A Birthday Full of Miracles!

A birthday full of miracles!

Wow, Sunday was incredible. I will remember this birthday for the rest of my life.

It actually started Friday, when Jonah accepted a baptism date for January 25th! He came to church Sunday, and church was incredible. Tyson, our assistant ward mission leader taught gospel principles, and it was an amazing lesson. We had three investigators there and it was perfect for all of them. After church we had a lesson with Jonah and Tyson talking about the things we learned at church and answering Jonah's awesome questions. It was a super great lesson. Towards the end of the lesson Jonah brought up his baptism date for January 25th, and at first we were worried he thought he wouldn't be ready. But then he said this"hey so about my baptism goal for the 25th,... I was wondering if there would be any way we could do it before Elder Turnbow goes home?" We all sat there in silence, shocked. I was taken back and probably about fell out of my chair! Finally we put ourselves together and told him that we would do our best to make it happen! Remember this is only our third lesson with him, and he's come to church twice. We told him we would have to meet everyday this week, and he had a lot to learn. He had the attitude of bring it on! We originally set his date for the 25th because his girlfriend doesn't get back from break until like the 15, but again when we brought that up he just wanted to move forward!

Pause on Jonah for a second.

Sunday afternoon we drove up to Espanola and picked up Elder Vials new companion and the new assistant Elder Taylor! He's who we kinda thought it would be, and he is amazing. He's been a zone leader for a while and I have done many exchanges with him, he is one of my favorites. 

The great NMAN new AP Elder Taylor! We are on top of the Sandia mountain overlooking the mission and talking about all of the new responsibilities and how great the calling is. It's a really neat tradition that Elder Ballif and I started. 

We got back from Espanola and went to the mission home for dinner with President and Sister Miller. This is where another Birthday miracle happened! We sat down at the big fancy table and Sister Miller started bringing in the food, take note that I have not told anybody that it was my birthday except Elder Vial knew it was... Anyway, in comes the food, and it was everything that we would have back home on a Sunday! I was so excited!!! That's when President and Sister Miller said "Happy Birthday!" And Sister Miller adde,d "We have a chocolate cake every Sunday! :)  that's when I knew something was up, and sure enough, she had called you, Mom! Haha-- honestly it's one of the nicest things somebody has ever done for me on my birthday. It was delicious! 

Jonah continued... Monday we taught him the Word of Wisdom and a few other things. Wow. He ceases to amaze us! No concerns with anything, and he committed to live it on the spot. I wish you could all be a fly on the wall and sit in on these lessons, he is the one that makes them so good. A quote from him during the lesson "At first I thought I had to read all of the Book of Mormon and Bible before I would be ready for baptism, and now I feel like baptism would help me with that, and I feel like baptism is more of the starting line." 

Two days ago if you would have told me we would have a baptism my last Saturday in the mission I might have called you crazy, but now it is very possible that it will happen! Now if that's not humbling I don't know what is. Con Dios todo es posible! 

Transfer planning is going well! We are insanely busy this week because we have MLC on Thursday too! Whoo! 

Love you all! Have an awesome week!

Elder Turnbow 

Christmas Eve! December 24, 1013

Hey!

I will make this short because we get to talk tomorrow! Looking at our schedule right now it is probably going to be around 2ish..

 Not sure though. We will be sure and set it all up.
 Yesterday was a really cool day. We took Christmas to all of our missionaries in the south. Tons of Christmas mail was at the mission office, so we loaded it all up in our van and took a road trip down south! They loved it, it made everyone's day. Christmas is saved! Haha 

We taught a really awesome first lesson this week to a new investigator named Jonah. He is a very sincere person and really wants to learn. He comes from an agnostic background so it was really neat to be able to teach him about a God who loves him. He's dating a member who plays on the girls soccer team so he already has good fellowship, he's a great kid! 

Sunday night we had dinner with President and Sister Miller at the mission home. Man I love them so much. They are incredible people. 

Well I will be sure and fill you in on lots more tomorrow. Until then, have a great Christmas Eve!

I sure love you!

Elder Turnbow

PS. So many people sent letters and cards this week, and to all of you I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 We built a fort Christmas Eve, slept in it, and then after studies Christmas morning, we opened our presents in it!

 

That Basketball Season Feeling! December 17, 2013

Hey Family!

         

       Christmas greetings from El Paso!

 

 

This week was a spiritual feast doing zone conference with Elder and Sister Foster. It was pretty stressful too, but it was awesome. They talked and trained us on lots of different things, so it would be really hard to explain it all via email. I will have to let you read my thoughts and impressions on zone conference some day. It was really good.

Tonight we are doing a training for the Mount Franklin stake priesthood leadership on missionary work. We've put quite a bit of time into planning this with President Miller and the zone leaders, I'm really excited! The Mount Franklin stake is doing great. 

Monica! Monica is starting to receive/recognize answers to her prayers. Seeing people you teach start to have spiritual experiences on their own is honestly the most amazing thing ever. She has been struggling with finding strength to live the word of wisdom, but slowly she is starting to gain motivation. At dinner Wednesday night with the branch she leaned over to me and said "do you think I need to be doing all of the things that you guys have taught me to receive more answers?" I love how the spirit works on people to help them learn. 

So finals ended this week, and campus has all but become a ghost town! It's pretty crazy. We were pretty scared because we thought our work would slow down a lot, but we found a new investigator this week who lives in ABQ and we got two referrals who live with their member grandma in the valley. We are pumped!

 

I've never really noticed it growing up, but there really is a special spirit this time of year. Back home I probably just credited that to basketball season... But it all makes sense now. I love it. 

Well we're off to enjoy the El Paso sunshine! It was almost 70 degrees yesterday and super nice. Hope you are all staying warm!

Love you!

El Elder Turnbow

White Chile! December 10, 2013

Q:What do you call snow in New Mexico?

A: White Chili! 

We went from t-shirt weather one day, to a bunch of snow the next! It was pretty crazy. I really enjoyed it though. It does make contacting a little harder because all of the students are tying to get from building to building as fast as they can! 

This week we had our mission leadership council, and it was one of the best ones that I have been apart of. Elder Vial and I trained on the spirit of a progressing investigator, and we enjoyed every second of it. We did a step training activity, and related the story of King Lamoni's father from the Book of Mormon. Probably for the first time in NMAM history our MLC picture in the backyard of the mission home was taken in snow! President threw the first snow ball, and it was on after that! It was pretty fun. I will see if I can get Sister Miller to email me a copy and I will send it to you. Our mission had 67 baptisms in November, we were super stoked. The hastening is real, our mission is seeing so many miracles! I wish I could be here for all of 2014 to see the incredible things that will continue to happen. 

Saturday Elder Foster of the 70 is coming to tour our mission, and we are doing zone conferences with him. We have done a lot of planning for that this week and it should be pretty good! We are really excited for him to visit. He's a farmer from Idaho!

Sunday was a really great day. Randy spoke in Sacrament meeting! He talked about how his relationship with Heavenly Father has changed, and he did an excellent job. President Miller was also at our sacrament and spoke as well. His topic was the Book of Mormon and it was powerful. Only sad thing... None of our investigators came to church... Pretty sure the snow and cold scared them off. Next week! One of the girls on the soccer team brought her boyfriend though, and he really enjoyed it. He's a super cool kid and we hope to start teaching him this week. Speaking of soccer the UNM men's team plays Notre Dame in the final four this week! If you watch it cheer for Mattie!! Pretty sure he's number 4. We need them to hurry up and win it all so we can keep teaching him. Haha 

Well things here are great! We are super busy and it doesn't look like it will slow down any time soon, and that's just the way I like it. Tough luck on the two losses in bball this week, those are the only losses I want to hear about the rest of the season! Keep Shootin!

Love you all, thanks for the many emails and letters! 

Elder Turnbow 

PS. Elder Eaton (Jackson) emailed me and was glad he got to meet you! Thanks for going to his talk mom and dad! 

What a hero!

Hey all!

Wow, what a week full of amazing things!!

 

First, Randy- his baptism was great! There was a powerful spirit there, and I could tell how prepared he was a because of his nerves. It's a neat thing to see. He bore his testimony after his baptism and it was one to remember. His confirmation on Sunday was also a miracle. They played Boise state for their final game of the season, and it was a late night game. They got back to ABQ Sunday morning at 5! Church was at ten.... And he still came! What a hero. Not only did he come and get confirmed, but he bore his testimony in sacrament meeting as well! One line from his testimony that I wrote down. "I know this church is true because it has changed me. It couldn't do that and not be true." I'll be sure and send some pictures.

 

Thanksgiving! One thing about being in a YSA on campus... everybody leaves for the holidays. Haha luckily we were saved by a member of the branch presidency and we had a feast. I'm glad you all had a great day back home, it's a great time of year! 

Now let me tell you about last night... It was insanely amazing. We had 60 non members in our institute building. There is an RM in our branch who is taking a world religions class and the teacher was looking for something to do for extra credit being finals week next week. Our member said that he could set up a class that Mormon missionaries teach, and she loved the idea. It was a class of 350, 70 signed up, and 60 showed up. It was so fun! Between us, the Sisters, and our ward mission leader Mike, we taught the 13 articles of faith. The teacher made it clear she didn't want us to proselyte, but after being a missionary for almost 2 years it was fairly simple to find ways to put it in. Haha it went super well, and I loved every second of it. After we had a Q and A and they asked some pretty good questions too. We kept everybody after the class with refreshments, and that's when we really got to do our work. We left with a decent amount of phone numbers and people were interested in meeting with us. It was a good success, and the teacher wants to do it again next semester! 

Well it's about time for us to get running, December is going to be a super busy month for us. We have Elder Foster of the 70 coming to our mission this month for zone conferences, I am really excited for that. 

It's exciting that basketball is in full swing. I smile just thinking about it!

Have a great week everybody, I know we will! Love you!

Elder Turnbow 

Where to Begin? November 26, 2013

Where to begin?

Well this week has been transfer week, so it's about as crazy as it gets!

Yesterday was arrival day, and it is always one of my favorite days of the transfer. All of our Spanish missionaries now come from the Mexico MTC, so we have two different groups fly in. Yesterday got a little crazy though when we found out that the flight coming from Mexico was cancelled, and Salt Lake was working on getting them another flight. We had to make some last minute changes. Haha So we took the English Elders and Sisters to the mission home and left them in the care of some zone leaders, and we went back to the airport to get the Spanish speaking missionaries. When we got there though we found out their flight was delayed another hour! We called the zone leaders with the new missionaries and said.. "We love you. Train them, take care of them, and go contact people with them!" We did the same thing at the airport. I had a neat experience during that hour wait. I sat down next to a Native American lady, and began to talk with her. I found out that she was from the Acoma reservation here in our mission, and she was waiting for her son to fly in to attend a funeral of a close family member. Immediately we started to have a good conversation, and I ended up teaching most of the plan of salvation. I could just tell she was a special lady. We swapped information and she said the Elders out there could come by and teach her more. I live for opportunities that that!  

Oh! Do you remember Dylan Salahein? He called the other night and as soon as we answered he began to read... "Dear Elder Salahein!" Oh man! I was so happy!! He's going to England Birmingham! He was baptized September first of last year. Miracles. I am so happy. 

This morning I listened to two of my past companions give their departing testimonies in the transfer meeting. Elder Eaton and Elder Ballif fly home tomorrow. I love those two very much, they have helped me in so many ways and we will be best friends for life.

Randy is all set for tomorrow! You should have seen him Sunday at stake conference. UNM got beat up real good by Fresno Saturday, so he was pretty beat up Sunday. He told us he was making a takle and his helmet came off, and he got cleated. Sweet cuts all over his face. He just looked at us and said "I still made the takle!" When we were filling out his baptism record with him we told him to sign it and basically said this is saying that you want to get baptized. He went to sign it, paused, looked at us and said "are you sure this isn't some double tithing document!?" He is hilarious. I will send pictures of the baptism. 

Congrats go out to the boys on a stellar season. I know you played your hearts out. You are more than state champs in my eyes any day of the week. 

Well it's about time to go conduct the afternoon session of transfers! Love you all!

THE Elder Turnbow (take that Dylan!) 

Proselyting, Transfers, and Dylan! November 20, 2013

Hey everybody!

This week is super busy with transfer planning and running a proselyting area, so this email will be short and sweet!  

Transfer planning with Elder Vial and President Miller

Things are going great! Transfer planning has grown to become one of my favorite weeks in the transfer. I learn so much about how the spirit works and how it communicates with me personally. That is one thing I hope to keep with me the rest of my life. It's incredible to be with President Miller when you known revelation comes, I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything.

Randy is awesome! Sunday after church we went over the baptism interview questions with him. Listening to him answer the questions and bear testimony was powerful. He's ready, I'm so excited for him! You should see the sweet handshakes that we have with Randy... Him and Elder Vial both play D End so there's is full of d end cool stuff. I played quarterback so we had to get creative, try and picture this. We go into the half bro hug, and then I jump back and pretend to throw a football as he runs at me with his hand in the air, I throw it and duck, and then we jump up into a side body bump! It's super cool. Haha 

Monica is doing great as well, she has a few things holding her back right now, but she is starting to receive answers to prayers!

I was super pumped to read about the win over Firth on Saturday! Go get another one boys! Whoop!

It was really neat to get to talk to Dylan last night, man he has grown up a lot. I could sense his strong spriit and desire. He will be great, no doubt. When we pick up new missionaries on Monday I will think of him getting to Oregon! 

Well you all have a great week doing what you're doing! Cheer loud for me at the dome! Get a pick for me Matt would ya? Love you all!

Elder Dallas Turnbow (I guess I better clarify which Elder Turnbow I am now!)