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.

Sorsogon's Silver Linings

This has been a very exciting week. It feels like 2 or 3 weeks have happened since I last emailed. I think time just moves slow when you first start something new. Like when you get to the MTC or start school again after summer. This week has been adjustment. But it has also been good. And OF COURSE there have been countless miracles.

So in our new area, we don't know where anyone lives that the other sisters taught or members. Plus in the Philippines, there are no addresses for houses. Which means we literally spent 6-8 hours a day knocking on doors, asking people if they know any of the names on the list and trying to find people we need to while teaching everyone we can along the way. Let me tell ya, it is EXHAUSTING. But it's also awesome! The members here are so unbelievably kind. The branch feels like a family. And the investigators we have found through tracting are so golden. In each area as I work and find people to teach I truly feel my call there is inspired of the Lord. And here in Sorsogon is just the same. I was worried when I got here that maybe this area wasn't inspired because of the circumstances in which we arrived but as I taught and talked to and fell in love with the people here, I knew it was all part of Heavenly Fathers Plan. Even if the way we got here was a little strange, I know I am supposed to be here.

This week we had exchanges and I went with sister Magsisi(which literally means "repent" in Tagalog haha). We had a great exchanges. She is just finishing her training but she is so talented. She is a convert and her faith and love for the gospel really inspired me a lot. I learned a ton from our exchanges and we had so much fun. Their area is by the sea so we took some pictures by the water and oym'd some girls and then helped them draw water out of their well(which is this super awesome canyon thing in the ground) and as we helped them, they told me how their mom had died and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony to them about the plan of salvation and how they would see their mom again and it was so great. I love being a missionary. 

At the beginning of the week I honestly had a hard time adjusting but as I prayed and tried my best to just work hard, I felt the Lord strengthening me! I still don't speak bicol, I still feel scared sometimes and I'm still a little more reserved than normal but mostly I can work hard and feel the spirit. I know everything will work out.

I'm almost out of time but I just want to share two experiences I had this week.

1) We were going house to house and trying to find someone to teach. It was about hour 2 of rejection and no one wanted to listen. I saw one house I felt we should try before leaving to try another area.Immediately when the man came out, he basically told us to go away because he wasn't going to become a Mormon. We get responses like that all the time and I normally just smile and try to leave a pamphlet and a good memory of Mormon missionaries with them but this time the spirit prompted me that I needed to be bold and almost as if I couldn't help it I found myself fighting for the opportunity to teach this particular family. I don't remember all I said but I remember  telling him that I wouldn't be walking around 8 hours a day, going house to house to share something that wasn't true and I knew if he would listen to us even for 10 minutes, he would know for himself what we said was true. And HE LET US IN. We taught his family and the spirit was SO STRONG. Then when it was going so well, the spirit started prompting me to give them a book of Mormon, which is sometimes hard to do in the first lesson but I've learned by now to never ignore a prompting. So we testify of the BOM and leave them one and they committed to read and pray about it and the brother who didn't even want to let us in is now praying about baptism and if what we said was true. The spirit is so awesome. Heavenly father knows everyone perfectly and even though I don't know why we needed to stop at that house and leave a book of mormon, he does and the spirit did testify to the dad it was true. So a promise i made to him in the spirit was fulfilled by the spirit and that is pretty amazing to me:)

2) We were walking home one night and decided to knock on one more door. The lady who came to the door was SO RUDE and her attitude bothered me so much that even though I smiled at her and let her a card, I found myself feeling angry inside because of what she had said and the way she had acted. I know that is bad and the way I felt shocked me because I have never felt that way about anyone on my mission that has rejected us. So that night I repented and prayed to be able to love her. The next night, as we were walking home we bought some bread rolls and as we passed her house I had the impression to say hi to her and offer her some bread. The natural man in me was like "no! you don't like her! she's rude, yada yada yada" and even my companion was like "really? were going back?" but my dad always taught me to serve someone you don't like until you love them. Anyways long story short, we explained to her why we were there and she surprisingly let us in and started sharing with us her life story and heavenly father blessed me so greatly with the ability to see why she was the way she was and I started to love her. I realized as I sat with her that every single person is a son or daughter of God and he loves them dearly so I should too. I also learned that we need to have the diligence and love to go back to those who reject us because Christ never gives up on us:) The first time we met her she told me "don't you dare try to talk to me about god" but the second time as we were talking she opened up about her past relationship with religion and god and we were able to testify to her that god really does love her. It was a very enlightening experience.

I love you all

Have a great week!

Sister Turner:)

E.T.

Have you ever seen flour thrown in front of an electric fan and seen how it just completely changes and destroys everything or at least seems that way until the flour settles a bit? That is the best way I can explain this past week.

I don't know how to say all that happened. I'll do my best.

So On Tuesday we had our MLC where I gave a special report to all the missionaries. Even though I was really nervous, it went well and  I felt the spirit alot as I shared. I hope it was able to help someone. We ended up getting out of the meeting really late and there were no jeepneys home so we had to catch a ride home with the AP's. It was actually really sweet of them to drive us the 2 hours home but we need to buy them ice cream to make up for it haha

On Wednesday we met with the Zone Leaders to plan our zone training and after I felt so sick because I have the flu and at MLC sister guanzon gave me antibiotics and some other stuff to get rid of it so I took that and slept for about 2 hours and then I wasnt so dizzy so we were able to go work. We taught Monaliza our SO PROGRESSING INVESTIGATOR. She is such a blessing. I can't even. She has such a desire to know the truth. She loves the gospel. She prays so sincerely. She comes to church every week. She is amazing! I will miss her so much

On Friday, everything went crazy. In the morning, we had our zone training. It went really well. I love Ligao zone so much. The missionaries are amazing and the miracles are happening so much! I used my connections in Ligao from my old area to get us a projector to have videos and visuals in our training and it was really nice. I totally owe the branch mission leader doon he is so awesome and always wanting to help out the missionaries!

The big crazy news this week is that my companion and I were both Emergency transferred to a far area in the south of the mission.  Far from the mission office. I've never been here before. I don't know any of the missionaries, I am literally the only american/ white person here in the whole zone, it's by the beach and for our exchanges we have like an hour travel, everyone speaks bicol not tagalog... yeah. It's really different here. I'm trying to take it all in stride but to be honest, I am just really missing my old area and all the people there. But i'm grateful to be at least with my same companion (she is the best)  and to be safe, alive and still a missionary. It's been hard to take all the change in all the sudden because to be honest, I have not slept at ALL since last Thursday.I really hope this will be okay. I'm trying to put my trust in heavenly Father but everything is just so confusing right now. I just need it to settle a bit maybe before I can deal well. I don't know why heavenly Father had this happen but I know if I trust in him, he will protect my life and my testimony and I can finish this mission strong.

I love you all!

Sister Turner

Saying Goodbye

All you need is love

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME. But now i am really low on time because of sending pictures.. hopefully Aunt Pam can post it on the blog. 

This week I learned a really important lesson. Or maybe I can say, relearned. I realized that we cant convinced people into the gospel, we have to LOVE them into the gospel. So this week instead of focusing so much on numbers of lessons or baptismal dates, I've been focusing on how I can really love these people I meet just like Christ would. and we are seeing SUCH MIRACLES. I wish I had time to write them all. First of all, we found golden investigators: monaliza, and quency and tess. Tess is the mom and the other two are her daughters. Her husband died 4 years ago. They were taught by missionaries before, they came to church sunday, they are golden, they will be baptized sep 26. I JUST KNOW IT WILL HAPPEN!

We also found this new area that is rice fields and so beautiful and we have been running there every morning. It's about 2 miles and is so fun. There is a huge bridge over a 12 foot deep river that we cross and feel super "wilderness valley explorer". We found some great new investigator families there and this morning, we got permission from president to go plant rice with them and it was SO FUN. And hard work. Filipinos are so tough and hardworking. but then it was cool because after we really gained their trust and got a ton of potential investigators and they invited us to their picnic (with rice of course) and it felt like a big Filipino family. Then they gave us a ride home which was awesome. We went there with Apple our recent convert and talked about service. Gosh I just dont even know how to explain how much I love being a missionary. It's finally getting to the point where it's like who I am completely and everything i do i just think about the people and they are my family and my investigators are my kids and i love them all so much and i love polangui. Even when it's hard. ITS JUST THE BEST AND I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN. Tomorrowwe have MLC again and President has asked me to give a "special report" on the miracles I have seen in extending baptism on the first visit. The Apes called and said "sister turner, president choose you to do this because he knows you have done a good job with it and can share." Oh man, i guess that means president really does read our letters! haha I'm nervous because they dont usually have leaders do stuff like that at MLC its just the apes and president but i guess this is a good opportunity to share all the awesome experiences the Lord has given us. I still dont know what to say though and im nervous. Please pray for me!:)

 Hope you all have a good week!

I love you very much!

Congrats to everyone who got married last week! hahha Send pictures!

Sister Turner:)

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:)