WEM--I'm a Grandma!

Dear Fam and Friends,

I can't believe that it is already transfers time! And the subject heading needs some explaining...So in the WEM, there is an interesting legacy of establishing a pedigree and using related terms. For instance, your trainer is your parent, your trainer's trainer is your grandparent, etc. So, Sister Cromar is mom, Sister Hepworth is my grandma, and Sister Slade is my daughter. And, guess what?! I am going to have a grand-daughter. On Thursday evening, we had leadership calls and both Sister Slade and I have been called to train new missionaries. So, I guess that means Sister Slade will also have a sister, haha. I am a lot more at ease this go round, and I am thankful that I finally finished the 12-week training  this transfer, so I am now fully trained! And I literally just found that I am being transferred. Scary!

We had a wonderful baptism on Saturday for Darlene. Thirty-seven people showed up to support her in her decision to join the Church. I can't even put it in words, but it was such a beautiful experience! The Spirit was present 100% of the meeting. There were some wonderful testimonies borne and Darlene is forgiven of all her past transgressions! I loved seeing Everet baptizing his wife. It is all coming full circle. We taught Everet as he returned to Church, and then taught and saw Darlene baptized. What a blessing that is for their family to be able to strengthen their family and relationship in the Gospel and founded on the Savior, Jesus Christ. She was ecstatic all Saturday and Sunday. I love to see the Spirit influencing the lives of the people we teach as they learn and accept it!

We had another wonderful lesson with Brandon (12 y.o.) and he even came to church yesterday! Unfortunately, his mom says that he cannot be baptized until he is sixteen. I think we will continue to do as much as we can to continue to prepare him for baptism and keep him coming to church. Hopefully as we pray and fast for him and his mother we can see a miracle. He is incredibly mature for his age and so receptive of the Gospel.

You know what, we might baptize a Wican. Tiffany made it to Darlene's baptism on Saturday and says that she is now considering baptism for herself. She is incredibly open-minded and is keeping all commitments, we just nee to help her strengthen her testimony of the Savior. It is pretty incredible how far she has come in the Gospel--from praying to multiple gods/spirits, to begin accepting that there is one Father who loves us and sent His Son to Atone for us and show us His love.

I have learned a lot about missionary work as I have read in Alma the last few weeks (Lari). He is such a great missionary and I really identify with him and his experiences. I also had the opportunity to begin the account of Ammon and his brethren this morning in my study in Alma seventeen. One of the things that I loved in my reading this last week was Alma 16: 14, which reads, "And as many as would hear their words, unto them they did impart the word of God, without any respect of persons, continually." It like the advice given in Preach My Gospel about talking to everyone. That was a great example to me because Alma and Amulek were not without persecution in their proselyting efforts. But it is so important that they talked to everyone that would listen. I also think it is significant that they preached to those who would "hear their words," and that they did not waste their time with investigators that were not keeping commitments, or those who just wanted to pick a fight. Both are important. We have to talk to everyone to discover who is willing to hearken to our message. Those who will first hear and then from that point to act on it. In addition to my study in Alma, I also read the section in the White Handbook on Missionary Leadership as assigned in preparation for Trainers' Training. In one of the first paragraphs in that section on page 55, it says, "Your mission president assigns missionary leaders to help him direct the work and help you fulfill your purpose." I reflected on that idea and tried to understand how my calling as a missionary leader in the position of a trainer can help me fulfill my purpose. And I came to the following conclusion: Our purpose as missionaries is to invite and help other come unto Christ, and as I serve in this capacity as Jesus Christ did, more individuals will be able and desire to come unto Christ. Christ was a meek and humble servant, but also a leader. He was the perfect example of inviting others to live the Gospel and serving others. As I learn to do what Christ did--invite, and also serve through being a leader--I will be significantly more successful in fulfilling my purpose. As I become more like Christ, others will come to Christ.

I love you all and thanks for the emails!
Sister Turley

PS--Here are some pictures with Darlene and Everet! Love them.

WEM Again

Dear Family and Friends,

Some of our numbers waned a bit this week, regardless of our efforts to keep them up. I guess it was just one of those weeks.

The good news is, we have a baptism planned for this weekend! Darlene is still excited for her baptism on Saturday and confirmation on Sunday. Her husband, Everet is going to perform the baptism and their fellowshipper, Brother Glade will perform the confirmation. I am amazed at the dedication to the Gospel that Darlene has shown. Without even needing an invitation, she and her husband have started a Gospel study together every night for an hour. She is truly putting forth the effort to prepare and develop a lasting relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She even bought a temple dress already :)

We had another great lesson with Bennett and Verna Harris this week and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and re-invited them to be baptized. They both answered with "most likely, yes." But not a definite answer. They both expressed that they would like to learn more of what is required of them before they make an firm decision. Unfortunately, they did not show up at church yesterday. In our ward council meeting, everyone that had met Bennet last week kept saying how excited they were about the prospect of him joining the ward. They loved him! Now we just need to figure out how the ward can let him know better that they think the world of him.

I think we will probably have to drop Tiffany. It is sad because she is one of only a few investigators keeping all her commitments, but we feel that she may just like the company and wants to please us so we will keep coming. And possibly, that she is meeting with us to get attention from her family that she is doing something out of the ordinary or shocking. She also expressed that she has no desire to get baptized but she wants to just learn. So, I guess we will give it one or two more tries and then make a decision from there.

We have one new investigator that has shown some great promise. His name is Brandon Roy and he is 12. He has been participating in our ward's Scout troop for the last year. He attended the Aaronic Priesthood Encampment at Fire Mountain a few weeks ago (it was an eight stake event with over 1100 Scouts there!), and he was the first member of our ward's troop to get the Ammon Award. It was a special award that required learning about the Book of Mormon, attending Priesthood workshops, etc. He also got his hair cut by Elder Christensen of the Seventy. While he was there, he asked our Zone Leaders (Elders Rencher and Moncur) if they could come teach him more about the Book of Mormon. They referred us to him and we had our first lesson on Thursday afternoon. We taught the Restoration and he said that he has had feelings of confusion about religion similar to Joseph Smith and we invited him to continue to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and promised him that God would reveal the truthfulness of the Gospel to him. We also extended a soft invitation of baptism to him and he said, "yes." We still need to talk with his mom some more before we set a date. She is not interested (she is Wican, too...) but she is supportive. I absolutely LOVE teaching kids between 11-15ish. They are just starting to become more aware and searching for truth. And for the most part they will listen to you openly. And because of those qualities, it is so much easier for those kids to feel the Spirit and gain a knowledge of the truth. In fact, we were doing some contacting down and the beach near our apartment and everyone that accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and meet again with us was under the age of 20.

In my study this week I read Alma twelve (Lari) and I really appreciated the end of verse fifteen. It says, speaking our Savior, "he hath power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance." This is a true principle. The Atonement makes it possible to be saved, but it does not take away our personal responsibility. Action is required to be able to use the Atonement to it's fullest capacity. There is not just an easy out to be redeemed of our sins. We have to really want it, even to the giving up of our favorite or most convenient sins. We have to want redemption more.

Well, the transfer is drawing to a close and there are between 19-21 new sisters coming in to the mission. So, more than likely my time in Oak Harbor is also drawing to a close. But we will see, the Lord moves in mysterious ways...

Hope you are all doing well! Love ya!
Sister Turley

PS--I got pics with Elder Bloomfield at Zone Conference! My favorite is the picture with the thumbs up. We have both started doing that a lot since being on a mission (couldn't tell ya why). We must be cousins.

S. Turley--WEM this week (with pictures)

Dear Fam and Friends,                                          

This week was another great week. It was also a hard week for finding. But, we added one more to our number of investigators at church this week and had four investigators there! Sandra, Bennett, Tiffany and Darlene (our investigator on date) all attended.

We will start with the hard. We had zero lessons planned on Thursday, so it was tracting day! And goodness, we had a tough. crowd. We sure got chewed up and spit out by the people in the area we were working in. I was pretty grouchy after that and Sister Slade was crying. But it made me feel better when I was reading in Alma chapter 7 this morning and Alma talks about his experience with his initial rejection by the people of Ammonihah. He says in verse 14, that he was weighed down with sorrow because of the people and that is how I tend to get. But then, an angel appeared to him and told him where he needed to go and he found a great mission companion named Amulek and they brought a good number to the knowledge of God. Here's to having some angels tell us where to go soon!

We had two more wonderful lessons with the Darlene and Everet last week. The first was at a members home and we taught about the Plan of Salvation. She had some great questions about her family that had passed on and whether or not they would have the opportunity to accept the Gospel and be baptized just as she is preparing to do! We explained that God has provided a way for all of his children to receive and accept the Gospel and that she would have the opportunity to the work for her departed family members in the future. In our second lesson, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of Wisdom. When we talked about baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost, she burst out saying, "I am ten times more excited than anyone else was when they got baptized!" And when we discussed the Word of Wisdom, she said, "I am even going to throw away my last case of caffeinated soda!" She is just so excited and more than that, WILLING to do all and more than our Heavenly Father has asked of us.

We had a break-through lesson with Sandra this week and she is in full swing to start coming back to church and prepare to be baptized. We suggested the date of September 28th to be baptized and she said that she would pray about it this week. At church yesterday, she asked me again is the 28th of September still worked, and I replied yes, of course and she said she would have an answer for us this week. My suspicion is that she will say yes. She mentioned that she has been talking to her brother in Salt Lake and he is the one who had planned to baptize her previously, so I think that she will say yes. However I am a little afraid to count my chickens before they hatch, not going to lie...But she is getting involved in the ward which is great. She is planning to come to our ward service project on Saturday and a member of our ward invited us to have our lesson this week at her house as soon as she heard us confirming our plans with Sandra for the week. Yay for members that step up to the call of being everyday missionaries!!

We were excited to have Bennett show up at church finally. We spoke in Sacrament meeting and is was kind of fun to be sitting on the stand and she him mosey in with a big grin on his face as the meeting started. We didn't get to talk to him after Priesthood Meeting, but he mentioned to some of his friends in his ward that he enjoyed himself and was learning a lot and looked forward to coming back. We hope to follow up with him in the next few days. Hopefully his wife will decide to come next week as well.

The first counselor in our bishopric asked us to speak on Tuesday night, but didn't give us a topic to speak on, so I chose to speak on the Book of Mormon. It was a great opportunity for me to reflect on why the Book of Mormon is so important and my own testimony. As I prepared, I asked God for another witness that the Book of Mormon is true and received the quiet assurance that my testimony is correct. I realized that I have never had a big experience with the Book of Mormon and that I likely will not, but small, almost unrecognizable answer that I received was enough. The Lord told me as I prayed, "You know, Cherise. You know."  I am thankful for that knowledge.

My favorite passage that I read during my personal study this week was in Alma chapter 5, verse 33. The first thirty verses or so of the chapter really called me to repentance and I had some fear struck into my heart. But verse 33 abated all those fears and spoke beautiful peace to my soul. I could almost hear the Savior pleading and letting me know that there was way prepared for all of us imperfect people. It reads, "Behold, he sendeth this invitation unto men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you." What a beautiful admonition and promise from our Savior: Repent, and I will receive you.

Love ya lots!
Sister Turley

PS--A lot of times I will get on lds.org when I am writing these letters and listen to music and today there was a link to an article about the Preston England Pageant and a place to listen to the music from it. So, I have been enjoying the music from that this morning and I think I have another bucket list item. Someday, I will be in the British Pageant. I am truly grateful for the opportunity I had to be in the Nauvoo Pageant. It did a lot for my testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel and Joseph Smith. I hope I can squeeze that into my plans somewhere in the future and have a similar experience. And hopefully do some family history research while I am there and pick up where some of the lines leave off.

From left to right: Sister Slade, Sister Turley, Elder Woods, Elder DeVictoria, Elder Lorenzen (from Mesa), Elder O'Barr (from Gilbert)

Here is a picture of my district from last transfer at Deception Pass. Unfortunately I have failed with taking pictures recently, but hopefully I will be able to get a good one with Elder Bloomfield this week at Zone Conference in Bellingham...

WEM--Sister Turley (said in a British accent...for some reason, that is the cool thing to do when people read my name tag?)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a week of miracles. We met or exceeded almost all of our goals, for the first time in my mission. We taught 17 lessons and had three investigators at church. Hooray for Toad!

One of the highlights of our week was a lesson with a woman named Darlene. We just finished teaching her recently reactivated husband, Everet, a few weeks ago. We had dinner with them before the lesson and Sister Slade asked them what was left on their "bucket lists." Everet responded by saying, "Go to the temple!" and Darlene responded with, "be baptized!" We let her know that we could help her with that :). After dinner, we taught the Restoration and the Spirit was tangible during the entire lesson. It was awesome! She shared with us her tender testimony that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and that she knows that the Church is true. We invited her to be baptized and she said, "Absolutely yes! I would love to!" And when we suggested the date August 24th, she was so excited. "I can be baptized that soon!? I would love to!" It was just such a tender moment with the Spirit. We were all crying tears of joy. I am so excited for Darlene and Everet! She was one of our investigators at church yesterday (for the third time).

We also invited Chuck to baptized. He didn't respond to the invitation yes or no. When he is not sure about something, he just doesn't respond. But we heard from his wife, Sam, yesterday at Church that he told her following the lesson he almost said yes. I am grateful that he is contemplating participating in that sacred ordinance. He is making such strides. He still has a lot to learn and develop faith in, but he is progressing. He was also one of three at church yesterday.

Our last investigator at church yesterday was Tiffany. She had said that she would be at church during both of the lessons that we had with her this week, but she asked us to call her on Sunday to remind her and coordinate where to meet her before the meetings began. We called twice and had no answer and I don't think her voicemail has been changed from the last individual that had that number, so we weren't sure if we had gotten her or not--it was a man's voice. So, we decided to drive out to her house and knock on her door to invite her to join us. She was still in her nightgown, but she accepted and met us at the church about a half hour later. She really enjoyed it! And she wasn't afraid to ask questions during our Gospel Principles lesson and the members of the class all offered answers by the Spirit that she really identified with. Such a miracle! And the lesson in Relief Society was on Personal Revelation, which she had asked us about in our lesson with her on Friday. It was so perfectly catered to her. Afterwards, she said that she was even going to try to bring her husband next week. What just took the cake was that her husband's son attended church with the Zone Leaders again in the YSA ward.

Sandra told us this week that she is ready to try again. She admitted to us that she knew that Satan was working really hard on her and she didn't want to allow him to run her life. When we were talking, she said "when I get baptized..." not "if I get baptized." I know that the Lord will help her in this decision, but we will definitely have to make sure she realizes it.

I finally got to the book of Alma in my personal study this week. I was reading in chapter four this morning, and had a rather profound experience with verse 19 (Lari). At this time, Alma has just given up the judgment seat and is concentrating his efforts more fully on establishing and strengthening the Church. In verse 19, he explains that he saw "no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them." My thought upon reading that was literally, "whoa." I know that it is true though. I know that the true teacher is the Spirit and the best way to invite and feel the Spirit is to testify of truth. I know that when I share my personal testimony and experiences, the Spirit is present much more powerfully than any other time. If you want to share the Gospel, share your testimony. Just before President Wilson went home, he added another book to our approved mission library. It is entitled, The Power of Everyday Missionaries and it was written by Clay Christensen with input from friends and members. It is a book for members on how to do missionary work. I am not very far into it, but you should all read it. It tells us HOW to do missionary work. We all want to but this book tells us how to do it in easy, nonthreatening ways and it is awesome.

Ok, quick funny story from Relief Society. We were talking about Revelation and one woman shared that the Spirit will always lead us down the path we need to go. She was explaining that in her life, the Lord had never allowed her to go too far on an incorrect path without stopping her and directing her otherwise. Then this funny old lady that cracks me up, piped up and said, "It like a GPS! (electronic voice) 'Recalculating.' Loved it.

Well, I love you all and hope it is another great week!
Sister Turley

PS--Recently the Church changed the policies on missionaries emailing people outside of our families. We got the go-ahead to email everyone! So, feel free to shoot me an email when you get the chance. My address is cherise.turley(at)myldsmail.net. However, our computer time is limited, so please send me a return address so I can get back to you via snail mail.