Turkey Day=Different, but awesome!

DEER coolest Family of all God's Children  (Yeah Court, consider yourself beat ;)  )

 

So it wasn't the Thanksgiving I was used to with hunting in the morning, food, and football, but it was you might say even better. Thanksgiving really started the day before when one of our ward missionaries texted us and told us to come over for lunch and that he had people for us to teach. So we went and guess what happened!? He had a turkey and we watched him cut its head off and prepare it for Thanksgiving! Oh man it was fun to watch. I wanted to do it so bad! I took some pics for the not so faint of heart to look at. He had some less active and non member friends there that we had a good chat with as well. The funniest part of the whole ordeal was not one of them had ever killed a turkey or cleaned one before,so I found myself coaching them through the entire process. Good times.

 

We had two Thanksgiving dinners and I about didn't make it through the second one I was so full. Thanksgiving day consisted of eating until I wanted to die and teaching people about the restoration. It really doesn't get much better than that.

 

My new companion is Elder Johnson. Out of the three I could have gotten he was the one I was hoping for! He's from Portland, Oregon and played football in high school (corner) and loves basketball.  Oh ya, and he loves being a missionary, so I feel like it will be another awesome transfer!

 

So the downstairs of our house flooded the other morning. There I was eating my Captain Crunch and reading Jesus the Christ when I heard gushing of water going like crazy! It was coming from under our water heater and out of the toilet. By the time I got the water shut off (Elder Johnson was in the shower) It had flooded our kitchen and carpet hallway with a good few inches. My first thoughts were "I need Cliff Stokes!" We finally got hold of the rooter service and they came and snaked our drains. There wasn't anything plugged in our house, but outside by the street tree roots were growing in our pipe and plugged us up real good like. Our carpet smells really bad now, but hey it was a fun experience.

 

Krysha is doing really well. Keith and the family went to Kentucky for Thanksgiving so we weren't able to do her baptism, but it is scheduled for this Saturday at 11! Teyshia Kamakanamakamaemailalani Kamelmela (good luck with that!) is still doing awesome! We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and the Word of Wisdom. Both went well and she is progressing really fast. She comes to church with Margie and goes to seminary every day still so she is one who has really embraced the gospel and the love of our Savior. I love teaching her and Margie and Jim. Jim told Margie that he hopes he can believe what we teach. He is trying to plant that seed and we have a ton of hope for him! Frank, did every person in Hawaii feed you when you would go over? It doesn't matter what time of day it is they always feed us something! It's always amazing too!  We were at a less actives home the other night and he measured our body fat and mine is 10 percent! It's not the 2-4 like it used to be...

 

We  had our meeting with the mission and stake presidency for the Rio Rancho stake yesterday and it went well. For every meeting I can't help but think of Dad or President Waldron, John, and Frank in meetings like that. It's funny to think of.

 

Well we have some crazy busy weeks ahead of us and a lot of work to be done that's for sure. Each day I am grateful to be a missionary and representative of my Savior, and each day I feel his love. This is wonderful time of year when people's hearts are softer than usual, so don't be afraid to talk about the gospel. I love you all!

 

Elder Turnbow

 

PS. Tell Aaron I love that fool and can't thank him enough for his amazing example to me!

 

PPS  Yesterday we taught sharing time for the senior and junior primary and it was a hoot! I remember looking up to missionaries and wanting to be like them, it's still weird to think that I am one... Kinda cool.

 

 

The coolest thing happened.

Dear coolest family in the world,

 How are ya!? So we had transfers today and I dropped Elder Chalk off in ABQ, but I am still without a companion! He's coming from down south so I will go get him around 4 at the mission office. I am currently with another missionary until then. It's weird I don't even know who my new companion is yet, but there were three new zone leaders called this transfer so I can narrow it down to the two down south anyway. Guess you all will just have to wait and see!

Last week Elder Paul V. Johnson of the first quorum of the 70 was touring our mission, and we had a zone conference with him. It was awesome! The coolest thing happened. We all got there about an hour early to practice a song everybody would be singing, and Elder Johnson said he wanted to interview a couple missionaries. He picked three to interview and I was one of them! Honestly my first thoughts were "shoot what did I do!?" That went away fast as I thought "I'm worthy, and being obedient, so I think I'm ok." It was an incredible experience. He asked all about me, my hobbies, my plans, and my mission. He is from Logan, and said he was in weston/preston/dayton just 6 months ago so it was neat to make that connection and talk about good ole cache valley!  He then asked about my family. I thought it would be a brief thing but he asked about all the individuals in our family. It was cool! We then talked about President and Sister Miller, our zone, and a few other things. It was way neat. It's definitely something that I will never forget.

The Montgomery Family

It was mine and Elder Chalk's last week together last week and it was pretty good. A few of you asked about Thanksgiving dinners and I will say we are being well taken care of. The Montgomery's (Awesome member family) are going out of town this week but wanted to have a thanksgiving dinner with us, so on Friday night we had a huge turkey dinner with them and the Haye's. It was some good eatin! We already have 2 dinners planned for Thanksgiving so that will be good. I will try not to eat too much... 2 Nephi 9:50 "Let your soul delight in fatness."  



Elder Turnbow and Elder Chalk



Well I hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving! I am grateful for each one of you and to be part of such an amazing family. I love ya!

Elder Turnbow

PS.   Mom I got the package today at transfers thanks a million! That is an awesome shirt you sent! I can't wait to wear it on Pday!  

This is the Oryx Brother Montgomery shot (which I will be coming back to New Mexico to hunt) 

I love this gospel!

Hello all!

 

Sorry we were unable to email yesterday, all of the libraries were closed due to Veterans Day. There was some good that came from it though... we were able to start playing sports an hour early! woo yeah! It's fun to read about the snow and cold you have been experiencing this week, because yesterday we were outside in shorts and tshirts playing baseball/softball! It was a blast. A less active member of our ward hooked us all up with mitts and bats and then he came and played with us. Not to brag or anything, but I was the only one to hit one over the fence. It felt good to crush it!

 

It sounds like it was a really tough and fun game last Saturday! Way ta be, Dyl. Great season!

 

Every time I sit down to email I try and look back on the week and it's all just one big blur! So much happens every single day it's impossible to remember it all. Mom, you would be proud of me though, I have almost filled my journal that Grandpa gave me.

 

President and Sister Miller came to our house Tuesday morning for interviews. While Elder Chalk was getting interviewed I had to teach Sister Miller the Atonement and cover all the points in 5 minutes as if she was a 10 year old girl. When all was said and done and it was over, I thought to myself there is no way I would have been able to do that at the beginning of my mission! It was fun. My interview with President was good as always. And Like a good coach does, he is always pushing to get every drop of excellence out of us. I think that's why our WS coaches are so amazing, and it is a quality that makes President Miller such a good mission president.

 

So some sad news that happened this week is Keith relapsed with smoking. It has been tough on him. He is taking it like a stud though and is getting back on track. It was just hard to see him slip. But we all know that you can't ever get out of a rut until you turn the wheel! He was supposed to baptize Krysha tonight, and that has been really tough too, but he understands everything. Her baptism won't be tonight though, we are still waiting for the wards decision on when best to do it. This ward is weird when it comes to scheduling stuff. Hopefully it happens this week!

 

We had an awesome lesson with Tashia this week! Margie was there and also Jim who is not a member. Tashia also had her member friend Maddi there. We taught the restoration and it went great. Towards the end I invited her to be baptized and she accepted! December 8th is when her date is. Margie got all emotional and bore her testimony to Tashia; it was a powerful moment. I love this gospel! Elder Chalk then turned to Jim and invited him to be baptized. The spirit was strong and I thought there is no way he can't be feeling this. Sadly he said no thanks though. We really feel like as we continue to teach them that he will progress!

 

Funny thing.... For some reason everybody has decided to start feeding us every single time we come over! One night this week we got home and were just sick from eating so much. Elder Chalk looked at me and asked how do I make myself throw up? I told him to stick his finger down his throat. He did, he threw up. It was hilarious! Good times.

 

Sunday we went up to Santa Fe with President Miller and President Sego for our monthly Stake Missionary Council Meeting. It went well! The ride up was not the most fun because President Miller gave us some correcting that needs to be done.  It was about some things that I didn't even know were not ok... haha  but the meeting went well and the ride home was more easy going and fun!

 

This week is mine and Elder Chalks last week together. He goes home next week so I will be getting a new companion. It's pretty safe to say that I will be staying in this area, but you never know! So you are pretty safe in sending things to my Rio Rancho address, mom. I'm glad Brother Montgomery was able to get that to you, they are an awesome family! I'm not sure when I will get the package you sent to the mission office, it'll probably be next week unless they bring mail to our meeting with Elder Paul V. Johnson. 

 

Things are going good here! I am secretly hoping that we can get some snow... I love snow! You all stay warm this week and have some fun! 

Much love! 

Elder Turnbow

 

PS. Remember that God gives every bird its food, but He does not put it in its nest!   -corny quote for the week that has good meaning-

From 170 to 250!

So I must start this email with a little thing I liked about Sunday School yesterday. It is found in the Gospel Principles book on page 142 at the top I believe, talking about things we can do to keep the Sabbath day holy. Pretty sure you can guess what thing I liked!

 

Before I forget, Brittin, there is a member of our ward here in Rio Rancho who was a companion of your dad's! Your dad trained him. His name is Brother Steffenson. Cool Eh?  Happy Birthday too!

 

So it was fun to be a missionary on Halloween! Well kind of, nobody wanted to meet with us for some odd reason. The trunk or treat Tuesday night was awesome though! We had a new investigator come with her fellowshipping family, and then we did a church tour with her! She didn't come to church yesterday, but she is progressing slowly. On Halloween a less active member invited us and a couple other elders over for dinner. It was nice and we all had fake mustaches to wear for the dinner. Walking around that night lots of people told us that we had sweet costumes, I felt cool. haha

 

We had a zone leader conference this week in ABQ and it was sweet! President told us some crazy news! So right now we have 163 missionaries in our mission, before the allotted amount was 170. Well....Now it is 250! Things are about to get crazy!! Also Elder Paul V. Johnson of the first quorum of the 70 is coming to do a mission tour next week and we are meeting with him on the 15. I am super excited. We have been super blessed with special visitors lately, and it's awesome!

 

Friday we had our monthly zone meeting in Santa Fe. I still get nervous standing up in front of the zone and training for three hours, but it went well! The lunch was super awesome after!

 

Yesterday Keith blessed the sacrament for the first time! He did a great job. Elder Chalk and I did it with him. I hadn't blessed the sacrament in a long time, it was neat to do it again. So hey Matt, it was your first week blessing the sacrament and I did it too! Cool stuff. Also for church third hour Elder Chalk and I did a training on the ward mission plan; it was fun and I think we got the ward fired up a bit!

 

We have some awesome new people that we are starting to work with! I talked about Margie Kamakoakalani-Wittkowske last week I think, but we went over there for dinner Friday night and it was sweet. They cooked Hawaiian food and it was delicious! I told them Frank went on his mission to Hawaii and that he came back fat and they laughed and said it didn't surprise them at all! So her husband isn't a member and her great niece tasha who is like 17 isn't a member either. We thought she was a member because she comes to church and even early morning seminary with her friends, but we got to talking to her and nope! So we taught her and she has a ton of potential, we are hoping to set a baptismal date with her and Jim (Margie's husband) this week!

 

A new couple that we found is Charlote and Rudy. We contacted them while they were moving in and then we went back to see them a couple days later. We talked to her on the porch and introduced the Book of Mormon and you could just tell she was loving it. So Rudy came out and we started introducing the Book of Mormon to him and she cut us off mid sentence! She then introduced the Book of Mormon to Rudy after just barely learning about it. It was so cool! We are going back to teach them tonight so hopefully it goes well.

 

Well I just typed all of that going 100 mph so hopefully some of it makes sense. If not I apologize! It sounds like things are great at home! It's fun to read about that's for sure. Sounds like Dylan is being a stud and tearing it up! So cool! This is sad to say but it pumps me up so now I am ready to go throw for 500 yards in missionary flag football! haha (I even bought some 15 dollar cleats last week.)

 

 

You all have an awesome week and cheer loud this Saturday!!! Demolish the Cougars! Love ya!

 

E. Turnbow