Dear Family and Friends,
This week has been a great week! I love Sister Wright. I can definitely see that she may be one that needs some help, but that will not be a problem. We do get along well and I am grateful to have her as my companion. She does not take herself too seriously, which is great. I need to be with someone like her so I can handle some of the trials that I find myself facing. Thank you!
We had a good heart-to-heart with Dominick on Saturday and he said that he really wants to get baptized and we asked him what we needed to do to help him be baptized sooner rather than later. We went over the interview questions with him again to help him do a self-inventory. He agreed to fast on Sunday and make a list and we will all work together to check off all the things on the list. We are thinking of a date in May to have him prepare for. He really wants a date to work towards because he said he was really motivated last time he had a date. We just want to make sure that he will feel confident with the date that we set and that it will REALLY REALLY happen this time.
We got a new investigator this week named Gwen. She is a funny, older, black lady that can sure talk your ear off. She is a joy though. She has been going to the family history center regularly for the last several weeks and calls us her "angels" for directing her how to get there and who to get in touch with. She attended the General Women's Broadcast on Saturday and just loved it. Now we just need to get to her to church. And watch General Conference!
This week in my studies I finished the Doctrine and Covenants!!!! Here are some of my favorite things that I learned: (1) You can tell the sections that are direct revelation from the Lord and those that are accounts of events or exhortations written by men. The wording of the Lord is clear and simple and easy to understand. The Lord delights in plainness! Whereas, the sections that are written by people are more difficult and take more than on read. (2) I loved a statement by Wilford Woodruff in Official Declaration 1. It was something that I had been pondering as golden prospects keep seeming to get pushed off by a week, or two weeks, etc. He said: "The Lord had decreed the establishment of Zion. . . And Almighty God decreed that the Devil should not thwart it." I determined that Satan can sure slow down the work, but he will never stop it. That is a great comfort to me as we have faced some slow work lately. But it hasn't been stopped and it won't be stopped on the Lord's watch.
Love you lots!
Sister Turley
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
Transfers News--S. Turley in the WEM
Dear Family and Friends,
We just got transfer calls and I am staying in Mt. Vernon for transfer number four. Sister Holt is being transferred. Not gonna lie, I am super excited to have a new comp! I will also no longer be serving as a Sister Training Leader. I will be a "regular" missionary for the first time in my mission! It is a bit of a relief, but hopefully my new companion and I can keep ourselves busy, because exchanges have been such a tender mercy for me to get out of the area about once a week. It has been a discouraging area, but here's to a new transfer and actually SEEing some success! I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve as an STL because I have learned so much from the Sisters that I have been allowed to serve. They have helped me to become a much better missionary that I would have been by myself. They have helped to train me, since I got jipped six weeks when I was a new missionary, haha. But seriously, I am so grateful.
Our new investigator, Crystal, accepted the invitation to be baptized, but didn't set a date because she is expecting a baby on April 10 (my one year mark!). She does not want to come to church until after then, because she is afraid she will have her baby at any moment. Which, I understand, but she can leave church to have a baby with no problem. We will let her. We will continue to teach her until the baby comes and hopefully we can keep her going!
We do have one very great prospect! His name is Dan and his wife is a member. He approached the Bishop last Sunday and asked what he needs to do to become a member of the church. We have our first lesson with him on Thursday with the Bishop and his wife!
I actually found a good scripture (section) this week to help me cope with the area. It is Doctrine and Covenants 111:8, 10-11. They read: "And the place where it is my will that you should tarry, for the main, it shall be signalized unto you by the peace and power of my Spirit, that shall flow unto you./ For there are more treasures than one for you in this city. Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin; and I will order all things for your good, as fast as ye are able to receive them." I will continue to pray that I will be able to love the area and be able to have the Spirit direct me here. And that I will be wise enough to receive and recognize success. I love the promise that there are more treasures that one. I am still searching for those treasures, but I have faith that eventually, we will have success like we can't believe. And that we won't have enough time to teach everyone!
Hope you are doing well, and pray for me!
Sister Turley
We just got transfer calls and I am staying in Mt. Vernon for transfer number four. Sister Holt is being transferred. Not gonna lie, I am super excited to have a new comp! I will also no longer be serving as a Sister Training Leader. I will be a "regular" missionary for the first time in my mission! It is a bit of a relief, but hopefully my new companion and I can keep ourselves busy, because exchanges have been such a tender mercy for me to get out of the area about once a week. It has been a discouraging area, but here's to a new transfer and actually SEEing some success! I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve as an STL because I have learned so much from the Sisters that I have been allowed to serve. They have helped me to become a much better missionary that I would have been by myself. They have helped to train me, since I got jipped six weeks when I was a new missionary, haha. But seriously, I am so grateful.
Our new investigator, Crystal, accepted the invitation to be baptized, but didn't set a date because she is expecting a baby on April 10 (my one year mark!). She does not want to come to church until after then, because she is afraid she will have her baby at any moment. Which, I understand, but she can leave church to have a baby with no problem. We will let her. We will continue to teach her until the baby comes and hopefully we can keep her going!
We do have one very great prospect! His name is Dan and his wife is a member. He approached the Bishop last Sunday and asked what he needs to do to become a member of the church. We have our first lesson with him on Thursday with the Bishop and his wife!
I actually found a good scripture (section) this week to help me cope with the area. It is Doctrine and Covenants 111:8, 10-11. They read: "And the place where it is my will that you should tarry, for the main, it shall be signalized unto you by the peace and power of my Spirit, that shall flow unto you./ For there are more treasures than one for you in this city. Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin; and I will order all things for your good, as fast as ye are able to receive them." I will continue to pray that I will be able to love the area and be able to have the Spirit direct me here. And that I will be wise enough to receive and recognize success. I love the promise that there are more treasures that one. I am still searching for those treasures, but I have faith that eventually, we will have success like we can't believe. And that we won't have enough time to teach everyone!
Hope you are doing well, and pray for me!
Sister Turley
Monday, March 17, 2014
Where in Mt. Vernon is the speed limit not 25 MPH?
Answer: School zones. Then it's 20...
Dear Family and Friends,
So remember how we found six new investigators last week? Well, we lost five of them this week and Bailey. I am pooped. I am just so tired of going the extra mile and still not being able to find. Thankfully we have a great new investigator from last week that we are hopeful will be baptized in the coming months. Our mission president uses an analogy a lot in training that he calls the "fat escalator." Basically it means get as many people to take the lessons and progress as you can and keep finding more while you do that to keep the escalator filled. This is instead of an elevator where you have some people and you focus all your efforts on them and they get baptized and then you have to start all over again. Our elevator seems to be bulimic. We get a bunch of investigators all at once and then it spits them all off. I don't know what to do. I have done everything that I know how to do and everything that the Lord has seen fit to instruct me to do. And I just keep hoping that brute force will eventually yield results. It doesn't matter how long or how hard I work though. It is just frustrating.
Dominick is still progressing, which is a miracle. He has been coming to church regularly and is really motivated to complete his Community Service and also find a job. Hopefully those two things will help him stay out of trouble. He is a good kid. I am hoping that we can put him on date soon.
Our great new investigator is named Crystal. She is about 35ish years old and has a 16 year old and 12 year old son, and she is expecting a baby girl on April 10th. The Visa Waiters that are with the Zone Leaders were looking for a less active member that used to live at that address and found Crystal instead. We taught her about the Book of Mormon this week and had a church tour on Saturday. She even dragged her teenage sons along. They attended church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. Our bishop's wife offered to take her to the Relief Society Birthday Dinner that is happening in our ward this Tuesday and she was really excited about it. We hope we can keep her going through the baby!
This week in my study I read a little bit in the Doctrine and Covenants about the Saints in Missouri being persecuted and the Lord letting it happen because they were not listening to Him. I am afraid that is what is happening right now for us...But I read some good verses to help me change that. One was D&C 103:7 "And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever," and also verse 20 in the same section. "But I say unto you: Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land." From verse 7 I learned that I need to listen better and be more obedient. And if I do, that promise and the promise of the "goodly land" in verse 20 can happen. If we do all we can, we will eventually inherit the goodly land, which in my case/missionaries' case would be to have a lot of success and baptisms in the area in which we serve. One of these days. I also needed Luke 17:32 which I read this morning. It states: "Remember Lot's wife." That's it. Short and powerful. Or in other words, don't look back at what has been done or what could have happened or dwell on things from home or other things that keep you from doing God's work. It is so hard not to let things become discouraging or want to go home all the time. I am praying that I can do better and be better. I hope that by the end of my mission I will have mastered being a "good and faithful servant" and that the Lord and I can be proud of what I have done.
Love you lots! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Sister Turley
Dear Family and Friends,
So remember how we found six new investigators last week? Well, we lost five of them this week and Bailey. I am pooped. I am just so tired of going the extra mile and still not being able to find. Thankfully we have a great new investigator from last week that we are hopeful will be baptized in the coming months. Our mission president uses an analogy a lot in training that he calls the "fat escalator." Basically it means get as many people to take the lessons and progress as you can and keep finding more while you do that to keep the escalator filled. This is instead of an elevator where you have some people and you focus all your efforts on them and they get baptized and then you have to start all over again. Our elevator seems to be bulimic. We get a bunch of investigators all at once and then it spits them all off. I don't know what to do. I have done everything that I know how to do and everything that the Lord has seen fit to instruct me to do. And I just keep hoping that brute force will eventually yield results. It doesn't matter how long or how hard I work though. It is just frustrating.
Dominick is still progressing, which is a miracle. He has been coming to church regularly and is really motivated to complete his Community Service and also find a job. Hopefully those two things will help him stay out of trouble. He is a good kid. I am hoping that we can put him on date soon.
Our great new investigator is named Crystal. She is about 35ish years old and has a 16 year old and 12 year old son, and she is expecting a baby girl on April 10th. The Visa Waiters that are with the Zone Leaders were looking for a less active member that used to live at that address and found Crystal instead. We taught her about the Book of Mormon this week and had a church tour on Saturday. She even dragged her teenage sons along. They attended church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. Our bishop's wife offered to take her to the Relief Society Birthday Dinner that is happening in our ward this Tuesday and she was really excited about it. We hope we can keep her going through the baby!
This week in my study I read a little bit in the Doctrine and Covenants about the Saints in Missouri being persecuted and the Lord letting it happen because they were not listening to Him. I am afraid that is what is happening right now for us...But I read some good verses to help me change that. One was D&C 103:7 "And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued under my feet, and the earth is given unto the saints, to possess it forever and ever," and also verse 20 in the same section. "But I say unto you: Mine angels shall go up before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land." From verse 7 I learned that I need to listen better and be more obedient. And if I do, that promise and the promise of the "goodly land" in verse 20 can happen. If we do all we can, we will eventually inherit the goodly land, which in my case/missionaries' case would be to have a lot of success and baptisms in the area in which we serve. One of these days. I also needed Luke 17:32 which I read this morning. It states: "Remember Lot's wife." That's it. Short and powerful. Or in other words, don't look back at what has been done or what could have happened or dwell on things from home or other things that keep you from doing God's work. It is so hard not to let things become discouraging or want to go home all the time. I am praying that I can do better and be better. I hope that by the end of my mission I will have mastered being a "good and faithful servant" and that the Lord and I can be proud of what I have done.
Love you lots! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Sister Turley
Monday, March 10, 2014
Adventures in the WEM--S. Turley
Dear Family and Friends,
Yay for miracles! After a long drought in Mt. Vernon, we found six new investigators this week. Four of them are part of a FAMILY. We found all of them tracting but one, who was a referral from the Visa Waiters. We used the new teaching method and were able to get return appointments with all of them and almost all of them prayed. The goal this week is to continue to find more investigators while we get the ones found last week to church. I am starting to love the pamphlet teaching because we really can see where each investigator is individually and what their personal interests and needs are. It makes planning a lot easier, too! In our lesson with Matt (the investigator that said he did not want to come to church) we taught the Plan of Salvation using the pamphlet (unfortunately before our MLC practice, but oh well). He also said that the Plan of Salvation is essentially what he believes, just in different terms. He also shared with us a little more about who he is and what makes him tick. It was exactly what we needed to know to be able to help him! I attribute his willingness to share more about himself to the pamphlet teaching. I firmly believe that since Matt knew we wanted to know what he thought on different topics or saw in the pictures and really wanted him to ask questions, he felt comfortable to share more of where he was and the things that will help him understand and grow. This week we just need to get him to church and help him more fully understand prayer.
Here is a story for you: (Sister Webster, you will appreciate this...)
Friday Sister Turley and Sister Holt went to Marysville for MLC and a special training conference with President Moon of the BYU 10th Stake, who is the brother of Sister Bonham and also works for the Franklin-Covey Institute. They had their regular Mission Leader Council until 3:00pm and then met with some of the other missionaries for a Leadership Training with President Moon at around 3:30. Sister Lawson, who was serving in Oak Harbor 1st was in attendance, which worked out nicely to get her back home since Sister Holt and Sister Turley had an exchange with her and her companion that night anyway. So the three Sisters drove to Mt. Vernon and met up with Sister Lawson's companion and the members that she had been working with for the day at the Stake Center. The Sisters exchanged and Sister Turley and Sister Lawson got in the car to make the trip to good ol' Oak Harbor. The wonderful member that drove us the 45 minute trip dropped the Sisters off at the apartment. They got out of the car and realized, to their dismay, that the keys to the Oak Harbor apartment were still in Mt. Vernon in the other Sisters' pocket. So, Sister Lawson and Sister Turley made calls to the Mission Housing Coordinators, and several of the Building Managers to no avail. The kind man next door did what he could to try to open their apartment door or a window, but the Oak Harbor Sisters were too secure. The District Leader and his companion came over and scaled the balcony and tried to open the sliding glass door, but that was a bust as well. So, the Sisters were homeless at curfew. After some more deliberation and calls to the Mission President, the Sisters were given permission to spend the night with the Oak Harbor 2nd Ward Sisters. Thankfully, the wonderful Military Relations couple, Elder and Sister McArthur, picked up the Sisters (the car keys were also in Mt. Vernon and the bikes were locked in the apartment) and took them to the 2nd Ward apartment and provided them with some extra blankets, toothbrushes and banana bread. Sister Turley and Sister Lawson bunkered down for the night at around 11:00 pm, but after all the excitement (and...the cold floor) they were wired and it was a hopeless case. So, they talked and talked and it was loads of fun. They were lucky that in the morning, many of the good members of the Oak Harbor 1st ward were willing to drive them around the island and sit in on visits with them. They were blessed to hear the powerful and motivating testimonies of many of the members as they visited, drove and shared meals with them. "Bad things happen in the best possible way." It was a great exchange :) A fun time was had by all.
We had a lesson with the Benitez family yesterday where we talked about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies burying the "weapons of their rebellion" and we drew some swords and wrote on them what we wanted to work on or give up to get closer to God and then crumpled them in a ball and disposed of them. Mine was charity. I am really really going to pray to love my companion and everyone else. I have been praying all along, but I am really going to make a concerted effort to care about others.
Our Stake puts on a weekly Addiction Recovery Program class to help those struggling with addictions and their family members. I attended the ARP last week just to see what it was so we could invite more people that we meet with to attend, and I loved it! I want to attend it just for me to cope with regular life! They taught such great tools. I hope that many of our investigators will desire to attend and benefit from it. This weeks' step was giving it up to God. That is so hard for me, but I was inspired by a quote by Reinhold Niebuhr called the "Serenity Prayer" that was shared in the class. Probably most of you have heard it before, but I just felt like it particularly applied to me. It goes like this: "God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." At MLC this week, Sister Bonham also taught about not worrying (they know me too well). She drew a flow chart on the board that also put life into perspective for me. It looked like this:
Brilliant. This is not to say that you shouldn't try and work on problems that you can fix, but you don't need to stress because there is a solution. And with the things that you cannot fix, don't worry about it because you can't do anything about it anyway. I am going to try to live like this this week so I can continue to progress and not get stuck at the "Can I Fix it?" phase.
This is not really from my studies, but it is something that I have learned and tried to internalize from our training meeting with President Moon. When he asked what God thinks of us, I immediately thought of this scripture from my study a few weeks ago. Doctrine and Covenants 67:13 reads "Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected." God sees us as imperfect. Not perfect. Obviously, he knows our potential to become perfect and become like Him. He tells us to continue on in patience and keep working at it. Because He wants to bless us with all that He has, and wants us to appreciate and understand it, He tells us to keep trying and become perfected and He will help us. But he is fully aware that we are flawed. And He is okay with that. He does not condemn us for being mortal (after all, He made us that way). I just love that God is fine with us being imperfect. It doesn't concern him because He already thought of that when He created the Plan. He provided us a Savior so the rest can be made up through Christ if we follow Him.
Love ya lots!
Sister Turley
Yay for miracles! After a long drought in Mt. Vernon, we found six new investigators this week. Four of them are part of a FAMILY. We found all of them tracting but one, who was a referral from the Visa Waiters. We used the new teaching method and were able to get return appointments with all of them and almost all of them prayed. The goal this week is to continue to find more investigators while we get the ones found last week to church. I am starting to love the pamphlet teaching because we really can see where each investigator is individually and what their personal interests and needs are. It makes planning a lot easier, too! In our lesson with Matt (the investigator that said he did not want to come to church) we taught the Plan of Salvation using the pamphlet (unfortunately before our MLC practice, but oh well). He also said that the Plan of Salvation is essentially what he believes, just in different terms. He also shared with us a little more about who he is and what makes him tick. It was exactly what we needed to know to be able to help him! I attribute his willingness to share more about himself to the pamphlet teaching. I firmly believe that since Matt knew we wanted to know what he thought on different topics or saw in the pictures and really wanted him to ask questions, he felt comfortable to share more of where he was and the things that will help him understand and grow. This week we just need to get him to church and help him more fully understand prayer.
Here is a story for you: (Sister Webster, you will appreciate this...)
Friday Sister Turley and Sister Holt went to Marysville for MLC and a special training conference with President Moon of the BYU 10th Stake, who is the brother of Sister Bonham and also works for the Franklin-Covey Institute. They had their regular Mission Leader Council until 3:00pm and then met with some of the other missionaries for a Leadership Training with President Moon at around 3:30. Sister Lawson, who was serving in Oak Harbor 1st was in attendance, which worked out nicely to get her back home since Sister Holt and Sister Turley had an exchange with her and her companion that night anyway. So the three Sisters drove to Mt. Vernon and met up with Sister Lawson's companion and the members that she had been working with for the day at the Stake Center. The Sisters exchanged and Sister Turley and Sister Lawson got in the car to make the trip to good ol' Oak Harbor. The wonderful member that drove us the 45 minute trip dropped the Sisters off at the apartment. They got out of the car and realized, to their dismay, that the keys to the Oak Harbor apartment were still in Mt. Vernon in the other Sisters' pocket. So, Sister Lawson and Sister Turley made calls to the Mission Housing Coordinators, and several of the Building Managers to no avail. The kind man next door did what he could to try to open their apartment door or a window, but the Oak Harbor Sisters were too secure. The District Leader and his companion came over and scaled the balcony and tried to open the sliding glass door, but that was a bust as well. So, the Sisters were homeless at curfew. After some more deliberation and calls to the Mission President, the Sisters were given permission to spend the night with the Oak Harbor 2nd Ward Sisters. Thankfully, the wonderful Military Relations couple, Elder and Sister McArthur, picked up the Sisters (the car keys were also in Mt. Vernon and the bikes were locked in the apartment) and took them to the 2nd Ward apartment and provided them with some extra blankets, toothbrushes and banana bread. Sister Turley and Sister Lawson bunkered down for the night at around 11:00 pm, but after all the excitement (and...the cold floor) they were wired and it was a hopeless case. So, they talked and talked and it was loads of fun. They were lucky that in the morning, many of the good members of the Oak Harbor 1st ward were willing to drive them around the island and sit in on visits with them. They were blessed to hear the powerful and motivating testimonies of many of the members as they visited, drove and shared meals with them. "Bad things happen in the best possible way." It was a great exchange :) A fun time was had by all.
We had a lesson with the Benitez family yesterday where we talked about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies burying the "weapons of their rebellion" and we drew some swords and wrote on them what we wanted to work on or give up to get closer to God and then crumpled them in a ball and disposed of them. Mine was charity. I am really really going to pray to love my companion and everyone else. I have been praying all along, but I am really going to make a concerted effort to care about others.
Our Stake puts on a weekly Addiction Recovery Program class to help those struggling with addictions and their family members. I attended the ARP last week just to see what it was so we could invite more people that we meet with to attend, and I loved it! I want to attend it just for me to cope with regular life! They taught such great tools. I hope that many of our investigators will desire to attend and benefit from it. This weeks' step was giving it up to God. That is so hard for me, but I was inspired by a quote by Reinhold Niebuhr called the "Serenity Prayer" that was shared in the class. Probably most of you have heard it before, but I just felt like it particularly applied to me. It goes like this: "God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." At MLC this week, Sister Bonham also taught about not worrying (they know me too well). She drew a flow chart on the board that also put life into perspective for me. It looked like this:
--> No -->
There is a problem --> Can you fix it? Then don't worry about it.
--> Yes -->
Brilliant. This is not to say that you shouldn't try and work on problems that you can fix, but you don't need to stress because there is a solution. And with the things that you cannot fix, don't worry about it because you can't do anything about it anyway. I am going to try to live like this this week so I can continue to progress and not get stuck at the "Can I Fix it?" phase.
This is not really from my studies, but it is something that I have learned and tried to internalize from our training meeting with President Moon. When he asked what God thinks of us, I immediately thought of this scripture from my study a few weeks ago. Doctrine and Covenants 67:13 reads "Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected." God sees us as imperfect. Not perfect. Obviously, he knows our potential to become perfect and become like Him. He tells us to continue on in patience and keep working at it. Because He wants to bless us with all that He has, and wants us to appreciate and understand it, He tells us to keep trying and become perfected and He will help us. But he is fully aware that we are flawed. And He is okay with that. He does not condemn us for being mortal (after all, He made us that way). I just love that God is fine with us being imperfect. It doesn't concern him because He already thought of that when He created the Plan. He provided us a Savior so the rest can be made up through Christ if we follow Him.
Love ya lots!
Sister Turley
Monday, March 3, 2014
S. Turley--Green Eyed Monster in the WEM
Dear Family and Friends,
YAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Emmett got into BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And got his Eagle Project stuff done! Way to go, cute little (big) brother!
I am breaking the commandments and coveting all those who got to see the Cultural Celebration and the Temple Open House and the Dedication. I AM SO JEALOUS! But, I am really excited that it will be ready for me to do sessions in when I get home. Is it possible to download the videos of the celebration and cornerstone and stuff so I can watch it when I get back? I saw that they had links on lds.org. :) That would be a great birthday present ;)
We were in contact with a former investigator, Bill, that is ready to make some changes in his life. Unfortunately, he is most likely moving to the ward next to ours in the next few days, so we will have to let the Elders have him. He did say that he was going to come to our weekly Book of Mormon class this week with our WML who has taken him under his wing. Our WML had him over for dinner last night and Bill sent us text message afterwards saying that he cried all the way home because he has felt God's love so strongly for him over the last few days. It was awesome! Our prayers for Mt. Vernon to be humble have truly worked for Bill, although I do feel a little sad for him that he has had to go through hard trials to get to this point.
Unfortunately, one of our two new investigators stood us up at our lesson. The other said that he was not willing to come to church after our church tour. He said it could possibly change in the future, but he did not want to put it into his schedule yet. It was rather disappointing because our tour was great! And when we were standing at the baptismal font and talked about baptism and the covenants we make, the Spirit was so strong. I don't know how he could not have felt it! He wants to continue the lessons though, so hopefully his viewpoint will change. We pray for him and our other investigators all the time!
We spent a lot of time finding this week and we have some great potential investigators, but we were unable to get any of them the new investigator status. Here's to success on that front this week!
The new teaching method is still rather hard for me, but I think it is just because I still need practice. And I am a control freak. This is really good for me to be able to practice putting off the natural man as Elder Bednar taught us. "Control is the illusion of the natural man. Buckle up."--Elder Bednar. I just need to practice and be patient. I am still gaining a testimony of this new method, but it will come. John 7:17.
This week in my study, I continued my adventure in the Doctrine and Covenants. I loved the counsel I received in Section 62:2-4. To paraphrase, it said: You are not quite finished with your mission, but you done wonderful things and have born great testimony that the angels in heaven are excited about, but you are not done, so keep working. It was a very timely reminder for me because I sometimes get panicky, (1) because I really do miss my family and I want to see them, (2) because I realized that I don't have much time left and I want to actually do some things before I leave! But it was good to remember that I am not finished. It is not the last minute yet, and I HAVE done some good things that even the angels are happy about. I just need to continue in patience and also in faith.
Love you lots! Have a great week!
Sister Turley
YAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Emmett got into BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And got his Eagle Project stuff done! Way to go, cute little (big) brother!
I am breaking the commandments and coveting all those who got to see the Cultural Celebration and the Temple Open House and the Dedication. I AM SO JEALOUS! But, I am really excited that it will be ready for me to do sessions in when I get home. Is it possible to download the videos of the celebration and cornerstone and stuff so I can watch it when I get back? I saw that they had links on lds.org. :) That would be a great birthday present ;)
We were in contact with a former investigator, Bill, that is ready to make some changes in his life. Unfortunately, he is most likely moving to the ward next to ours in the next few days, so we will have to let the Elders have him. He did say that he was going to come to our weekly Book of Mormon class this week with our WML who has taken him under his wing. Our WML had him over for dinner last night and Bill sent us text message afterwards saying that he cried all the way home because he has felt God's love so strongly for him over the last few days. It was awesome! Our prayers for Mt. Vernon to be humble have truly worked for Bill, although I do feel a little sad for him that he has had to go through hard trials to get to this point.
Unfortunately, one of our two new investigators stood us up at our lesson. The other said that he was not willing to come to church after our church tour. He said it could possibly change in the future, but he did not want to put it into his schedule yet. It was rather disappointing because our tour was great! And when we were standing at the baptismal font and talked about baptism and the covenants we make, the Spirit was so strong. I don't know how he could not have felt it! He wants to continue the lessons though, so hopefully his viewpoint will change. We pray for him and our other investigators all the time!
We spent a lot of time finding this week and we have some great potential investigators, but we were unable to get any of them the new investigator status. Here's to success on that front this week!
The new teaching method is still rather hard for me, but I think it is just because I still need practice. And I am a control freak. This is really good for me to be able to practice putting off the natural man as Elder Bednar taught us. "Control is the illusion of the natural man. Buckle up."--Elder Bednar. I just need to practice and be patient. I am still gaining a testimony of this new method, but it will come. John 7:17.
This week in my study, I continued my adventure in the Doctrine and Covenants. I loved the counsel I received in Section 62:2-4. To paraphrase, it said: You are not quite finished with your mission, but you done wonderful things and have born great testimony that the angels in heaven are excited about, but you are not done, so keep working. It was a very timely reminder for me because I sometimes get panicky, (1) because I really do miss my family and I want to see them, (2) because I realized that I don't have much time left and I want to actually do some things before I leave! But it was good to remember that I am not finished. It is not the last minute yet, and I HAVE done some good things that even the angels are happy about. I just need to continue in patience and also in faith.
Love you lots! Have a great week!
Sister Turley
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