Sister Peyton Grace Calder

I never thought in my life that I would ever learn Turkish as a language or had any desire to travel to Turkey, but that's not what Heavenly Father had in store for me. Instead, this past weekend I found myself in Istanbul, Turkey, which is the sixth largest city in the world. Everything about the trip was chaotic and reminded me of the special circumstances of my call. Although I have seen so many miracles and done a lot of work behind a computer screen, I was so thankful that I was able to be in person with the people I had been meeting with on zoom for over a month. One of my favorite experiences of what happened in Turkey, since I don't have enough time to share the whole trip, was when we meet up with our friend Yıldız. We had just hung out with the entirety of Istanbul's YSA, which was incredible, and were heading to meet our friend. The Elders were leaving with some of the YSA, but some of them were concerned about leaving us alone. One of these people was a guy who...

  I understand that I am still learning Turkish, so my Turkish isn't quite perfect yet, but until a recent call I had with a member I guess I didn't know I needed to work on English more. We were reading with him in the Book of Mormon and started discussing certain principles in the chapter we were reading. When he would answer, he would start in Turkish and then switch into English. He was talking to me about my Turkish and then started saying something about the Book of Mormon in english. He stopped, turned to me expectantly and then said, "Do you understand?" I was like, yeah, I understand the principle, but then he asked me if I could answer his question...there was no question! I sat there a little stumped, so he repeated his sentence again. There was no question. I again looked confused I guess so he started asking me where I was from and then asked if I understood English. He then asked me what my native language was, to make sure that I understood english enou...

  Hello everyone! Sorry that I didn't write an email last week or the week before! I was actually packing and preparing to head to my mission! Yes, its true, I am finally out of the MTC. There are definitely things I will miss about it, like the friends I made and the hours I had to study the Book of Mormon, and, of course, my Turkish classes. I really do love being in the field and attempting to speak to people in Turkish. I have had some pretty cool experiences teaching some people and I am really thankful that I get to be a part of the Lord's work. We left for the airport on Thursday at 3:37 am, which was a bit early for me. I was packing like crazy the night before and was so stressed that I didn't even fall asleep Wednesday night. I just hung out in the lobby of my floor watching other missionaries frantically pack until their carry ons were bursting and their suitcases weighed 100 pounds. I said goodbye to my college roommates, Alex and Sienna, which was pretty sad. I...