17 months! And a long email!

Good afternoon from here in Cabo Verde!

Sounds like the week was good and that the house is coming along nicely. I can´t wait to see it and even more so all of you! This week had some interesting experiences not of all which I will share right now. Seriously you all might get tired of listening to me talk when I get home!

On wednesday I got to do splits with my old companion Sister Valenzuela. Yep it was great time and we had tuna kru for lunch! What are the chances that also wednesday was our 17th month mark?? Crazy how fast it has gone. We had a good time teaching and reminiscing about old times!

Irma Das Neves left for Portugal this week to get medical treatment and we are surely going to miss her! Her testimony is amazing and we are so excited she wil get to go to the temple in spain. One of the humblest people I have ever met.

I have to be honest that it has not been all rainbows (we only saw one!) and cherry blossoms here in Assomada.

Thankfully things have been really well with my companion sister coehlo, she is awesome and she gets funnier every day. But our ward is having struggles right now. It seems that a similar concern has arouse amongst several members. I can´t even imagine how bad it must be in the states, but even here in little tiny cabo verde people are coming across lots of material that is causing them to question their testimonies. I have been reflecting a lot these past couple days. All the persecution and rumors don´t make me doubt the truthfullness of the restored gospel, it makes me believe even more. There must be oppositon to righteousness. Are these not the words of the prophets being fulfilled? From General conference in April Elder Andersen shared this:
"..the world will not glide calmly toward the Second Coming of the Savior." The scriptures declare that “all things shall be in commotion.” Brigham Young said, “It was revealed to me in the commencement of this Church, that the Church would spread, prosper, grow and extend, and that in proportion to the spread of the Gospel among the nations of the earth, so would the power of Satan rise.”

More concerning than the prophesied earthquakes and wars are the spiritual whirlwinds that can uproot you from your spiritual foundations and land your spirit in places you never imagined possible, sometimes with your barely noticing that you have been moved!
And that was the same conclusion that I was led too. These people and organizations are not fighting to destroy the church, they will not will win that battle. But as Pres. Monson said- "the war for the souls of men is raging. And Satan will use any and every tactic possible to mislead the children of God from reaching their diving potential". I feel that we as members of the true church have to turn that phrase around a bit. Are we doing everything and using all the tactics possible to stregthen our spiritual protection that is our testimonies? If we are not then we need to make changes. Not necessarily huge things but it is the small things that make the difference. And thinking about this I personally have realized areas that I need to improve.

I can not say it enough times. I know for myself through the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God. Both of them appeared to the young Joseph to iniate this great work in these last days. Everything good in my life has stemmed from the fact that we are members of the true church. I am so grateful for your examples mom and dad, and I only want the very best for everyone in our family. I love you all so much. Please keep fighting every. single. day.

Love, Sister Turner