Dec. 15

What a good week this has been! 

Everyday my heart fills with more and more gratitude for a loving and personal Saviour who wants nothing more than for me to return home. Each day is a day of decision. And that includes the decision to believe in Him, to follow Him, and to be obedient to His commandments. We all have the choice. And we all have a feeling as to what is right. But it's up to us to actually decide. The Atonement of Jesus Christ enables each one of us to repent and to forgive, to find peace knowing that we can stand confidently before the presence of God. 

Andie is progressing towards the 28th! 

Sister Hancock and I sang in church yesterday and she stood on the little kids stool because she is so short. Everyone loved that. And I love Sister Hancock. She's a hoot! 

We accidentally got roped in to joining the ward choir.

I went on exchanges to the Spanish ward and loved it! I met the most wonderful people and felt such a powerful spirit! Sister Adair is fabulous. 

I also went on exchanges with Sister Caisey. She is also wonderful. We beatboxed and laughed a lot. She is so cute. I love being reunited with my former Grand Junctionites.

Lastly I went on exchanges with Sister Harper from none other than.... BUTTE MONTANA. She is a giant (6'1) in the best way. We had a grand old time and tracted into a 80 year old woman named Faye who wants to learn about the gospel! 

We volunteered at the Santa Shop. I did the exact same thing last year! Over 4000 kids will have a Christmas because of this event. It was so much fun! I love the spirit of giving! 

I am so blessed to be on a mission at this time of year. To see all the people around me and know that each one will have the opportunity to live with their Father in Heaven again. And that each good thing I do know will influence them for the better to choose to return. 

I hope you each take the time this week to ponder the meaning of Christmas. What has Christ done for you in your lives? How will you show your love back to Him? And how can you share that love with other people? 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sista T

Dec. 8

Heyo family!

On exchanges with Sister Mataia from California, it wasn't until the very last house of the day that we tracted into someone that was open. It was even in a ritzy neighborhood, which sometimes scares me. A little lady named Sherrie let us in. She's Greek Orthodox and has been cancer free since March. Her hair is still very short and her skin is covered with pock marks and growths. We started talking with her when a little girl appeared at the top of the stairs. She cautiously made her way down. Then proceeded to ask her mom who we were. We introduced ourselves and then she told us who she was. Cheyenne is her name. She's 11. She's got an incredible light about her. And she's blind. We watched He is the Gift with them. Her mom read Cheyenne the words. Cheyenne is very special. She sang us a song and then asked us who is the Father and who is the Son. She was so excited to learn about God. We set up a return appointment for the very next day. When we went back and taught her again (sadly her mom was watching the broncos game instead) we shared the plan of salvation. When we shared with her that she would have a perfect body forever, meaning her eyesight as well, she exclaimed, "Oh! That's amazing!" I often forget how blessed I am to have all that I have. And dear little Cheyenne reminded me to be grateful for all that I do have. We asked her if we could bring her a braille book to read (book of mormon) and she said that would be great as long as it did not have any contractions. Oh how I love this little girl! 

Andie (learned yesterday her real name is Andaleeb) is officially getting baptized on December 28th! She was interviewed by President Murdock yesterday. Because she is of a Muslim background, President wanted to ensure that if she was baptized, her safety would not be at risk. Andie is one of the most selfless, giving, caring, humble, real, genuine people I have ever met. I wish I could express to you how much I love people! 

On Friday night we were privileged to attend the Lakewood Symphony and Mormon Chorale in concert. Andie and Zaim came. It was such a fabulous evening. Us missionaries were the ushers and greeters. Unfortunately, the hermanas got in a car crash on their way so we had to go pick them up. They were in sketch Denver and there was no place for us to park. So I parked in front of a bus stop sign, thinking we would only be there for a few minutes. As we were helping them get things out of their car, a bus turned a corner. My heart dropped, I yelled, "a bus!" and took off sprinting while holding a large box full of pamphlets and Book of Mormons. When I got there I hopped in the car and then it hit me, what I am going to do? Drive away without my companion? So then I awkwardly sat in the car while people got off the bus and then it drove away. At least I helped to alleviate the tension and concern at the site of the accident with my ridiculousness. While listening to the wonderful music at the concert, it really hit me that the Christmas season is so wonderful because we are able to remember the reason why we feel good when we do good things. It's because it is what Christ would do. He is real. He loves us. He wants us to be happy. 

At church, we had 3 investigators come! Charleen, Colleen, and Andie! Our ward did such a wonderful job at fellowshipping and helping them feel welcome. Plus we had the cutest young couple randomly come to church! Sister Hancock and I thought they were members at first. But then we started talking to them. Kyle and Becca are their names. Kyle visited SLC and some sisters there really encouraged him to attend a sacrament meeting so they finally did. And we set up an appointment with them on Friday! Miracles! 

Sunday night we were privileged to dine with the Gunthers and then watch the Christmas Devotional with them. They are office missionaries who also serve in the Lakewood ward. Sister Gunther is also President Murdock's sister. She told us some pretty great and hilarious stories about President Murdock's youth. Why am I so blessed? The Gunthers are so genuinely good. I love them. 

I attended the temple this week for the first time since February. What a blessing that was! Sister Knecht and I were on exchanges. Unfortuately Sister Knecht was feeling really ill. And we accidentally slept through the alarm. Sister Hancock and Sister Remington came to pick us up to go and they forced me to go instead of Sister Hancock. Why am I surrounded by the nicest people on earth? How blessed I was to attend the temple with my trainer three weeks before she is done her mission! She is so great! And I looked like I had just woken up (because I had) so please don't mind the pictures. The temple always fills me with such good feelings of love. It's really hard for me right now to believe that God loves me, even though I share that with people every single day. And it's easy for me to believe it for them. But in the temple I remembered. 

I hope you all have a great week and really capitalize on the wonderful time of year this is to share what we know to be true. That Christ really was born here on Earth. He accomplished all His Father asked Him to do because He loves us and He loves Him. And I love you all too. 

Love,

Sister Turner

Dec. 1

Merry Christmas! It's quite frightening to me that it's already December. But I'm working through it! haha. 

This week was great! I love Lakehood. (that's what I have lovingly nicknamed my area). 

Colleen called us on Friday morning and asked us to come take her cigarettes, ashtray, and lighter from her! Hallelujah! She came to church with her husband Lenny and her crazy 2 year old Laraja. And she also came to a baptism later that night. She is so excited to get baptized! Colleen comes from very humble circumstances and has struggled with addiction the majority of her life. It's so amazing to see how Jesus Christ is helping her truly change. 

We have awesome investigators named Andie and Zaim from India. We were privileged to eat dinner with them on Friday! We ate delicious spicy food and had tea with saffron in it. It was so kind of them to have us there and welcome us into their culture. They are so cool! We showed them He is the Gift. The only mildly awkward thing was that Andie kept mentioning that in her culture they always have all body parts covered (except head) and our legs were showing....Whoops! 

My new district is weird but great. It' s just us and 7 elders. We had a district meeting on Thanksgiving and talked about goals and such. I was probably a little too bold. But I guess that's just who I am now haha. 

I get to drive all the time because my companion got in a crash a couple weeks ago...(and she has a court date in January woot woot!) And I put our car in metric so I could understand the temp. Unfortunately I left it like that, so when we reported our mileage last night we did it in kms. It looked like we had driven about 30,000 miles last week hahahaha. ROAD TRIP.

I went on exchanges with Sister Arnold. I felt so close to the spirit the entire day. She is pretty special. We shared He is the Gift with a random family washing their car and the spirit was so powerful! Sister Arnold is great! And she's from New Hampshire and wishes she was Amish. It was so wonderful to feel like I was still a capable missionary as that's something I've been struggling with. I just need to remember to think outside of myself! 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Sister T

Nov. 24

LAKEWOOD, CO. 

That's where I'm at. Last year at this same time I came to Denver and served just north of where I am now. 

Leaving GJ was harder than I wanted it to be. But then again, I want everything to be easy. I am so grateful for the people there, for the way they have changed me. The best part was that I got to stop by and see Milt and Patty before I left. I don't know of any two greater people in the world.

The work here is going swimmingly. We have two people on date for baptism! Andie and Zaim are my favorite! They are from India! And they are reading the Book of Mormon is Urdu. Plus, while we were at their house last night, I got to have a nice chat with Bashir, Andie's dad. He's about 75 and is blind and was sitting on the floor wrapped up in a blanket because he was so cold! Andie and Zaim have an incredible spirit in their home.

My new companion is Sister Hancock. She's 20, 4'11, from Texas, and I have served around her before in GJ! She is so fun and happy all the time and is definitely a good influence on me! I am excited to learn from her!

There are 7 missionaries that serve in the Lakewood ward: us, our zone leaders plus they have a tripanion, and a senior couple, the Gunthers. 

The Lord is hastening his work. Go to Christmas.mormon.org on November 28th and watch the "He is the Gift" video. As missionaries, we got a sneak peek. It's incredible. Share it with everyone you know. We have pass along cards for it and we have the challenge of passing out at least 10 a day. It's going to be great! Anyone who watches the video will feel the spirit. 

We have 5 sister companionships we get to do exchanges with. And one of them is Sister Remington! I'm so happy we will be reunited her very last transfer! And two of the other compships are hermanas! Espanol here I come! 

We had a really fantastic Zone meeting this past week. The zone leaders put in a lot of effort. We had a special Christmas room set up to introduce the "He is the Gift" initiative. The spirit was strong! And Sister Murdock came! 

I didn't include any pictures I took from my departure from GJ last week so I will include some of my favorite people as well! 

Change is hard. You could probably say I haven't been adjusting to it as well as I could be. We were able to go to the mission home this past week and I had a good long chat with Pres. Murdock. It's so great to live so close to the mission home. I'm learning how to give things over to the Saviour. And I'm learning that I still am too hard on myself. But it's okay because I can change through the Atonement. He is the only way. I also received a blessing. Of course, it was exactly what I needed. I can't comprehend how my Heavenly Father always knows exactly what I need and he is more than ready to give it. That is what I am grateful for. A Father in Heaven who is easy to love. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Sista T

Hilt-dawg and I on our very last run. It was FREEZING outside. 

My new group of sista friends and riding on the transfer train in our mission hutterite van, lovingly nicknamed "bertha."