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:

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:)