Thanksgiving in Sal!!

Oi tudo bom?

Okay so this week a lot of things happened- including a baptism and transfers!
So the elders in our branch got transferred. That means we started teaching their investigators that were progressing and now we are working in the whole area of our branch. It has been a little hectic absorving their area but it has been good and we are receiving more elders in 2 weeks so it will be back to normal. The elders were preparing a man named Djack (just pronounced like jack) for baptism and so we were blessed to get to know him a little bit and help him prepare for his baptism this week. It was really good! haha sorry the pic is really blurry..

Also this week we had a visit from president and sister Oliveira and had interviews with president. It was great to see them and they always bring a great spirit to the missionaries and to the members.

So we also had a small transfer this week. Sister Barros is now serving with me in branch 2 and Sister Brock is serving with Sister Thembo in branch 1! It was great to get to train Sister Brock for 8 weeks, she is an awesome missionary and is going to do so much good. Sister Barros entered the mission the same time as me, but she went to the Brazil mtc so I didn't know her. We have a good time teaching together and she is helping me with my language (Portuguese & Creole) since she is from Cabo Verde!

So today we had a little p-day Thanksgiving with the missionaries in our area. Guess what mom?? I did a make shift brine (as close as I could remember) for the turkey and it actually turned out good! It was a little bit of a struggle because we got locked out of the house and the turkey got over cooked ... but then when we get back in the house to finish some things like the gravy (which I did just like you do = soooo good) we had no more gas to cook!! haha the sisters bought more gas and we just cooked the peach cobbler at the senior couples apartment. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention we received a senior couple, the Smarts, 2 weeks ago and they are so sweet and good to us! Enfim ...the lunch was a success and we have leftover turkey :)

That was just some things from this week. I just want to share Mosiah 2:41, and say that I am not a perfect missionary. I have a lot of weaknesses and things I need to improve. I know though that when we are obedient we are happy and blessed. We are truly so blessed in the gospel. I love you all. The family Thanksgiving party looked great and I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving on Thursday too! Eat lots of cranberry surprise for me!

Ate mais logo!
Love, Sister Turner

Letter from the island of Sal!

Tudo dret?

Oh goodness this is going to be short because we are having serious computer struggles! The man named Jai at the foto place fixed my memory card and I only lost like 50 fotos so it wasn't bad compared to loosing all 1500 of them. But JUST NOW this computer I am only deleted all the photos on my other memory card. serio. por favor pai celestial da-me paciencia.

But also not that much happened this week ...

So the baptismal font had no water on Saturday so we all got in a Hiace and went and had the baptism in the ocean! IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. I mean I am pretty sure if they have beaches in Heaven they look a little something like this. I had more pictures I wanted to send but they got deleted ... but yeah. The baptism was super cool and the spirit was so strong like it always is when a children of God makes their first covenant with their Heavenly Father. 

Analy didn't get baptized. We worked super hard so that was a bummer. 

Also my emails were great this morning, I really needed them! So thanks Mom, Dad, Kade and gare!

Who is the new doctor???????

Brandon´s farewell sounded like it was great! The photos looked great too! He is going to be an awesome missionary. I am going to email him! I want to talk to him about Africa! 

But today I got my ears pierced! Haha it was great! Just a slit pinch and 500 escudos. Sorry the picture isn't great I had another that also got deleted ... 

Also, I read the conference talks and they are so good. Well that's all for this week, I will have more time next week. I love you all immensely and hope you have a great week!

com muito amor,
Sister Turner

Pictures from baptisms on the beach Saturday

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!

6 month mark this week!!

Oi!

Happy Veterans day Grandpa. Thank you for your example of service to our country. I love you!

True story this Friday the 15th of November the year 201, I will hit my 6th month mark in the mission! WHAT! That means 6 months has gone by? Who knew! This time next year I will be home with you guys and eating so much good food! (p.s. as soon as I saw the picture of the pho that Dad sent, I knew exactly what it was and I was so excited to find out it is in Saratoga!) And to put in perspective how quickly a year goes by- this time last year I will filling out my mission papers. Weird.

So I will get the bad news out of the way ... I think my memory card AND my jump drive have a virus. the computers here don´t really have firewalls or spyware. I can still see the pictures of the camera just not in the computer. but its okay my card is full and i just started using another one so hopefully it won´t get a virus on it. But since that one is not working it means the only picture I have to send home is one of cake and cachupa from sister Barro´s birthday this week. I will see if i brought my camera cord and can use it to send pictures next week...

Haha quick funny story- in Relief Society the lesson was in the teachings of the prophet Lorenzo Snow book. It was telling a story about someone who lived in Hull, England. And I did a double take, Hull. Hull? and the next words that automatically popped into my head was ´stop saying Hull!´ hahaha I remembered that Doctor Who line off of the episode Blink! Are you guys enjoying a new season? Is there a new season or did they stop making it so they could wait for their most faithful fan to return?

This week we taught Leila the plan of salvation. First for starters I am so grateful for the plan of salvation, the truths that it holds and the comfort we receive from knowing our purpose in life. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson, all of us could feel it and Leila was crying. When we asked her how she felt she just kept saying that if she had known this before she would not have lived the life she did, and that she knows this is the right path and that the church is true. It was an amazing lesson.

Okay so just to close I want to explain the difference between buying fish in america and buying fish in Cabo Verde.
America- 1. go to Macey´s or Smiths or whatever large grocery place you want.
2. Go to the fish counter and be greet the clean apron wearing employee.
3. Choose which fillet of fish you would like, have it weighed and packaged for you to pay for at the register.
Okay that's all.... now for our we do it here... Cabo Verde- 

1. go out in the street.
2. look for the 12 year old and the random man with a wheel barrow.
3. ask in creole- if under the piece of card board covering the wheel barrow they have tuna.
4. if the answer is yes tell them how many kilos you want and he will take the knife out of his pocket and cut a chunk out of the fish and put it into a grocery bag.
Yep.
I love you all! Have a great week! Thank you for the love, prayers and support!
Sister Turner

cake & cachupa from Sister Barro´s
birthday this past week

Already November!

I can´t believe it is November! I really can´t.

so a few quick things- this computer is bad so this letter with have little to no capitalization, will be short and i will have to send the photos in multiple emails, disculpa!

oh my goodness what even happened this week... it was a pretty normal. the weather will cool down one day and the next be hot again so i really have no idea what season it is!

sister alvarado and her companion sister barbosa arrived because they are opening the area of santa maria! haha and today sister alvarado made me wear her floral jacket beause it reminds her of my floral carpet jacket i bought at d.i., its fun!

oh also i received the poster from the primary! it was so cute i loved it! i loved all the little pictures and note the kids drew it was so fun to get it! thank you primary kids so much!

this week i was feeling pretty stressed and inadequate. we have a lot of work to do in our area, and with training we just have so much and it doesn't seem like there is enough time! but some scriptures and some counsel that helped me were ether 12:27, and to try and realize what the lord is teaching me is these moments that are a little more difficult. even though there are hard days i am always still so grateful to be here and having these learning experiences. the joy that comes from this work makes everything worth it! like yesterday leila's son ienike received his baby blessing during sacrament and it was such a neat experience and the spirit was so strong!

well that really wasn't very much, but we are happy and doing well and i hope every one back home is too!

ate mais logo! tchau!

love, sister p. michelle turner

poster from the KV3 primary

Transfers again!

Boa tarde, oops bom dia. Haha I almost always say boa tarde no matter what time it is. Then I look at my watch say the correct greeting and then the people laugh at me! Seriously happens almost every single day.
So yesterday was transfers and we are staying right here! right here! Actually no sisters are leaving Sal so yeah. We are excited to be staying here and keep working with our investigators and our branch. Our branch is pretty small right now so its not easy but it is neat to see the progress. And I will keep training Sister Brock, but I mostly have no idea what I am doing. BUT with the Spirit she will turn out okay after these next 6 weeks. :)
Thank you for the emails and the pictures! The house is looking so cute, and those flowers you made are gorgeous mom! It looks so ´fally´ there it is kind of strange ... it still is just summer time here. It has been summer for me since May! hahaha speaking of Summer I hope everyone enjoys my tan line ... sim.
So I have not received a package yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do!!
Wow that was a really random email and not very long because I didn't decide what to write about before I came to the computer and this sentence was bad too. But I am sending letters today so those should come in a week or two! And I sent Tim one that should come this week! Things are picking up here, the Lord is blessing us! I will write a better email next week. Enjoy some photos and know that your missionary is always sending love and prayers!!

Ate proxima semana, Amo voces!!
-Sister Turner

My Body and my Brain are confused I think....

Boa Tarde, tudo dret?

Another week flew by here in Sal and it is almost Halloween but the weather feels like summer so my body and my brain are confused I think haha.

We did have a good week. Sister Abreu and Sister Varela were mini missionaries with us waiting for their visas to Brazil. They left this week so we are missing them! My brain is a little scattered right now so I have no promises about how this email will be! Oh but I don´t have my memory card with me so I will send pictures next week.

A neat experience happened on maybe Tuesday? or Wednesday. Well anywho we went to meet our investigator to go with her to the branch activity. But she was not home so then I said well maybe she went to the church for the activity. So we go to the church and the activity really was't that night and she was't there. Okay. So at the church we run into another member and ask him if he will go teaching with us to our next appointment, and he says yeah! Sweet. So we walk over there and our investigator isn't home. But then our Kuku asks the guy who answers the door if we can talk to him for 5 minutes, and he says yes! So that is how we met Elder. We talked to him and taught him about prayer. We found out that he really doesn't know if Jesus Christ is the son of God. We taught him how to pray and invited him to pray about Jesus Christ. It is such an amazing feeling being able to be apart of the process of someone coming to know their Savior. We are going to teach him Tuesday. I´m excited!

On a more shallow note- I found real butter this week. REAL BUTTER. I was pretty ridiculously excited about and the whole grain bread we bought also. I will send a picture next week. I like the food here in Sal, we also have a shwarma place. mmm shwarma. Also the little kids here call us ´touristas!´ and we are teaching them one by one ámi sister!´ haha!

To top off the week Saturday Leila got baptized She is awesome and her baptism was so neat. All weekend we had been praying so much that she would feel the spirit at her baptism. And when she got out of the font she just stood there for a moment with her face in her towel. She was crying and feeling the Spirit soooo much! We asked how she felt and was saying it was just the most amazing feeling and that she knows that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. And she knows this is the right path that she must follow. It was a sweet experience we were so happy for her. She is a strong lady. She has absolutely no family here in Sal and she is raising her son on her own. We know the gospel will bless her life. Also Sunday when she was confirmed it was really neat. :)

Hmm I think that is all for this week. But I will leave you all with my testimony that I know this is God´s work and He love´s each one of us individually. Ate next week!

Love,
Your missionary Sister Turner

Still alive!

Boa tarde! Tudo bem? Espero que todas de voces estao bem e feliz!

So good news I can speak portuguese and mais ou menos understand creole! I don't even know how it happened but the gift of tongues is real and the Lord has blessed me so much with the language. I really do think it is strange because when I came here 3 months ago I distinctly remember not to being able to understanding a thing! Haha it is good that the language isn't my biggest worry anymore because there are so many other things to worry about!

I think that is the biggest difference with training/being the senior comp: responsibility. And lots of it! It is good because I am learning a lot but also it is definetly not easy. Sister Brock is awesome though so that helps a ton! We are doing work here in Sal branch 2. Ronisse was baptized on Saturday and she was so happy! Our area is pretty big, well compared to Assomada and Sao Filipe. Yesterday before church we walked all the way out to Alta Santa Cruz which is 30 minutes away out in the desert and is literally just little shanty huts. And realized how much of a twit I am and forgot my name tag! HOW EMBARRASSING! We then practically RAN back to the house and then to the church and got in right at ten o´clock! I was so grateful that the room where we have sacrament has air conditioning because I was sweating just a little bit....

Also it is weird that it is mid october. And I am wearing sun block. And still getting sunburned. And my watch tan line is pretty spectacular. Other piece of good news- fresh tuna here is only 500 escudos a kilo. We are having cru tomorrow!

This week we had zone conference and it was amazing just like all of them are. Sister Benedict, Gretchen´s friend, gave a training about how commandments are how God shows His love for us and when we are obedient we show our love for God. It was so good we are so lucky to have the Benedict's with us here in Sal. The picture is super blurry but those are all the sisters from the island of Sal and Boa Vista!

Haha so about my arm ... I went to the hospital. But if Grandpa saw it he probably wouldn't call it a hospital at all really. It wasn't bad it is just not quite like the hospitals I knew and love back home. Well anywho I went because the bruise was still big and my arm was kind of yellow ish after over a week. So they prescribed an antibiotic, anti-inflamatory and some sort of cream to help with the bruise. So I have been doing that for a couple days and it is good! Almost all better!

All the construction is Grandma´s kitchen sure sounds like fun I am sad I am missing out! And I loved that it was crazy about the thunder I can't believe it shook the house and dished fell. Haha Mom! I hope you want to do a lot of weddings when I get back ... because I brag to all the sisters about your awesome flowers and they are all asking if you will do their weddings! :) I haven't gotten any packages yet ... but I still have hope! Hmm I will think of somethings and let you know next week! Thank you so so so much!

Mom thank you so much for doing the blog. I know that if anything ever happens to my journal or my camera I will still have the blog! The one hour we get every week to email is always so wonderful. I love hearing from everyone and getting pictures and knowing that normal life is still happening! Even though I am on this tiny little flat sandy island that is far away, I feel my love for you guys growing more and more. I am so blessed. And christmas is soon so we will talk on the phone in just over two months!
Eu amo voces mais que voces podem imaginar!!
Tchau!
-Sister Turner

 Ronisse was baptized on Saturday

All the Sisters from the island of Sal and Boa Vista!

 Almost all better! (haha, mom says not!)

Beautiful sunset