January 27, 2014

Lieber Familie,

Quote of the week from Sis Bradshaw: ''if we're going to be bad, we're going to be REALLY bad.'' Haha said after I had suggested making chocolate chip cookies, then she decided on death by chocolate chocolate chip cookies. They were MmmmMmm good!

Dad, come on, I keep poking you for your jokes. I miss your humor. I keep cracking jokes like you would, but I'm getting a little rusty...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...Ha we got the first real snow I have seen in Germany. This morning waiting for the bus we saw a mom pulling her little girl on a sled. Haha it was cute.Yup. It is definitely winter now. I miss the Utah ''dry cold.'' But na ja, we keep smiling, ha even if those smiles are frozen in place. Funny thing, the wind was blowing so hard my eyes were watering and the tears froze to the side of my face..Ya it's cold. I guess it gives us more motivation to make more appointments so we don't have to be outside finding for too long.

This week we had a tausch (exchange) with our Sister Training Leaders serving in Bergedorf. Sister Jardine came and worked with me here in Altona. Tausch miracles! Every single appointment went through, not one fell out and we found two new investigators!

We were able to meet with our two new investigators from last week. They talked about how they were ready for a change and they want to be free from all past mistakes and start over. How cool is the blessing of the Atonement?! We are cleansed of all of our sins and mistakes when we have faith, repent, are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. And then every week we get to renew that covenant! Oh my goodness, I can not get over how awesome that is! Unfortunately those two investigators did not come to church yesterday. We are devastated. We are working with about 17-19 people, and not one came to church... We have been setting goals and changing the way we plan and teach to better help the investigators and less actives we work with. Sometimes it is really hard to know I am really doing all that I can. Please pray for them.

Thank you for your love and prayers, I can feel it strengthening me. I love you!

-Sister Turner

January 20, 2014

Lieber Familie,

So am I an American Hamburger?? Hahaha ah I love it here!
The ward is awesome, yesterday we had dinner with the Bishop and his family. Bishop has been so welcoming and helping me to feel at home in Altona ward. I love his 'go get'em' attitude about missionary work. We talked about the ward's vision and goals and where we as missionaries fit into that. Sister Bradshaw and I will be working a lot with less active members and part member families. We are also working with a lot of people from Ghana. I love it! I want to visit Ghana sometime after the mission, who's down? Ha get to practice teaching in Englisch! Oh man, one lesson I just had the hardest time, half English half German, whaaa I can't go back and forth between two languages simultaneously..

The ward already has an organist, so I am not needed for that, but we preformed a musical number in church and I played for that while Sis Bradshaw and Elder Miles sang and Elder Bendixon had the most important role as page turner!

So Sister Bradshaw got a little sick this week and because we love each other so much and share everything, she shared it with me.. We are all better now and ready work with all our heart, might, mind and strength!

Heavenly Father keeps letting us know that He is the one in charge and not us. At church yesterday two people showed up right as sacrament meeting was finishing. They didn't know why exactly, but they had a piece of paper with the church address and the time that church started on it. We met with them, let them know that they were at a church (the Altona ward building used to be a mansion and now it is a dedicated chapel so it doesn't look like a typical church building). We got to know them and little and introduced ourselves, the church and the Book of Mormon. When we pulled the Book of Mormon out, the lady freaked and was speechless. Sis B and I didn't know what to think.. She finally said that she used to have that book back in Luxemburg, but she had never read it. We gave them a copy and they said they will be at church next week and we will be meeting with them again this week. This truly is the Lord's work. So many unpredictable experiences keep reminding me to trust more and know that if I am doing all that I can to keep the Spirit with me, I will be guided and I cannot go amiss.

So Lindsey has to use solar showers if she wants warm water?? Ah, showers are about the only time I am really warm. I am blessed to be in a place that gets cold enough for bugs to die, and always have a warm shower. #trulyblessed

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

-Sister Turner

January 13, 2014

Lieber Familie,

Hey! I made it to Hamburg. Oh. My. Goodness. Hahaha I am so blessed. So I don't like transfering because packing is the worst... But I am loved so it all worked out. Magically everything fit in my 3 suitcases, plus I carried a bag and my backpack was over stuffed. But I managed, wanna know how? Well we went back to a dritt ''three sisters'' after we sent off Sister Miesbauer so we all took a suitcase and then I had a strait shot from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof. But it was no easy task getting there. Anywho, moral of the story, don't take everything every transfer...

I now live in a place where a Hamburger is a person not in the sense of ''you are what you eat''. I love it here! I have had so many tender mercies from Heavenly Father letting me know that it is ok, He is in charge and I am loved. What made my welcome to Altona complete was running with Sister Bradshaw in the rain our first morning together. I love running in the rain!

Oh I was so worried about loving a new place, but I can feel Heavenly Father expanding my capacity to love. It's kinda cool, I know the love is not from me, it really is from Heavenly Father. I can look at people children of God, I know He loves them, and I want them to recognize and feel His love. Sometimes it is easier than others.

Sister Bradshaw is AWESOME!! She is from Cedar City. She is the oldest in her family, she is a drummer and can play pretty much anyother musical instrument and she can tune it with her perfect pitch. In addition she lets me/ makes me run! We have gone running together every morning, Sundays of course are the exception. It has been so good, she really motivates me to be better in every aspect of missionary work. It's a lot easier to speak in German with your companion when your companion speaks in German with you. Oh and she is Becca Bradshaw's cousin, Cam knows her.

Altona reminds me a lot of Lankwitz, I am still in a big city which means that bahns and buses come pretty regularly and get you most places you need to be. The people here seem to be a lot friendlier. Whether they are interested in what I have to say or not, they listen and they are nice, whaaaa?? I love it! We also challenged one of our investigators to be baptized and she accepted! We are witing til her husband gets home so he can be a part of it as well. So excited! Our focus this transfer is finding families especially young women since we only have one YW in the ward.

Running out of time, but I am so excited to be here! Mom and Dad Happy Anniversary! Sha Happy Birthday, D-dawg Happy Brithday!

I love you!! So much!

-Sister Turner

January 6, 2014

Lieber Familie,

Guess what! I am saying auf weidersehen to Berlin and I am headed to Hamburg tomorrow. Crazy! So many mixed feelings, mostly excited but so sad to leave. I will be in Altona with Sister Bradshaw and Sister Shelley from my MTC group will be leaving Hamburg and taking my spot here with Sister Hansen and Sister Ahrenholtz. This morning we said goodbye to Sister Miesbauer who finally got her visa and is on a plane to Salt Lake right now. So many changes! It's good, but it is so hard saying goodbye to Lankwitz. They will be losing one of their few organists so they had me play yesterday. We had an amazing sacrament meeting! The testimonies were so wonderful, especially from our investigator Herr Nahrgang. He explained how he found the church and eventually the missionaries, me and Sis Lartey. He talked about how there is always stuff opposing the church, but you have to follow the spirit. He bore a powerful testimony that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. It has been restored. He was talking about ''I believe'' a talk by Elder Holland I had told him about in one of our first lessons back in August and he still listens to it often. In our last lesson I invited him to bear his testimony, letting him know he did not need to be a member to bear testimony, but he didn't need to feel pressured either. We are still praying for hearts to soften so he will be allowed to be baptized. Miracles are happening :)

So many little tender mercies, the Clarks moved into the ward from Dahlem. Rock solid couple from South Africa that this ward really needs. I knew them from a service project we did a few transfers ago. They had us over for brownies last night  since I won't see them anytime soon. I also did not realize how much the ward loved and appreciated me until now. Sometimes we would be frustrated with things going on or not getting help, but things are changing. They have been so loving and welcoming with our investigators now. I really am going to miss Lankwitz. Right after the meeting Fleur, Elder Beck and I preformed Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. Oh I wish you could have heard it. It was so beautiful and the spirit was so strong.

The afternoon after transfer calls Sister Hansen and I just started crying. We have become very close the past couple of weeks. Ha are transfers this hard for everyone? It's harder to leave Berlin than it was to leave home, no offense mom and dad.

New Year's Eve was fun, haha. So we aren't allowed to be out after 6 unless if we were with a member and they took us home. Elder and Sister Snow invited the missionaries to their apartment. We were walking next door to their apartment at 5:50 and fireworks were already going off, it sounded like WW3. We started to run as Sister Hansen says: Germany is scary! Then we hear ''Ya it is'' in a deep man's voice coming from the dark path between the apartments. It was Elder Beck and Elder Taylor..... Terrified us, but they had a good laugh. We had fun and were in bed by 10:30 hoping to be asleep enough to not hear the midnight fireworks...WRONG. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life!! The sky was constantly lit up til about 3. And I'm not saying one consistently going off, no, the WHOLE sky was lit up. It was CRAZY! Germans know how to do fireworks, haha and you should have seen the streets the next morning.. Dad and Brad would have had a lot of fun ;)

I've been thinking about goals or resolutions for this year. The biggest one this that I don't want to have any regrets. What are some of your goals for this year?

Today I was reading in Moroni 10:32, it reminded me of a favorite talk His Grace is Sufficient. Moroni says that His grace is sufficient when we come unto Christ, deny all ungodliness and love God with all might, mind and strength. With less than a year left in Germany I want to show my Heavenly Father  how much I love Him by loving His children. I will miss Lanwitz, but I have going to serve and love Altona with all my might mind and strength.

I love you all so much! Thank you for the videos, pictures and stories!

-Sister Turner