Week 41

Happy first week of Spring!! Hopefully everyone is enjoying their spring break. Unless you go to BYU or you are a missionary, because neither of us get a spring break!

It was a busy week for us here in O'Fallon. We had exchanges on Tuesday with the Union sisters. I went to Union with Sister Gordon and she is just the cutest!! It's always fun to be in a new area for a day and get to work with a new companion so you can learn from each other. At the end of the exchange we do a group comp inventory with the sisters and talk about what we learned from each other and things we can improve on and the different goals we have. Sister Drake was so cute she said, "It's so hard to tell the STLs what to improve on because you both are perfect in our eyes. You are the kind of missionaries that we want to be." It was really sweet. I am FAR from perfect!! But it helped remind me how much the sisters look up to us, because I thought the same thing about my STLs. It was a good reminder to always be an example because you never know who is looking up to you. 

We had exchanges again on Thursday with the Lake Saint Louis sisters. Sister Roundy came to O'Fallon with me! We got to go and visit a recent convert family, the Carrillos. The wife has had some health problems lately so we brought our ward mission leader with us to give her a blessing. The spirit was really strong! Plus best part is that their 11 year old granddaughter Piper was there. Piper has met with missionaries before in the past but got busy with other things. She said that she wanted to start meeting with the missionaries again. She is the sweetest, and she came to church yesterday. WOO!! We are excited to start teaching her.

Finding is always a constant struggle for missionaries. We are ALWAYS finding people to teach. I have a love/hate relationship with finding because sometimes you have success and sometimes you don't. But I love all the people that we get to meet as we try to find. We were knocking some doors Saturday morning and knocked into a guy, Sebastian. He told us that a month ago he probably would have turned us away but that he just recently started to believe in God and Jesus Christ again. We shared the new easter video with him on his doorstep and it was so neat. He thanked us for coming by and said we could stop by again. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching him! It was a testimony to me of God's timing. He knows when each of His children are ready to hear the gospel and he will lead us where we need to be at the right time. 

We have some recent converts, Marcos (11) and Emilia (13) , that we have been trying to have family home evening with every week. We have been working to help Emilia with her personal progress since she is in young woman's now. So for one of the goals she had to prepare her own FHE lesson. It was so cute!! She taught us about fasting and showed us a video probably from like the 1970s hahahah she was like I know this video is cheesy but it was a good message. I love getting to watch young people's testimonies grow! 

 K funny story for you all... So last Monday we had sisters Pday at the mission home. I LOVE THE MISSION HOME. Anyways, we decided to make crepes and it was a good time. So all the sisters were in the kitchen making crepes and listening to EFY music and if you know me very well at all, you know that I love to dance/perform for people. So of course I start dancing in the kitchen and putting on a show and I hear sister fisher say "keep going sister turpin!" so I turn around to look at her and President Morgan is standing right here. OH MY GOODNESS. He just said, "Hello there Sister Turpin, those are some awesome dance moves, why did you stop?" HAHAHAHAHA. I was so embarrassed. good stuff. Hopefully I could brighten somebody's day with that story:) 

I love this Easter season! And I am so grateful for the Easter video the church has come out with that we are able to share with everyone. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET, GO WATCH IT NOW:) #hallelujah I am so blessed to have a knowledge of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and because He lives, I can find new life. I love my Savior. I love this gospel. I love being a missionary. 

Happy Easter Everyone:)
XOXO 

Sister Turpin 

With the Union sisters! 
Sister Gordon, Drake, Fisher, me

Making crepes in the kitchen at the mission home. wooo! 

I love all these Sisters, and President Morgan!

Happy St. Patricks Day from Missouri!

FHE with Marcos and Emilia

Week 40

HAPPY DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!! aka.. the worst day of the year because we lose an hour of sleep... Other than losing sleep, we had an awesome week here in O'Fallon!

Since there aren't as many sister missionaries in a zone as there are elders, Sister Fisher and I cover two zones. So we were able to go to a second zone conference this last week. Zone conference round 2 was even better than round 1! We just have really awesome missionaries here in MSLM. We had some Elders tell us that our training was exactly what they needed to hear. It's cool what happens when you teach by the spirit!! The testimony meeting at the end was my favorite, like always. Almost every single missionary said that this was their favorite zone conference they had been to. Plus another cool thing: So we have new senior couple missionaries and they are from Pocatello, ID. I went to talk to them at zone conference and turns out that Sister Axford was my 9th grade english teacher. Small world right? 

So I got a surprise visit on Saturday from who else but... AUDRE!!! No matter where I go she just always seems to pop up;) hahah just playing  Audre, you da best!! She texted Sister Fisher and I and said she was near O'Fallon and wanted to come teach with us for the day. so we met up and had dinner and taught a few lessons, it was so fun! reminds me of the glory days in Potosi:) PLUS.. Sister Hill got to call Saturday when we were with Audre!!! WOOO! it was like a mini-reunion. But Stephen, who I was teaching in Danville got baptized on Saturday so Sister Peel & Hill got permission to call me to tell me about it. Those are always the best phone calls!!!

We set a baptismal date with our investigators Patrick & Priscila. They are really sweet. Patrick loves the BOM and knows it is true, but he struggles with a few addictions. We are working with him to overcome it. We talked about baptism with them and wanted to pick a date to set a goal. Patrick said he wanted to get baptized on his birthday. He is really motivated and wants to make changes in his life. Priscila helps to motivate him too. When we set the date with them Priscila goes, "well I guess we're mormon now" hahahahah. 

Sunday we had a special meeting with 4 of the wards in the stake. They took parts of each ward to create a new ward, the Wentzville ward. It was really awesome!! The stake president told us that we were apart of a historic event. Sister Fisher and I were joking about it a little bit... but when you really think about it, it's an amazing event that just happened. It proves to me that this is truly the work of the Lord because it keeps moving forward and membership in the church keeps growing. Yay for forming new wards!!!

I love you all and hope you enjoy St. Patricks day this week. don't forget to wear green;)

XOXO 

Sister Turpin 

What we look like after a great zone conference!

Companions at the MTC, Sister Bishop

Getting ready for St. Patricks Day!

Audre came to visit, love that girl!

Week 39

Hi Family!!

The weeks always seem to fly by! Last week I hit my 9 month mark. SAY WUT?! It's hard to believe that my mission is already half way over and I'm on the downward slide.  I feel like the longer I've been out the more the days/weeks seem to blend together. I can never remember what happens!!

Let's see.... We had zone conference this last week. WOOO! Every single missionary meeting we have is my favorite. I just love them! I'm used to going to zone conference and getting trainings from the zone leaders and STLs but it was different this time because Sister Fisher and I gave one of the trainings. We talked about repentance and some of the other things from MLC last week. It was pretty good! President and Sister Morgan gave us more trainings too. Sister Morgan showed us the new Easter video that the church is putting out. It's so good!!! It comes out this Sunday so you all should watch it:) It's called #Hallelujah. Watch it and then share it with a friend! My favorite part about any meeting we have is that at the end the missionaries always have the opportunity to bear their testimonies. The spirit was so strong during the testimony meeting! I love every chance I get to be surrounded by such great people who help me build my faith in Christ. Plus it's always fun to see all my friends from around the mission! 

So we haven't had as many people to teach lately. We have been doing a lot of finding and contacting and working with less actives. At zone conference they really pushed talking with everyone we see and remembering that we are FULL-TIME missionaries, not part time! Sister Fisher and I have really been trying to open our mouths and share the gospel with everyone we come in contact with. We have met alot of great people doing this and hopefully we will be able to find more people to teach! 

Last Sunday we had dinner with some members, the Collins family. We challenged them to pray everyday for a week to have a missionary experience, duh because we are missionaries and that's what we do. Anyways we checked up on them throughout the week to make sure they didn't forget and then on Sunday we followed up and Sister Collins told us that she and her husband both had missionary experiences that week. She even bore her testimony about it in sacrament meeting. AWESOME!!! As missionaries we promise people blessings quite often. We promised the Collins family that they would have missionary opportunities as they prayed for them and sought them out. It's so cool to see that those promised blessings are real when people put forth the effort! 

So I challenge you all to pray for a missionary opportunity everyday for a week and then actively be looking for that chance to share the gospel. I can promise you that as you do this Heavenly Father will put people in your path who are waiting and ready to hear the gospel!

I love you all and hope you have an awesome week:)
XOXO 

Sister Turpin

I hit my 9 month mark so I went out for a cupcake! Yea me!

I finally got to meet Elder and Sister Taylor from Blackfoot! They are so sweet!

Enjoying Smoothie King!

Our matching St. Louis shirts! 

Week 38

Hey there family!!

So last Tuesday I left Danville and made the long journey all the way back to St. Louis. I was excited when we got to the stake center because the first people I saw were the Moore's!!!! For those of you who don't remember, Sister Hill and I taught Dennis who is Sister Moore's husband and he got baptized not too long after I left Potosi. Well I haven't seen them since I left but they brought Sister Hill to transfer meeting so we were all reunited again! It was a happy occasion. I love when I get to see people from the mission because they truly do become like family to me.

Anyways, I made it to O'Fallon, Missouri, which is like 30 minutes from St. Louis. It's weird being so close to the mission home and near the city. I've been on the outskirts of the mission for most of my time serving. The ward here is pretty big too. I'm not used to it, but it reminds me of wards back home. Sister Fisher is my new companion, she's from Canada. This is her last transfer so that's kind of depressing. She is really great though and we are excited to work hard this transfer!

I kind of feel like a brand new missionary again being in a new area. I feel like this last week I'm finally learning how to be a missionary. Everyone always says you never "figure it out" until you go home and I am starting to learn that first hand. I've been a missionary for 9 months now, but I feel like now I am finally starting to really "figure it out." I guess it's a good thing I am realizing this now when I still have half of my mission left instead of when a only have a few weeks left!

So missionaries have a lot of different meetings and one of those meetings is MLC, missionary leadership council. Well since I am now an STL (sister training leader), I get the opportunity to go to MLC. It was so great!! All of the leaders in the mission meet with President and Sister Morgan and we get trainings on how to be better missionaries and help the missionaries we are over. The theme of this MLC was repentance. Sister Fisher and I have been studying repentance all week and I feel like I'm learning so much about how we repent. Repentance is so much more than just saying sorry and  asking for forgiveness. It is changing our nature and behaviors to be in line with the Savior. We also can't just stop the things we are doing, we have to replace our bad habits with good things. At MLC we talked about how we need to repent as missionaries and then we need to not only teach our investigators about repentance, but teach them HOW to repent. Repentance is key in conversion because that is how we truly change. That's why repentance comes BEFORE baptism. There has been a huge focus on teaching repentance and baptizing converts and that's because as we teach people to truly repent they will become converted before they are baptized. The spirit was super strong the whole time during the meeting. I love getting the opportunity to work with such great missionaries and leaders!

Another highlight of the week... WE GOT A NEW CAR!!! haha we were so excited. After MLC Elder Curtis, the vehicle coordinator, gave us a brand new 2016 Nissan Rogue. It had 40 miles on it when we started driving in it. WUTTTT. so crazy!! good thing i will never drive a brand new car like that ever again. Thank goodness for my mission right?;)

XOXO

Sister Turpin

Our new car, we area little excited!!

Gabe, aka my BFF, the elder's recent convert, and his wonderful kids, moo moo, tee tee, and butter cookie, yep those are their real names! lol those are their nick names.

The Moores, Happy Family!

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!