Memory Gap

hello everyone!

So the transfer just ended. I'll be staying here in Polangui with sister Pascua for another 6 weeks. I'm excited, I love her and we are gonna have a grand old time sharing the gospel here! Time flies so fast, I can hardly believe I only have 4 transfers left on my mission. Gonna make it count:)

The sad thing is I left my planner at home and I am literally having the biggest memory gap about what happened even though I know alot of great stuff went down because I spent like 3 hours updating my journal the past week. Ughhhh I'm sorry. I'll just write what i remember now.

Sige Let's talk about monday. After we emailed, we headed to our zone activity which was like group games and a boodle fight (eating a bunch of food on banana leaves with your hands) all planned and provided for by Elder Cameron, our zone leader who is my kaibigan from way back in my training days sa Daraga. He went home this week. He's gonna rock it as an RM. After our activity, my kasama was feeling under the weather so I just did some extra personal study and cleaned the house and stuff. This week I've been doing alot of pondering which is good because I have alot of questions that need answers. Lords timing. Anyways, Tuesday we had exchanges in Ligao and I was with Sis Sanoy in my old area. Holy cow so many miracles but I'll just tell two. So one, had a super powerful lesson about enduring to the end with a less active family and the dad said "sister, everytime you are in our home, the spirit is so strong, you really always have the spirit with you." and although humbled by his compliment, I felt prompted to say, brother, the reason we have the spirit is because we read the scriptures everyday, constantly try to repent and come closer to the savior and learn more about him. We go to church, we say our prayers. We are trying to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we do this, the Lord promises we can ALL always have his spirit in our lives, families and homes. This promise isn't just for missionaries, it's for you too and I know if you begin to do the things we have committed you to do, you will always have this feeling in your home whether we are here or not." DANG BOLD. But the spirit was there, they felt it and they committed to do daily family prayer and scripture study. The spirit is so awesome. Tapos, yong second experience was as we were walking home and we past by a part member family I used to teach (the mom is Less active and the dad is not a member) and we just stopped to say and when the mom saw me she just started crying and said how she missed me alot. I knew something must be going on in their family and I could tell she needed help but we had no time then so we left but later that afternoon went back to her and her family. We had planned to teach sister Heidi but then I saw her Husband, Gerome was there and before I had always tried to BRT him and invite him to listen but he was always busy and stuff, anyways today, I invited him and he was super excited to listen and we taught about gospel blesses families and I was inviting him to pray about our message and I told him that I knew God answers our sincere prayers for truth and then I felt prompted to ask the question "do you believe God will answer your prayers brother?" which was totally an inspired question because I don't usually ask that question and then he gets super silent and these tear start streaming down him face and let me tell you, this is a huge tough burly guy, the kind that you would think would never cry but here he was just bawling and we all just sat there and the spirit was so strong and it really taught me the principle that sometimes we dont have the say anything at all but the spirit will tell them everything they need to hear. He finally spoke and explained he knew God would answer his prayers because he had done so many times in the past. I said "Brother, when God does give you the answer through the power of the holy ghost that this is the truth, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized on Sep 19?" and he said YES. it was AWESOME. There really is a time and a season for all things. The Lord had been preparing brother and I feel so blessed I was able to be there in the right place at the right time to see his miracle take place. Wednesday we did a crazy CSP where I gained a ton of respect for filipina women because we did our investigators laundry and her well was dry so we had to climb up a hill, cross the railroad and go to another well to pump water,then carry it back and repeat, repeat, repeat until we had enough water then wash the clothes and then carry them down to the river to wash them. (it was totally awesome like the discovery channel and I carried a big barrel of clothes on my head across a river that had carabau chilling in it. ) It was HARD WORK. Sister nesty is so masipag. She does that every morning and she has 3 young kids, and one newborn. filippina women are so strong! 

This week I've been trying to have more focus sa mission and become more consecrated. It's going okay. Work in progress. I think I have opposite trunkiness because every time I think about going home I have for real anxiety and freak out. So yeah, I'm working on that hahaha I'm learning alot everyday and trying to get really good and listening to and being worthy of the spirit. 

Hope you all had a great week! Love ya!

Sister Turner:) 

Sister Sophia

SIGE. THIS WAS A CRAZY WEEK. I just had to get that out. This week was one of those "did someone really just pull the rug from under our feet" weeks. So many things happened, my head is really spinning but I'll try to do it justice  right now in this letter. Okay so first of all on Monday we had a MIRACLE. And I mean miracle. We went back to one of the families we had OYM'ed and trying to teach but they were always busy but finally we were able to catch the mom and the dad there and then they told all their kids/ people that live in their compound and we end up teaching this HUGE GROUP. Like 20 people, no exaggeration. And my companion and I were both so scared because we weren't sure how to teach such a large group but we went forward with faith and we were both praying so hard in our heads, for each other, ourselves, and the people and the spirit to be there. We always need Heavenly Father's help but we especially needed it right then and you know what? He totally gave us what we needed. his promise is true. He never leaves us alone. We taught them about how families can be eternal and the spirit was SO STRONG. It penetrated the room. We invited them to baptism on Sep 12 and EVERY SINGLE PERSON OF THE 20 ACCEPTED. Now I know they need to do a lot of preparation to become prepared to be baptized on that date but just the sheer fact they all accepted was such a huge blessing. We also met and taught a blind woman who has strong faith in Christ. It was a very powerful experience and as we taught her and the spirit testified of truth, she also accepted baptism. She started to cry and I realized at that moment, That faith really is a knowledge of things which we cannot see. But if we can be like sister Lolita and follow even when we do not see everything, we can come unto Christ and find true happiness. 

On Tuesday I had another exchanges in Ligao, this time with Sister Brady. She is from Utah and super awesome. We get along super well and it was a really great day. Learned a lot. She is great. I love the sisters in my zone:)

Also President called today and told me I was doing a good job. It felt like when you are a kid and your parents congratulate you on getting a good grade on a test and then you feel super motivated to do even better so yeah. That was awesome.

Wednesday, Heavenly Father started pulling the rug on us. We got a text Wednesday evening from our recent convert Liza asking us to meet her at a waiting shed by her house and when we got there she was crying on the side of the road with her 3 young kids. Her husband had started doing drugs again (his brother came into town and was a dealer), he was high and started beating her son so she tried to defend him and then he tried to hit her (She is 7 MONTHS PREGNANT by the way) and she grabbed the kids and ran out of the house. She literally had nothing. And she was coming to us, two 20 year old girls for help and refuge. I felt so useless, I had no way to help but we walked with her to a near by relief society members house who left us take refuge there so we could all be safe, then we called the branch president to come and help. It was such a crazy, sad, humbling experience. The saddest part was her kids who I have come to love so much, they have to go through so much I just can't even. As we were walking down the street, I was walking with Anika, a 4 year old daughter of lizas, and i was holding her hand and trying to comfort her since she had seen some hard stuff but she was so pure and innocent and kind of oblivious that the world as she knew it was crumbling down and she looked up at me and with her eyes wide and voice so sweet she said "Sister! I saw an angel today!" and I said "oh really? what did the angel say to you?" and she said "he didn't talk to me but I saw him up above me in heaven and he was smiling and I felt happy" and I said "where did you see the angel "and she told me "when I was at home earlier" and I asked her "was daddy there when you saw the angel?" and he told me yes. And I got goosebumps. Now I don't know what this little girl saw, but I do know that God's loves his children and he will protect them, even if it happens in miraculous ways. 

We spent out night there with the church leaders and liza trying to work everything out. Then when we came home my companion and I were so exhausted we just cried, emotional and mental exhaustion are real, I can now testify. We are waiting to see what will happen with liza and her family.

On Thursday we taught one family named Casulla who when giving the closing prayer, the father began to cry and said in him prayer"I am grateful that I am now accepting Jesus in my life". I thought that was a very powerful expression. At some point in our lives, we all have to make the choice to "accept Jesus Christ". Accept his teachings, his church, give up our own will, lift up our cross and follow him. 

This was a hard week. Though we saw many miracles, there was also many hard times. I hope i don't ever give a false impression in my emails that everything is perfect or that I'm the greatest missionary ever. I know that's not true. But with every struggle or heartbreaking moment I have here in the field, I am grateful that the Lord trusts me enough to put me in hard times and that he giving me opportunities to grow and learn. I have a long way to go until I become like my savior Jesus Christ but I will just keep on trying every single day to serve as he would and get to know him better.

 I love you all. Thanks you for your love, support, and great examples to me.

Sister Turner:)

p.s- the title of this email is because some kids at apple's compound said I looked like princess Sophia from the tv show and so they call me "sister Sophia" now even thought they know my real name. haha It's pretty cute and i remember watching that show with Maren before:)

Reader's Digest

Okay this is going to be the fastest email of life because i literally have 3 minutes left.

I'm just gonna make a list of some of the things that happened this week.

Reader's Digest Version:

1) got wrapped up in a Nancy drew investigation with our 14 year old RC who was showing us clues by candle light because she was convinced her aunt was trying to rob the church(turned out to be true but still. crazy)

2)had exchanges in my old area with my old companion. found out crazy stories. was able to help.

3)Taught district meeting. and had the elders compete for merienda.(race to put things in order)

4)had surprise exchanges where we show up randomly to split with the sisters and see if they are 

doing what they should and it was CRAZY. why arent some missionaries obedient. or why dont they at least try?

5) taught a miracle lesson.

6)went on splits with a recent convert who didnt know you cant leave the missionary you are with and during our lesson her phone rang andshe just got up and left and i thought she would just say she would call them back and i kept teaching because it was a big group but when i looked over she was GONE. and it was dark and i was alone teaching a huge group in the street late at night with no companion and it was probably the most scared i've felt on my mission. I just kept teaching and freaking out inside and about 10 minutes after she came back. So yeah, that was awkward.

7) Hit my one year. Had an emotional breakdown cause i dont want to go home and it's getting closer and closer.

8) had a 15 minute bonfire with my kasama on my porch to burn clothes for the one year mark. 

Sorry this is all over the place. better than nothing i guess.

Love you!

Sister Turner:)

THE HARVEST

Hello Everyone!

​So this was a really great week! In missionary work, you often hear the phrase "planting or harvesting". It usually refers to whether or not you are visually seeing the fruits of your labors. In baptisms or in the progress of the people you teach. Sometimes you feel like a planter and not so much a harvester because you don't see a lot of results right away. But this work is not about immediate gratification and even in the planting times, we can be happy because we know there is no effort wasted in the Lord's work. But with that being said, it's still really nice when every once in while, you get the wonderful opportunity to see the individuals you are teaching, make the decisions and changes to come unto the savior. My companion and I have both been in a season of planting the past months so this past week, when we had two baptisms, it was a really really sweet harvest. The baptism of sister Liza and Apple was so amazing! They were baptized with another sister who is an investigator of the Elders, Sister ginalyn. When we got to the church about an hour before the baptism we found that there were some complications such as: there were no people, there was no program and there was no water in the font. Luckily, everything came together and even the things we didnt have, didnt matter much because the spirit was very strong and I came to learn that when you have truly prepared converts who are there to make sacred covenants to the Lord they dont care much about flashy programs or lots of attendance, What matters is they are ready. Even though the church needs a new water pump, and when the font did fill up, it was super dirty and gross(like dark green coming out of the tap and they couldnt even see the bottom), they didn't care. I felt kind of embarrassed at first that the water was so dirty and I thought "oh man, i don't know if I would be excited to get in that" but my recent converts really taught me a lesson. They didn't even complain, they were just grateful for the opportunity to be baptized into Christ's church. They understood what their baptism was really about. Also the best part of the baptism is how Apple's dad came to support her! I don't have time to tell the whole story but basically we had invited him and he was super against it and said he wouldn't come and we testified to him how important it was and that it would mean so much to his daughter to have them there. Anyways, he ended up showing up and surprising us all and it turned out he was friends with our branch president and he got some great fellowship! Opening doors!!! Miracles all around:)

This week my kasama and I have seen alot of miracles in the work. We really help motivate each other to do our very best and I hope we are together a long time because I think some major miracles can happen with the way things have been going. One thing we have decided is we are going to "fear no man". We talk to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE about our message and it's so fun. And we work HARD. One new thing we did this week was a "jeepney oym". When we rode the jeepney to ligao for exchanges, we waited for the jeepney to get all full (around 30 people) and then once it started rolling, we like started preaching to the whole jeepney and testified of our message, of the restoration, and invited them to meet with us, then we passed out pass along cards and got referrals. It was AWESOME. To be honest,we were both super scared because I have never seen anyone do something like that and I definitely haven't done it myself but we practiced and were really praying hard that we would have to courage to open our mouths to everyone. I'm really grateful my kasama is willing to do crazy stuff like that with me. This week for my one year mark we have some awesome book of mormon themed tracting and oym'ing stuff planned so I'm super excited!!:)

Of yeah and speaking of exchanges, I had my first exchanges as an STL this past week. I was back in Ligao with sister Eneja. She is my batch coming in the mission and she is so sweet. We had so much fun and saw a lot of miracles. She told me it was her favorite exchanges she's had her whole mission except for her first one. I really love being an STL. It basically just means I can love and help the sisters around me even more. I was super grateful because the sisters really opened up about their needs/ things they were struggling with and we made goals together on how they could improve and I committed them to do it and promised chocolate if they did the changes haha when we followed up last night, they had done all their commitments and almost every single one of their key indicators had gone up and they had seen lots of miracles and they seemed so happy. And it made me so happy! I'm so invested in the areas/work/lives of the sisters in my zone. I literally get so excited when things go good for them. It's all up from here:) We have another exchanges tomorrow and i'll be in my old area with my old kasama so i'm excited to see everyone again. This week i realized how ignorant I had been of two things: that i'm a good missionary despite my weaknesses and that there is a heck ton of disobedience in the mission. BUT Everything will fine. We just gotta be the example first and pray for ways to help others(and ourselves) in this work. We can't do it by ourselves, we need others. 

Oh we also had interviews with President Guanzon this week. It was the best interviews yet. I love the mission president! He always has the best advice. I learn so much. And I didn't even cry int his interview, we just laughed. So yeah, progressing! 

I love you all! I hope you are all safe, happy, and able to see how much our Heavenly Father loves you.

Ingat kayo. Mahal Kita. Namimiss kita

Sister Turner:)

p.s- we cut down some yummy sugar cane from our member presents yard on exchanges

Leadership

Okay I'm going to try to write this fast and detailed because my weekly emails have been slacking lately. But I only have like 15 minutes so we'll see how this goes. 

This was a pretty good week. It was super crazy and went by sooo fast but it was good.Life is kind of crazier as an STL but mostly the same i guess. On Tuesday I had my first MLC or missionary Leadership Council which is where all the ZL's and STL's in the mission get together and have a workshop by president and the apes and then we go back and do a zone training for the other missionaries in our zones coming from their workshop. The MLC was really great and I learned a ton. Even though I was really nervous to report(all leaders stand up in front of everyone and report on their zones numbers and struggles and strengths and stuff) it went pretty well and we didnt get publicly chastised by president guanzon like what used to happen alot before daw so i was really grateful ahha. On the way home we stopped in daraga to go to the mission office and i saw some of the members there from my old ward and we had a really great 5 minute reunion . It's nice to know they miss me as much as I miss them:) On Wednesday we had a SUPER AWESOME DAY and taught 10 lessons and committed two long term investigators to being baptized next satuday One of them is Liza and she has a super strong testimony but she was nervous to get baptized because she is 7 months pregnant and the doctor said it could be bad for her baby but we taught about the power of priesthood blessings and how i knew if she had the faith to be baptized, heavenly father would protect her baby and i shared the story about mom getting the priesthood blessing when she was pregnant with me and how I was safe after that and it totally eased her fear to hear that experience of my mom and she committed and i thought how amazing it is that god puts us right where we need to be to help the people who will be benefited by the experiences we have had in our lives. his plan really is so perfect. 

Thursday we had a ton a meetings with area realignments and planning our zone training with the Zone leaders but it was good. Then we found out president guanzon and his wife would be attending our zone training and that kinda freaked us out because he has never attended one in the history of our mission but it went really well and he said we did a good job. I was so scared to present the workshop and i didnt know what to say to help the missionaries. I was so terrified. My companion and I decided to fast and I had a very good testimony building experience of the lord giving us the things we need in the moment we need them because I had studied so hard and nothing felt right, i couldn't think what to say but then when i stood up and started talking, it came out perfectly and the spirit was super strong. I was so grateful for his help. On Saturday we had two baptismal interviews for Liza and one for Apple(she is a 19 year old investigator who is so sweet and awesome. She has a strong faith!) I'm so excited for both of them. They will be baptized on Friday at one sa hapon:)

Anyways, sorry this is super rushed, I think that's all. I love you all and hope you are doing well! 

Thanks for the love and support. Sorry if i dont reply right away. Time really is short. 

Sister Turner

Polangui Plague

Hello Everyone!

So there's alot of changes that happened this week. I don't have much time so I'll try to sum it up and hopefully I do it justice. So I was transferred to Polangui. It's about 30 minute jeepney ride from Ligao and I was called as the new Sister Training Leader for Ligao zone which basically means my companion and I are responsible for all the sisters in our zone. I was super excited when I found out my area because I had already been there on exchanges and loved the people and also becaus it means I can go on exchanges in ligao again with sister siilata. And my new kasama is sister Pascua who is my batch coming in the mission and she is awesome and my official first native companion.  WIN WIN WIN. This week has been alittle crazy but we're making the most of it. Halimbawa, I became an Sister Training Leader then found out we will be running our area while also opening a new area that was closed by other sisters. So our are is HUGE. The biggest in the zone. And we don't know where anything is. (So we get lost in the work of the Lord alot) and my companion has a upper respiratory infection so we have been to the hospital and in the house alot. Then our zone leader was hospitalized for a week and then one of our sisters got pnuemonia. Then I got a cold. So I've started calling this weird sickness the "Polangui Plague" but they work of salvation must go on and we are all basically fine now:)

I really love this area, everyone is very kind. Even though it's been alittle hard to catch my bearing haha it's hard to transfer and then transfer again 6 weeks later and try to make good first impressions and remember a million and one names when you have a cold and no sleep but the Lord is helping me out so it's all good:) I'm really excited to work hard and try to help my area get the very best it and be and also I'm so excited to serve and help the sisters in my zone. I can honestly say I love them all so much! Basically I love being a missionary and things are going great(even when they seem to go all wrong) haha. 

Love you all!

I hope things are going well! 

Sister Turner:)

Leaving Ligao

So I have some news! I'm transferring again, after only six weeks here in Ligao! I'm very sad because I truly love it here but I know that this is what the Lord needs me to do so I'll go where he needs me to go:) 

The Elders told us we had to move apartments so we were dealing with all that drama before finding out I would be leaving anyways. This week is was sick for about 3 days. I had to go to the hospital and was pretty bad. They said I had food allergies, stress and tension headache, dehydration, and over fatigue. So that was fun. But We were able to work on the third day so it's fine. I got two priesthood blessings this week and it really seemed to help.

This morning we went to kawa kawa known as the "hill without a hilltop." you can google it. It's the most famous site in ligao and i hadnt been there yet so we went and hiked that and i thought I would die haha Because i've been in bed sick most of the week and i'm not that fit to begin with. But the view was so worth it. Then I did a couple hours of laundry outside and got super sunburned in an awkward pattern on my legs. So that was fun. And then I packed. Even though I feel like I just unpacked.haha Sorry I'm not really sure what to write. This whole week has been such a blur. It feels so weird to be in your first area 9 months and second one just six weeks.  I will really miss it here. But mostly I will miss the people because I love them so much. I'll write next week from my new area and give you all the details. 

Mahal Kita!

Sister Turner:)