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.