Week 29

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Christmas! It was awesome to see and talk to my family. It was a little weird having a "day off" from being a missionary but we enjoyed it. Our mission got to watch any G or PG movie Christmas day so we were excited about that! Sister Henrie and I watched Frozen, Inside Out, Home, and the 1 Direction movie. oh yeahhhh. it was the best!! We get to watch movies again on New Years Eve so we are pumped for that! thank you President Morgan.

Other exciting news... I GOT TO CALL SISTER HILL LAST WEEK!! So Dennis got baptized last Sunday and I was too far away to be able to go, but I got permission to call Sister Hill to see how it went. It was really good to hear from her and to hear about the baptism. Dennis and Sister Moore are awesome and I can't wait to come back in a year when they get sealed in the temple!!

We are teaching a lady Terisa and her three kids, Isiah, Shaniah, and Zanirah. They are the cutest kids ever!!! We helped Terisa move this week and they were such a big help. We taught Terisa and the kids the plan of salvation last night and she goes "why do you even teach about the terestrial and telestial kingdoms? We only want to go to the celestial!" It was cute. They don't have a car so it's hard to get them to church. the struggle is REAL! but we are working on it:)

On Christmas Eve we got to hang out with the Rantoul Sisters. It was so fun! We had district meeting that morning and then they got permission to stay with us the rest of the day since we were done at 3 and they didn't have plans for the night. We all went caroling with the Tillman's from our ward. It was so fun to see people's reactions when they opened the door to see us signing. it was awesome! We ended up seeing Chiquita and Stan that night too. They are a couple we are teaching that remind me alot of Rose and Steve! We had a good conversation with them and Stan asked us alot about our missions and why we decided to serve. He told us that he thinks by the end of our missions we will be the people who benefit most from it. I could not agree more! I feel like I have benefited way more from my mission than any of the people who I have taught. That's why I love being a missionary. It has helped me to realize how I want to live my life and what kind of person I want to be! 

I hope that everyone has a great week!! Love you all!

XOXO

Sister Turpin

We helped a family move, this is Zaniryah.

Merry Christmas!

We spent the day with the Rantoul sisters, Hulme, and Orme.

Christmas PJ's and pillowcase from Grandma Christensen, love!

Sistter Hauffa gave us Christmas Stockings, plus we spent Christmas day with their family.

Week 28

I can't believe Christmas is on Friday! It especially doesn't feel like Christmas because there is no snow here in Danville. As much as I hate the snow.. I'm hoping we will have a white Christmas. Probably won't happen.. but I can still wish:)

SO here's the 411 on what happened this last week...

The Sullivan Girls!! Okay so the week before I came here 4 girls, Alyssa (12), Becka (17), Paige (11), and Rachel (12) were all baptized. They are the sweetest girls!! We have been going over to teach them the recent convert lessons. Monday night we talked about what it means to have a testimony. We told the girls that sharing your testimony is just telling people what you know is true. They all wrote down their testimonies and we had a mini testimony meeting. It was awesome. Rachel's testimony was probably my favorite she said "I know God and Jesus love me and I know that the Book of Mormon is true and whoever doesn't think so is wrong." hahah it was cute! It was powerful to be able to see these young girls say what they know is true. Plus I love being able to teach kids instead of adults, it's refreshing!

Sister Henrie and I have really been trying to help our gators to keep their commitments. It's especially hard with the holiday season because it seems like people are too busy to read or pray or come to church. Well we decided to drop in and see one of our investigators Natalie to see if she has been able to read. We went over there and we met her friend Abrion who told us that she had met with the Elders before a while ago and she wants to meet with the missionaries again. YAY! Blessings come from following up on commitments:)

We are teaching this lady Kim.. and well she is a little bit crazy. But the good thing about Kim is that she always leads us to more people to teach! We helped her move this last week and one of her son's friends was there helping too. We talked with him for a little and invited him to church and he said that he might come some time. The next time we met with Kim her other son was there, Wallee. He said that his religion is Islam and he was talking to us about the Koran and trying to get us to read it. We taught him the restoration and he told us that he feels alot like Joseph Smith. We invited him to pray and read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. He said "what if i already have a feeling that it is true?" haha we are meeting with him again next week so hopefully we will be able to answer all the questions he has! 

So the sisters have been visiting a less active, Ed for quite a while now. He has some health problems so he has a lady, Heather, take care of him. The sisters recently started teaching Ed the missionary discussions and Heather usually just works around the house and sometimes listens in. Well no Thursday after we were done teaching Ed, Sister Henrie out of no where says, "Heather, I have a question for you." I was like oh man.. what is she going to ask her. and then she asked, "do you think we could start teaching you the missionary lessons?" The best part is Heather's answer. She said YES!! it was so cool!! I love sister Henrie because she is not afraid to ask people scary questions. Being bold as a missionary is so important! We are so excited to be able to teach Heather!!

Here's something funny for y'all: We were teaching Quita and asked her how her reading in the book of mormon was going and she goes, "yeah i've been reading about Lebron and Lamar and all those guys." We were like wait... what? You mean Laman and Lemuel? and She said "yeah I couldn't pronounce their names so I just started making up my own names. HAHAH. we were laughing so hard! 

Last thing... we went to Amish Country here in Illinois for Pday this morning. It was legit! We met up with Sister Anderson and Sister White and got to tour an amish farm. We met an amish girl named Marilyn. she was super nice to us! It was weird they had horse and buggies driving down the road. I can finally cross that off my bucket list:) ha! 

Things are going great here in Danville! I know I say this all the time.. but I really do love being a missionary. Especially at this time of year! I hope that you all enjoy your Christmas and I know my family is excited to see my cute face;) lolol kidding. 

XOXO

Sister Turpin

P.S. Thanks to everyone who has sent me Christmas cards/packages. I super appreciate it and love you all!! 

Merry Christmas from Sister Henrie and Sister Turpin

We crossed over into Indiana, got a picture!

Our Amish tour buggy. 

Our Amish tour guide and friend, Marilyn.

Week 27

Hello family! 

This last week was just the best! 

We had zone conference on Thursday. Zone conferences are my favorite! I love getting to meet with other missionaries, plus see President and Sister Morgan! We had lots of good trainings on how to finish our year out strong and do everything we can to help the mission reach our goal of 375 baptisms. We had a fun white elephant exchange and got the best present from President and Sister Morgan! So our mission rule is that we get to go to the temple at our half way mark and right before we leave.. well for Christmas they told us that the temple policy has changed and we get to go every six months! WOOOO! I am so excited for this because that means I get to go to the temple at the end of this month! BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!! At zone conference we watched a little video that had the last two christmas and easter videos that the church has put out. I'm usually not an emotional person but man the tears started flowing as i was watching. I was overcome with the spirit and felt so much love and gratitude for my Savior Jesus Christ. I'm so lucky to be a missionary and help other to feel of the Savior's love.

After zone conference we had exchanges and guess who my STL is!! SISTER REED!!!!! I am super excited to have her be my STL and it was so fun to be companions again for a day. I went to Springfield with her and we just had the best time. It was fun to see how we each have grown since being companions at the beginning of my mission. Also fun thing.. The STL's just got a brand new 2016 Chevy Equinox and well Sister Reed got her driving privileges taken away when we got in our little accident in the summer, so that means I got to drive the new car! haha i'll probably never drive a brand new car like that again so I felt pretty cool;)

We had a fun relief society activity this week combined with the young women where we went caroling and had a hot chocolate bar and made crafts. Our investigator Quita brought her 15 year old daughter to it and she said she loved it and wants to come back next week! yay!! we were super pumped. Also we had a ward christmas brunch Saturday morning and Quita came and brought her 5 kids. Ward activities are great opportunities to invite nonmembers to so they can meet people from the ward and feel more comfortable before coming to church! good stuff. 

So we visited this less active, Sister Hubbard last week and she is just the greatest!! She gave me a cute new scarf and told me that whenever a new sister missionary comes she always gives them a scarf to help remind them of how much love Heavenly Father has for us. She said that the scarf is like God giving us a hug since we are away from our families. It was super sweet! I love all the members I meet on my mission. It's like a home away from home. 

okay well that's all! I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season! 

XOXO

Sister Turpin

Driving a brand new 2016 Equinox because Sister Reed doesn't have driving privileges. he he :)

Springfield is known as "Lincoln Land" 

Making pancakes for the ward Christmas brunch. Elder Johnson, Elder Vindas, Sister Henrie, and me!

With our cute STL's Sister Furniss and Sister Reed.

Week 26

Man.. so much has happened I don't even know where to start.

First things first: ILLINOIS IS COLD!! I mean Missouri was starting to get pretty chilly but Illinois is definitely way colder. Humidity in the winter is not my friend. But I do like it here in Danville. There is a bigger population in this area compared to my last area. I'm really bad at explaining things sooo if you wanna know what it's like here then I guess you're just gonna have to come and visit;) 

I left Sister Hill on Wednesday. WAHHH:( Transfer meeting was alot less stressful this time because I wasn't anxious to see who was training me or who I would be training. But it was fun to see Sis. Hill get her new baby Sister Knight. She is a cutie and they will be great together!! 

So usually we have members pick us up from transfer meeting and take us to our new area. Well turns out we were getting a different car so I had to drive it all the way from St. Louis to Danville. It was long 4 hour drive!! I can't believe they trusted me to do that. haha don't worry dad, I was safe:) 

Anyways I made it safely to good ole Danville Illinois. Illinois is super flat. I don't know a whole lot about our area but I am serving in a ward and we share it with the Elders. Sister Henrie is my new companion! She is 19 and from Layton Utah and has been on her mission for 2 months. She is super cute and spunky. 

SOOOOO.. we had stake conference this last weekend. Which was cool because I just went to a stake conference in Cape last month:) Plus Elder Bednar's son is in our stake presidency, pretty cool! anyways we got a ride with a member to save miles.. cuz that's what missionaries do. Well we parked in this empty parking lot and left our car there and when we came back after stake conference our car was gone. ARE YOU SERIOUS? well good news.. it wasn't stolen! haha but it was towed. We were not happy. But we figured everything out and got our car back. #blessed 

I still haven't met all of the people we are teaching yet.. but one of the ladies we are teaching is named Quita. She is SO COOL! She was a media referral that the sisters got a few weeks ago but she said that she has no idea how she was referred.. God works in mysterious ways right? hah! anyways we taught her part of the restoration but it's hard because she talks SO MUCH! she's had a rough past and really just wants to be a good example for her six kids. we had a lesson with her at the church sunday night and then watched the christmas devotional afterwards and she loved it. it was so cool! I felt the spirit so strongly watching the devotional. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! I hope that we can all reflect on the Savior this Christmas season and remember the real reason why we celebrate. God loves us so much that he gave us His only begotten Son as a gift to the world. That's pretty neat.  

I hit my 6th month mark last Thursday. I still feel like a brand new missionary. it's the weirdest thing! Time just never stops!! I'm so grateful to be serving a mission. I just love it more and more every day. I hope that you all have a great week!

XOXO

Sister Turpin

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY SISTER BRIELLE. 

My new address:

Sister Breanne Turpin

9 Ridgeview #105

Danville, IL 61832

My new companion Sister Henrie!

Hit my 6 months - burning of a shirt.

It was hard to say good bye to Sister Hill, sad faces.

My MTC girls, just love them!

Washing the car mats, like a pro!

Week 25

There is so much to be grateful for and that is why I love this time of year so much! Thanksgiving is a time that we can all reflect on how blessed we truly are. I am grateful for my friends and family who all love and support me, I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and how much it has blessed my life, and I am most grateful this year to be a missionary in the Missouri St. Louis Mission. There isn't anywhere else I would rather be!

We had some great things happen this last week! 

Miracle #1: So we have lunch with a member in our ward every week, Sister Moore. Well Sister Moore's husband Dennis is not a member. She has been trying to be a good example to him and help him want to learn more about the gospel, but she doesn't want to force him into it. They have been having the missionaries come over every week for a year now and Dennis hasn't been super interested in learning more. Well this last week we asked Sister Moore what we could do to help Dennis and she said she just wasn't sure what else she could do. At the end of our visit we shared a few scriptures from the book of Enos and talked a little bit about the spirit. Sister Moore asked Dennis if he understood the spirit and he said no, so we talked about it a little. Then Sister Moore asked him if he wanted to take the missionary discussion and he said YES!! We were shocked and so thrilled at the same time. Sister Hill and I couldn't even believe what had happened. A whole year of missionaries coming over and Dennis is finally ready to learn. It was pretty cool. I've been able to see how the spirit prepares people to finally accept the gospel. We taught him the restoration on Friday and he took it all really well. We're gonna have to take things pretty slow because he doesn't have much religious background but we are pretty excited.

Miracle #2: We found the cutest family to teach!! About a month ago we met Allyssa and we told her what we do as missionaries. She thought it was pretty cool and said she would want to learn more, but wanted to ask her husband first. Well we got pretty busy and haven't been able to stop by for a while but when we finally did Allyssa told us that she was waiting for us to come by and that her husband Gavin was willing to learn more too. YAY! So we taught them the restoration yesterday and the whole time Gavin was like "yeah that makes sense that we would have a prophet on the earth" and the whole time I was thinking "yeah that does make sense." We gave them Book of Mormons and they said they would read. They are SUPER YOUNG! but they have two cute girls, 1 & 3. After the lesson Sister Hill and I were talking about how every time we teach people about the gospel it just makes so much sense, how could you not believe it? I am grateful for the knowledge that I do have and that I get to teach people how they can have peace and happiness in their lives. 

Miracle #3: Andrea knows the BOM is true!! We taught Andrea this last week and asked her about how her prayers have been going and if she feels like she has received an answer about Joseph Smith and the BOM. She told us that she knows the BOM is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet! It was pretty cool actually, she told us that she was at a car place waiting for her car to get fixed and she pulled up the BOM on her phone. She said she opened up to 4th Nephi and started reading and she just knew it was true. HOW COOL IS THAT? Andrea is one of those "golden" investigators. She has truly been so prepared. Everything we teach her she agrees with. We taught her the Word of wisdom this last week and she goes, "I don't drink or smoke and i don't even like coffee or tea." WHAT? I swear everybody out here drinks tea so we were pumped that she said she would have no issues with it. 

I have seen so many miracles on my mission and I am grateful for God's hand in my life, he truly has blessed me so much! 

I am grateful for all of you and hope that you have the best thanksgiving!!

XOXO 

Sister Turpin 

wW

Enjoying our last few days of warm weather!

Thanksgiving with Joy, she doesn't like to have her picture taken.

One of our favorites, Sister Steinmeyer

Joy made me a cheetah purse, SO CUTE!!

Week 24

Today I got to check another thing off my bucket list! We finally made the "journey to the top" of the arch in St. Louis. We have been wanting to get permission to go up to St. Louis for Pday to hang out with some other sisters for the longest time and we finally got everything to work out to go today and of course it was raining all day long! Even though we were wet and rainy and cold we still had a good time:)

I'm getting really bad at remembering what happens each week.. I must be getting old or something;) 

Let's see here's the latest update from good old Missouri:

We had exchanges this last week. I went up to Glen Carbon, Illinois for the day with Sister Ewell. I have only had 4 exchanges on my mission so far and 3 of them have been with Sister Ewell. Probably because there is so much I need to learn from her! We always have a good time when we are together though and she is going home at the end of the month so that is really sad. Nothing too exciting happened in Illinois but while I was gone Sister Hill and Sister Walker had a good day in Potosi. They were able to pick up a new investigator, Josie. Sister Hill and I knocked on Josie's door about a month ago but she was busy. We have gone back a few times but she has never been home. Well finally on Tuesday the sisters knocked on her door and she was home. YAY!! Persistence is key:) it is so hard to be persistent in missionary work sometimes, but when we are then we are always blessed. Josie doesn't have much religious background but they taught her how to pray and about Jesus Christ she told them that she wants to learn more and that she felt the chills when they watched the because He lives video. We are super stoked to get to teach Josie more!! 

Andrea is still on the baptismal calendar for the end of the month. We taught her this last week about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She is so funny, she started taking out her notebook to take notes while we were teaching her. It's amazing to see the difference between those who are prepared to hear the gospel and those who aren't. At the end of the lesson we invited her to pray and she said "Please help me to know that these things are true. Well actually, you already kind of have, you've been doing a good job at that so keep it up." hahah it was so cute! I love hearing our investigators pray because they are always so sincere and from the heart. 

This weekend we had Stake Conference. President and Sister Morgan were there and we got to see them at the Saturday night session. It was the best, just like seeing our parents! Well not quite, but almost as good;) We got to hear from Elder Rhodes of the 70 and Sister Hill was called on to bear her testimony. Our Stake President, President Dixon gave a really good talk about doing the Lord's work His way. He talked about how sometimes we think we know what is best or how we should be doing things, but God's way is always the best way. 

Also, I can't believe it is already the holiday season. Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. I am mostly excited because we get these new pass along card for the new christmas video "A Savior is Born." It releases on November 29th so you all should watch it!! Plus President Morgan told us all today that we can listen to any christmas music from any LDS artist. WOOOO!!! Mom and Dad you should totally send me some more CDs:) Our mission can only listen to MOTAB during the week and then on Pdays we can listen to EFY music or other music from LDS.org so we are super pumped that we can listen to more than mormon tabernacle choir. The things that get missionaries excited right??

Well that's all for this week. Here's a quote that Sister Walker told Sister Hill and I.. "Be yourself, but don't be afraid to change."
XOXO

Sister Turpin 

Sister Hill and I are QT's!

We love our Sister exchanges, Sister Walker, Sister Ewell, Sister Hill and me!

Thanks for the scarves mom, I love them!

Getting creative with fall time pictures!

Wet and cold at the Arch in St. Louis! 

Week 23

HAPPY UNIFICATION DAY! I hope that everyone enjoys my favorite holiday.

lol just kidding. unification day isn't a holiday, but here's a funny story!

The first Sunday we had combined as a new ward was fast and testimony meeting and Brother Vinson bore his testimony and said "the unification of this branch and ward needed to happen." Sister Hill and I looked at each other and started laughing because we were pretty sure unification wasn't a word. Well we may have teased him a little bit about it and Thursday when we went over to their house for dinner Brother Vinson informed us that unification is in fact a word. So ever since Sister Hill and I have learned that, we have been using the word unification as much as possible:)

Anyways.... on to more important stuff!

We set a baptismal date with Andrea for the end of November!! YAY!! It seems like most of the people we have been teaching for a while just aren't progressing. it can be super frustrating! but, andrea has been such a blessing to us! We invited her to be baptized at the end of the month and she was a little bit nervous about it cause she feels like she isn't ready. We assured her that we would help her prepare for the date and that she will be ready by then and to pray and see if this is what Heavenly Father wants for her. She also came to church this week and it was great because we had a "munch and mingle" afterwards and she was able to make friends with some of the members. It's so awesome when we have members who help fellowship the people we are teaching. It makes our job a little bit easier! 

We went to visit Julie K last night to give her a big print BOM. She has a hard time seeing the small print in the book and mormon and we have been waiting FOREVER for a large print one to come in to give to her, but we finally got it! Julie told us that it was her birthday on Friday and we felt kind of bad that we missed it, but we told her that we got this BOM for her as a birthday present:) haha so then Julie tells us that she wants us to sign the BOM. She has had quite a few missionaries teach her in her lifetime but last night she said, "I like all of the missionaries that have come, but you two are by far my favorites. I really love youins (p.s. you-ins is a missouri term, super weird. everyone out here says it!)" OH yeah that's right!! Sister Hill and I are officially Julie's favorite missionaries. We are still working to get her a divorce... but we did commit her to read two pages from the Book of Mormon every day and we gave her a cute BOM chart to color in, she liked that!

A few other things: We got to see Hayden this week. It's been a minute since we've seen him because he's been busy with family issues/work. But we were able to reset his baptismal date. He picked January 8th, because that's his grandma's birthday that just passed away. 

We had president interviews this week in Cape. It's almost a 2 hour drive down to Cape Girardeau, but it is the prettiest drive so we always love when we get to go down! Plus it was good to see President Morgan, he's pretty cool I guess. 

We started teaching this lady DD. Her husband is a member and from Ohio. They just moved down here. He actually knows my friend Emily Bradford (I cheered with her at BYU) who is serving in the Columbus Ohio mission right now. SMALL WORLD!! 

Super Saturday was this last Saturday! It's just an activity that the ward does every year where they do a whole bunch of crafts and it pretty much takes up the whole day. Well Sister Hill and I got a little crafty so that was fun!

That's about all for this week.

I hope that everyone is doing well back at home. Thanks for all the emails/letters. I have the best family/friends out there!

LOVE YOU ALL.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

We love the Fall time here in Missouri!

Rock On!

p.s. I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THIS!! haha okay this is really funny actually. So two weeks ago Sister Hill and I got asked to sing a musical number at ZLT well we told the Zone leaders that the Farmington Elders are pretty musical so they called them and the Elders said that they would sing if we sang with them. So we ended up doing a musical number together. Sister Hill played the piano and I sang with the Elders. Well then the Elders were at a dinner appointment with the ward chorister and told them about our musical number we sang and the ward chorister decided we needed to sing in sacrament meeting. So yesterday in church we did the musical number again. You would be so proud of me mom:) LOL I have decided 2 musical numbers is enough for my whole mission right?

Week 22

Okay.. How is it already November? I swear it was just June yesterday and I was leaving to go to the MTC and now tomorrow is my 5 month mark. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? 

We had a great Halloween here in Missouri. I hope that everyone else had as much fun as we did;) (probably not because there is nothing as fun as being a missionary!) We did get a small break Saturday night to do some halloween festivities. We hung out with Audre of course. We carved a pumpkin and watched the Joseph Smith movie. It's one of my favorites. If you have never seen it then you totally should go watch it!! 

We see lots of miracles happen in missionary work and here are three from last week.

1. We went to Leadwood to hopefully see some of our investigators and teach some lessons. Well of course nobody was home! So we were trying to decide whether or not to stay or go back to Desloge. We were kind of short on miles since it was the end of the month so we decided to stay and knock on some doors. Neither of us really wanted to, but we did anyways. So we picked a street and started knocking. The first 3 doors no one was home. But the 4th one a lady answered and told us they had just moved there from Louisiana and were actually looking for a church. We explained how we were missionaries and I told her that my dad had served his mission in Louisiana. We told her we were both from Idaho and turns out that she lived in Salmon Idaho for a while. She had the cutest daughter named Aurora (I love disney princesses!) and their last name was Sasser (My best friend's last name!) There were so many coincidences with her that we knew it was not a coincidence we knocked on their door. It was cool! They said they would come to church, unfortunately we didn't see them there but we are hoping to go back and teach them this week!

2. WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH JULIE K!!!! Okay before I tell you when the date is here's a little background info. Julie wants to get baptized but she is living with a man she is not married to. She has to get married first in order to get baptized but in order to marry the man she's living with she has to get a divorce and she doesn't have the money to pay for it. So we have been working to try to figure out how to get her a divorce, so she can get married so she can get baptized. #TheStruggle. Anyways we wanted to set a goal for baptism in the future. Julie wasn't quite feeling it.. she told us maybe in 3 years from now. We told her that the only way God is gonna help her to get a divorce is if she makes a goal and starts working towards it. So we set a baptismal date for a year from now. October 29th, 2016! haha we were pumped!! And today we are going to the court house to learn more about divorces. Who would have thought I would be learning this on my mission? LOL

3. We invited our new investigator Andrea to be baptized and she said yes! This was only our second lesson with Andrea. We decided to watch the 20 minute restoration DVD with her and she really enjoyed it. She compares herself a lot to Joseph Smith because she is wanting to find truth. The best way for us to find truth is to go straight to the source and ask. AKA we need to pray! That is the only way for us to know for ourselves what is true. We are really excited about Andrea and can't wait to teach her more!!

i hope that all is well back at home! I love hearing from everybody. thanks for all your emails, prayers, and love.
XOXO

Sister Turpin

Sometimes you find a blue toilet on a porch while tracting.

Triplets! who wore it better?

Halloween cookies. thanks grandma hill:)

Week 21

We got some big news yesterday at church. Our little Potosi Branch got dissolved and will now be combining with the Farmington Ward. It was quite a shock for a lot of the members in our branch. The Stake Presidency came and announced it yesterday at church and spoke to our branch about the decision. They read a letter from the first presidency that confirmed this decision and the spirit was so strong, you could tell that this is truly what God wants. Since I've been serving in the Potosi Branch I have always wondered why we don't just combine with the Farmington Ward anyways because we meet in the same building, but I didn't realize how much I love this little branch until yesterday. It was such a great opportunity to be able to serve in a branch with members who have such strong testimonies. The members truly were unified in the things that they did. I learned so much from all of them! But, I do know that combining with the Farmington Ward is what will help hasten the work in this area. Sister Hill and I are excited for what that will mean for us. We aren't really sure yet.. but we are pretty positive we will still be staying here. There are elders serving in the Farmington ward so we aren't sure if they will split the area between us or if we will share. I will keep you updated on that! 

More exciting news... We have a new investigator!!! Her name is Andrea. The Sisters serving in Hillsboro called us this last week and said that Andrea just showed up to church and said she wanted to take the lessons. They asked her where she lived and she said in Potosi. They told her that that wasn't in their area so they passed her over to us. yay!! We met with her on Saturday and taught her the restoration. She also came to church on Sunday! This is such a blessing and a miracle. People rarely come to church on their own or after we teach them for the first time but she did. We are really excited to keep teaching her! 

We had a break through with Rose and Steve this week! We have been struggling with knowing what to do with them to help them to progress. We had a really good lesson with them about intent and being willing to submit our will to God's. Steve said that he knows he is stubborn and hasn't been taking this as seriously as he should. He always says that he wants to change and do good, yet he has a hard time actually doing the things that he says he wants to do. He told us that he needs to have a "heart to heart with God" and evaluate his intent in all of this. He said that he sometimes looks at sister hill and I as "punk kids" but he is going to take us more seriously now. yay! God won't give us the answers we are looking for unless we are sincere about it and intend on doing the things that he asks of us.

The fun event of the week was Sister Goeller's birthday party! She invited us to come, but told us that we had to dress up. hahah she is the funniest person ever! If I had a favorite member, she would definitely be it:) anyways we had a fun time on Saturday.  This week for halloween we get to have the night off so maybe we will get to carve pumpkins or something;)

Oh also Ron ended up moving out of our area so we aren't teaching him anymore, just to give you a quick update on him!! 

I hope you all have a great week! Stay safe and have a spooktacular halloween 

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

Beautiful Missouri woods

Sister Goeller birthday party, I just love her!

BOO! 

Week 20

OK, this is gonna be super short! sorry!!

We decided to actually do something for pday so we drove down to cape girardeau and went shopping at a REAL mall!!! Sister Hill and I were in heavan!! hahah but we don't have as much time to email today. but it was so worth it:) I got 3 skirts for under $20. you should be proud of me mom!!

Anyways... We got transfer calls on Saturday and Sister Hill and I will both be staying in Potosi for the next six weeks. I feel like I am just going to spend my whole mission here. It's going to be really odd when I finally leave. good thing I love it!

Here's some quick highlights from the past week:

A less active, Tracy, who we have been visiting told us that she is going to quit smoking! She finally came to church for the first time in a long time last sunday and when we went to visit her this last week she said she was going to quit smoking and then work on tea and coffee. Baby steps are better then no steps at all right?:)

We gave some service to Sister Goeller from the branch this week. She is probably my favorite person in the whole world. Besides my mom and Sister Hill of course;) hahah anyways we helped her plant some roses and weed a little bit so that was fun. Plus she took us to lix, our favorite frozen custard place 

Sister Hill got sick towards the end of the week so we took it a little bit easy. Being sick as a missionary is no fun. But I took good care of her!! We have gotten quite a bit of referrals this last transfer.. unfortunately none of them have worked out yet. but we did contact one on saturday and she told us to come back this next week so we are staying hopeful that it will work out!!

sorry this is short and quick but I love you all!

have a good week

XOXO

Sister Turpin

P.S. ONE LAST THING. I can't believe I forgot this! We had the royal wedding here in Potosi this weekend. A member from our potosi branch married a member from the Farmington ward. We got to go to the reception and we were so excited! It was a party. except for missionaries are allowed to dance so that was really hard for me. oops! yay for weddings tho!

Helping Sister Goeller weed.

Custard with my favorite, Sister Goeller.

The bride Kim, what a beauty!

So excited to be at a REAL MALL for shopping!

Of course I found me some Cheetah pillows.

Week 19

We found a car from Idaho!

I have decided that I am super horrible at writing weekly emails and I dread it every week.. so hopefully you all enjoying reading these more than i enjoy writing them!

Sister Hill writes fun weekly emails if you want to read them her blog is servinginstlouis.blogspot.com :)

Anyways... some good things from this week:

Steve totally felt the spirit!!! Rose has been working really late nights but Steve told Sis Hill and I that we could come over to read from the BOM with him. We sat out on the front porch and read and discussed it together. It was really good. I love when the people we teach start to open up so we can really know how to help them and understand their needs. At the end we committed him to pray together with Rose to know if the BOM is true. He said the prayer before we left and it was so sincere. Afterwards he said, "that was good right? don't you guys feel good? i do!" hahah we were like yay steve that is the spirit confirming truth to you!! It is the best when people are able to recognize when the Holy Ghost is speaking to them.

Julie K. committed to come to church in November!! We have been trying to commit Julie to come to church for quite a while now. She's so funny every time she says "keep working on me girls, one day i'll come" Well we had a lesson on faith and did an object lesson with a tea bag. You put the tea bag on a person's hand and tell them you're gonna light it on fire but it won't burn them. They have to have faith that what you are saying is true. So we lit the tea bag on fire and before it got to the bottom part where her hand is, it floats up! She thought it was the coolest thing! we explained how faith is an action word and how until we act we won't be able to know if things are true or not. she goes "okay, I get it now!" we then committed her to come to church one sunday in november! she wouldn't pick a specific day but that is a really big step for julie we were so excited!

Heavenly Father puts people into our path every single day we just have to open our eyes and realize it! Sister Hill and I were trying to find a trailer park called eagle estates. We were super lost and our GPS was not working, go figure. Anyways we got out to try to look around better and there was a  little girl who ran outside of the house we were in front of. Her dad came running out after her. We said hi to him and told him who we were, he wasn't interested. We asked if he knew where eagle estates was at and he was able to give us directions. It was an answer to an unsaid prayer! Heavenly Father gives us so many tender mercies each day, we just have to be aware of them. 

Saturday night we went to visit a less active Tracy who we have been working with quite a bit to come back to church. each time we visit with her we read from the BOM but she likes to just close her eyes and flip open to a page and read from it because she says that is what always works for her. it makes me kind of nervous because we usually plan for the people we are going to see but tracy is always a surprise. but it's amazing that every time we do this with her she always says "that is exactly what I needed to hear" It just shows that it doesn't matter where we read in the BOM, if we are listening to the spirit we can be given the guidance that we need. We committed her to coming to church the next sunday and she said she would come to sacrament meeting, and she did! YAY!!

Sunday was such a great day. We had fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong. I just love this little branch I am serving in! 

Hope that you all have a fantastic week! 

XOXO Sister Turpin

Emergency Candles

Sister Hill, Audre, and I with Julie on her baptism.

Week 18

Conference is like Christmas to a missionary. It's the best weekend of the whole year!! I hope that everyone enjoyed their conference weekend!! Honestly in the past conference has just been an excuse to have church in my pajamas and get some extra naps in.. but I have learned to appreciate it so much more! We truly are so blessed to be able to have the guidance of a living prophet and apostles. One of my favorite parts of conference was being able to listen to the testimonies of the 3 new apostles. It was so powerful! I felt the spirit so strongly when all three of them were speaking and I know that they were all called of God. There were so many things to take away from conference, one of my favorite things was to "Ponderize" a scripture each week. Sister Hill and I are totally doing this! Let me know some of your favorite scriptures that you think would be good to ponderize. As Elder Durrant said.. When our minds are filled with uplifting ideas/thoughts there is no room for filth. As we ponder and keep a scripture in our heart all week long, there will be no room for us to think negative thoughts. I LOVE IT! Email or write me and tell me some of your favorite conference insights:) 

Other than conference we had another pretty good week. 

Last week we had a really awesome lesson with Rose and Steve. They have been reading from the BOM and not really getting much out of it. So we decided to read with them and help them apply it to their lives and they LOVED it! We tried to help them understand that it is not so much about understanding the story line as it is to pick out the principles that apply to our lives from the story. Applying the BOM to our lives is the best!! They have not been as progressing as much as we would like.. but they did watch one session of conference and told us the things they learned so that was good!

On Tuesday we had exchanges. WOOO! Sister Dunn came here to Potosi. Exchanges are my favorite because you get to learn new things from other missionaries. From Sister Dunn I learned that we don't have to know all the answers as missionaries. The best way to help people is to have them ask God. If they have a serious question that they sincerely want an answer to, God will let them know if they only ask. It's pretty simple when you think about it. As missionaries we don't have to have all of the answers, but we can guide people in where to find the answers. It was good to have Sister Hill back on Wednesday. I have gained a testimony of the power of companionships. I have been blessed with the best companions!!

We read from the BOM with Julie K. this week which is becoming my favorite thing to do with our investigators! We talked about the difference between Nephi and his brothers Laman and Lemuel and their attitudes about being obedient. We asked Julie who she wanted to be like and she said "I wanna be like Nephi and go to the promised land." Hahah it was too funny! 

I hit my 4 month mark on Saturday. It's crazy to think it's been 4 months since I left to go to the MTC. Being a missionary is so weird, honestly. It hit me this last weekend as we were visiting someone. I just thought "Oh my goodness, I am going to be doing this for the next 14 months of my life." It really is a blessing though to be able to separate myself from the world and help bring others to Christ. More than anything, on my mission I have learned not only how I want to be as a missionary, but how I want to be when I go back home. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ is not just a hobby, it is truly a lifestyle. 

I hope that you all have a great week!

XOXO 

Sister Turpin 

Exchanges with Sister Dunn and Sister Ewell

The cutest bunny!

The great state of Missouri!

Sister Hill and Sister Turpin at the church just getting done with conference.