Farewell, North Valley. Hello, Panorama Heights!

        

 Hey Hey Hey!

   Lost to firth!? hmm no worries I knew they would be tough. Don't they still have that Orme kid? Dang why did we lose?? I haven't got Dads email yet and he always fills in the details so I will wait to read that. Just bounce back and take down Rich OK? You've lost once so don't let it happen again. I mean let's face it, you have now tasted the bitter so you will know to prize the good. (That's in Moses :)  ) That's all I will say about that.    Friday morning though after district meeting I was talking to Elder Foster (from Aberdeen) and he so kindly reminded me that it was the starting day for Idaho high school football. Darn him! Needless to say I was picturing it in my head all night.Good stuff! Elder Weston has a little brother who is a senior starting middle line backer for Mountain Crest so it was a tough night... haha

 So about my subject and why I am emailing today and not tomorrow. Well... On Wednesday Elder Weston got a call from President Miller and told him that he will be training a new missionary! He'll do awesome! That means that we will no longer be companions though and that I am getting transferred. So the week went on and then last night I got a call from President Miller as well and he called me to be a zone leader. Kind of caught me by surprise with that one! I am nervous but excited. It narrows down where I will be going though because there are 7 zones and we narrowed it down to only 2 where a zone leader is either getting transferred or stepping down. I will probably go to either Los Cruses or Panorama Heights outside of Rio Rancho. Panorama Heights would be sweet because that's my old zone. Santa Fe is in that zone so I could go there on exchanges!

It stinks to have to leave North Valley though and Elder Weston. I have really grown close to the people here and Elder Weston just rocks. We have a ton of fun together it's not even funny! I said goodbyes yesterday to Bryan, Megan, and then the Ortiz family. The rest will be tonight. I am going to miss those guys! Bryan has already planned a trip to come to the farm the summer of 2014 and have some fun! I remember having to leave Santa Fe and that was super hard, well it's just as hard to leave this area, I don't like that part of it.

It sounds like your talk was great mom! You always do an awesome job. Scary with that accident I am glad nobody got hurt. I am glad you were able to go to Brady and Macis reception! I got a letter from Brady last week and he sounds great! did you ever happen to get an announcement? So cool about kenny!! We email back and forth a little bit, I am glad he is doing great!

Well it's time to go enjoy my last Pday here with the awesome Elders! Thank you Mom and Dad for the way you raised me. I think about how lucky I am to have amazing parents like you. You would both be my number 1 and number 2 picks in the draft. (You can decide who would be one :) ) I love you and everybody from the bottom of my heart, even you Dylan and Matt. Thanks for everything!

        

                                      Your Son,   

                                   Elder Dallas Turnbow

Albuquerque North Valley District           August 2012

A little later in the day:

Hey, I got transfered this morning and my new area is Panorama Heights! So no surprise there.  That is what we had guessed. My new companion is Elder Chalk and I am super stoked about that! He goes home in 12 weeks though so chances are I will be killing him (the missionary who is his companion when he goes home)  Our zone is called the Rio Rancho Santa Fe zone so my old area in Santa Fe is in our zone! Which means I will be going there on exchanges I believe! Jenny will have to sign up to feed us when I get up there agian :)

      Anyway thanks for your email, Dad, it was good to hear from ya. I'm pretty sure we email here on Monday morning for the heads up. I am super stoked for this area. Elder Willden served here and my first zone leaders when I was in Santa Fe were here. Hopefully I have a little more to report next Monday!

 Have a great week and please let's beat Rich! I'm glad Dylan  played well though, the kid is a beast! Coach Moser will have things figured out for Friday no doubt. I was way glad to hear that matt played well!

       Well have fun on the farm! love ya!

New Method to contact people-- Don't try this at home!

Hey everybody!

 

The pics of the goal posts are sweet! Nice work fellas! That's fun that Ben and Brittin are there with Benson and that you will have Ben to help you. I'm exciting to get more updates on the football games!!!!

 

         So Friday evening was the baptism of Ted Ortiz, but the excitement for that day started pretty early in the morning! Elder Weston and I were driving to district meeting (Elder Weston was driving) and we got in a wreck. We were going about 50 and this girl pulled out from the right lane and tried to go from her lane all the way to flip a U. Obviously she didn't see us, but Elder Weston reacted fast and swerved hard to the left to we didn't TBone her (that probably would've been deadly).  She didn't stop though and ended up hitting us on my side. Between the swerve and the hit I got tossed around pretty good, but I'm all good!  Dylan could probably hit harder....Everybody was fine. I had to kick open my door to get out and our one side was beat up pretty good. Her front bumper and headlight was torn off. We felt bad for her because she had just bought the Nissan Extera 2 weeks earlier! She was 26 and her 20 year old sister was with her.  We ended up contacting them, but they live in Los Luna. Hopefully they will listen to the missionaries down there! President Miller called us that night to see if we were ok. When we told him we contacted the two girls and even talked to the police about missionary work, he laughed and said that he's heard of many ways to find new investigators but that one, though effective, might not be the safest! It was funny.

 

            Friday night was just amazing though! It was an incredible night with the Ortiz family. They were all glowing and just beaming from ear to ear! It was special to be in the water with Ted as well, and then Elder Weston was able to confirm him Sunday and give him the priesthood, that was awesome.

 

           Mom you asked me if I had been writing in me journal, and the answer is yes. You would be proud of me I rarely miss a night. Who said anything about you getting to read it though? :) haha

 

        So besides the baptism this last week and even the start of this week has been a little tough... We are losing investigators. Between them dropping us, moving, not being in our area, or for whatever reason, our teaching pool is suffering a little bit so we have been desperately praying and trying to find new investigators! We will though.

 

         Transfers are next week so we will find out what is going to happen sometime this week....

The Albuquerque Temple with Elder Weston

Lets see what else... I don't really know... Any questions or anything in paticular you would like me to email about? The church is true, so hey, everything is good! I love you all!

 

                                                     Elder Turnbow

 

PS. Frank (T-Bone) I was very happy to read in the last Sunday letter that you were able to go golfing!   Why do they call it golf? ;)

Missionary/MMA Fighter

Hello there!

 

     Thank you all for the emails and updates. Sounds like you are staying busy at home. Have fun going back to school, Mom!

    Yesterday we had an awesome P-day! Brother Marx (another professional MMA fighter who trains with Bryan) took us and the two other elders to Jackson's Gym where they train and fight! Bryan didn't come because he has been in Cali these past two weeks visiting family. He gets home today though, and his wife should have her baby the beginning of next month. Anyway the gym was intense! We first put on gloves and hit some bags. They taught us some punches and kicks with a few combos that lead into takedowns. We then learned a few different ground moves to tap somebody out either by submission or passing them out,  like the ankle lock, arm bar. heel lock, and a bunch of different ways to take away their air. We learned a few defensive moves like the full guard and half guard as well. We went live for a while and practiced on each other.  Oh man, it was fun! We took our turns going one on one with Brother Marx and I have never felt so helpless in my life! He was going super easy on us and could still control us with every little move. He did let us win to help us feel good every now and then... Needless to say it was one of the best Pdays so far! So watch out... I have been trained... Tanner I will choke you out.. I think I am ready for a rematch with you too, Dad. So get ready! You will be 50 when we get to wrestle... haha :)

 

      So Ted Ortiz is still all set for this Friday night! We had a really cool lesson with them last week where he and his wife told us how they have had missionaries coming over for dinner for the past 4 or 5 years, but none of the elders have taught him. She said in sacrament meeting when they announced that Elder Weston and I were companions, a little bell went off in her head and she thought maybe we could be the ones to teach him. We were both really touched by that. So why are we the ones that have been able to teach him? Honestly I have no idea, but I am humbled by it. The ward is so super excited about it too! There is a great missionary spirit here now.  Ted asked me last Thursday if I would would baptize him and I am honored to do it. The man is incredible.

 

       Saturday there was a ward service project with helping a lady who has been super sick over the past year and her yard has gone to trash. We decided that it would be a good opportunity to gain some ward trust and  to show just how two Cache Valley brothers can work! And work we did. We spent a couple hours shoveling and laboring among our brothers of the ward. When all was said and done the yard looked awesome! Elder Weston and I looked at each other and both said pretty much in unison... "Man, I am getting soft!" We both had big blisters on our hands from shoveling. It was awesome though, super fun and the ward had a good time.

 

       Wel,l that's about it for this week I believe. Thanks to everybody for their well wishes and prayers!

                                                        Elder Turnbow

 

        

WOO YEAH!!!!

Hey there family!

Wow so much has happened since the last time I emailed.

Sorry it has taken me so long to email you this week, it has been crazy!! Tuesday I was at leadership training all day and then yesterday I was on exchanges. It's been crazy here.

So where to start... hmm... Ok so probably the most amazing news and miracle this week is last Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with Ted Ortiz. The spirit was strong as we taught the plan of salvation and bore our testimonies on eternal families. Now fast forward to Sunday after Elder Weston and I taught gospel principles, he and his wife came up to us and told us that he wants to be baptized August 17, a week from Friday! Originally his date was for September 21. SO COOL! We had been praying that we would somehow be able to move his date up but we didn't think it would be so soon!

Leadership training was good. It was fun to be there. 20 minutes into President Miller's training though he called me up front to do a role play in front of everybody, all the leadership in the entire mission... Talk about throwing me under the bus! I was the youngest person there... missionary wise. Needless to say I was pretty scared and I had to role play something he had just got done teaching so it was brand new to me. It was a new contacting method. It went good though.. I guess.. haha I would rather have to hit 100 game winning shots though :) I learned a ton that day!

We had a great lesson with Catharine Christensen last week and she came to church on Sunday! Remember this is the lady that elder weston and I tracted into. At the end of our lesson she offered the prayer and in it she said, "I wasn't surprised at all when I opened the door and saw these two there. If fact, I was expecting them. So thank you for sending them to me." Before tracting that street in the hot afternoon about a month ago, we both felt impressed to tract the street. She was the only person to talk to us the entire day. NOW.... here is where it gets sad.... Last night we found out that she is not in our area. Yup, true story. ALL the maps that outline our area in our apartment are wrong apparently and she is just outside our area. Man it stinks yes, but we are just thrilled that we have had the opportunity to find and teach her. She has a baptism date for September 1. We are going to her house saturday with the other elders and are going to make the switch... sad.

Ok, so now you ready for some super cool news??!! September 22 we are having an apostle come to our mission!!! WOO YEAH!!!! As of right now it's D. Todd Christophersen and Elder Hallstrom of the 70 presidency is going to be with him. On that day we are having a huge mission road trip with all the missionaries gathering down in El Paso!  Man I am pumped! Then in October we are going to have a 70 touring the mission. It's going to be sweet!

I can tell that football season is on the horizon... There is just a feeling you get when it's about to start, and it's in the air here. All the high schools in ABQ have been out practicing and I find myself driving past them slowly picturing Coach Mo and all of us out there warming up. MMM good stuff. Dylan, this is your senior year, and you better bust your butt to make it a good one. I don't expect anything less than another banner. So make it happen. Our Assistants did an awesome training Tuesday with the motto JUST DO IT! Just do it bro. Kill em. Yee ha!!

Well I love you all, thank you for the endless support and words of encouragement!!

                Love, Elder Turnbow

PS. There has been a new thing come out with the mail here so our mission office can no longer forward us mail so we are only going to be able to get mail about once a month.. Lucky for me I am serving right next to the mission office so we can still check it once a week! So mom when you plan on sending me a package let me know so I can get you the address to the apartment I'm at so I can get it quick. I don't want to give you that address now because of fear of transfers and losing mail.