Week 58

HAPPY MONDAY!

This past week FLEW by. Legit. We were super busy with meetings and exchanges so that always keep us busy. Here is what went down....

1. PRESIDENT INTERVIEWS & ZLT: every other transfer we get to have a one on one interview with our mission president. It was good to get to know President Bateman a little better. He told us to come prepared with questions about our investigators and areas. I asked him how we can help people once they are baptized to stay on track. He gave me the idea of not only setting baptismal dates with people, but also setting baptismal dates for the temple! I thought this was the coolest thing ever! Baptism is a goal we set, but the temple is the end result. Also, because of the way President Interviews were set up, Sister Day and I ended up giving our training 6 times.... Poor Sister Bateman and Sydney who had to listen to it all six times. LOL. 

2. EXCHANGES: okay so basically the best part of my week was getting to see one of my past companions and BFFs, SISTER HILL. wooo! We had exchanges after ZLT and she came to Springfield with me. It was just like old times being together again. But it was cool to see how we have both grown and changed. That's what I love about the mission! You are always growing and changing. We got to teach Lorraine and we talked about her baptism date. She told us she knows she has to get baptized "under the priesthood" but she still has a few concerns.. So we invited her to pray and see if God wants her to get baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She said she would do it! 

3. EXCHANGES ROUND 2: Right after we exchanged back with the Danville sisters, Sister Day and I headed to Rantoul to go blitz the sisters area with them. I spent the day with Sister Favero. We had about 20 minutes left in the day so we decided to knock a few doors around a referral we had contacted earlier that day. The first door we knocked on no one was home, but there was a girl walking down the street not too far from us. We decided to go and talk to her. We ended up giving her and her husband a BOM. They had a cute 2 year old son and told us we could come and teach them later in the week. I'm always amazed how Heavenly Father leads us to where we need to be at the right moment. 

4. JESSICA: She has been prepping for baptism on July 30th. We taught her about repentance and the word of wisdom yesterday. She set a quit date to stop smoking for August 1st, which means we had to push her baptism date back a few weeks. She chose August 27th. We all feel much better about her new date. Neither of us feel rushed or like we have to cram all the lessons in a short amount of time. Heavenly Father works in his own timing, not the way we want it. 

5. REFERRALS: Sister Day and I have been blessed with quite a few referrals this past week. Our investigator Lorraine told us she wanted us to go and visit her sister, Versula. We were able to teach her the restoration this morning and it was great! She told us she will pray and read from the BOM. Also, our recent convert Victoria has a new foster sister, Kayla, who just moved in with her. When we went to visit Victoria, she told us that she wanted Kayla to take the lessons. WOOOOO. Finding people to teach becomes a lot easier when people give you people to teach. Heavenly Father sure has been blessing us.

Well, that's all for this week.
Love you all. Stay safe, have fun!

XOXO
Sister Turpin

Exchanges with the Danville sisters. Reunited with Sister Hill, love her!

Exchanges with Rantoul Sisters!

Missouri has lots of corn fields!

This is the largest covered wagon in the world... just hanging with my homie Abe Lincoln. 

Week 57

HEY FAMILY.

I'm officially in Springfield, Illinois. Transfer week is always so crazy. I just got here last Tuesday but it already feels like I've been here FOREVER. Time is such a weird thing on the mission... We have been so busy this last week I feel like I haven't even had time to think/breath. It's a good thing though!

The best parts of the week were......

1. Jessica! She is on date for baptism for July 30th right now. She is wonderful! We taught her the plan of salvation this last week and she loved it! So cool thing, Jessica has rheumatoid arthritis and my companion Sister Day has type 1 diabetes. Well when we taught her about the resurrection we read a conference talk with her that talked about how we will all have perfected glorified bodies when we are resurrected. The spirit was so strong! Because our Savior Jesus Christ overcame death and was resurrected, we all will be too. Every physical or mental condition our bodies may have will be cured. HOW COOL IS THAT. Jessica was loving it. Plus she came to church on Sunday. She told us that she had lots of questions answered by coming to church. 

2. Lorraine. I love this girl! She makes me laugh all the time. She is 7 months pregnant and has a date for August 7th, my birthday. Best birthday present ever right?? LOL. We brought a member, Sister Trojahn, to Lorraine's lesson on Saturday. Sister Trojahn is a young mom so her and Lorraine clicked instantly over talking about baby stuff. Lorraine kept saying "Thank you so much for bringing her to my house. She has been such a blessing. I love you girls, but she can relate to me more." That's why I love when members come to lessons with us! Sister Trojahn shared her story of  how she converted to the gospel and it was just what Lorraine needed to hear. Lorraine came to church on Sunday too and even brought her husband with her. YAYAY. Hopefully we can start teaching him soon too!

3. MLC. my favorite day of the whole transfer! I was anticipating going to MLC all week to see what our focus would be this transfer and also to get to know President and Sister Bateman more. They are both wonderful! President Bateman has done a really great job of helping us as missionaries to see the vision of what our mission needs to be. "When people have a vision, they thrive." He broke down our baptismal goal month to month for each zone. It made our goal seem way more realistic and attainable. Also, more good news: we usually have MLC the first friday of the transfer, but President Bateman told us that we will be having it the first friday of every month from now on. #NotMad. I always gain so much revelation and motivation from this meeting. It will be great to have it monthly! 

I hope you all have a great week.

I LOVE YOU

XOXO
Sister Turpin 

p.s. here is my new address.

you can write me, or nah.

120 spring creek rd.

springfield, IL 62702

Allison

My new companion, Sister Day

There's TONS of Lincoln stuff here in Springfield. I guess it's a thing to rub Lincoln's nose.

Week 56

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

I hope that everyone eats some yummy food, hangs out with some wonderful people, and watches some good fireworks. That's what we will be doing today!

Okay, first things first: TRANSFER DOCTRINE. We got the call on Saturday and Sister Arch will be staying here and I will be going to Springfield, Illinois with Sister Day! I'm super excited. Sister Day was one of the sisters I was an STL over my first transfer here in O'fallon, she is such a sweet heart. Plus I get to be an STL over my baby girl, SISTER HILL. WOOOOO. My first companion Sister Reed served the last 6 months of her mission in Springfield and loved it so I am looking forward to it. It will be a great transfer. 

Also, we met our new mission President!! Friday we had our first meeting with President Bateman, his wife and their 14 year old daughter Sydney. They are wonderful people. I was so nervous all day long, but as soon as I met them I knew that I was going to love them. He talked with us about obedience. go figure. the typical missionary topic. but it was great! he told us that as missionaries we have the most freedom right now than any other time in our life. We each have our own trust box and as long as we stay within the limits of that trust box we are free to do whatever we want. As soon as we step outside the trust box, it gets smaller and so does our freedom. One of my favorite things he said was, "Preparation + Purpose = POWER" as long as we are prepared and remember our purpose we will be given the power that we need. even though we are outnumbered, we will be given the strength we need through our Heavenly Father.

We had an awesome lesson with David and Michelle this last week. We brought our favorite crazy gospel principles teacher, Brother Rasmussen. David told us that he struggles with faith and a belief in God. We invited him to read from the Book of Mormon and pray every day to see if it makes a difference in his week. He was really reluctant to committing but Brother Rasmussen came in clutch bearing his testimony of how much reading the BOM daily changes his life for the better. I'm so grateful for awesome member missionaries! 

Allison has been reading from the BOM every day!! She is such a great example to me of faith. She was super excited to fast this Sunday. We went over to her house before church and she told us that she had read 2 chapters since we saw her the day before and she was ready to fast. She told us that her kids tried to get her to eat something but she told them no. haha! I was dreading to tell this girl that I was leaving... but i had to do it! As soon as I told her I was leaving she started to cry. The worst part about being a missionary is leaving people you love. But I'm so grateful for the impact and example she has been to me! 

Leaving an area is hard, but change is always good! I have truly loved all of my areas I have served in and all the people I have been able to meet. You don't realize the impact you have on people until you have to say good bye. And they definitely don't realize the impact they have had on me. I LOVE MY MISSION. 

XOXO

Sister Turpin

Happy 4th of July!

Pretty lake!

The best district, love these guys.

The Reeds, love them.

Week 55

What a beautiful Missouri view!

We got caught in the rain!

Temple day with Sister Bishop and Audre  - love them!

Pday bowling with these beautiful Sisters!

HEYYYY FAMILY. what a wonderful week!

1. I LOVE ROLE PLAYS: okay so we have to do a lot of role plays as missionaries so we can practice and become better teachers. so we decided to do a role plays with the carrillos when we went over to visit them this week. sister arch was a missionary with them and they were teaching me the gospel of Jesus Christ. it was so awesome to see them bearing testimony of how the gospel has blessed them. afterwards brother carrillo said, "you know what? that made me realize that we need to go out and teach with you more." WOOOOO. that's right. member missionary work! plus brother carrillo blessed the sacrament for the first time this sunday. they are doing so great and still working towards the temple!

2. TEMPLE DAY: best day ever! the temple trip was this week which means i got to see all my favorite people that i came out with!! it was so wonderful. i got to carpool with my MTC companion, sister bishop. the session started at 12:30 but we could go earlier to do other ordinances if we wanted. we got there around 10 and did initiatories, which didn't take too long. we had an hour before our session and sister bishop goes, "let's go do baptisms!!" in my head i was thinking "for real? i curled my hair this morning and i really don't wanna get wet, we didn't bring anything to get ready afterwards." but then after 2 seconds i said, "k fine. let's do it!" i'm so grateful that we were able to spend the whole morning/afternoon in the temple doing work for the dead. THEY ARE WAITING. plus it was a neat experience to do baptisms, confirmations, initiatories, and an endowment session all in one day. i love the temple!

3. FAITH: we taught our girl allison about faith this week. we read alma 32 and talked about how we need to plant the seed and let it grown and continue to nourish it so our faith can grow. allison really wants to come to church but she has some family issues that are kind of getting in the way of it. it's been frustrating for all of us! but it's okay. we talked about fasting with her and she asked if we could all fast together to see if she will be able to come to church sometime soon. that's right girl! keep exercising that faith!! 

4. RIP ELDER HANDLEY: our beloved district leader is going home today. the missionaries in our district have all gotten pretty close, it's sad to say goodbye! for our last district meeting elder handley gave some "dying advice." 1. keep the commandments and 2. trust in God and the atonement. we watched a video called missionary work and the atonement. i felt the spirit SO strongly. it talked about the Savior and all the hard things he went through and how we shouldn't complain when our missions are hard. of course they are going to be hard, it wasn't easy for the Savior, so why would it be easy for us? Elder Holland said, " of course a mission will be difficult, because salvation is not cheap" i love this gospel and i love being a missionary, even when it's hard. 

5. LOST SHEEP: okay this is nothing spiritual at all.... but it's a funny story so i'mma tell you. thursday night sister arch and i go back to our apartment at 9 and i go to unlock the door and our apartment key is gone. FOR REAL? we were like oh no what are we gonna do. so we call sister curtis and she tells us she will go to the mission office to see if they have a spare key and we could get it from her. in the mean time we went to the church to wait and 30 minutes later sister curtis called us back and said "sorry girls, i've been making bread, elder curtis is just getting to the mission office i'll let you know if the key is there" we were like really sister curtis? choosing bread over missionaries locked out of their apartment?? lol we weren't even mad. long story short, we met up half way got the key and started heading home, but we accidentally typed in the address to the mission office and we didn't realize until we got there at 10:30. we eventually made it back home that night at 11. we were pooped! 

6. I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES: a couple emails ago i told a story of meeting a member, michelle who joined the church in vegas and moved here 3 years ago and hasn't been to church since she's moved. well we went over to meet with her this week and started teaching her boyfriend and daughter! her boyfriend david doesn't  have a strong belief in God but he told us that he is super open and willing to learn. YAY. we are pumped to teach them! i love people who have open hearts and are willing to learn. 

can you believe june is almost over?? where does the time go?! 

it's already the last week of the transfer. i can't believe it!! we meet our new mission president on friday and find out what is happening next transfer on saturday. it will be an exciting week. the anticipation is killing me. lol. stay tuned for next email to find out how everything goes:)

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

Week 54

Hello family. happy Monday!

here are the highlights of the week -- 

1. last exchange of the transfer: i got to spend the day with one of my favorite sisters, sister hudson!! she got baptized a couple years ago, is the only member in her family, and is now on a mission. get it girl! missionaries like her are such an inspiration to me. we stopped by to see patrick and he told us that his neighbors were giving him a hard time and saying bad things about mormons. so we went over to their house with him to clear things up. we told them that we believed in Jesus Christ and the bible but we also believe in the book of mormon. we offered them copies and they wouldn't take one. they told us that they knew it wasn't true. we asked if they had ever read from it and they said no, but they knew it wasn't true. it makes me so sad that people are so hard in their hearts that they won't even read a book that is another testament of Jesus Christ. the only way to know if the book of mormon is the word of God or not is to read it and pray and ask God. i can promise that anyone who does those two things will come to know for themselves that the book of mormon is true. 

2. teaching new people: finding people to teach is something we do all the time as missionaries. sometimes it's harder to find, but we were able to start teaching a 12 year old boy, Justin. his mom Jamie is a less active member. they moved here a couple months ago and she said we could start teaching him the lessons. he's come to a couple youth activities and loved it! we taught him the restoration and invited him to baptism and he said yes. woooo! 

3. Allison called us her best friends: i don't know what it is, something about being a missionary, i just love everyone i meet so much and connect with them in such a short amount of time. charity is a real thing! we stopped by to visit a member who lives right across the street from Allison, when we were about to get out of the car Allison pulled up in the driveway and said "girls! i'm so happy you're here. come inside!" we went in and talked with her and she opened up to us a lot. she told us how she was nervous to go to church by herself and what others would think and she felt bad for not coming on Sunday. we shared some scriptures with her and helped her feel loved and she says "you know, you two are my best friends." awhhhh. it was so tender. WE LOVE HER. God always blesses me with the best people in my life. 

4. Heavenly Father answers prayers: okay so Thursday our phone stopped working and usually we wouldn't care because nobody calls/texts us anyways.... but we needed to get a hold of the Missouri river elders to get the stop smoking workshop from them because we were doing it with a member that night. anyways, we didn't know what to do. so we decided to say a prayer and head over to their apartment and hope that we would run into them on the way there. it was a huge leap of faith and the odds were slim that they would actually be home, but we did it anyways! so we got to their apartment and parked the car and waited for a couple minutes. after a while we looked at our phone and saw that it was working. so we called them and they told us that their back door was unlocked and everything we needed was right there by the door. we got the stuff and got back in the car and our phone was back to being broken for the rest of the night. so even though God didn't answer our prayer the way we thought, he still answered it. he is always listening! 

alright, that's all!

I hope you all have a fabulous week.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

We love this girl, Allison!

Allison, baby Carl and Abbie. The cutest family :)

Sister Hudson taught me how to be a thug!

Sister exchanges, Sister Hudson, Hulme, Arch and me

Sister Reed sent me a cheetah head band....so obviously I needed to get in all my cheetah gear!

Week 53

HAPPY MONDAY FAMILY.

it's nice and sunny and HOT today here in Missouri. 

This week we....

1. taught a new couple! Paul and Sarah. Sarah just had a brand new baby 2 weeks ago, he's the cutest little thing. We met them a few weeks back and gave them a BOM and they told us we could come back. We finally got to meet with them and teach them the restoration. Every time we share the account of the 1st vision I feel the spirit so strongly. After we taught it, Paul goes, "Wow. That feels good." I am so grateful for the spirit that testifies to people of truth. We are excited to keep teaching them! 

2. went on exchanges. WOO. I got to be with Sister Kikkert for the day! We exchanged back at the St. Peter's sisters district meeting. It's fun to get to go to other district meetings. One of the Elders gave a training on developing the faith to find. One of the things that stuck out to me was that God is always preparing people to accept the gospel so that is why we should share it with everyone we know. You never know who is ready or prepared to hear the gospel!

3. watched a movie with Allison. don't worry it was a church approved movie;) we went over to her house and she said, "girls, I'm not gonna be able to be baptized in July." we were like oh no.. where is she going with this? but she told us that her husband is gone right now and won't be back until october and when she told him she wanted to get baptized he said that he wanted to get baptized with her! so she is excited. even though we have to wait a little bit longer for everything, i know it will all work out. we watched the restoration dvd with her and she loved it. She told us that every time we go over she just feels good and happy. we told her it's not us, it's the spirit!! 

4. went to temple tours. My new favorite part of the month! This month we brought Sister Calderon and her cute daughter Nancy to the temple. Sister Calderon is working to get to the temple so we wanted to take her to the tour. We drove down with the two of them and as soon as we pulled into the parking lots she says, "Welcome to Heaven." AMEN SISTER. I love the temple. Even just being on the grounds, I feel the spirit so strongly.

5. went to temple tours AGAIN: We also took the Carrillos later that day. They are hoping to get sealed in the temple by the end of this year. I CAN'T WAIT. They let us take the people we brought into the front foyer of the entrance of the temple just so they can peek inside. It was so awesome. We were standing in there with the Carrillos and this family walked in with some other Elders and the husband looked over at his wife and said, "Do you feel that? It feels different. It feels good." It was so great to watch them experience the spirit you feel in the temple. once again, I LOVE THE TEMPLE.

and...

I LOVE YOU ALL.

have a fabulous week.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

p.s. here is the link to our rap from the talent show. ENJOY:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py34typIqm0 

Exchanges with the St. Peters Sisters, Sister Mainord and Kikkert

With Sister Calderon and her daughter Nancy

The Carrillos!

We are such posers, I love Sister Arch!

Week 52

Hey family!!

It was another great week here in the MSLM. 

Sister Arch and I were finally able to have a lesson with Allison this week. Our mission has been focusing on inviting to baptism and setting dates so we were hoping to set a baptismal date with Allison. During the lesson her kids kept walking in and distracting us and then we tried to watch a DVD with her and we had so many technical difficulties and we were about to give up on inviting her to be baptized. But at the end of the lesson the spirit came in and we extended the baptismal invitation and set a date for July 30th! GO ALLISON. it's amazing what happens when we invite people.

We had our zone conference this week. I wish that everyone could go to a zone conference because they are the best meetings ever! The spirit is always so strong and you learn so much. Sister Arch and I gave a training on preparation. We shared the story of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 and how we never know at what moment we will need to be prepared so we should be prepared ALWAYS. Sister Morgan talked to us about trials and how we shouldn't pray for our lives to be easier but we should pray for the strength to handle the trials we have been given. I love this. This was our last zone conference with the Morgans so there were a few tears shed but Sister Morgan reminded us, "The best is yet to come." We have the rest of our missions and lives ahead of us and should be looking forward to it. I can't wait to see what's in store these next six months!

Also since it was the Morgan's last zone conference, Sister Morgan talked President into letting us do a talent show. YEAAAHHHH. Everyone knows how much I love talent shows;) hahah so we have been prepping for this for a few weeks and my district AKA the squad, as we like to call ourselves, decided to make a rap. So Elders Lindsay and Handley made a sick beat and wrote a rap and we performed it. The office Sisters, Sister Kroupa and Gore loved it so much that they came down to O'fallon and made us re record it so they can post it on youtube. hahahahah. when they send the link I will send it in my email. Don't worry... I'll remember you all when I'm famous;) 

We have miracles happen every single day as we are doing the Lord's work, but here is my favorite miracle of the week. We were looking at the ward list picking names that we should go and visit and people we hadn't met yet. And we picked one name, Michelle Griffin. We knew nothing about her so we didn't know what to expect when we knocked on her door. She answered it and was super friendly and nice and then told us she had joined the church in Vegas but she hasn't gone to church since she moved out here 3 years ago. She told us that she was just talking with her daughter the day before about going back to church and then we showed up. GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. and His timing is always PERFECT. She told us we could come back when they get home from vacation in a few weeks and her boyfriend and kids are willing to listen to the lessons too. YAY!

On Saturday we had an opportunity to "save the world" as Sister Arch described it:) There was a project set up by an organization, Kids Against Hunger. We got the opportunity to go and help pack bags of food to sent to children in Haiti. It was so awesome. There were lots of people there from the community of all different faiths. I love seeing how people can come together despite their differences and help those who really need it. 

We had Stake conference this weekend and it was all focused on the temple. It went perfectly with our MLC last week and our focus on eternal life. The Stake's theme this year is "All Things Temple." The Stake President said that if the stake focuses their efforts on the temple everything else will fall into place. It's so true!!! There was a young woman probably 13 years old who gave a talk and told everyone how her and her family had found 1000 names to take to the temple but they needed the help to do the work. I was amazed and so inspired by this young girl!! THE YOUTH OF THE CHURCH ARE AMAZING. way better than what I was when I was that age. We have youth in our ward who are family history workers and love indexing names. It's wonderful. Plus we got to see President and Sister Morgan again. <3

I hope everyone is enjoying summer!! I'm starting to get a nice watch tan line.

XOXO
Sister Turpin 

President and Sister Morgan - love them!

Helping Haiti kids against hunger

Sister Kroupa and Sister Gore - they work in the mission office.

The Squad #mormonrap

Sharing Idaho Spuds with all my Missouri Friends! Thanks mom 

Sister Bishop, Sister Williams - I love my MTC girls!