December 30, 2013

Lieber Familie!

Ah! It was so good to see you all last week! I can't believe it has almost been a week, and only a week. Oh my goodness the cutest little kids are sitting next to me right now and arguing about how old they are. ''7order 9 lalalalala'' Haha I thought they were speaking in English and then I realized that it was German and I just understand. Funny how that is because sometimes I try to focus on German and when something is said in English I don't understand.

In Germany they celebrate 3 days of Christmas. Oh my goodness, I ate more those 3 days than I have in my entire life!!!! Ok, that's a little dramatic, but it was a lot of food. So fun being with the members, they made us feel like we were with family. On the 24th we ate with the Pumipiyap family. They are so wonderful, they put in a good word for us and had Santa come visit. Did you know that Santa is Thai?? I'm trying to send pictures but the computer won't let me, I'll try again next week.
Elder and Sister Beesley had us over for breakfast on Christmas morning. It was so great and reminded me of going over to Grandma and Grandpa's! Oh my comp didn't appreciate the toy ball gun. Haha she was just jealous. We had district meeting later that day and read through the white handbook all together, it's a wonderful little book ;) That night we ate with the Hauschs. On the 26th we had a Christmas lunch at the church with everyone who didn't have somewhere to go, investigators, members and friends. It was so good! We have an investigator from China, her name is Yang-Yang. She doesn't have a religious backgroud, so everything we teach her is completely brandnew, but she is so accepting and anxious to learn more. Her prayers are so simple and so heart felt. She loves the ''new meaning of Christmas'' that we celebrate Christ, His birth, life and Resurection and not just presents. I am so grateful to be here. Later we ate with the Stanke family. It has been a great week, everyone has been so loving and welcoming.

Thank you for all the love and support. Shout out to the ward! Thank you so much for the letters and treats! It means so much to me.

Thank you grandma and grandpa for the package, I just got it this morning. It's perfect!

Mom and Dad, thank you, thank you, thank you! I appreciate your hard work to support me and I can feel your love and prayers. I'm doing my best to represent the the Lord well and our family. I think it's interesting that the two names I wear are Jesus Christ's and the family name.

Thank you for the pictures, Mom, Sha and Janae :)

I love you so much!! Have a great week! Happy New Year!

-Sister Turner

December 23, 2013

Lieber Familie!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I'm so excited to see you tomorrow! 3pm I will be skyping from the mission office and I will use the skype account you set up for me. Thank you!

That was the first real talk I have given here. My first Sunday they were going to have me give a talk, but we ran out of time so it was just a testimony. But I play the organ pretty regularly. Sometimes I don't have much of a heads up. On Saturday we went to the baptism for one of the Elder's investigators. I show up and find my name on the program, well actually I found out when Bishop started the service and announced I would be playing. Haha good thing my German was good enough to understand that. One of our investigators came, he so badly wants to be baptized, but his family is not ok with it. Please pray for him. As I was talking with him. he said that he could picture his own baptism with his children there supporting him. He is an amazing example of faith and trusting in the Lord's time.

Right now there are 2 sets of sisters (Turner & Hansen and Miesbauer & Ahrenholtz), 1 set of elders (Beck & Taylor), and 2 senior couples the Snows and Beesleys. Oh and Pres and Sis Kosak are technically in our ward as well. I love the ward here. Yesterday we ate with the Ruetz family. So much fun! After dinner Pres Ruetz played the piano and we all sang Christmas songs, I tried to send a short video, but it didn't work, I'll try again next week. And then I played the Savior Redeemer of my Soul, Fleur Ruetz played the violin and Elder Beck sang, we'll probably be doing that one at church next week.

One tradition in Germany I think I'll bring back is that Christmas is not just one day, it's three days.

I'm running out of time so I'm going to cut it.

Love you!

See ya tomorrow!

-Sister Turner

December 16, 2013

Lieber Famile!

Haha ya, Lindsey and I are going to have very different Christmas experiences. I'm wearing thermals, two pairs of tights, thick socks, a couple of shirts and a sweater under my coat to stay warm. I miss the dry Utah cold. Humid cold is very different. Haha we make it work though.

Last Monday was so fun! We went to a Christmas market and enjoyed looking at everything there. Can't describe, ya'll will just have to come see for yourself.

This week I learned to be patient and that the Lord works in His time and in His way. We had a lot of great plans for the week, but Heavenly Father let us know that we needed to be somewhere else. Sis Miesbauer and I were really sick and had to stay home for a few days. The blessing was that we were sick the same days so that Sis Hansen and Ahrenholtz could take the appointments that did not fall through and we were able to recover.

Thursday we had an awesome Zone Conference! The music was beautiful. The talks were great and we got to watch 17 Miracles! Also I found Elder Santiago, he is the Zone Leader in North Berlin. It was fun to see family (of family) haha.

On Sunday I gave a talk, played the organ and played the musical number..Yay. It went well, I wasn't worried about giving a talk in German (it was much better than the first one I gave in the MTC) until I realized Pres and Sister Kosak were there for Sacrament meeting. I said a prayer before and the spirit really calmed me down.

Funny thing this week... with 4 sisters living so close, we have learned that it is important to lock the door when you go to the bathroom, or you need to do a head count before entering.

Thank you so much for the package! I really appreciate all you do. I have also been loving the music you sent!

Love you all!

-Sister Turner

December 9, 2013

Lieber Familie!

We got our first snow fall this week, it looks like you have been getting a bit of snow too. Ah, I miss Utah snow- dry snow. Here it has been more of a sleety-frozen-rain-snow haha lot of fun! So yesterday was the 2nd Advent and the King of Thailand's Birthday, and the 5th or the 6th (I don't remember which) was the Nikolaustag. 2nd Advent means that you can light 2 candles on this candle wreath thing we have, you can probably google it and understand it better than I do.. We celebrated the King of Thailand's birthday with the Hausch family- it was awesome because family is so big in that culture it was easy to talk to people there about how the gospel blesses families. Romy did Sis Hansen's make up, haha remember that she is only 8, haha it looked great! Ok and Nikolaustag is when good little boys and girls put their freshly polished boots outside their door and Nikolaus puts a treat or a small toy in their boot. Ya we found out about that one the morning of when Sis Miesbauer and I got up to go running and saw that our neighbors all had treats in their boots, unfortunately we did not put our boots outside so Nikolaus forgot to visit us.. Oh and we had the ward Christmas party on Friday. They have been planning this party in almost every ward council since I got here. And it was awesome! It was so good seeing the ward all get together loving and welcoming to everyone making our investigators feel loved and invloved. They food was fantastic, but they had way too much and kept trying to give more and more to the missionaries. Big success.

Today we are headed to a Weihnachtmarkt! I am so excited!!

In district meetings we have been talking about how we can have better district unity. Each week we will all pray for a specific companionship and at the end of the week they will share miracles they have seen. During our last weekly planning Sis Hansen and I were talking about our goals for the upcoming week and reviewing goals and actuals from the previous week. Sis Hansen has a bf serving in Mexico and had shared some of their goals. We thought about it and said why can't we have ''Mexico numbers''? We believe we have the faith to see real growth here in Germany. Heavenly Father loves all of His children and He has prepared people here in Lankwitz. We prayed about our goals and then started making phone calls. Everything has been falling into place. We are working to develop our faith to see these miracles. We read in the Bible Dictionary about Fear and it says that fear is something unworthy of a child of God. And fear and faith can not exist in the same body. And why should we fear? We're on the Lord's side :D

I love you all! I can feel your love and prayers strengthen me. I hope you have a great week!

-Sister Carlee Turner

December 2, 2013

Lieber Familie!

Hey I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving! I love the pictures, it looks like you had a lot of fun! So we counted things out and if have a 5 week transfer I'll be home the week of Thanksgiving next year. CRAZY!

I did not actually get to play in the Turkey Bowl.. I brought my shears because I had to fix Sister Dunlap's hair- she let an investigator cut it, possibly worse than Sis Gross' hair. Haha don't worry it looks great now! It was a lot of fun seeing everyone though. President Kosak even played. We did kind of celebrate Thanksgiving. We had District Meeting that day so we had lunch together after. I made the stuffing you sent. Thank you! It smelled just like Thanksgiving! Sis Shöpf and Cameron made a pumpkin/potatoe suppe and the Elders bought a pie/cake thing. Germans don't exactly have pies. It was a lot of fun!

This week I am really trying to overcome my fear of talking to people. Yes, 6 months out and it is still not easy. But the language is getting better. After sacrament meeting I was talking with an investigator, a man we have been meeting with for a few months. I was saying something and just could not put a sentence together. Embarrassed, I apologized for my language skills, but he told me that I shouldn't be down on myself. He said that he has seen my German improve so much. I reminded him of the first time we met and how I really couldn't say anything and Sis Lartey had to do most of the teaching. He told me that he remembered my testimony at the end, he didn't understand everything I said, but he remembered the spirit that he felt. The spirit truly speaks to hearts. It gives me a lot of comfort that I don't have to speak perfect German to help others feel the spirit. I am so grateful that it is the spirit doing the converting and not me.

By the way if you were planning on sending me a tree, please don't. Haha Sis Hansen got a very big package this week. We opened it and found a pre-lit Christmas Tree and ornaments in a smaller package. Hahaha I have no idea what she plans on doing with it after this transfer. Anyone need a tree??

Love you all! Have a great week and smile :D

-Sister Turner