Week 71

HEY FAMILY.

okay this week has been a week of miracles.

here are some things I've learned, and some miracles that have happened.

First of all, President Bateman is so inspired! We had our interviews with him this week and they were great. He taught us about setting goals. Basically, I have been setting goals wrong just about my WHOLE mission. ugh. at least I'm learning now though right. we talked about even though we don't know how we are gonna achieve our goals or who is gonna help us achieve them, the Lord does. This is where FAITH comes into play in setting goals. Now that we know that faith is needed to set goals, here is a miracle from this week.

We had our president interviews/ZLT meetings all day Tuesday. In between one of the meetings Sister Kikkert and I went to grab some lunch, we came back and the Zone Leaders and President and Sister Bateman were talking with a lady. Sister Bateman asked if we could come with her to get some baby formula and diapers for this lady, Jamie, and her baby. We of course agreed to come with her and while we were driving in the car, Sister Bateman told us that Jamie had walked into the church on a Tuesday afternoon, when the church is usually closed, and found the ONLY room in the church where President Bateman and the zone leaders were and knocked on it. She needed help and had gotten a card from a missionary a few months ago with the address to the church on it. The elders taught her a lesson with President Bateman there and set up a time to meet later that week. NOW FOR THE COOL PART: So the ZLs knew that they would only have about an hour of proselyting time that day because they had meetings just about all day long. But they felt inspired to set a goal of one member present lesson and a new investigator. They had NO IDEA how they were going to achieve that goal, but Heavenly Father did. He led Jamie to the church so they could teach her. President Bateman just happened to be the member present. MIRACLES HAPPEN WHEN WE ACT IN FAITH. 

Okay sorry I'm a little excited about setting goals, but the spirit has truly taught me a lot this week about goals and faith. This is truly a faith-based work. 

Miracle number 2 of the week: We started teaching Florence last week and this week when we were teaching her we asked her 3 granddaughters if they wanted to join in on the lessons. They all said YES!! After the lesson we extended a baptismal date to all 4 of them and they all accepted! They are the cutest family, we love them and are excited to keep teaching them all and help them progress towards baptism.

Other highlights of the week: 

EXCHANGES! We had exchanges with the Danville, and Rantoul sisters this week. exchanges are always my fav, and they are just the cutest sisters! 

We passed our apartment inspections, and Sister Curtis gave us yummy banana bread!

Wedding Round 2! Another couple that the elders are teaching got married. I guess it's wedding season.

Okay so missionaries have missionary planners, but they are really boring so we decorate them and make them look cute and we call it planner art. well Sister Bateman had a really boring missionary palnner so Sister Kikkert and I did planner art for her and she's been showing it off to everyone all week. too funny :)

Hope you all have a fabulous week.

Don't forget that someone in Illinois loves you... AKA, ME! 

XOXO

Sister Turpin

I love to see my old companions, Sister Arch!

We love Dairy Queen and I love these missionaries!

The Messervy's are our pool shooting partners for pdays:)

Exchanges with Rantoul Sisters.

HAPPY MARRIAGE, TED AND TRISTY

Week 70

HAPPY COLUMBUS DAY FAMILY.

holidays are so irrelevant to missionaries because we never get a day off. and I am grateful for that. no time to rest when you're doin' the Lord's work! 

1. 4 MINUTE RESTORATION: okay, this is so legit. President Bateman challenged all of us missionaries to teach the message of the restoration in 4 minutes. Yes, it sounds crazy. But it is possible, and SO SPIRITUAL. The Spirit is there the whole time testifying because we are teaching restored truths the whole time. We've been using it like crazy and it's been cool to see the miracles from it. We were able to pick up 5 new investigators this week from using it. We also have been teaching it to members. one of our members after we did it said "Can I record you doing that to send to my kids?" how cute? i love the 4 minute resto!

2. EXCHANGES: this week we had exchanges with the Taylorville sisters and I got to spend the day with Sister Rindlisbacher. She is only in her 2nd transfer of her mission and is so cute. She's still pretty nervous about being a missionary, mainly talking to and teaching people the gospel. But I was able to see her grow so much in the short day we were together. The enabling power of the atonement is real! it helps us to be able to overcome any fear or challenge we may have. 

3. MY ZLs ARE MY DLs: we had a change in our district and now our zone leaders are also our district leaders. kinda weird, but fun also! district meeting has always been one of my favorite meetings. this week we talked about how we need to help the people we are teaching to understand the importance of the gift of the holy ghost. I have gained such an appreciation for the spirit. The gift of the holy ghost is truly the best gift we could ever have. 

4. FLORENCE: one of the new investigators we taught this week was Florence. She is the sweetest lady, we love her! She felt the spirit as we shared the message of the restoration with her and accepted a baptismal invitation. She asked us if we could come and see her every other day because she really needs to get back into going to church. #NotMad.

5. MLC: my favorite, favorite meeting ever. We talked about the doctrine of repentance and baptism. the first lesson we teach is the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. sometimes we leave out the gospel of Jesus Christ part, and only talk about the restoration. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is so central to our purpose as missionaries, we need to always be teaching it to others. We talked a lot about repentance also. I am so grateful for the ability to repent. I feel like my mission has truly taught me what it means to repent. Repentance brings us true joy.

I hope you all have a fabulous week.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

XOXO

Sister Turpin

On exchanges with the one and only, sister Rindlisbacher!

Matching Springfield shirts!

Week 69

HEYYYY FAMILY.

How was conference weekend? didn't you just love it? I DID!

Besides conference, here are some other highlights.

1. FAMILY REUNION: so since i'm away from my family, the people on my mission are my family. legit, I love all the missionaries in this mission, they are like my own brothers and sisters. this week with transfers, I got a new companion: SISTER KIKKERT. WOO.  She was trained by my MTC comp Sister Bishop and I was her STL when I was in O'fallon. Plus the new elder in our ward is Elder Lindsay, who was in my last district when I was in O'fallon. Also, Sister Arch is in one of our zones too. ahhh, it's so great to be reuinted with all of my mission fam! 

2. MINI MISSIONARY: Allaric is such a great example of being a missionary, and since he's only 10 I'll refer to him as a mini missionary :) we taught him this last week and his neighbor friends usually come and sit in on the lessons. We were talking about prophets and one of his friends asked what a prophet was. Allaric answered, "A prophet is someone who speaks to God and tells us the commandments." It was awesome because we didn't even have to answer her question, he did it for us. GO ALLARIC!

3. BLAST FROM THE PAST: rewind to a year ago when I was serving in Potosi, Missouri. Sister Hill and I taught Dennis Moore all of the lessons in a period of 11 days and he was baptized 3 weeks later right after I left the area. Dennis is so awesome, and a great example of people being prepared to accept the gospel. well, THE MOORES CAME AND VISITED ME THIS WEEK. It was so great to see the two of them. Plus they brought me my favorite frozen custard from LIX. hahahah Sister Hill and I were super addicted to it. shout out to the Moore's! 

4. SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND: we have an investigator that we've been working with for a while that hasn't had much progress. she's been reading the BOM but told us she hasn't found any peace in it. we asked her what she was searching for while reading the BOM and she told us that she was looking for contradictions to the bible. we told her that she won't find peace in the BOM if she isn't looking for it. she agreed this week to look for peace in the BOM. we promised her that she would find it as she was seeking. If you seek to find fault and contradictions in the BOM it will be pretty hard to find peace, but if you are searching for peace and happiness, I promise you can find it. 

5. #LDSCONF: general conference, my favorite time of the year. It's basically like christmas for missionaries. Sister Kikkert and I have been inviting people to write down a question in preparation for conference so we both decided to do the same thing. I wrote my question down and within the first few talks of the saturday morning session my question was answered. I testify that God answers any question we may have. how blessed are we to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today that give us so much hope and guidance. 

Happy October. I hope you are all enjoying this sweater weather.

Sweater weather is better weather. am i right??

LOVE YOU ALL.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

HELLO MOORES.

I love these people so much.

Hanging out with my good old friend, Abe.

We just found out yesterday that Elder Johnson is going home.. super sad. 

Elder Dial is our district leader and he will be leaving also to be with another companionship near St. Louis.

it's like losing the two brothers I never had. 

My new comp: SISTER KIKKERT :)

Posing with our good friend, Abe Lincoln

Week 68

HEY FAM.

the transfer is officially over. can you believe it?

Here's our transfer doctrine: Sister Day is leaving Springfield to go follow up train her grandbaby in Webster groves. she's pumped, but we will definitely miss each other! and I will be staying here in Springfield and getting Sister Kikkert as my companion. Sister Kikkert was one of the sister I was an STL over when I was in O'fallon so it will be fun to be companions. I'm excited! 

Transfer calls are always the most exciting part of the week, but here are the other things that happened.....

1. THE PRIESTHOOD IS REAL: Sister Day got sick and asked the Elders for a blessing, of course they willingly gave her one. During her blessing Elder Thorsen said "Heavenly Father has blessed you with a loving companion who has your back. Make sure to talk openly to her and she can help you." Even though the blessing was to help Sister Day I felt like God was telling me that we are assigned our companions for a reason. I love all my companions and know that they are inspired. Plus the power of the priesthood is real because Sister Day was able to make it through the day and get feeling better. 

2. TIME FOR THE TEMPLE: We have so many less actives coming back to church and it is SO WONDERFUL. We've been working with Sharon Bailey and this last week she told us "I think it's time for me to get back to the temple." We were like YUSSSS SHARON. The temple is always the goal.

3. CHURCH TOUR: the missionaries decided to have a church tour/movie night this last week. but first of all, I wanna give a shout out to Walter Rhoades, THE BEST WARD MISSION LEADER EVER. he's so great and helps support us missionaries so much. We had an open house of the church with the different auxiliaries explaining what they do and how the church works. afterwards we got to watch the movie 17 miracles. everyone loved it and it was a great night! 

4. THE POWER OF AN INVITATION: I have learned how powerful a simple invitation can be. We've been working with our investigator Tiffany and asked her who she knew that we could share this message with and she invited her friend Aundie to come listen to the lessons too. We are teaching both of them now and they were both at church on Sunday! YAYAY. They are the cutest girls. I love the youth. 

5. PREACH MY G: we have a preach my gospel fireside monthly with our ward and it is so bomb. the ward members have so much fire to share the gospel, they just don't know how so that's what we're here to help with. it was cool because during our discussion one of the members raised her hand and said "I've been married to a nonmember for 30 years and nobody has ever tried to fellowship him or introduce him to the gospel." OKAY WHAT. I think we all as a ward realized that there is much work to do even within our own members. also, my best advice to all of you members is to STUDY PREACH MY GOSPEL. i love that book! 

6. BYE BYE BLIZZARD: ok this is the funniest thing of my life. none of you will probably think it's that funny tho.... so it's been a joke with the missionaries how they hand you blizzards at DQ upside down. I just learned this my first transfer in Springfield. anyways.. Sister Day and I wanted to take a picture holding our blizzards upside down to remember the joke. as Elder Haymore was about to take the picture hers fell out all over her lap and the floor. we were crying we were laughing so hard. MORAL OF THE STORY: never hold your blizzard upside down, leave that to the DQ workers.

that's all.

I LOVE YOU.

but seriously. I love you guys.

 

 

xoxo Sister Turpin

Elder Robinson goes home today.

BYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEE.

we share a ward with him and Elder Haymore. 

our blizzard fail...

what a mess.

WE LOVE THE TAYLORVILLE SISTERS

We spent the day with the Mahomet sisters.. 

I love these sisters so much!

especially sister Hudson ;) 

Our favorite ZLs, Elder Noyes and Thorsen.

Weel 67

HEY FAMILY.

this week we great, just like every other. hahaha but seriously......every week is great as a missionary.

here is what happened..

1. MISSION POSTERITY: we had our last exchange of the transfer with the Danville sisters! woooo! Sister Howard and Sister Lyons are awesome. plus Sister Howard is my grandbaby. Sister Hill trained her and let me just brag for a second.... I HAVE THE BEST MISSION FAMILY EVER. Like legit. exchanges were great and super fun like always! at the end of the day the Danville sisters called their investigator Abrion, who Sister Henrie and I found and taught when we were in Danville. I got to talk to her for 5 minutes and it was so great, she told me she is still planning to get baptized later this year. it's always so great to hear how people progress after you leave the area.

2. PRINCESS TIANA: Sister Day and I got a phone call from an 801 area code this week and she goes.. "wait, this is a Utah area code..." but of course we answered it and this is what we heard. "HI, my name is Diana and I'm a member from Utah. I'm here in Springfield touring with Disney on ice, I have the day off tomorrow and was wondering if I could come out with you guys and teach." Sister Day and I were shocked. LIKE WHO DOES THAT??? but of course we were pumped and told her we would pick her up the next day and she could do missionary work with us. she was so cute and just got her mission call to serve in LA, California. also, she played princess Tiana for Disney

on ice so basically we got to hang out with a Disney princess all day. #WINNING

3. MISSION CONFERENCE: we had our mission conference this week with Elder Wilford W. Andersen of the 70 and his wife. it's always a special opportunity to shake hands with a general authority and learn from them. we got to have a special MLC afterwards for a couple hours. the last 30 minutes of our MLC Elder Andersen invited each of us to share a 60 second or less testimony of the things that we know are true. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had. a testimony doesn't have to be long to be powerful. 

4. TIFFANY: alright, Tiffany is so legit! we found her a couple weeks ago at a less active's house. she lives a few doors down and was at his house when we went to visit him. we asked her if we could teach her and she said yes. we taught her the restoration this last week and the spirit was so strong. the first time we invited her to be baptized she said she had already been baptized, but after we taught her the restoration and explained the priesthood we re invited her when the spirit was there and she said yes and that she will pray about a date. WOOOO. plus, she totally came to church on sunday! She's 14 years old so we got to hang out in the youth Sunday school class with her. it was great!

5. RAINEE AND LONNIE GOT BAPTIZED: since we share a ward with elders, sometimes it feels like we share investigators. hahaha. but the couple the elders were teaching that got married the week before, got baptized and confirmed this last week. It was so great to see them make that covenant with their Heavenly Father. I love seeing how the gospel can change people. 

It's week 6 of the transfer.... I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. We have lots of good things happening this week. We find out on Saturday if we stay or leave. The anticipation is killing me....

well I truly love all of you. hope you have a great week! 

XOXO Sister Turpin

OMG. SO ONE OF OUR MEMBERS GAVE US A QUESADILLA MAKER. I was so excited. I love quesadillas! 

Sister Howard and I on exchanges with "Princess Tiana" :)  Cornfields of Illinois

HAPPY BAPTISM FOR RAINEE AND LONNIE.

Ilove these people.

Week 66

LISTEN UP PEOPLE. ONE OF MY LIFELONG DREAMS WAS FULFILLED THIS WEEK.

read below to find out what....

It's so hard to decide what to put in my weekly emails each week. I feel like I write a lot, but just so you are all aware I probably only tell about 25% of the things that happened.

1. EXCHANGES: okay yeah, we have exchanges every week so it doesn't seem like it's that exciting. but I really just love them! I got to be with Sister Rindlisbacher for the day. She has only been out for about a month now. It made me reminisce on my greenie days as a missionary. I wish I could go back!!

2. "THE SISTERS ARE HERE": I would be lying if I said that I didn't have favorite investigators as a missionary. Right now our favorite person to teach is Allaric, mostly because he loves us and is super eager to learn. We were pulling up to Lorrie's house for our lesson and all the boys were outside. Allaric was riding his bike and saw our car and yelled down to his brothers, "THE SISTERS ARE HERE, THE SISTERS ARE HERE!" It was the cutest thing ever. Sister Day and I felt very welcomed and loved. He is doing great and on track for baptism next week!

3. BIRTHDAY WEEK: I swear, everyone has a birthday in September. By the way.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK BRANDIE BOO:) Anyways, when we teach Allaric at Lorrie's house, some of the other neighbor kids like to join our lessons. One of the girls, Britney, had a birthday party on Saturday and invited us to it. We decided to drop by and give her a gift of a Book of Mormon and picture of Jesus with some candy. She opened it up and her little sister was pumped about all the candy, but Britney said, "Thank you, I love it! And the best part was that you gave me a Bible." Basically my heart broke in half because how tender hearted this little girl is and how excited she was to get a Book of Mormon. I have definitely learned why we are commanded to be like little children.

4. WEDDING PLANNERS: here's the moment you've all been waiting for. My lifelong dream of planning a wedding was accomplished on my mission. the Elders have been teaching this couple who needed to get married before they got baptized #TheStruggle. Since they are boys and don't know how to plan a wedding, Sister Day and I somehow got put in charge. Let's just say that I never wanna plan a wedding, ever again! It's so much work! But it all turned out and Rainee and Lonnee were so happy and cute and they are getting baptized this week! YAY FOR MARRIAGE!

I LOVE YOU ALL.

have a great week.

XOXO

Sister Turpin

Sister Day is a UTES fan... but I have forgiven her.

we had to rep BYU and Utah for the big game last Saturday.

even though BYU lost... I'm still loyal to my cougs!

The cutest boys ever.

Allaric, Alldric, and Aric --- try saying that 3 times fast!

WE LOVE WEDDINGS.

Week 65

HAPPY SEPTEMBER.

we've had some nice fall weather here that past few days and it's been FABULOUS.

here are some other fabulous things that have happened this week...

1. PDAY WITH THE PRESIDENT: okay, President Bateman is so cool. he and Sister Bateman scheduled a pday to come and hang out with the missionaries! last Monday they came to champaign zone and we all got to go and hang out and play fun games outside and eat some yummy food. we were a bunch of happy missionaries! 

2. EXCHANGES: after our pday with President and Sister Bateman we had exchanges with the Mahomet sisters. we have the best sisters in our zones! I just love all of them so much. Sister Nelson and I met a new recent convert who just moved from  North Carolina. He said he found out about the church through playing clash of the clans.. who knew?? Using social media to share the gospel works! 

3. THE GIFT OF TONGUES: we were finally able to meet with the deaf investigators that were referred to us a couple weeks back. there is a lady in the other ward that interprets for people, but she was unable to come, so Sister Day did her best to brush up on her ASL from high school and I prayed. haha. it was cool to see how the spirit was able to help us teach Water and Sarah, even if it was very simply and we could not communicate very well with each other. the gift of tongues is real! 

4. MLC: it was weird to have MLC in the middle of a transfer since we usually have it the first week of the transfer. when we first started President Bateman told us all to not worry about how we would train our missionaries on the things we would be talking about. he told us to just sit and listen and let the spirit uplift and edify us. it was a nice refreshing break from the busy week we had! President Bateman talked alot about faith and how the course of the Lord is one eternal round. we have to continual be obedient to the commandments in order to make our faith grow and in return the Lord will bless us with the spirit. cool stuff! we always have a testimony at the end of MLC and one of the office elders stood up and said "I'm not sure if I'm allowed to bear my testimony, but I just wanted to say what a great blessing it is to be around all the leaders. I know you are all inspired because of the spirit you carry." AMEN. I love the leaders in this mission and am so grateful to get to work side by side with such great missionaries. 

5. TESTIMONY MEETING: church on Sunday was so great! I LOVE TESTIMONY MEETING. my two favorite testimonies... 1. Doug: he is a returning less active that we meet with every now and then. he's been having a lot of problems lately and every time he asks us a question we answer it using the BOM. he stood up and bore his testimony of how the BOM can solve any problem we have. that's right Doug! "Feast upon the words of Christ" 2. Brother Minor: he shared his experience of how he is working to quit smoking. he told everyone that he knows God is a God of miracles because he hasn't smoked for 6 weeks now and has been off the nicotine patch for 2 days and doesn't even have a desire to smoke. Sister Day and I wanted to cry we were so happy! 

I love Springfield, and being a missionary, and my companion.

this is the best work anyone could ever be apart of.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK.

XOXO

Sister Turpin 

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO THE ONE AND ONLY PAPA TURP. how old are you now? ;) 

Selfie @ president's pday. 

shout out to my parents for giving me a selfie stick. i use that thing so much!!

Sister Hudson and Sister Nelson.

we have too much fun with exchanges!

ALLARIC CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN :) WOOOOO.

Some of my favorite missionaries at MLC