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!