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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

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! 


Sunday, December 8, 2013

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 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

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!) 

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

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!) 

Ready for Pickin'! November 12, 2013

Hey!    
Hatch, New Mexico


So I have this habit of starting my emails by telling you something I have been looking at. Well, right now we are in El Paso Texas, and the cotton fields are about ready for pickin! I've never seen anything quite like it before, it's super cool. I'm hoping to see a big machine at work before we leave!

It sounds like Dylan did a stellar job with his talk! I'm super pumped for him to come join the ranks! Good work in football Matt, 2 more!! 

The big news for this week is from now on all of our PDays are on..... Tuesday! We did this because there are many libraries and business closed in Mondays where missionaries email, so they would email on Tuesday and it's just not as effective. Just for a heads up next week we start transfer planning, so I'm not exactly sure when we'll get to emailing. We'll shoot for Tuesday though!

We had a great week for our area, and for the mission! We are seeing so many miracles!

We taught Randy the word of wisdom this week and it went great! Randy is the coolest guy ever. He catches on to things really quickly. I am pumped for him!

Monica is doing great. The sisters in our branch had a baptism Saturday and Monica was able to come. We invited her to picture herself getting baptized during the service and imagine what it would feel like. We promised her that she would feel the spirit that comes with baptism. After when we talked to her about it she said that she could see herself getting baptized! She said "I think I felt the same thing that Lindsey did when she was getting baptized" 

We had our monthly mission leadership council at the mission home with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders on Thursday. It is my favorite meeting of them all!

Well the El Paso missionaries are getting ready to play some basketball and soccer, so we better go join them! This morning we went to down town El Paso right on the border, and they have a ton of super cool little Mexican stores. It was fun to walk around and look. It's a crazy place. 

Have a good week everybody! 

Love, Elder Turnbow 

Monday, November 4, 2013

It's hard to complain when you have a name tag on your chest!


Hi!

Lots of really good things happened this week! It sounds like a good week in Idaho too. Another W for the football team! That is music to my ears. The pumpkin blow up sounded like fun as well. I told a couple of our members about it and they loved the idea. The next time I talked to them they had youtubed it and were amazed! Now they really do know how redneck we are. Good luck with your talk this Sunday Dylan! You'll have to let me know how it goes. 

Halloween was pretty uneventful for the most part. We got the usual jokes our way and people thought we were regular people dressed up as Mormon missionaries, that is always funny. It was a fun day!

Wednesday was awesome. We spent an hour or so on campus and contacted like crazy! It's such a blast, man I love it! We got quite a few phone numbers and made some good contacts. We have a couple return appointments this week, hopefully good things come from it! 

Randy is still doing great, and preparing for the 27th for baptism! 

We are teaching some other cool people right now that we are hoping to have baptism dates with by the end of this week. Rebecca has a baptism date but is living with her boyfriend, so we are still working with that, but we are very hopeful! 

Yesterday we had a miracle happen at church. We were standing outside greeting everyone as they walked in, when a new kid walked up in a good looking suite and sharp hair cut. He introduced himself as Kevin, and right off the bat we both thought returned missionary who is new to the YSA branch. We got to talking and asking the usual questions, when it became very obvious that he wasn't a member! We got pretty excited. So we talked to him for a bit before, and then sat with him during sacrament. He liked it a lot, and our branch did a good job coming up and introducing themselves. Most of the members thought he was a member! At the end we talked and taught him some more, and he told us he had worked with some Mormons in the past, but just googled us to see where he could go to church, he just happened to come to the right place! The reason why he looked so clean cut is because he is in the Air Force, and the base is really close. We go his information and are going to teach him this week! It was a tender mercy, because of various reasons all of our other investigators weren't able to make it to church. (Randy had film/practice) 

So things are rolling right along here in New Mexico! It's impossible to complain when you have a name tag on your chest, I don't see how you could. We're having the time of our lives out here, even if it is super hard sometimes! But hey, a wise man once said, "if it ain't hard... It prolly ain't worth much!" 

Know that I love you all very much! Thank you for the prayers, and everything you do.

Until next week!

Elder Turnbow


Thursday, October 31, 2013

"Many... have been prepared by the Lord." PMG p. 177

Hello!
  
   This week was a good week! Lots of great things happened. Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday we were down in El Paso doing exchanges with the zone leaders and visiting missionaries who needed a "pick me up" It was a successful trip. I really wish I spoke better Spanish. The Mexicans love it when you try though, so they get a kick out of it.
                    Let me share a very powerful experience that happened while on exchanges with Elder Rosales in Sunland Park. It's a city that is right on the border of Mexico. We were in a lesson with a new investigator, and of course it was in Spanish so I couldn't do much, but I could follow enough to know that it was going super well. Elder Rosales got to the first vision and I started praying for the spirit to touch this man. As he began I immediately recognized that wonderful feeling come into the room. The investigator could feel it as well, and at the close of the first vision we sat in silence as the spirit penetrated his heart. It was the longest silence I have ever had in a lesson, and it wasn't awkward at all. It was a powerful moment, and though I don't speak the language, it was a lesson I will never forget. The next words that were spoken were about baptism, and he accepted the invitation and set a date for November 16.

We taught Randy the Plan of Salvation this week and he loved it! We set his baptism date for November 27th! It's the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving. His Fiance comes into town on Sunday, baptism Wednesday, Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday the team travels to Idaho, and they play Boise State on Saturday! You all should go. haha Sunday after church we went with Tyson and Randy and we walked around the temple grounds. I love that place. We asked him how he felt and his words were. "I feel at peace, I think I am feeling the spirit"  It was a great walk around the grounds.  You might even say it was a walk to remember...

Saturday morning we taught a new investigator named Monica. A few weeks back she felt the need to go through her old bible study stuff. She realized she didn't have a King James version of the Bible, so she ordered one, and two Mormon missionaries showed up at her door with a bible! The Elders handed her off to us and we taught her for the first time Saturday, and she came to church Yesterday! Over and over again on my mission I have been reminded of a sentence in Preach My Gospel on page 177 that says "Many of the investigators you teach have been prepared by the Lord."

Our new branch presidency is awesome, and hilarious. Their first Sunday was great! 

Congrats on the district championship Matt! Way ta be. Good luck this week!

I'm glad Dylan had a good experience in the temple, it's a great place!

Have a good week everybody! Thanks for the pictures of my new niece! She's a cute one! 

Elder Turnbow 


Sunday, October 20, 2013

Fast Lane!


Hey family!

I don't have much time because right now we are with all of the new missionaries. They flew in this morning and it has been a fun day. It has been fun to talk to Elder Pope and reconnect with him! He will be a good one, no doubt about that.

It was a good week for us. Randy came to church yesterday! We were super pumped about that. He is doing great, the hardest thing is scheduling because he is super busy with football and going to school to be an engineer. 

One of the soccer girls we taught last week came to church too! We found out that she lives in the sisters area so we passed her off. Of course we were a tad bummed, but they will take good care of her. :) We also passed off another investigator this week who we set a baptism date with during our first lesson with her. She is way cool. This was a week of passing off amazing people. No worries though, I love passing off referrals to help out our missionaries. 
Transfer meeting

We transfer planned all week. It's pretty stressful, but I really enjoy it. We make it fun!

Things are good here in New Mexico. Tomorrow is transfers and Wednesday is departures so It will be busy. Busy is the 
best, if only we could slow time down though. 

I have a niece!!! She looks great! 

Sounds like it was another good week for football too! Good stuff.

Thank you all for the great emails and pictures! They are always fun to read and the pictures are great to see. Have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Turnbow

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Balloons and Conference

BALLOONS!!!  

     Well it's that time of year here in ABQ when you wake up to hundreds of hot air balloons in the sky! It's super cool to see. Right now as I write this I can see multiple balloons hovering over the Rio Grande. 

It sure was fun to see the pictures of Court at the airport! I'm sure it has been a fun week with her at home. Sounds like the football game went well too! 

So i accidentally sent you the wrong picture last week, that bball player is Alex Kirk, he is 7 feet tall and a stud. Their point guard Hugh Greenwood is awesome too! 

So this week was full of good stuff. Thursday we had our mission leadership council, and it was one of the best ones that I have been to. The theme was Elder Bednar's talk becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary, and baptizing! All of the new missionaries are now gaining experience and figuring out how to do missionary work, and our mission is starting to explode. It's so cool to see and be apart of! 

Supporting the UNM girl's soccer team members and invesitgators

Friday night was a great night. So there are a few members of our branch who play on the UNM girls soccer team, and they have been trying to share the gospel with their teammates for the last little bit. So.... Last Saturday after the tailgating with our wrist bands, the members roommates who are all on the soccer team came home wearing the bands and saying "Mormons are so cool!" That was our in, it peaked their interest. Cassadee Hansen (the member) had us over for dinner Friday night, and about 9 girls from the soccer team were there. We got all of the normal questions to begin with, but then after dinner we were standing up in the living room with all of them gathered around us as we taught the restoration. It was awesome! The spirit was strong as we bore testimony, and they had super good questions. My favorite comment of the night after teaching prophets "you mean he's a real guy!?" We invited them all to conference and handed out some copies of the Book of Mormon, and we walked out of there knowing somebody was prepared because the spirit was strong. Somehow you can just tell when it is there for somebody. We almost jumped for joy when 2 of them came to conference! 
Mattie at the half


We had a really good lesson with Randy this week! he is the d end for UNM. He wants to get baptized, but his girlfriend who is a member is going to school in Pittsburgh and isn't coming home til thanksgiving, so right now the plan is to wait for then to get baptized. He is super busy with football (understandably,) so we only get to see him like once a week. UNM destroyed NMSU Saturday so he was pretty pumped! Randy is so cool, I love teaching him! 

This week is transfer planning week, so it will be super busy. President told me that I will be staying here for another  transfer, which I am totally fine with! Sometimes I wish we could spend all day every day in our area, but we have many important things to do. The Lord blesses us so much with the time that we do have that we are always being humbled. 

Well you all have a great week! 


Love, Elder Turnbow

PS. General Conference > Super Bowl. 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Seven Days of Miracles!

How do you sum up 7 days full of miracles and amazing things in just one email home? This was a week never to be forgotten!

            It is crazy that Court gets home today, give her my love and give her a hug for me. I was in North Valley with Elder Weston when she went into the MTC, and that seems like it was just yesterday. I was able to see her picture in the New Era! That's my Sister!!! 

            The only days we had in our area this week were Monday night, Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday, but those days were full of miracles! We've started to teach some cool people that we are really excited about. Randy, Kim, Jesus, and Lucas. Lucas has been around for a bit coming to activities, but he would never let us teach him. He has now come to church twice in a row and he is going to let us teach him this week! 

            Wednesday-Friday we were down south in Las Cruces and El Paso for our last zone conferences. They went really well! It is always fun to be down there, it's nice and hot! After our last zone conference we took President and Sister Miller and the McBrides to what is called scenic drive. It's in El Paso and you go high up on the mountain and it overlooks Juarez Mexico. It's super cool! The Mexico lights go on forever! The game is to try and count all the cop cars you can see in Juarez, it's pretty insane. 

           We drove back up Friday night and got ready for our amazing weekend.

Saturday..... It was a great day. Saturday morning we went to a couple baptisms, one was of a lady that Elder Ballif and I referred to some Elders so that was really cool to see!

Alex Kirk
Saturday afternoon was simply insane. It was homecoming week for UNM and they played UNLV. Home football games are great because campus is a mad house. So our branch did a huge tailgating party for the game, and we had 2000 wrist bands that say GO LOBOS!! And on the other side mormon.org with our phone number. When we first walked into the parking lot outside the stadium where everybody was tailgating, we got some pretty nasty looks and people were saying some crude things. Then we started handing out free food and stuff, and we were everyone's best friend! We gave the wrist bands to the entire cheerleading squad, and all of the pep and marching band. one of the highlights was when the boys UNM basketball team was walking by, I recognized many of them from billboards and things, so I grabbed Elder Vial and we ran to talk with them! They were super cool, and by the time we were done they all had on our bands! We took a picture with Alex Kirk and met Hugh Greenwood who is their main guy and super good. It was an amazing three hours of contacting, and we gave away all 2,000 of the bands. everywhere you looked people had them on! we talked to soooo many cool people. When we first walked in you could have played "Master the Tempest is Raging" and by the time we left you could have played "In Our Lovely Deseret" :) 

The night just got even better after that. As you know we had the privilege of going to dinner at 5 Guys with Elder and Sister Richards, and Jenny and Jake, and then we got to listen to Grandpa speak to a lot of our missionaries in the great NMAM! I know how lucky I am to have had my grandparents in my mission. I was able to conduct and introduce Grandpa and Grandma, and it was a special and sacred experience. Every missionary we talk to just loves Grandpa! He spoke with power and the spirit, and was truly inspired with what our missionaries needed. President Miller is trying to think of a way to get him back so he can go to El Paso and talk to all our missionaries down there!
Elder and Sister Richards with Elder Turnbow and Elder Vial


We drove up to Santa Fe with President and Sister Miller Sunday evening and we were able to listen to Grandpa speak again! I was just soaking all of this up the entire time. It was a great two days.

Yesterday was missionary Monday! They opened up the ABQ temple for all of the missionaries to come. In the past we have been able to get all of the missionaries on the same day, but because we have so many now we were only able to do half of the mission yesterday, and we will do the rest next week! I love the temple. What a special place. After our session we went into a sealing room, and the temple president spoke to us for a bit about the temple. It was a really neat experience. 

I am super excited for general conference this weekend! Missions are a spiritual feast, and I love it! 

Have fun with Courtney this week! Love you!

Elder Turnbow 

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Runnin' Gunnin' and a Little Preachin' on the Side!

Wooooo eeeeeeee!  What a week. 
Elder Vial, Jake, Dallas at the Epic Cousin Sleepover
Dallas and Elder Vial stayed at Aunt Jen's in Santa Fe to prepare for the zone conference the next day


We successfully did three zone conferences this week, and it was a blast. The theme for these zone conferences are REMEMBER THIS the back page of Preach My Gospel. President asked Elder Vial to train on plan every day and focus on key indicators, and work effectively all day, every day. He does a great job with it. President asked me to train on the last two bullet points... 1. Help everyone you teach make commitments that will bring about repentance and will strengthen their faith in the Savior. And 2. Love The Lord and serve him the very best you can. I have a lot of fun with it, and I couldn't think of anything else I'd want to train on.  I use Coach Browns 32 minutes to play, a life time to remember. but I changed it to 2 years or 18 months to serve, an eternity to remember. I have reached a point were I love teaching and training missionaries almost as much as I love teaching investigators, there is a lot of power in a room full of missionaries. 

So... Yes we did three zone conferences this week, and we were super busy with that, but the highlight of the week was Saturday! I love Saturdays! Lynsie was baptized! What a miracle she is. I still remember one of her first texts to us. "I want you to know right away that I have no interested in converting, I just want to know what my mom is learning." This miracle started many months ago when Elder Haueter and I knocked into Lynsies mom on exchanges. The Elders there started teaching her mom, Lynsie got home from study abroad, and then we started teaching her! To put it simply, the Savior is the master of His vineyard. I will send pictures later hopefully. 

Lynsie's baptism

Yesterday was a good Sunday. We met with three stake presidents because President Miller was in El Paso for a stake conference. We discussed the work in their respective stakes and made plans to increase the efforts.  Sunday night we taught a missionary prep class in the mission home for the Albuquerque stake. That was super fun! Three of them who came were from our YSA branch so that was super cool. We trained on being interested not interesting, and being able to contact someone. 

Friday night was insane! Our branch and the LDSSA hosted a huge dance on UNM campus. It was awesome! Between us and the Sisters in our branch we talked to a TON of people. The dance was a hit. Our eyes and ears were full of Babylon with the music and everything, but I experienced a small tender mercy, the next day I could 't remember the music that was played at the dance. That was very nice. We spent the night serving pizza and drinks. Right before we left the DJ had us up on the stage and introduced us. It was super cool! We were a hit! 

This week we will be in Las Cruces and El Paso for a few days doing zone conference and exchanges. Good stuff. Tonight our branch is doing a big Matanza (pig roast) at President Browns house. We have a couple investigators coming that we are super excited for. We recently started teaching the defensive end for UNM Randy Williams. He's huge! Haha he is dating a member and has been to church a couple times. We are pumped about him. He is super nice and very smart. 

I swear I blinked and this week was over. We are so busy we don't know what to do with ourselves sometimes. Our branch President shared this scripture with us and it has helped me a lot. Psalm 46:10. "Be still, and know that I am God." 

Well we just got a text from a potential investigator we contacted in Panda Express (yes Dylan I like Panda Express) and he wants to go to lunch today! Yes! Time to hop back in the saddle! Love you all! 

Elder TurnVial






Bring it on!

Elder Ballif, the Millers, Dallas


Hey!
  
          Portland Oregon! That is super sweet. Elder Vial lived there for 6 months for work, and he loved it! He says he has a referral for you Dylan, a girl he used to date who is not a member. One of my favorite companions Elder Johnson is from there! I was with him last Christmas when we skyped home remember? He will be super pumped. You will have to take him teaching with you when he his home from BYU. 

         Yes I am a little bummed that I won't get to see him, but you gotta do it for the flock. Maybe I can extend my mission and go serve with him for a transfer. Haha anyway, I am stoked! It will be awesome to get to serve at the same time. 

         Sounds like the football game was good too! Good stuff.

So we walked into the mission office one morning this week to find some cookies, and copies of Grandpa and Grandma speaking at the Marriot Center to the missionaries! I love the Rockwoods :) We haven't had time to watch it yet, but I plan to today! Has Grandpa told you about the phone call he got from President Miller? I am pretty excited to say the least. 

Last week was pretty intense. It was a good week. We were able to meet with and teach Lynsie every day, and she is set and ready to go for baptism this Saturday. The change in her is incredible. She mentions it all the time as well. She had a past friend call her and tell her for 3 hours that she was following the devils church, and anti'd her for a long time. When Lynsie called us the next morning to tell us about it we were a little worried, but at the end of telling us what happened she said. " and now I just want to get baptized even more! I haven't finished the Book of Mormon yet, but bring it on!" What impressed us the most though is when she told us that she told him to figure it out by himself and come to church and meet with the Elders. Lynsie is awesome. As is tradition in our YSA branch she "came out of the kitchen" on Sunday and announced her baptism! 

Saturday was a special day..... :) I was able to go back to Rio Rancho on exchanges! Not only was I back in an old area, but I was with one of my old companions Elder Eaton. We had a great time together, it was great to teach with him again. We saw Keith! Oh man I love Keith. Sadly Krysha wasn't there, but it made my day to be able to see him again.

Well, zone conference is upon us. We are doing three of them this week, and two next week. This is President's first one, so everybody is pretty exited. It's been stressful preparing for them, but they will be good!  

Today for PDay we are going to ride the tram and hike around the Sandias, it will be a blast! I am looking forward to it. You just have to be in the mountains this time of year. 

Once again I am super excited about Dylan's call, that kid will do amazing things. You should ship him down here for a couple weeks and Elder Vial and I will train him and get him ready to go! 

Until next week my friends! 

Love, Elder T. 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Dare to Dance the Tide!

Howdy!
   
      Wow sounds like it was quite the weekend of football! Thanks for the updates mom and dad! 
   
I can't wait for Dylan to get his call! It will be interesting to see how soon he leaves. My guess is he will go to New Zealand. 

It's been a good couple of days here in the NMAM as well. Last night we watched the CES devotional with our branch and Lynsie, it was awesome to listen to Elder Anderson speak. Lynsie loved it, and she is doing great. The Sisters in our branch had a baptism Saturday and Lynsie came, she said it got her pretty excited!

Embarrassing moment.... My suit pants ripped pretty good, and I didn't realize it. One of the members of the branch pulled me aside at the baptism and said.. "Hey Turnbow, do you know you have a big rip in the back of your pants?" Nope! My poor clothes have about had it. Haha 

Sunday at church we met Mike. He is from Idaho and is engaged to a member of our branch, and he is not a member. He is super cool! There were 5 non members at church Sunday so we were pretty pumped about that. Our branch is on fire with missionary work right now! 

Elder Vial and I have a new diet. Please feel free to suggest other ideas. After morning workout... Protein shake... Right before we go out to work... Grape nuts.... Lunch... 1-2 cans of tuna.... Dinner... We can't control because the members feed us. It's good stuff! 

Know how much I love all of you. Thank you for the prayers, they are felt by all the missionaries.  I am tired and happy, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Funny how the times I have been the happiest in my life are the times where I am plain exhausted. It's a great feeling. 

One of my favorite members here in the branch shared with me these lyrics last week from Garth Brooks song Sail My Vessel:


             " Too many times we stand aside  
                And let the waters slip away
                Til what we put off til tomorrow
                Has now become today
                So don't you sit upon the shoreline
                And say you're satisfied
                Choose to chance the rapids
                And dare to dance the tide" 

                "There's bound to be rough waters
                  And I know I'll take some falls
                  But with the good Lord as my captain
                  I can make it through them all. . ." 

Much love!    Elder Turnbow



Tuesday, August 27, 2013

That's What it's ALL About!

I can't even begin to describe the feelings that have been in my heart for the past three days. Friday and Saturday will both be days that I will never forget. Friday night I had the privilege of going to the temple with a man I love for his first time. Ted Ortiz. It was a special experience and one that is impossible to describe. He has grown so much in a year, and it was special to be with him. Saturday the Ortiz family went to the ABQ temple and were sealed for time and all eternity. It was another incredible experience. We were all sitting in the sealing room when the four little kids came in all dressed in white. The silence was broken by a true mother's cry of love "My Little girls!" There was not a dry eye in the room. Again, it was an experience impossible to describe. It hit me over and over again this week how much I love this work! That's what it's all about, brethren, that's the work of salvation. I am so humbled and grateful for the tender mercies of The Lord. This is His work, and we are lucky to assist Him in it. They are a family that I know Elder Weston and I were put together for. The Stake President had Sister Ortiz bear her testimony on Ted's conversion at a stake priesthood leadership Sunday night on missionary work, and I was amazed again at the miracles that took place in his life. When we got to the area missionaries told us to not even try with him-- I am sure glad we did anyway!


Ted's baptism a year ago

The Albuquerque Temple with the Ortiz Family!





You may remember someone else that Elder Weston and I taught Bryan Baker. He has since moved to California with his wife Megan and his little boy Bryan Jr of 11 months. They came back a week ago and were also sealed in the temple! I wasn't able to go because of scheduling conflicts, but I am so happy! I was able to talk with Bryan this week for a bit, and it was awesome. He is doing amazing. Nothing makes me more happy than to learn of our recent converts doing so well. Wow, I have been humbled over and over again this week. Nothing can come close to the happiness I have felt. I am so lucky to be part of the work that will go on into the eternities.
Elder Turnbow, Brian Baker, and Elder Weston


Elder Vial is my new companion!! It's pretty much a dream come true for both of us. He is from 
Twin Bridges, Montana, which is pretty much the same population of Weston. He loves football, basketball, hunting, and even more so he loves this work. So.... We have a lot in common ;) needless to say I am pretty pumped! He is my first companion that has been out less time than me... Crazy huh? Haha so if I die as an assistant, he could potentially be my last companion. He is with me and Elder Ballif for this week before Elder Ballif leaves us to train next week.


The Bakers at the Albuquerque Temple



We had an awesome lesson with Lynsie tonight.  She had an amazing experience Sunday while a member Daniel Armstrong was speaking. She received her answer to her prayer! She wrote a note to us on a napkin that I will send that describes it better than I can. Pure miracle. Revelation through church! I am so grateful for members who follow the spirit when speaking. We set a baptism date for her on the 21!

Well let's just say that I have had one of the best weeks on my mission if not the best. I have been overwhelmed with feelings of love and gratefulness more often than not this week. I love my savior, I know He Lives and I know with no doubt that this is His church. It has to be. I have seen too many things and received too many witnesses from the spirit that it has to be true. 

Thanks for all of the emails, I don't have time to respond to them all but I do read them, and love them. Thank you for all of the updates.                                     GO PIRATES!!!!!

Love, Elder Turnbow 

Monday, August 19, 2013

Boys/Elders of Fall

Good morning, and greetings from El Paso Texas! It's a crazy place down here let me tell ya. We ate at a restaurant the other day this week and our waitress didn't speak English. My food came out with what I thought I ordered, so hey it was fun!  Still not sure what it was though...


       We had another amazing week in the great NMAM! 

Wednesday we had leadership training in the north of our mission. All the zone leaders, district leaders, sister training leaders, and first 6 week trainers were there. President had me do a 30 minute training on Elder and Sister relationships. With the words "throw down." Was it fun? You know it! I had some fun with it. I used the scripture... No man having set his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of heaven. I then put the picture you sent me of the John Deere tractor frank flipped on its side last winter up on the projector. I think they got the point. When I got to the mission it was about 8% sisters, and it's now 36%. times are changing! It really is inspired, we are seeing so many miracles. We just need to make sure we respect the sacred nature of our calling and rise to a higher standard of conduct. Our mission is so amazing, as I sat in the room with so many strong leaders Wednesday, I knew I was in a room full of consecrated missionaries. 

We went on three more exchanges as well, one of them was with my old companion Elder Ashworth. He goes home next week, boy it was great to be with him again for a day. He has a full ride to BYU for track, so we will all have to go watch him jump! 

Wednesday night was also a very special day. Jessica received her patriarchal blessing, and she invited Elder Ballif and I to be there. I will just say that she is going to be amazing. She left for home in Las Vegas yesterday to go back to school and UNLV, we are praying her spirit will be able to soften her mothers heart so she can accept the gospel. Our other recent convert Desiree got her patriarchal blessing as well! Happy days. All of our recent converts in this branch now but one have gone and done baptisms in the temple, they are doing well. Things are getting wild on campus with school starting this week, it's awesome! More people to teach!

Friday morning we woke up super early and took the long drive to El Paso for a district meeting down there, and exchanges with zone leaders. We drove up to ABQ for church Sunday, had a cottage meeting with all of our investigators, and we are back in El Paso for more exchanges and leadership training for the south. I will be on exchanges in Las Cruces tomorrow. There are a ton of big dairy's there, mmmmm smells good! We will be down south until Thursday morning most likely. I am getting really good at living out of a suit case. 

Our investigators are doing well, we have some big events happening on campus this week that LDSSA is doing, including a huge dance. We are really trying to get our foot in the door with UNM. Our branch president is amazing, and has a big vision for the missionary work here, it's a great place to be right now! 

Well, keep on keepin on! Keep me updated with Dylan's papers! Good luck with school starting Mom.  You will be amazing as always!  This is a special time of year, there is a sense of urgency everywhere! Boys/Elders of fall! Have a great week!

Les quiero todos! 

Elder Turnbow