Hello beautiful people,
I hope that you all are happy and healthy ! I hit my 13th month mark on Saturday and I can’t believe it ! I marked the day with losing my camera and camera case that includes all the photos and documents from my mission. Needless to say, I was frustrated with myself because I constantly lose items with sentimental value. I did not understand how it happened, but I know that I continually am blessed despite my misfortune of losing items. Thus, I had faith that it would return as I have lost my wallet twice and it is still with me today. Long story short, I GOT IT BACK. It was at the bus depot. I am always pleasantly surprised by the kindness of others who actually are considerate of lost items. I am so grateful. Unfortunately, this week the photos won’t be the most recent, but hey, any visual documentation should be greatly appreciated from now on.

It was a very busy week and there was a special occasion – a wedding !

Whilst most Mormon couples can just attend the temple, in Britain they are required to have a civil ceremony first as the Queen is required to be able to attend if she would choose to do so. I am sorry to say that the Queen of England was not present, but it was a beautiful day. Many of the members of the Chester Ward were involved, and as missionaries, it was our pleasure to help out.

The couple who wed, Eileen and Derek are the ultimate missionary couple. Eileen met Derek on a dating website, she was upfront about her beliefs, he accepted, he was baptised in March and now they are married and preparing to be sealed in the temple next year.

After the wedding, I had to call the assistants in regards to a banner for our street displays and at the end of the call, they asked if we could invite one person to be baptised. Sister Fawcett initially said no, and I told her that she was being prideful and that she just needed the faith to do so. It was the end of the day and we had around an hour to tract, so without hesitation, we began finding. We knocked on this door to a house with three young boys around the age of nineteen, Bobby, Brandon and Louis. They let us in and sat with us in the back garden. It was hilarious as they joked about it, but I know that they were intrigued. We couldn’t stay long and so we took a snaptchat photo, shared a card and departed. After, we remembered that we forgot to invite them to be baptised, therefore we knew that we needed to speak to everyone that walked by. We began heading back to out flat whereby we saw this very exotic young girl walking towards us. We approached her and although she was on the phone with her mother, she began answering our questions. Her name was Joella and although she had a belief in God and Jesus Christ, she had fallen away. Thus, it was easy for Sister Fawcett to introduce the concept of baptism. It wasn’t too long before she invited her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised by someone holding the Priesthood authority. It was straight out or peach my gospel and Joella said yes. Sister Fawcett is amazing !

There are a lot of similarities between us both, particularly when I arrived into the field. Therefore, I am learning a lot. I am supposed to be her trainer, however, I don’t think that I am very good at my role. I am treating Sister Fawcett as a regular companion as she is more than capable. I am humbled, I am critical of myself, and I just hope that my efforts are enough for her to have the best start in her mission.

This week I was thinking about service. Service is an act of love. In particular, it is a great privilege to be able to help someone who can’t help themselves. I know that when we look outside ourselves, that we can experience peace and joy even amid the trials in our lives. Jesus Christ is the greatest example of service and he always gave freely of himself without any thought or reward. On my mission, one of the greatest acts of service has been listening. I invite you all to smile, be polite and express gratitude to those around you.

Have a wonderful week !

Much love,

Sister Turnbull

P.S This photo makes me so happy as it is my MTC Companion, Sister Thompson. She has been in the ‘north’ our entire mission and any opportunity to document our journey, aka taking a photo, I am going to.
I had Sister McReynolds, our mission mum as my companion.
My District Leader and I colour coordinate, also farewell to Elder Korth.
Sister Suzarte is staying, but I wouldn’t mind being in a trio with them.