian and they are literally so prepared and awesome. They were supposed to be baptized this upcoming Saturday but everything is being delayed because of the bagyo! I hope they don't have to wait to much longer because they are so excited. Also an update on Lolido: He is still going strong. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized. He moved to another town for work but says he wants to come back so I can teach and baptize him here since Sister Mccoard and I were the ones to find him and start teaching him. I thought that was really sweet but the best part is that he wants to be baptized in the first place! We really are so blessed here. One of the first things I said to my new kasama was "Sister. You just got transferred into the best area of this mission! You just wait and see!" and it's so true. There are so many choices spirits here ready to accept the gospel and the coolest thing is that when Sister Mccoard and I opened this area there wasn't anyone yet but with the Lord's help we were able to find this wonderful people and share with the the truth they had been searching for. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father is allowing me to be a part of his great work here in Daraga. 

I love you all, you are the best!

Sister Turner:)

A Very Filipino Thanksgiving:)

Hello Hello Hello!! First of all thank you so much for all the love and support you've all been sending me! Also shout out to my family for eating thanksgiving rice in my honor! My thanksgiving was actually a pretty good one. We had a district meeting where we talked about being grateful and how to serve our area better. Tapos, the sisters all went out to eat lunch and had a great time laughing and went around saying all the things we were grateful for. Just like home! It was cute:) Then for our thanksgiving dinner we made french toast(which actually tastes good wherever you are in the world apparently so woohoo) and BALUT. Balut is the traditional Filipino delicacy. You can Google it for more info but basically it is a boiled egg but it has a half formed chick with feathers and brain and beak. That was HILARIOUS to see each other try. Definitely a once in a mission thing i'm thinking. I don't know if I can send videos on my email but if not, I've got a really funny video to show you in 14 months! haha 

Also I got mail yesterday!!! It was a padded envelope from my ward back home!! It had cute notes from the kids who I used to babysit and sweet notes from the relief society and some cute treats. I cannot even tell you how happy it made me! It was a super surreal moment because I remember making those care packages for missionaries and now I AM THE MISSIONARY!!! so weird and surreal. I am so blessed and thank you so much! 

So This week was just very surreal because I am done with training now! Tomorrow Sister Mccoard will be transferring and I will get a new companion and lead this area. We spent all day yesterday trying to teach as many of our investigators and visit everyone she wanted to before leaving. We took a bunch of pictures with them which i will send probably next week because the computer is being weird. I'm really sad Sister M is leaving. I love her so much and was hoping we could stay together for Christmas! Actually one of the Ap's told us we were supposed to stay together another 6 weeks but something happened in the mission here they needed to separate a companionship so we ended up getting split. I am sad but I know that ultimately everything is part of the Lord's plan and I am excited to have my first "real" companion where I am a normal and 100% official missionary. We have a family getting baptized on Dec. 13 and I am so excited for them! I'll send you more on all our amazing investigators next week hopefully!

December is the rainy season here in Phili and it definitely hasn't disappointed. I had a really cool missionary slash life moment Saturday night because we had been punted all day (where no one is home/all our appointments fall through) and it started raining SO HARD. For like 3 hours straight and the roads were completely empty and we literally were wading through like 6 inches of water and deeper in some places and i'm just like trying to hold my skirt and umbrella and scriptures (I NEED A WATERPROOF SCRIPTURE CASE) and it was so crazy and dark and insane and all I could think is "This is SO COOL! I am a missionary in the Philippines "swimming" through gross water to go teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. IT IS THE BEST! 

The Lord blesses me so much every single day. One of the ways he blesses me is by giving me weaknesses because those weaknesses force me to rely on him and when I rely on him I really do become strong. I feel his love in my life often and know I am where I am supposed to be. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Let Heavenly Father and our savior Jesus Christ help you with the things you may be struggling with. You can become strong and feel their love no matter what may be happening.

I am praying for you always,

Sister Turner:)

Sister Turner's Good Eats

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! 

I hope you all have a very wonderful week and eat some rice in my honor. I don't have too many stories from this past week so I thought I would do a special Food Edition of my weekly emails in honor of Thanksgiving. So get ready to hear some of my gross /funny/sad food stories of life in Philli!

Okay so first of all I eat a sad sad sad amount of rice. With no exaggeration. The way food is prepared here is there is a little "ulam" which is a topping of vegetables or meat that you eat with your rice. But EVERYTHING is with rice. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the thing is after almost 12 weeks I honestly have to have rice. If we don't eat it,it's not a meal. So basically I will be purchasing a rice cooker for my apartment post mission. 1) because I love it and 2) because that's literally all I know how to cook haha 

Back when we had six sisters living with us we decided to measure how much rice we all ate combined in one week. It was 14 pounds. 14 POUNDS!! Is that absurd? Absolutely? Good thing I walk 12 miles a day or I would be 300 pounds.

Another culture thing here is that when people offer you food it is incredibly rude to not eat it, especially if you are a foreigner. So you have to eat it no matter what. I have eaten some crazy things but I think the hardest is when you are literally not hungry and you have to force yourself to eat because they keep putting food on your plate. hahaha We went to a birthday party last weekend and the mom literally made me eat 3 pieces of cake and a bunch of pancit and chips and everything. I didn't want it and I felt so full. She made me do it! There is no agency in this aspect It was basically that scene in the movie Matilda where the mean principle makes the fat little boy eat all the chocolate cake haha. Sister Mccoard and I thought we were going to throw up but we just pushed through and laughed instead. Missionaries can do hard things. 

I think the grossest thing I have eaten on my mission is just the sheer number of ants I have probably consumed. They are everywhere. I remember one time this lady gave us juice and it had all these ants floating in it and she was watching me waiting for me to drink it so I try and drink it all slowly to not get the ants but then when I drink any at all she just refills it haha Then I gave up and just drank them all and she went on to give me some more juice and goat liver.(not a fan) One time I was eating oatmeal with one of my roommates and went to pour sugar in the oatmeal and then noticed there were some ants crawling in it and I just look at her and she goes "They don't have bones" and I go "Hey! It's extra protein!" and we move on like nothing happened. I AM SO GROSS. Like over here is different. Like you just don't care and you eat what you are given and you are grateful for it and you don't waste anything. There have been so many moments where My trainer has just looked at me and been like "eat it all! you have to eat it!" Most times I am okay except for once when I found this super nasty hair all mixed in with my rice at a member's house and I literally couldn't do it so I did probably the meanest thing in my life and i said "Sister Mccoard, this is so good but I am just too full, could you finish this for me.?" and then put it on her so she had to eat the hair rice. We are so scared of offending people we do some gross stuff haha. I've had some pig face, chicken foot, cow liver and many more. I'm not really sure the details because I try not to ask. haha I think maybe that it why I love rice so much because I can get away with eating just that and a little fish head or whatever they have. 

When we are home we just have eggplant and rice or eggs or corned beef so nothing too extreme. But sometimes we try to made American food for our Filipino roommates. It's pretty gross though because we have no good substitutes. Our latest invention was grilled cheese with no butter or good cheese so it was just toasted bread with fake cheese and a pack of spaghetti sauce mixed in with water to make "tomato soup". We tried really hard but it was definitely far from that tried and true American Classic. I think I'll just wait 14 months to have my american favorites again haha.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed a glimpse into my life here. Everyday is a new adventure for sure. They do have a madco here that we go to sometimes but even there they have rice! haha Jollybee is my favorite place to go on pdays because they have really good spaghetti there. 

Hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving and appreciate a holiday when you eat a lot because you want to not because you have to! haha

On a more serious note, I just want to take a second to say how grateful I am for the many blessings I have been given. The last 3 months have really opened my eyes to how blessed I was back home and how much I took for granted. The wonderful people of the Philippines have shown me that happiness really doesn't come from things or status in life or anything like that. It really comes from family, and God and our own personal choices. I am so grateful for the many tender mercies the Lord gives to me each day and for all the friends and family who love and support me each week. This is the hardest thing I have ever done but I know that Heavenly Father has brought me here for a reason and that each day here in the Philippines is a gift. 

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Sister Turner:)

How He Works

Hello wonderful family and friends of mine! I hear it's getting cold over there on the other side of the world. I just want you to know that I am very much jealous and hope you enjoy the snow, hot cocoa and snuggly blankets:) I'm sending lots of love your way from a very warm place.

One of our investigators, Rhodora is so great! Let me tell you a little about her.  She had polio when she was 3 years old and lost the function of her legs. Her dad made her a little wooden "wheelchair" made of a piece of wood and wheels so she can get around. She is so sweet and talented in drawing and crocheting. She offered to make sister m and I crocheting of our names and even wrote a cute note on the back. She is so sweet. It was really powerful because this week when we taught her we taught about the atonement and how through the lord's atonement, we can be made perfect and I told her that I don't know why bad unfair things happen in this life but I do know that the Savior Jesus Christ knows all that she goes through and that through him all will be made right one day. It was so neat to be able to share that with her and the spirit was way strong. I will send a picture of her next week because there are virus's in this computer shop that can wipe your camera and since i have a bunch of pictures to send i will just wait. 

There were a couple really cool experiences this week but i only have time to write one. So about 3 weeks ago we taught this man named Lolido. He is a celebrity event planner and a very opinionated and cool guy. He likes to debate a lot though which can make teaching him hard because he really wants to teach you! haha So we were teaching him and he told us how he knew that Jesus Christ was actually just a man who did good things but he wasn't a savior and usually i would just go on with the lesson but I felt the spirit so strongly tell me that i needed to share my testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that he really did suffer and die for us and that through him everything is possible. And it made NO SENSE because it's just this fighting guy who doesn't believe in Jesus but I couldn't fight the spirit. So I just stopped him and said something along the lines of "Brother, I feel like i need to share my testimony with you. Because earlier you said Jesus Christ is not our savior but I know that he is" and just share my testimony with him and as I'm talking the spirit was like CHOKING me and I start crying! Crying in a lesson with this man who i knew did not respect me because I am just this white emotional girl who can't speak his language talking about Christ. Afterwards I felt like SUCH an idiot. I was so upset with myself that I didn't just keep my mouth shut. Anyways fast forward to yesterday when Lolido walks into our sacrament meeting all dressed up and had come all on his own. We were talking to him afterwards and the bishop came up and asked him why he decided to come. He turned to me and said "I am here because she cried. I can debate anything but I can't debate her testimony or her tears. I knew it came from her heart and I felt it. I want to know more. I think it could be true." and then he thanked me for what I had said to him.  SO YEAH THAT HAPPENED. Let's bypass the part where he told everyone I cried and fast forward to the part where my weakness in that moment or what I perceived to be a weakness turned out to be the way the Lord had the spirit work in this man. Heavenly Father's Plan is literally so perfect and I think that is probably the biggest lesson I am learning on my mission. I thought for a long time that in order to be a powerful missionary or have a powerful testimony I had to be a powerful speaker. I thought the Lord would help me get this language and then I could teach with power and would be able to help a lot of people. But now I realize that the Lord is already using me to accomplish his purposes. Even when I feel so unqualified or stupid or whatever. There have already been so many instances where moments where I thought I had failed that really turned into moments that the Lord had used to make miracles happen. I told Sister M that every time we have something really bad/awkward/embarrassing like that happen we can celebrate because it just means Heavenly Father is getting a miracles ready for us.

I guess that's my little epiphany this week on how Heavenly Father works. When we trust his and his plan we have no need to worry. I am grateful to be a part of this work here in the Philippines. 

I miss you and love you!

Sister Turner

Walking On Sunshine

Hello Everyone!

The title of the email is referring to how awesome this week was and how many AMAZING THINGS HAPPENED. Not referring to the fact that I live on an island that might as well be the middle of the sun it's so hot haha 

But I am serious. We have seen so many miracles this week. When I came out to the area 10 weeks ago, they had just split the area, and we basically had no one to teach and spent all day everyday going door to door and being rejected and just working super hard with very little success. But the Lord is so good to us and through that hard work, he has allowed us to find some of the most golden investigators you could ever imagine. They are so ready for the gospel and their hearts are so open to the spirit I cannot even explain. It's so great. So first, on Monday we came home from Grocery shopping and one of our investigators was waiting at our house. She said she really wanted to be taught so we walked to the church to teach (Remind me to tell you the story of breaking into the church for April when we skype). Her faith is so strong and as we taught the spirit really testified to her that our message was true. She shared with us how she was struggling because she was paying her own way through school and was the first one in her family to be able to go to school and she was having a really hard time because she was short for her tuition and need 500 pecos(which is about 15 dollars) and it was so sad for me to think about because as missionaries we are not allowed to pay for people's food/school/etc. but it is SO HARD because something so small for me was the determining factor of if she could reach all of her dreams or not. But it was so weird because after her sharing this with us we were prompted to share with her the law of tithing and the spirit was so strong and even though she is struggling so much with finances right now her faith is so strong and she agreed to pay tithing after she is baptized. The people I teach really are the ones teaching me. Have you ever had to choose to pay tithing or have food? Or go to school? Or help your family ? Or buy your children shoes? Because these wonderful people do! They have that choose and instead of justifying that the don't need to follow a commandment, they do it anyway with faith and trust in the lord that he will help them with the rest. I am so often amazed by them.

Tuesday was a really exciting day because we went to one of the richest areas to track and I got to ring a doorbell!! I haven't seen a doorbell in forever.It was so exciting!! I really think the level of entertainment needed to keep me happy has gone down as a missionary haha. 

Remind me to tell you the sneezing cow story at Christmas. (Sorry i keep doing that to you, all my stories just sound lame typed. )

Okay the most exciting day was yesterday though. Because November 9, 2014 was the best day of my life!!!! I don't even know if I can adequately explain how great it was! Basically we had 3 golden investigators taught in a row and they were all people that I personally found tracking!! Also a less active woman who I have been visiting and teaching for 10 weeks who hasn't been to church in over 6 months finally came back to church yesterday and brought all her kids! And her little daughter is so sweet, she reminds me a lot of me when I was her age. She told me "Sister, I want to be a missionary when I grow up too,can I have my own book of Mormon?" Okay heart melted. I think she was a big reasoned her mom came back to church. We just started to teach their dad and I know they will be sealed in the temple one day. Then we taught Dois Dado who is so astig. I love teaching him because I literally see the spirit and knowledge of the gospel changing him and his life. It is a privileged to watch. He will be getting baptized Dec 6. 

Okay. Now the most amazing miracle of all!! We have one investigator who we tracked a while ago but we haven't been able to teach her in a few weeks and I was so sad but I was not about to give up on her. So yesterday a billion and one things fell into place so that we were free and I felt like we should drop by her house and basically had the best lesson ever. I have literally never felt the spirit so strong in my life let alone in my mission. The coolest thing is that the spirit had been teaching her the whole time we weren't able to go to her. She has already read the BOM and prayed and felt it was true. She has shared with her husband and he wants to be taught. She is ready to commit to all the commandments. She knows Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and she asked us to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! Before we even had a chance to invite her. So we taught her what baptism was and how it worked and when I actually said the words to commit her to baptism the spirit was so strong. I started crying and she started crying and it was so great. She just said "I know this is going to be hard to change. But I know it's right. So I need to". We told her about temple marriages and how families can be sealed together so that they don't have to be till death do you part and she wants that so bad. I got the strongest feeling that her whole family would not only be baptized but would be sealed together in a temple of God and that I would be there for that. I am so excited for them!!!!! ah. words cannot even. Also right after that we went to another great family! It was the best day ever. Also Sister Mccoard and I really are so close now. Like real sisters. We are able to have the spirit with us and I know that any miracles we get to see aren't because of us but entirely because of the spirit because we are trying our very best to work hard and be exactly obedient, we have been able to have that with us and witness the miracles the Lord has been preparing in this area. When we were teaching yesterday I was so blessed because I felt so happy. Like so happy you're going to explode or jump up and down screaming. I think that means it was true joy. It was great. I want that feeling always. I think if I can keep the spirit then I can feel that way! That's the goal anyways. I am so excited for the upcoming week, I know it will be great too!

Love you all so much!

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Turner:)

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: