Week 37

Here's the latest update:
We got transfer calls this last weekend and I will be leaving Danville. I really wasn't expecting to leave, I feel like I just barely got here! I will be going to O'Fallon Missouri to be an STL with Sister Fisher. I have loved serving here, but I am excited for the next transfer. and the best part is that Sister Hill is coming here to take my place. I could not believe it when they told us that! I think President Morgan has a sense of humor, he brings my BFF to Danville and then sends me away. OH well... we will be companions again one day;)

We had some pretty great things happen this last week.

We finally got to teach Larry, who was someone we met from handing out BOMs during the BOM challenge our zone did. Larry is so cool and really just wants to find truth. We taught him about the restoration and a little about Joseph Smith. He said that he wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith so of course we decided to watch the Joseph Smith movie with him. After the movie was over he just kept saying that he couldn't believe all that  the people went through during the early times of the church. We told him that the only reason they were so persecuted is because Satan knew that Jesus Christ's church was being restored and he didn't want that to happen. The spirit was really strong and Larry said that made so much sense. He offered the prayer at the end and it was one of the most powerful prayers I have heard on my mission. He told God that he wanted to know the truth, just like Joseph Smith. and he said, "when someone knocks on your door, make sure to answer it." hahah so you better all answer when missionaries come knocking on your door;)

We also got to meet with Nici who used to have the missionaries come over in the past. It's been about a year since they have taught her. We asked her how she felt and what she remembered from missionaries in the past. She said that she doesn't remember much but she just remembers feeling peaceful. That is exactly what the gospel does. It brings us peace!!! I love this though because it helps me remember that it doesn't matter what we teach to people if we don't have the spirit with us. People won't remember the things you say, but they will always remember the way they felt.

Nothing else too exciting/crazy going on here. I am just always amazed at how quickly time goes. 

I've learned alot from my time in Danville. It's crazy how a place that you've only been for a few months can become like home to you. Sunday was filled with a lot of good byes, which I am not a fan of... But I know that God moves us missionaries exactly where we need to be. I love you all and hope that you have an awesome week.

XOXO

Sister Turpin

I love these kids!

The Tillmans, one of my favorite families! 

Our district,  with zone leaders, Elder Daley and Elder Robinson

Bernice's cute grandchildren that we are teaching, Stephen, Paris, and Stephanie.

Abrion and her sweet kids, Armani and Christian.

Week 36

Hey Fam! 
I hope that everyone enjoyed their valentine's day, or as us missionaries like to call it, "Valiant-tines Day" ;) hahahah. There was lots of love going on here in Danville this last week.

First things first, Shaniah, Za'Nyra, and Isiah go baptized!! WOOOO!! It was so awesome. I love these three kiddos SO MUCH. The sisters have been teaching them and their mom, Terisa, since last October. The kids decided that they were ready to get baptized even though their mom isn't quite ready yet. Terisa was really proud of their decision and it was awesome to see such young people make an important decision all on their own.  Hopefully they will be able to set that good example for their mom so she can make the changes in her life that she needs to in order to be baptized. 

Their baptism was on Friday night and they were confirmed Sunday at church. Saturday night we went over to their house and talked about how they felt at their baptism. They said they were all scared when they first got there and kind of nervous, but once they got in the water and after they were baptized they felt good and they weren't scared anymore. On Sunday after they were confirmed they all had the biggest smiles on their face, it was so cute! Shaniah gave me a little valentine's day note and signed it "From: baptized girl Shaniah" It was the best valentine's day gift I've ever gotten:) 

We visit a less active, Sister White, every week and have been trying to get her to read the BOM more regularly. Last week we asked her if she knew of anybody that we could go and visit and she referred us to her neighbor Sherri. We went and visited Sherri and she agreed to meeting with us at Sister White's to learn more. We taught her about the BOM and Sister White started bearing her testimony about the BOM and it was super awesome! Member missionary work is the best!! and it's just as easy as telling the missionaries to go and visit your neighbor. So this week I hope that you all will tell the missionaries of a neighbor you have that they can go and visit;) 

We taught Heather about the plan of salvation this week. We have pictures that we drew and cut out to help people be able to visualize it better. Heather really liked it and said that it all made sense. We started talking about prayer and Heather said she feels like her prayers aren't sincere as they could be. This was perfect because we just had district meeting that morning and talked about how we need to make our prayers more meaningful. Elder Benson taught us that ATTITUDE = 100%. If you number each letter for their place in the alphabet A(1)T(20)T(20)I(9)T(20)U(21)D(4)E(5) it adds up to 100. so whenever we pray we need to make sure that our attitude about prayer is 100%. We taught her ways that we can make our prayers more meaningful and she committed to pray sincerely every day this week! 

Okay so our mission has really been pushing ward council the past few months and how we can work more effectively with ward council. I haven't gained a real testimony of the importance of ward council until this last Sunday. One of the bishopric members, Brother Strawser, talked about how his family was "rescued" by a ward council. He was able to be reactivated, his wife was baptized, and they are now sealed in the temple to their three kids. I felt the spirit so strongly as he shared his story and I know that the reason why God wants us to have ward council is that we can focus our efforts on rescuing those who are lost. 

A year ago today I opened my mission call. I can't believe how much has happened in the past year. I always told people that I would never serve a mission but here I am. Looking back on that day I didn't know anything about Missouri or Illinois but I felt so much love in my heart for the people that I knew I would meet out here. I am able to feel that love every single day out here in the mission field. It's crazy how you can only know a person for a few weeks or days but you can come to truly love them. I know that is the gift of charity, the pure love of Christ. Because of my Savior I am able to love people more fully and I can see them for the who they can become and not who they are right now. I love each and every one of you and hope that everything is going well back at home!
XOXO  Sister Turpin

Shaniah, Za'Nyra, and Isiah go baptized!! Brother Schendel baptized them.  Such a great day.

Happy Valentines Day!

Please stop snowing!

Week 35

This last week I hit my 8 month mark! It's crazy to think that 8 months ago I was saying goodbye to my family and entering the MTC. It seems likes just yesterday, but also feels like forever ago! Time is super weird.

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Reed this week. It was the best!! I love her so much. It's weird because she is going home in a couple weeks. I can't believe it. We are both so different from when we were companions 8 months ago. It's cool to see how we have both changed and grown as missionaries. That's one thing that I love so much about the gospel is that it allows us to change. We don't have to be the same person we were a year ago, a week ago, or even yesterday. Because of Jesus Christ we can be born again and become a new person. My mission has changed me so much already and I still have another 10 months to go;)

We taught Abrion the 10 commandments this last week. She has a lot going on in her life. She's a single mom of 2 and doesn't really have any family or friends close to her to help her out. She told us that it's hard to take care of her kids and she doesn't know how to discipline without getting angry or yelling but then she told us that she doesn't think she can be Mormon if she's yelling at her kids. hahah! She is working hard to make changes. It was her birthday this last week so we made a cake and brought it over to her place. She cried and told us that nobody had ever made her a cake for her birthday. It was really sweet. 

Shaniah Za'nyra and Isiah are on track to be baptized. They are the sweetest kids ever and I am so excited for them. We taught them about tithing this last week and we gave them 10 skittles each and told them to give us one back. Then we had them close their eyes and we poured skittles into their hands until it overflowed. So this goes along with the scripture in Malachi 3:10 that when we pay our tithing God will give us blessings that we won't even have room enough to receive them all. Ain't that the truth!! They loved it plus they got to eat skittles so it was a win-win for us all:) 

We started teaching our recent convert Bernice's grandson. His name is Stephen and he's come to church a few times before with Bernice so we asked him if he wanted to learn more and get baptized and he said yes! His two younger sisters started coming to primary too but they are only 6 and 7. We set a date with Stephen for March 12th to get baptized. We taught him the POS yesterday and he asked if we had super powers when we die and his younger sister said "With God all things are possible." it was so tender!!

I've been thinking a lot about little children. We are teaching a few kids right now and they are my favorite! I love how innocent and willing to learn and quick to do good they are. I read in 3 Nephi this last week when Christ comes to the Americas and blesses the little children. He tells them to "Behold your little ones." I think we can learn so much from the example of the little ones around us. We should all do as King Benjamin teaches in Mosiah 3:19 to put off the natural man and become as a child "submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." 

I hope that everyone enjoyed the Super Bowl yesterday! Since we don't really watch TV as missionaries, some members in our ward invited us over for the "Sabbath Bowl." They had a football field set up on their table and we split into teams and had to answer trivia questions about the bible. It was so fun! Plus they made yummy super bowl food too:) 

I love this work and I love being a missionary. I love that I am able to change and become the person Heavenly Father wants me to be. Change isn't easy, but it is necessary! Have a great week. I love you all.

XOXO 

8 months!

We Love exchanges, Sister Reed, me, Sister Furniss, Sister Peel

On Pday we had a nerf gun battle with the Sisters.  This is our attempt to do a pyramid!

Sister White and I ready for the battle, all geared up!

Week 34

Lots of great things happened this week! 

1) Quita. Alright so we haven't taught Quita in a minute because she got busy around Christmas time and they got in a car accident so things were a little hectic. We dropped by on Tuesday and she told us that she can't believe that we just keep coming back again and again and don't give up on her. She said that she watched this movie the night before and it talked about we need to be either all in or all out and there is no in between. She told us that she wanted to start meeting with us again and take things more seriously. We shared the story with her of Peter walking on water. I LOVE THIS STORY. We talked about how when Peter took his focus off of the Savior and was worried about the waves and wind around him that's when he fell. She told us that was exactly what she needed to hear. I think this is so true for alot of us. We can get busy with life's distractions and forget what our focus should be on, the Savior. We met with her a couple days later and she told us that she repented the night before and she felt like "twinkle dust" was being taken away from her each time she repented for something. It was awesome. Repentance is real and when we sincerely ask for forgiveness we can feel the weight of sin leaving us. 

2) The Sullivan Girls. ahhh. These three girls are probably my favorite 11 and 12 year olds ever! They are so cute!! We have been teaching them the new member lessons and they really wanted to watch the Joseph Smith movie so we decided to have a movie night. WOOOO! It was so fun. We met at Amy's house, their aunt, and had snacks and popcorn and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. After the movie the girls all said, "I love this movie but I hate it because it is so sad." I have watched this movie quite a bit since being on my mission and every time I watch it I get emotional. I love Joseph Smith so much and am grateful for the sacrifices he made so that we could experience the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you haven't watched this movie, I highly recommend it. I think it's even on netflix:)

3) Abrion. OUR HOMEGIRL CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!! YESSSSS. BEST DAY EVER!!! okay that might be a little dramatic, but we were so excited!! We taught her this week and she told us she is nervous to come to church because she doesn't want people to judge her. we told her that we would come to her place and walk to church with her in the morning (she lives like right next to the church thank goodness!) so it would be less scary to come. She agreed to that. Well Sunday morning after we had ward council we went to go to her place and she texted us and said that she wouldn't be able to come to church because her son had a fever. we were so bummed. We went to sacrament and afterwards Sister Blew came up to us and said that somebody was looking for us. We walked around the corner and there was Abrion with her two kids, Armani and Christian!! We were pumped. She said that Christian's fever went down and so they decided to come. We took Christian to nursery and Armani to primary and went to class with Abrion. They all loved it and said they would be back next week. YAY!!!

4) BOM challenge. So our zone has been doing alot of challenges lately, and our Zone leaders gave us a challenge to see who could pass out the most Book of Mormons between Friday and Sunday. My competitiveness kicked in of course and Sister Peel and I decided we were gonna win! We've been pretty busy lately teaching people so we haven't had a lot of time to knock doors. We decided to spend an hour knocking on doors to hand out BOMs. We ended up passing out 7 BOMs and meeting some awesome potentials. I always hate the idea of tracting but every time I do it, I end up loving it. someone once told me "if you're ever having a bad day, go tracting." it's so true! Sometimes people are rude and don't want to listen to what we have to say, but I always love being able to bear my testimony at each door. It helps strengthen my testimony so much!! We didn't end up winning the challenge.. but that's okay! next time;) hah

I hope that everyone's week was as great as mine, but probably not because there's nothing better than being a missionary in Danville!;)

Also I get to go on exchanges with Sister Reed today. WOOOOO! We are having a sisters pday and meeting at the stake center to have a nerf gun war. it's gonna be totally awesome:) 

I LOVE YOU ALL. REMEMBER TO FOCUS ON THE SAVIOR THIS WEEK.

XOXO

SISTER TURPIN 

This sign is my life.

Smiling because all the snow is gone!

My favorite girls, Amy, Rachel, Paige, and Alyssa!

Week 33

Heyyyyy family! How is everyone doing?

Things are great here in Danville! We have been keeping busy and trying to stay warm. How many more months until summer? LOL... but seriously. 

We had a mission broadcast this week. It was cool because it was a worldwide broadcast so while we were watching it I was thinking of all my other missionary friends who were watching it at the same time! It was really good, we got to hear from a few of the apostles. The theme of the broadcast was "Teach Repentance, and Baptize Converts." It's always good to remember what we are supposed to do as missionaries. They talked about how we should always bear Christ's name on our lips. For 18-24 months we get the privilege to testify of Jesus Christ 24/7. How cool is that? We also had a training from our zone leaders about faith in Jesus Christ. They had us do a trust fall off the stage in the gym. They talked about how when we have faith in Christ we need to physically trust him that he will catch us. I always love the meetings we have with our zones, they help pump me up because sometimes being a missionary is hard and tiring. 

We had an awesome lesson with Chiquita and Stan this last week. They have been meeting with the missionaries for almost a year and at first it was just Chiquita who listened to the missionary lessons but eventually Stan's heart was softened and he started sitting in. Well they haven't been progressing for a while so we want to push them a little bit so we decided to read 2 Nephi 31 with them and invite them to be baptized. There spirit was really strong after we read it and talked about what we need to do. Chiquita said that the last two lessons we taught really made sense and flowed together, we testified that that was the spirit teaching her and helping her understand. We invited them to be baptized, they wouldn't commit right there but they are SO CLOSE!! They know that the things we teach are true but they aren't sure if they are ready to change their lives. #thestruggle. We'll keep working on them though!

So Abrion has been sick and not able to make it to church so we are gonna have to push her baptismal date back a little bit. I'm learning that things will happen in God's timing and not my own. We are still meeting with her and teaching her and she is doing good!

We set a date for Terisa's kids!!! Terisa's sister Christy got baptized last September and then the missionaries started teaching Terisa and her 3 kids. Terisa isn't quite ready for baptism but her kids want to be baptized and she wants them to be too. We went over Saturday night and gave them a baptismal date and they picked February 13th. WOOOOO! They are the sweetest kids ever. I love teaching kids because we can just teach simply and they really just want to do the right thing. 

I hope that everyone has a great week! I love you all.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

There is way too much snow, brrrrrrrr!

Our matching kitty shirts!