Week 64

HEY Y'ALL.

this last week was BOMB. but i'm so glad it's over!

here's what happened.....

1. EXCHANGES: President Bateman wants us to do exchanges a little differently this transfer. instead of one of us staying in springfield and the other going to the sister's area, both sisters come to springfield and work in our area. It's super fun and we are able to get alot of work done. Plus we get to have a sleep over with all 4 sisters! WOOOOO. I love it. This week we had the Mattoon and Rantoul sisters with us.

2. ZONE CONFERENCE: the best part of the transfer! after each zone conference I find myself so drained because they are spiritually exhausting. I always learn so much. The Batemans talked alot about principles. A principle is an eternal truth. Our missions are full of us learning principles. The cool thing is that when we go home, these principles won't go away because they are ETERNAL. Everything we learn on our missions will benefit for the rest of our lives. Cool huh?

3. JUST COME TO CHURCH: one of the biggest struggles of my mission is getting people to church. this week we had Allaric come to church! He loved it. After primary he asked us if we would show him the baptismal font where we he would be baptized. so cute! Our ward mission leader's sister, Kelli, that we have been working with came to church too! YESSSSSS. When you come to church you will feel the spirit.

4. INSPIRED PLANNING: sometimes planning can be a struggle as missionaries because we have to fill every hour of every day with meaningful activities. Sister Day and I have really been trying to listen to the spirit so that we aren't just planning random people to see, but people that Heavenly Father needs us to see. we hadn't seen one of our recent converts, Elnora, all week and we decided we should stop by to visit her. She told us that she had a rough week and when she said the closing prayer she said "God, thank you for sending the missionary girls to me. you knew that I needed them today." That's when you know you are following the spirit!

5. SAMUEL THE LAMANITE: We have to come up with creative things when we teach our recent converts, the Quinlan girls because they are 11 and 13 and have short attention spans. We decided to read a story from the BOM and act it out with them. We read Samuel the Lamanite and had each of them act out being Samuel standing on the wall and preaching to the people. They thought it was the greatest thing ever, plus they invited their neighbor friends to come do it with us! 

alright......

happy monday.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

XOXO

                         With the Quinlan girls and their neighbor friends!

We were a little too excited to have a sleepover:)with Sister White and Sister Desmond on exchanges!

We gave a training on the armor of God and having a successful DM, so we made Elder Noyes model for  us ;)

Zone conference 

President Bateman wanted to selfie with the sisters:) 

HELLO Lincoln!!

Week 63

I am so not excited to start school today...

OH WAIT. I don't have to go to school, because I'm a missionary. #WINNING
but, happy first day of school to those who started today ;)

the weeks always fly by and our days seem to jumble together, but here is what happened:

1. SHARE THE FRUIT: alright so we were teaching a less active, Sharon Bailey, and read the vision of the tree of life. if you aren't familiar, go and read 1 Nephi 8. We were talking about how when we partake of the gospel we are partaking of the fruit of the tree and it fills us with more joy than we can ever imagine, so obviously we want to share this joy with others. after that we asked Sharon who she knew that we could teach the gospel to and she told us to visit one of her friends who lived in the same building, plus SHE WENT WITH US. It was so awesome. she came knocking on his door with us and sadly he wasn't there, but she gave us a few other doors we could knock on in the apartment building and spend about 20 minutes with us trying to find someone we could teach the gospel, and share the fruit with. when we are filled with the Love of God we will want to share it with EVERYONE.

2. THE POWER OF PRAYER: we officially starting teaching Lorrie's neighbor boy Allarich! his other two brothers aren't old enough yet, but they still listen to the lessons. it's been so cool to see the changes in these little boys since we first met them. none of them wanted to pray the first time we asked them to, but this last week all 3 boys were fighting over who got to say the opening and closing prayer at the lesson. We also taught them the restoration and at the end of the lesson we asked Allarich to say the prayer and asked if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Afterwards we asked him how he felt and he said he felt good and happy. That's the spirit!!

3. ROLE PLAYS: so i'm pretty sure i've complained about role plays a few times in my emails before.... but as much as i hate them, i love them even more! Sister Day and I role played teaching a lesson to one of our investigators in the morning for comp study and then at district meeting our district leader had us role play teaching the restoration. That same day both of the lessons we taught to our investigators went very similar to the role plays we had done that morning. Because we had practiced, we were prepared.The spirit is so real during role plays!

4. REFERRALS: we got this call from a guy and he told us that the missionaries had been working with this couple in Normal, Illinois but they had just moved to Springfield. He told us that the couple had been to church 3 times and been meeting with the missionaries for about 2 months. every missionary loves getting a call like this! but there's a twist.. they are both deaf. we contacted them on Saturday and we were able to communicate through the daughter interpreting for us. we set up another appointment and are excited to work with them. Sister Day took ASL in high school so we are praying that the gift of tongues will come in handy for us. wish us luck! 

LOVE YOU ALL.

BYE.

xoxo

Teaching the boys the plan of salvation, love them!

Allrich is my best friend, he is the cutest thing ever!!

With one of the young women.. Brianna Korte:) she came out with us for the day!

We talked the zone leaders into switching cars with us....CHECK OUT OUR SWEET NEW RIDE ;)

Sometimes we go swinging for comp. inventory!

Week 62

HEYYY FAMILY. <3 

okayyy, first thing's first. TRANSFER DOCTRINE. all day long on Saturday sister day kept saying that she felt like she was gonna leave so we were super nervous. we got the call around 7 and she was shaking so bad she couldn't hold the phone. hahah poor thing. but... WE ARE BOTH STAYING. wooooooo! we were so happy and can't wait to spend another transfer together. 

here's what happened the rest of the week....

1. BIRTHDAY SASH SAVES THE DAY: we went to try to visit this less active, Missy, and as we knocked on the door she came out and told us that she was actually just leaving to go pick up her daughter because it was her birthday. I told her we had something for her daughter and ran to the car to grab the birthday sash my mom had sent me in a package the week before. we gave it to her and told her to give it to her daughter. after that she said, "you know what, I have a couple minutes. why don't you girls come in?" SERIVCE SOFTENS HEARTS PEOPLE. we were stoked. we went inside and asked her if we could teach her the missionary lessons again and she agreed. shout out to momma turp for the birthday sash that saved the day.

2. MEMBER MISSIONARY: basically this ward has the best recent converts EVER. I love all of them so much! Elnora is one of our recent converts and we went to visit her this week. she asked us if we had any pass along cards we could give her so she could put it on the doors of the people who live in her apartment complex because, "they need Jesus." hahah. it was so cute! plus she invited one of her neighbors to come over the next time we visit her! 

3. REACTIVATION: we have had alot of less active members that we are working with and it's AWESOME. and the best part is alot of them are progressing and coming back to church!! Our ward mission leader, Walt, has a LA sister and he and his mom have been praying for her to come back to church. She hasn't been to church for about 30 years but she told Walt that she wants to come back and start meeting with us. We met with her this week and talked about the restoration and she told us that she has read the BOM every day for a month and wants to work her way back to coming to church. We told Walt about it and he was super pumped and said that this is an answer to his family's prayers. just another reminder that prayer works, even if it takes 30 years for a prayer to be answered. 

4. ICE CREAM SUNDAES: Lori has these cute little neighbor boys that we share lessons with sometimes and they are adorable. we planned this lesson to teach them about keeping the sabbath day holy, so we made ice cream sundaes! we put lots of yummy toppings on one ice cream sundae for the good things we do on sunday, and then we put gross toppings on the other for things we shouldn't do on sunday. they loved it, plus we got to eat ice cream. it was a win/win for all.

5. HELLO FELICIA: we had a pretty good lesson with our investigator Felicia this last week and talked about our purpose and how we want to help her but she needs to do the things we ask. she has a hard time reading the BOM or praying about things we ask her to. she took everything really well and told us that she would pray and read. a couple days later we were driving down the street and we saw Felicia on her front porch READING THE BOOK OF MORMON. we were gonna pee our pants we were so excited. ha! but seriously. it was a miracle!! 

that's all for this week.

the transfers seem to go quicker and quicker.

LOVE YOU ALL.

good luck to those starting school.

XOXO 

Sister Turpin 

Selfie with SisterDay

FHE with the best people ever

Ice cream sundaes with the boys!

Our last district meeting, I love all these missionaries!

Week 61

We had a 'TURNT UP' week. In honor of birthday week. WOOO. 🎂

here is what happened...

1. DISTRICT IS FAMILY: anybody who's served a mission can agree with this statement. every single district I have served in I have loved and that's because we are all family! we had a bomb district meeting this last week and talked about how we need to have the same vision as our companion as we go into a lesson. I also realized that the people we are teaching need to have the same vision as us or neither of us will be able to achieve the goals we have. Sister Day and I really took a look at our teaching pool and decided we needed to let go of some people... it was hard. but it will be good and now we have more time to find solid people! yay. 

2. "I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL I'M 8": We have these cutie recent convert girls, Baylee and Savanna Quinlan. They are 10 and 13. We teach them every week and it's my favorite because I get along with children so much better than adults. well they have a younger sister Destanie who turned 8 this week and we told her that she can get baptized when she turns 8. when we went to see them Destanie told us she's going to ask her parents if she can take the lessons and get baptized. WOO. we gave her a princess birthday crown and talked about how she is a daughter of God and what that means. yay for birthdays, especially when you turn 8!

3. MINI MISSIONARY: the moment i have been waiting for all summer, MINI MISSIONARIES. last summer the best weeks of my mission were the weeks with our mini missionary. it's my favorite!! so we got our mini missionary on thursday, her name is Olivia and she is adorable! i felt like we didn't have very long with her, but we had lots of fun! 

4. MLC: the most spiritually uplifting and draining meeting ever. I feel like every time I go to MLC I hear exactly the things I need to to help motivate me for the next few weeks. one thing President Bateman said was to "hear the things that aren't said." AKA - we need to listen to what the spirit is saying to us because that is what we need to learn. lots of good stuff! 

5: TOO MUCH COMP UNITY: lol k this was probably my favorite part of the week. so we knock on this door and a lady answers and sister day says "Hi, my name is sister turpin and we wanna share a message about Jesus Christ..... " and the whole time I'm standing there thinking... "wait, my name is sister turpin." hahahahha the lady wasn't interested and afterwards I started laughing and sister day asked me why and I said "well you told that lady that your name was sister turpin" she was like "wait, did I really?" lol she didn't even realize it. it was SO FUNNY. probably funnier in the moment... 

6. CHARITY: i have gained such a strong testimony of charity, the pure love of Christ, since I have been a missionary. we are teaching this couple, Felicia and William. Felicia is a sweet heart, William not so much. He usually doesn't sit in on the lessons and just likes to argue but we decided to start showing lots of love to William and it is AMAZING the change that has happened in him! We always tell Felicia we love her when we leave but this week I told William that we love him too and he told us that he loves us and he is willing to come to church. "Any trial in our life can be solved by CHARITY, the pure love of Christ" Moroni 7:46 

7. SEE YOURSELF IN THE TEMPLE: we had a lesson with the minors and listened to the talk "see yourself in the temple" from this last conference. they loved it. we wanted to make them a mirror like the one in the talk but all we had were these ginormous sun glasses, so we decided that would do the job. we gave it to brother minor and he told us he would wear it to church and he totally did. HAHAH. we were stoked to see him! he was proudly showing off his new glasses and letting everyone see his goal to work towards the temple. i love that man!! 

8. YOU'VE HAD A BIRTHDAY: I had a birthday, shout HOORAY. Birthdays on the mission are the best. I was happy to go to church and have the opportunity to fast and hear other people's testimonies. it was great! plus one of the elder's investigators gave me a cool wooden cheetah statue thing. SCORE. I saw it at her house on Monday and told her I loved it and then at church on Sunday she gave it to me and said Happy birthday! I was pumped. thanks to everyone else who wished me a happy birthday. I love you all! 

this is the last week of the transfer. i'm pretty sure i will stay in springfield, i'm hoping sister day will stay with me. pray for us ;) 

 XOXO

Sister Turpin

A member from our ward is from Pocatello!

Breaking down walls with Andy!

Exchanges with Taylorville and Mahomet

With the elders and our ward mission leader Walt after our fireside

At MLC with President Bateman and all my favorite sisters!

Our cute missionary Olivia.

Happy Birthday to me!

Week 60

HAPPY AUGUST.

The best month of the year. Am I right? I might be a little biased since it is my birth month;) 

Highlights of the week include....

1. EXCHANGES: sometimes I feel like I never get to spend time with my companion, but it's okay because exchanges are fun and I always learn so much! I spent the day with Sister Hudson, who is one of my favorite human beings, on Tuesday and then Sister Mainord on Wednesday. Sister Mainord and I were teaching one of our investigators Felicia. We read out of 3 Nephi with her when Christ came to the Americas. She was eating it up. It was so great! Felicia doesn't quite believe in the concept of "one true church." While we were teaching her, Sister Mainord said, "As missionaries we make bold claims, and one is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true and living church on the earth. We know that is a bold statement and we would never want you to take our word for it, and that is why we invite you to pray and ask God." I sometimes feel intimidated making such bold claims to people, but that is our purpose as missionaries. To help people know of truth. The way we do that is to teach them truth and have them pray and ask God. 

2. BOM CHALLENGE: so we have this awesome RC couple, Lorrie and Andy. I've probably talked about them before... anyways we were visiting with them and Andy told us that he had just finished reading the BOM. I asked him how he felt and he said, "I feel like I need to read it again." What a great answer!! I told him that I had just started reading the BOM again and was almost done with 1 Nephi. Well later in the week we get a phone call in the morning from Andy. He said, "Sister Turpin, what chapter are you on?" I told him that I had just finished the 2 chapter in 2 Nephi and he tells me that he is in chapter 8 of 2 Nephi. OKAY ANDY, I see you. hahah so now we have a challenge of reading the BOM, but i'm pretty sure he is going to beat me. oh well!!! if you haven't read the BOM yet, I highly recommend it. 

3. MOMMA REED: okay everyone, remember a year ago when I first came to Missouri and my first companion was Sister Reed, well she served in Springfield and came back to visit this week. I got to see her for a little bit and meet her dad. It was so great! happy family reunion!

4. WE GOT A COUCH: if you've never been in a missionary apartment, they don't always have the best furniture. In our apartment we didn't have any couches and our table was about 2 feet from the floor so we ate sitting on the ground. Which isn't really a big deal because we really aren't home that often. But on Wednesday we got a call from the office elders and they told us that they were bringing us a couch and a table. WE WERE PUMPED!

5. BANANAS AND SPRITE: I woke up Friday morning with a migraine and feeling super sick. I took some medicine and the Elders came and gave me a blessing and I started feeling better but not 100%. Sister Day wasn't feeling the greatest either and the elders had  told us that if we drank a can of sprite and ate a banana it would make us throw up and we would feel better. of course we had to try it....... 

6. PREACH MY GOSPEL: I have loved every ward I have served in, but this ward is super missionary minded. it's great! Oh by the way... not sure if i've ever said this, but we share a ward with the zone leaders. anyways... a month ago they started doing a preach my gospel fireside for the ward members to help them know how to use preach my gospel to be better member missionaries. We had one yesterday and it was awesome! Our ward mission leader said at the beginning of the meeting that there were 21 people that morning in sacrament meeting that were a direct result of missionary efforts or the ward's rescue effort to find lost sheep. 21 PEOPLE. that is amazing!! 

7. REVELATION IS REAL: this last week Sister Day and I were kind of frustrated with our investigators and the area and we had a little bit of a pity party..... but then we decided we needed to do something about it but we just didn't know what. Sister Day had read her patriarchal blessing during studies and shared a part with me that talked about praying and working for the things she wants and God will bless her beyond her fondest imaginations. Well I decided to pull out my patriarchal blessing and read a part that said to pray because Heavenly Father desires to bless me and will give me all the righteous desires of my heart. basically our answer was PRAYER. We came to the realization that Heavenly Father knows how to help us, our investigators, and the area. All we need to do is ask him for His help, and then of course go to work. so if you ever don't know what the answer is.... PRAY.

Have a great week! love you alllllllll.

XOXO
Sister Turpin 

I have no pictures,my SD card deleted them.