Week 44

Hello Family! 

I can't believe that the 7 week transfer is already over. Even though it's only a week longer than all the other transfers I felt like it would never end, but like always time just flies by! This morning we drove to the mission home with Sister Anderson and Sister Madsen. Sister Fisher and Madsen are both going home. It was sad to say goodbye! I truly love each of my companions so much.

Alright... now that we are done with the depressing part of the email, here's a quick highlight of the week! Because it was the last week of the transfer the Assistants send out daily challenges to all the leaders just to add some fun friendly competition to the work. Monday morning we woke up to a voicemail challenges from the APs that said we had to wake up and run a half mile before 6:30. Sister Fisher and I put our shoes on so quickly and ran out the door. It was quite the way to start our morning/week off. But it was worth it because we won the challenge! yes, my competitiveness came out just a little bit;) All week long we were keeping track of points and seeing how many BOMs, pamphlets, pass a long cards, etc. we could pass out. It was really fun and a good way to keep us motivated for the last week!

We got to go to 3 different district meetings this week. Even though we have district meeting every week, I love it so much! I always learn a lot and feel the spirit, it's great. Anyways we somehow convinced each of the district leaders to give us some sort of treat. Elder Hubner made us cookies, Elder Quinn gave us ice cream, and Elder Handley gave us skittles. The only one who didn't give us anything was Elder Shelley. We were giving him a hard time about it and so he told us he would have a surprise for us on Wednesday when we came to his district meeting. We showed up and he had made us tshirts that say "Team Shelley" on them and look like an elder's white shirt and tie. ah man, it was the greatest! we were so excited! He definitely won best district leader award!

We started teaching Patricia. She is dating a less active member, Brother Banks. He told us that he wants to start coming back to church and she is interested in learning more. YAY! So we taught her the restoration lesson. We started talking about the priesthood and it was great because Brother Banks jumped right in and talked about how we need the proper authority to do things. I love when members help us teach. Anyways, we invited Patricia to be baptized and she said yes. hopefully we will set a date with her soon! 

Okay so our mission started doing temple tours around the temple grounds. It is so neat! So anyone is able to come and there are missionaries who take us around the temple grounds and talk about the restoration of the gospel and why we have temples and people are free to ask questions. AH, IT'S THE GREATEST! So we got to go with some recent converts, the Carrillos. They are the sweetest. They hit their year mark of baptism in January and are wanting to get sealed in the temple. It was their first time ever on temple grounds and they said they could definitely feel the spirit. Someone asked them if it was there first time there and Brother Carrillo said, "Yes, it's our first time here, but it won't be our last." that's right!! The temple is the best place on earth. The next temple tour is May 14th for those of you who want to come to St. Louis;) 

Alright, last exciting news of the week: TRANSFER CALLS. okay so transfer calls are always exciting but it was 100x funner being an STL. The Assistants call us to tell us what is happening with us and the sisters in our zones, then we get to call the sisters. It was so fun to hear all of their reactions! I will be staying in O'fallon for another transfer and my new companion is Sister Arch, which I am so stoked about! It will be another great transfer.

XOXO Breanne Turpin

I love Sister Fisher. Yay for temple tours!

Our district Sister Parker, Roundy, Fisher, and me.  Elders Iverson, Nickle, Handley, and Buringham

My sweet new ride, the mission van! 

#teamshelley

Dropping off our companions at the mission home, sad day. 

Week 43

Since April Fools day was last Friday I feel like I should start this out by telling y'all about the prank the Elders played on us. Sister Fisher and I got a text from our district leader forwarding us a media referral that was in our area. Of course we were pumped about it so we plugged in the address and started driving there. Turns out it wasn't a legit referral and the Elders had sent us to Taco Bell. We had a good laugh about it because the day before we had told them how much we love taco bell. Well we decided that we needed to get them back somehow. Their area right now is a walking/biking area but they told us that they would be getting a car next transfer. Sister Fisher and I, being the sneaky sisters we are, told the APs to call the elders and tell them they wouldn't be getting a car anymore. The Elders totally fell for it and when we called them that night they started complaining to us about it. We were laughing SO HARD! We finally told them it was an April Fool's joke and they gave us props on getting them back. 

Other than playing a prank on the Elders, we had another great week! We have been finding new people to teach which has been such a blessing. Our newest investigators are Nathan and Mandy. Nathan has been taught by the sisters in the past, but then life got caught up with him and he became too busy. We stopped by to visit him this last week and we had a great lesson! He has had a near death experience and totally believes in the spirit world and life after death so we talked a lot about the plan of salvation. His girlfriend Mandy was there as well and she listened in. We gave them both a BOM and they are excited to read it. 

Our weekend was even better, because DUH general conference!! It's such a blessing that we get to listen from a living day prophet and apostles. And lets be real, President Monson is the cutest. Am I right? There were too many great talks to pick one favorite, but I really enjoyed Elder Hollands. It was a great way to end conference. I feel the same way sometimes knowing that spiritual experiences or moments have to come to an end and I don't know how to hang on to it, but we shouldn't be afraid of tomorrow. We need to learn from those experiences we had and hang on to them. Don't give up, and keep trying. All our Heavenly Father asks of us is to try our best. 

Time always goes so quickly. It's the last week of the transfer already, and Sister Fisher's last week of her mission. I feel like I still have forever left on my mission but yesterday I hit my 10 month mark. I wish time would slow down a little bit! Well I love you all and hope that everyone is doing fabulous back at home:) Thanks for all your love support and prayers.

XOXO 

Breanne Turpin

10 months!!

 

Sister Day, Oldroyd, Fisher, and me.  We bought matching outfits!

Reunited with my Potosi homies!! Elder Livingston, Johnson, and Quinn

Sister Bishop, my MTC companion.  We had to get custard!

My Easter dress from mom! 

Week 42

HAPPY EASTER MONDAY:) Sister Fisher informed me that Easter Monday is actually a holiday in Canada and they get school off for it. WHAAAAT? I feel like I've been deprived my whole childhood. Don't worry, today we will be celebrating it!

Oh my lanta, so much went down this week. We had SO many miracles! In honor of the new Easter video we called it our Hallelujah Week:) We started the week of with exchanges with the YSA sisters in St. Louis. I spent the day there with Sister Day and we had a lot of fun! We have been trying to share the Easter video with everyone we meet. We met this girl and she let us right in and we watched the video together. The spirit was SO strong the whole time. It was amazing really. And afterwards we sat in silence for a few seconds and she goes "Wow. Your church made that? That's amazing?" We asked her how she felt watching it and she said "Is there even a word to describe it?" It was so cool! So we talked about the spirit with her a little bit and what she was feeling. She doesn't really have the same beliefs we do, but it was cool to see how the spirit is able to touch anyone regardless of their beliefs. 

After exchanges with the YSA sisters we had exchanges with the Parkway sisters! We went to their district meeting which was really fun because their district leader is Elder Quinn who I served with for 6 months when I was in Potosi, plus Elder Johnson and Elder Livingston who were apart of my 1st district in Potosi too were there as well. It was like a mini reunion. It was so fun to see them all again! And the best part was I got to go on exchanges with Sister Bishop, my MTC comp! WOOO! I just love her. We came to O'Fallon and we had an exchange miracle! A couple weeks ago Sister Fisher and I met the cutest 9 year old Mary. Her mom wasn't home at the time so we tried back a couple of times and never seemed to catch her when she was home. Finally with Sister Bishop we were able to teach Mary and her mom Shey. They are so sweet! Shey said she's looking for a "church home" and hasn't been able to really find one yet. They said they are willing to come check ours out and have us come over and teach them. YAY! We are so excited about them!

Sister Fisher and I were able to have another miracle Friday afternoon. We met this 14 year old girl Cory a few weeks ago and gave her younger sister Kristell a BOM too. We haven't been able to sit down and talk with them about it yet so we went to go try them on Friday and their mom was home. She answered the door and said that she didn't want us to come over because mormons don't believe in Jesus Christ and their family believes in Jesus Christ. Sister Fisher goes, "Well actually, our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we do believe in Jesus Christ." The mom, Sharone, told us to come right in. She sat her 3 daughters down and we talked about Jesus Christ and how the BOM is a record of his dealings in the Americas during the same time. They told us we could come back next week to teach them more. It was cool to see how Sharone was so closed off at first but when we let her know we believe in Jesus Christ she totally opened up. God is definitely blessing us here in O'Fallon. SO MANY GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING!! 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am so looking forward to conference and getting to hear from the prophet and apostles!! I love you all.

XOXO
Sister Turpin 

Cutie sisters at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard.  Custard is a big thing in the midwest.

With some of the sisters at the mission home between sessions of conference. They made us pancakes.

Our conference selfie, enjoying the nice sunshine!

A member gave us Easter baskets, so sweet.  Sorry I only know how to take creepy pictures.