Assomadaaaa

Boa Tarde!

Little side note before my email: I just got my `trunky call´ about an hour ago! They are scheduling my end date as Nov. 11 (less than 3 months!!!!) The mission office is requesting my travel to be booked and I will be receiving my itinerary probably a month or so before I will leave. That is so soon, crazy!

Okay so this week ... sounds like you guys are having way worse weather than here! Way humid here- so much so that my hair is still damp from my shower this morning. Yep. And REAL hot with some spotty rain. Well our flight off of Boa Vista got delayed and changed several times so we did not get in to Praia until Wednesday night. Had a sentimental last flight into the island of Santiago, next time I fly it will be to leave. We passed through my old area Mount Vermelho bem rapido and visited some of my favorite members like Mama and Eugenio! The next day had a big training on well, oddly enough, training. We met our companions and I am training Sister Coelho from Lisboa, Portugal! She is happy to be serving and is already doing a great job! The training was really good and just got me even more excited to use the 12 week program with Sister Coelho. Before all of us smashing into a Hiace to go to Assomada we stopped by a gas station and guess what we found? Pecan Haagen Daz ice cream!! Haha we ate that on the way.

Us in the car

So now for our area - This time I am in a different area than last year. Our area includes Nhagar, Boa Entrada (straight up switch backs like hiking the Y!) and Achada Gomes (also a hike and so pretty! I will send pictures in the future). Also I don´t think I mentioned that there haven´t been sisters here in almost a month so we are white washing the area. This is the 4th consecutive white wash of my mission! Hahaha I guess it is just always the will of Heavenly Father to have me white wash. Well anywho I think this has been the smoothest so far. Most of the members have been really helpful in showing us around the area and giving us LOTS of references too. We talked to our bishop/ward mission leader for an over an hour our first day here and he was so helpful in showing where there is need in the ward, and potential investigators. I am really looking forward to working here the last part of my mission! Yesterday at church we got to meet even more members and families here and I just know I am going to love the people of Assomada. And I love Assomada because I get to eat mangoes and fresh fruit all the days. muhaha! Training is also a sweet experience because I too get to review and re-evaluate where I am and learn what I need to do to improve. That will be a skill l know I will be able to use all my life.

I just have to say that I love the mission. And when I think about why? The answer is because of my increased testimony, the habits I have created that will be a blessing the rest of my life and the abundance of the Spirit I have felt especially in seeing other accept the gospel. And I know these things are available to anyone who does any type of missionary work. Whether it is in the full time field, in temple and family history work, or most importantly in the walls of our own homes. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ and He is the one directing this work because it truly is His.The work of salvation. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Sister Turner

This bread stuff is cous cous

Seth, the shoe cobbler in Boa Vista

Mama and Eugenio in Praia

Maracuja, mango and papaya in Assomada

TRANSFER 11

** PBA (public blog announcement)**

** Sister Turner (me) is in her 11th transfer. **

WHAT THE?!?! Who knows how that even happened. I will have one more transfer and then that is it ... Before I get to our week and everything, the big news is:
Both Sister Goss and I are going to be trainers this transfer! Sister Goss is staying here in Boa Vista to train a sister coming from the provo MTC. That sister is so lucky she is going to love Boa Vista and Sis. Goss! This has been one of my favorite areas of my mission and I am going to miss it and the people terribly. Oh yeah did I mention that I am getting transferred too? BACK TO ASSOMADA! Hahaha yep this will be Assomada round 2 for me! I was there at this time (rainy season) last year for just a couple weeks though. My companion is going to be a sister from Portugal and I am excited to be training my last two transfers! Sister Goss and I are both flying to Praia on Wednesday to have a trainer´s meeting and then pick up our greenies. These days I heard it has been raining non stop in Assomada... so pretty soon I will be a very soggy sister. But I will be a happy because 1). Assomada is a sweet area and 2). training again will be great and I am positive I will learn a lot and 3). they have tons of avocados! yum.

That is great that Brandon is engaged, tell him that I said congratulations! And Amanda is getting home so soon too! And speaking of marriage Sister Turley is getting married this week! Yay we are so excited for her and Daniel!

Thank you for the prayers! We have been lucky to have very little rain in Boa Vista this week so things are doing okay. Funny story: so Sister Goss has been waiting for rain her whole mission. We walk out of district meeting on Saturday morning and it had rained. She just stood on the wet ground and said ´What a joke!´ Teheehee I just laughed, but she was actually upset! Haha!

I hit my 15 month mark and sister made m&m oatmeal pancakes that were to die for. I will be seeing you guys in just 3 months! I love you!

Sounds like you had a lot busier of a week than us! I hope things get better at work, I will pray. We spent most of our week in Sal for zone conference. It is hard to be away from your area and all the people but it was a good visit to Sal. We got to do divisions with Sister Zimbleman and she is a great sister! She is only in her 1st transfer and doing so well. She is a friend of Gare´s brother Brendan so that was a fun connection. Speaking of Zone conference and that activity ... the power was out in the church building. Unfortunately they couldn´t use the TV to show the slide show. Thank you for sending those though! Even more unfortunate was that the AC also didn´t work obviously. I fanned myself literally the entire meeting, SO HOT!!!! It is okay we survived and did have a really going conference. Some of my favorite things that we talked about was 1). teaching clearly and simple the steps of repentance and that it is a life long process. 2). Helping our investigators and members be more independent. Not independent from the Lord but in the sense that they don´t need us as much pushing them to do all the things they need to. But to just help them use their agency more wisely and out of their own desire. I didn´t say that very well sorry. The translation from portuguese to english is still a struggle sometimes. I think you get what I mean though.

My last weekend here was good. On Saturday we had a branch BBQ that was lots of fun and a lot of people came out to it. On Sunday our recent convert Tchinha gave his talk and he did really well! It was so sweet to see how much he has progressed in these couple of months. Oh man I am going to miss Boa Vista. I love the branch here, the members, President Andrade and Jackie, they are all so awesome and have been a huge blessing to me. At times it is hard to say goodbye but I will always keep these people in my heart. I will not forget the miracles I witnessed here. And I know that Heavenly Father will continue to take care of them.
Love,
Sister Turner

us in Sal

BBQ

Myself with Nilton and Indira

us with President Andrade & Jackie

Ups and downs in Boa Vista!

Hello! Thank you so much for sending the pictures and video of the mission call opening! We are flying to Sal tomorrow for zone conference and I will be able to use the pictures for the activity they are doing so thanks again!

The weather there sounds like what we are heading into here... the past several days have been way overcast (AND SO HUMID) we are just waiting for rain any time now. But rain in Boa Vista is not a very good thing if it is strong. Tons of peoples homes will flood and this one area of the city called Baraca will pretty much turn into a giant puddle and cause a lot of problems for the people there. Their homes are made out of some cinder blocks but also pieces of wood, tin and plastic so basically they don´t handle the rain at all... Also there is an outlet that drains the water from about half the island into the ocean. And the road that connects to the airport and the big hotels goes over it. Last year they built a bridge over it and the rain was so bad the water rose so much that it washed away the whole bridge! One of our investigators past 15 days stuck at his work because there was no way to get back. It´s bad. They have been constructing another bridge and everyone is praying they finish before rainy season hits AND that it is stronger than the last bridge... pray for them please. We will let you know how it goes!

Also I don´t know how much you guys have heard about that EBOLA virus in west africa. So far there have been no cases in Cabo Verde so hopefully it stays that way!

This week was... rough. One of the biggest struggles we have had in a while with not being able to find our investigators or less actives or even members! Summer time here is also a busy time just like at home. We have been praying so much and especially to have patience as we keep searching for the people that the Lord is preparing to receive the gospel. I absolutely love teaching. The struggle is when we can´t find people to teach! But we have been asking for references a lot and hopefully that will start bearing some fruits soon. Even amidst trial I am always trying to count the blessings. For starters: Sister Goss is awesome. I really do enjoy serving with her. She is a great missionary and we have a lot of fun times! She is patient with me :) ... (I will explain more in a minute). Also we had the neat experience to help our recent convert Tchinha prepare to give his first talk. He was so nervous when he received the assignment and was so frustrated too! But thankfully the Spirit guided us to know how to help and use the scriptures to help him understand his topic. Now that he has studied more he just keeps saying how it is going to be so easy and he will be able to give lots of talks in the future too! Okay and here is the part about patience. Tchina found these sea shells for us when he was lobster diving. He had a friend of his trim it so you can blow into it and kind of turn it into a horn. I was so excited to get this and turns out I don´t do it well. At all. OR so I thought. I was playing around with it today and figured out you don´t blow air into like at instrument, it is more like a mega phone! And it was rediculously loud! SOOOO for a solid half an hour I was singing all the most random hymns and making sound effects and laughing and crying it was so much fun!!! Hahaha sister Goss was just laughing even though I was being so obnoxious! She said there is a reason you have to find them all the way on the bottom of the ocean- God was trying to hide them from his children so they will not annoy him! Haha now shell shell has an awesome sea shell to bring home. :)

Okay I hope everyone has a good week and will find the joy in the little blessings the Lord gives us. Read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday! These two simple things will honestly do miracles. I love you!


-Sister Turner

August!!

Kade Happy Birthday!! And congratulations to mom and dad too!! Kade I sent you an email so make sure you open your email to find it! Hope you had a good day! p.s. on the note of birthday´s... did tim-tim or grandma ever get my birthday letters? I don´t know how much I can trust the mail on boa vista... Arizona looked like lots of fun Dad and Tim, I enjoyed all the pictures too from Josh´s baptism! Congratulations to you Josh and Haliey on your baptisms. I hope your day was very special.

Yeah so July went by in a blink literally. I feel like it was translated buh dun tch ;) haha but really from july´s fast sundayto yesterday´s fast sunday felt like nothing.
This week just flew by and I am just going to give a little update on Nilton and Indira´s progress.
1. THEY ARE AWESOME!
2. We taught them about obedience and then later in the week about chastity and marriage and it was great. The scriptures and the family proclamation are so clear about what God´s true standard is for the family. They were showing some signs of worry about getting married ´so young´ (they are in their late twenties). And I understand because they honestly have so few examples of good, righteous marriages here, in Boa Vista especially. But we just were straight forward with them and explained if they want to be obedient to this commandment they will prepare to get married as soon as possible. And we testified of the examples of our familes and friends who are sealed in the temple and how blessed we are! Nilton was already asking how they would be able to get to the temple! haha calma! But after the lesson we ran into Indira a few minutes later in a little shop and she told us after we left their house Nilton asked her if she wanted to marry him!!! We were screaming and jumping and so excited when she told us!! Seriously for people here to want to get married requires a miracle. Or just the Holy Ghost really! But yeah we are so excited for them and they are just doing great right now still coming to activities and to church. Our branch president is being a huge help too since we literally only have 2 married couples in our branch. And speaking of that President Luis and Jackie are going to the temple in Brazil this week to get sealed! Then we will have one sealed couple yay! Okay so this is ending kind of randomly but that was the highlight of the week. :)

com amor,
Sister Turner