September 29, 2014

Well, if the GI Joes last week weren't enough, this week we had a flood!  Hahaha, oh the adventures of Sister Turner and Sister Means continue!  Tuesday morning during personal study we hear a weird sound in the hallway.  We walk over and see that the water heater broke and water is going everywhere. I grabbed buckets and our one towel and Sister Means ran up the stairs to grab the member who lives above us.  They weren't there so she calls our Branch President who is in charge of our apartment.  His workshop is attached to our building.  The phone call went something like this ''uHHhhh Präsident Seidl, lots of water, LOTS of water in our apartment. HeLp''.  After a few days we again had water and then later warm water.  We are happy and clean :) and even more grateful for the blessing of warm running water.

I also need to be careful what I wish for.  This weekend we went on tausch (exchanges).  I went up to Chemnitz to work with Sister Chevalier.  Sister Means stayed here with Sister Helzer.  While in Chemnitz we had the opportunity to run for many buses and trains.  One saying we have is that if you did not work out in the morning or did not have a good enough work out; the Lord will make sure you get it in during the day.

On Thursday we had a conference call for just the sisters in our mission.  We found out that next transfer (in 4 weeks) both Sister Means and I will be training, (Father of the Bride 2 moment) as well as the rest of the Sisters, with the exception of Sister Training Leaders.  I am very surprisingly calm about this.  This means that I will most likely be in a different are for my last 5 weeks...not my favorite idea, aber ich gehe wohin du mich heißt o Herr.  I'll go where you want me to go.  In four weeks we will actually find out where we will be training.  Präsident Kosak thought it would be good to give us a little heads up before the big change hits.  Crazy!

We have also had our hearts broken this week when 2 investigators decided to stop meeting with us.  But we are continually blessed to be at the right place at the right time.  We found a new investigator from a contact list.  His last name was not on the klingel, and we would have had no idea which one was him, except he just happened to be walking out the main door and asked who we were looking for. We have a joint teach set up for this week!

Ahh, running out of time.  I wish I could share more.  I love you all!!!

Also I am so excited for General Conference!!!!!!!!!  Plan, prepare and listen to the Spirit!

Have a fantastic week!!!

-Sister Turner

September 22, 2014

Dearest Family,

Haha, it has been a great week.  Our car was in the workshop most of the week so Sister Means and I had fun walking and biking.  And I taught her how to work the trains and buses.  I think this might be the only sisters area where we use all forms of transportation.

On Tuesday we took the train down to Johanngeorgenstadt to meet with an investigator.  This area is the southern most part of our area.  If you take the train one more stop you are in the Czech.  So while we are waiting for our bus we are working on some scripture memorization and we look up to see two people flash their ID’s at us and ask to see our passports.  We are told not to carry our actual passports on us, but we give them the copies and other paperwork.  They were hesitant, but said ok and left without stopping anyone else.  Less than 5 min later, two men who look like they just stepped out of a GIJoe movie walk right over to us.  They showed us their ID’s and wanted to see ours.  We followed the same procedure; I hadn't even put the papers back in my bag.  They were not ok that we didn't have passports on us.  I explained everything.  They took our papers and made some phone calls and said we could go.  Crazy, huh?  We're fine and we made it to appointment on time.  It was a fun little start to our week.

The next day we take the train the other direction to visit a less active member.  Afterward we had to run to catch our bus for our next appointment.  I kind of miss running for buses, it reminds me of Hamburg and Berlin.  Well, it ended up being the wrong bus that dumped us in the middle of nowhere; we were seeing more cows and sheep than people.  The GPS said that we would be just 20 min late, so we call our investigators to let them know and we start walking.  GPS recalculates and we will actually be 90 minutes late....I'll have to admit, I was a little like the servants of Lamoni from Alma 17:28, murmuring a little and feeling like this was my fault that everything was going wrong.  It was my fault that we were lost and late.  I am so grateful for companionships, because my great little comp reacted like Ammon from verse 29.  She was stoked for this opportunity and she helped me be courageous.  I have never before had a companion who laughs when we get lost, or have cards thrown back at us, or doors slammed in our faces.  I am learning a lot from her.  She is teaching me to not just smile, but to really laugh. I was thinking about the talk from Elder Wirthlin, Come What May and Love It.  Well, we still are not exactly sure where we are, but we talk to everyone.  No one wants to listen, except one woman.  That one woman accepted a Book of Mormon and said she would sit down right now and read it.  We did not know where we were, but I testify that the Lord does.  He put us in an area we did not know about to tell one of His daughters that she is loved.  I love being a missionary and being able to be apart of these experiences.  I am learning that the Lord can truly make a lot more out of our lives than we can if we turn our lives over to Him; Matthew 10:39.

On Saturday when our plan A fell through, we were going by on contacts, and then going door to door and talking to people on the street.  We were able to give out 2 Book of Mormons and will be following up next week.  And we found a new investigator who already has a Book of Mormon and has been reading!  We are so excited to follow up on that this week.  And we keep ''randomly'' running into people we couldn't get in contact with and we just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  There are no coincidences; I know the Lord is directing us.

I'm out of time.  I love you all so much!!!!  Thank you for the letters and pictures!  Oh and I forgot to thank Jack, Sam, Snickers, Cade and JD (and Janae, Sha and Merri) for the poster!  I love it!!!  I can't believe how big they are getting.  Give the boys lots of loves from me!

Snickers: Alles gute zum Gerburtstag!!!! (Happy Birthday)

I love you!!!!!! Have a fantastic week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Turner

September 15, 2014

It has been an amazing week!  On Tuesday we picked up our new Elders: Elder Riddle and Elder Blake.  It's good to have 4 missionaries in this area again.  That night after our missionary correlation meeting we watched a women's broadcast for all sisters in Europe.  Elder Hallstrom, Elder Ballard, Elder Bednar and their wives spoke.

On Friday we took a train to Berlin and we got to teach a lesson with the Hauschs!  It was so good being back in Lankwitz and teaching them again.  I can't believe it has been almost a year since their baptism.  I also am amazed at how much has changed since then, how much I have learned and grown since then.

That night 8 sisters slept in the Lankwitz Sister's apartment.  Ha, that was kind of crazy.  As you can imagine, there was not enough beds or bedding, so I got to sleep on the floor that night.  And I am a million times more grateful for the nights I do get to sleep in a bed :)  Count your blessings name them one by one.

Saturday morning we got up before the sun to be at the stake center in Tiergarten.  Every missionary in the Germany Berlin Mission was in one room.  After Präsident Kosak spoke to us, they went and picked up Elder Bednar, Elder Dykes and their spouses.  Oh my goodness, I wish had time to write everything that I learned.  The most important thing I learned is that it is not about the Speaker, it is about the Spirit.  The Holy Ghost is the true teacher.  And asking inspired questions will help those we teach, learn for themselves through the Spirit.

And then Sunday morning we rode with a member to Dresden for stake conference.  Again, it is not about the speaker, it is about the Spirit.  Sister and Elder Dykes were the concluding speakers and they mostly reiterated what the previous speakers had said.  Truth is truth and the Holy Ghost is the teacher who will carry it into our hearts if we let him.  I am so grateful for what I am learning everyday.  I am also realizing my responsibility in always having the Spirit with me so that I can continue strengthening my testimony and deepening my conversion and then the responsibility to share that light with others 1 Nephi 11:11.

I am also grateful for wonderful members!  The members who drove us to Dresden had lived there for a long time and gave us a quick little tour before we drove back to Schwarzenberg.  That night they gave us the best dinner!  Right before dinner, Sister Means and I had had an appointment by the church and then walked the 30 min down the hill to their house.  It wasn't raining so we didn't pull out our umbrellas, but by the time we got there, we were soaked.  It was like it was misting not raining, so the wonderful warm meal was so much more appreciated.  

And we will be without a car for the week so we are excited to see that it will be sunny the next few days, thank you Janae for the weather report!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers! I hope you have a wonderful week!

-Sister Turner

September 8, 2014

Dear Family,

Haha, I still cannot believe it has been only week.  We have been ALL over.  The week started out in Chemnitz.  Finally everyone is out of the hospital and back in our areas.  We came home and had a ''normal'' day and Thursday we jumped back on the Autobahn and headed for Dresden for a mult-zone conference.  

Thank you again Mom and Dad for the piano lessons.  I keep getting called on for surprise musical numbers and playing the hymns for meetings.  Wow!  The messages we heard were so inspiring.  We learned a lot about asking and learning by faith.   As a mission we have specific scriptures Präsident Kosak asked us to memorize.  We talked a lot about how powerful the Book of Mormon is for us as individuals and for those we teach.  Sister Kosak gave a great lesson on feasting on the words of Christ.  And then we had a few lessons from missionaries on “How to Be a Trainer”,  “How to be a District Leader”, “How to be a Zone Leader”, and “How to be a Sister Training Leader.”  All I could think was “How to train your Dragon.”  The lessons were really good.  

It’s kind of crazy.  With the age change 2 years ago, now we have so many ''old'' missionaries that just went home and with last transfer.  And this transfer we are receiving so many new missionaries.  Every sister who is not a Sister Training Leader is training or being trained.  Crazy!  So our mission leaders are teaching the next generation of mission leaders.  Präsident called it training your successor.

Speaking of transfers, Sister Means and I will be staying together here is Schwarzenberg and this transfer will be 7 weeks instead of 6.  Oh and we will have Elders back in Schwarzenberg again. We are stoked to stay together and keep working hard.  Even though we felt that we weren't able to get much done, when we looked back on the week and our goals, we accomplished a lot.

When we were in Chemnitz we were still able to have a lesson with an investigator on the phone and a contact had interest and called us.  We were able to have a joint teach with them at the church and they stayed for the ward sport activity after and had a great time!  Also, the whole ward, with the exception of Schwester Dike, ganged up against me and my comp in an attempt to soak us with water balloons.  Haha, the ward either loves us or wants us out.  Through all the chaos this week there have been a lot of moments to smile about.  I love this area and I am so blessed and grateful to be here.

Sister Means and I had a few ''ah ha'' moments this week.  One of them came when we were evaluating a lesson with a new investigator.  In short, we are learning to really rely on each other and the Spirit.  We have been so very blessed and protected this week.

Thank you for your love, prayers and support!  Have a fantastic week!  And thank you for the package!  We have been enjoying the goodies and the P90X work out!

All my love!!!

-Sister Turner

September 2, 2014

Dear Family!

Sorry this is coming a day late.  We had a crazy little adventure to start out our week.  Sunday morning we get a call that one of our Sister Training Leaders is in the hospital and we had to drive up to Chemnitz to stay with the other sister.  So Sister Means and I grabbed a few things to spend what we thought would be just one night, but about 48 hours later we are finally headed back to our little Schwarzenberg.  Sister Miller stayed in the hospital and we worked in a dritt (trio).  The sisters are doing great.  Everyone is fine healthy and happy for things to go back to normal, for about a day.  Ha, and then we will be driving to Dresden for Zone Conference.  Haha, I never thought I would be doing so much driving in Germany.  At first I was a little nervous, but after this adventure, driving all over Chemnitz, and pretty much living out of our car for 3 days, I feel pretty confident driving our little Opel.

This last week has been great!  Guess what?!  2 of our investigators came to church for the first time!!  We were so excited!!!  They had a great experience and we all felt the Spirit so strong!  In Sunday School we watched the Mormon Messages, ''Patterns of Light,'' by Elder Bednar.  I highly recommend watching it!  During sacrament meeting I had to translate for a member from the states.  Ha, that was fun.  I haven't really had to translate since I was in Altona, but naja, and it worked, kinda.

Hmmm, what else happened this week?  Oh, a few little miracles!  We had met an awesome man Sister Mean's first week here.  He had had contact with missionaries a few years ago, and he now he wants to learn more.  We got his phone number and address and tried to set up a joint teach at our church.  Well it ended up being the wrong number, and he was never home.  BUT this week we ran into him!  We got the correct numbers exchanged and we will be meeting with him this week!!

Oy, I am really struggling to focus, so sorry.  These past few days have been so hectic and I am still trying to get my head back on straight.

I hope you all know that I love you so much!!  I am so grateful for your love and prayers.  I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.  We have been talking about prayer a lot this week.  Y'all should read Prayer from the Bible Dictionary.  I love the way it explains it.  I have been studying more about praying sincerely and then acting on the answers we receive. Easier said than done, but the Lord always provides a way!

Have a great week!!

All my love!!!

-Sister Turner

August 25, 2014

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness, has another week already gone by?!  This week has been so awesome!!!  Oh my goodness, we are seeing so many miracles!

We started out the week with tausch (exchanges) with our Sister Training Leaders in Chemnitz. Sister Miller and I worked down here and Sister Means was in Chemnitz with Sister Helzer.  

We have done a bit of driving lately.  Tuesday morning we helped get the Elders on their train to Berlin and now Sister Means and I are the only missionaries in our area, so weird.  We had a great tausch, but our last appointment went a little long.  We missed our train and ended up having to drive to Zwickau to exchange back.  All is well and we all made it safely to our areas.

We have been so busy with appointments this week that we were worried about not having so much time finding new people.  We had a few of our appointments fall out.  We went door to door and talked to people on the street.  Both times we were able to give about two Book of Mormons to awesome people who were so excited to read it and learn more.

This week I have also learned to follow my comps promptings, even when I don't want to.  The Spirit truly has lead and guided us.  We had an awesome joint teach.  I love the members here! They are so excited to help our investigators and help them come to church.  That has been one of the hardest things for us.  Our investigators are recognizing how important prayer and the Book of Mormon are, but we are struggling helping them understand how important church is. Please pray for them.

Also, we had multiple investigators bear their testimony of how the Book of Mormon has helped them!  So amazing!!  It is true!!!!!!  I know the Book of Mormon is true, it has changed my life and I see it changing others.  I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father.  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and lives and loves us so much!!!!

One of our investigators lives on our street.  She often sees us out running early for sport.  This week she showed us a beautiful trail that Sister Means and I went running up this morning.  Oh my goodness, so beautiful!!!!  Now, I will finally call the Schwarzenberg hills ''mountains''.  

Also we had another fun little surprise.   So I have felt bad not taking Sister Means to a bakery often.  There were so many in Berlin and Hamburg and they were just so convenient.  There are not as many here and the closest one is at the very top of a big hill.  (They make us work for our pastries here.)  We have talked about it and laughed, it is a blessing that the bakeries are not so convenient.  Well....on Saturday morning after Comp Study we looked out the window and saw a bakery truck in front of our door.  So of course we had to get something and it was delicious!  Ha I thought these things were only true in fairytales.  Well, now I am a believer.  Along with the tooth fairy and Santa, bakery trucks are real!

Love you all!! Have a fantastic week!!!!!

-Sister Turner 

 

August 18, 2014

Dear Family!

Sorry I didn't quite finish that last email...Hopefully I will be able to complete my thoughts today.  I wish I could describe how I feel right now.  Anxious, but not, definitely excited.  Not ready to come home yet, so excited to see Elder Bednar, little nervous about taking on the whole area, but excited to see miracles.  I can definitely feel the Lord helping us step up to the challenge.  I feel like I just jumped off the back of the boat with out a wet suit.  The shock of the cold water is making me shiver and shake, and my breathing has accelerated.  Trying to stay calm and rely on the fact that my life jacket is holding me up.  Just relax.  Everything will be ok. Things are good here, but we have a greater vision.  Standing on water.  Somehow that will work, but I don't see how.  Throw me the rope and the wakeboard.  Struggling to get the board on, hold onto the rope and keep my head up.  Relax.  The lifejacket is still holding you the whole time.  Ready or not, it's time to go.  The boat is idling.  Struggling to find the balance feeling a little resistance, struggling to see exactly how this will work.  Can I do it??  Am I strong enough? Am I balanced enough?  Can I trust this plan?  Yes.  Stay down low, stand up slow.  Others have told me what I need to do.  I have see others do it before.  Now it is my turn.  Take a deep breath.  HIT IT!  Pushing against the water with the acceleration of the boat and the driver, holding on tight to the rope, knowing that if I fall the lifejacket is there to keep me safe, I can stand.  The joy and excitement of getting up, realizing this was better than just sitting in the water.  (You can't slap this smile off my face :)

Go ahead and draw your own analogies from this, ha I might also be a little trunky for Utah summers, boating, hiking, mountains.  But no, there is no other place I would rather be than right here right now.

Like I said things are a little crazy right now, but the Lord is shaping us and helping us rise to the challenge.  Ready or not the Elders leave for Berlin tomorrow and Sister Means and I are taking on Schwarzenberg together with the Spirit!!  Hurrah for Israel!!  We keep seeing miracles.

Thanks to some fruit flies, Sister Means and I decided to take the trash out Saturday night after we had cut up our watermelon.  Walking back to our front door we hear ''SISTERS.''  We turn around to see an investigator that we had not been able to get in contact with for the last few weeks.  Long story short we will be meeting with her this week.  Through unplanned or unseen opportunities the Lord guides us.  

This last week we went up to Chemnitz for Zone Training Meeting and Interviews with President.  Ah! I love the spiritual boost I always get from our meetings.  

Friday we had lunch in an old, old, OLD villa with some members that are restoring it.  It was so cool! We had an awesome discussion about how the Lord guides and directs us and that we really need to keep journals.  WRITE down your experiences, especially spiritual ones, evidence of God's hand in our lives.  Deut. 4:9, our experiences are not just for us.  It is our responsibility to share what we have learned, and to remember this for ourselves. Choose To Remember.

I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your prayers and support!! Have a super duper fantastic week!!!

All my love,

Sister Turner

PS  I still love biking :D