Runners on your mark... Goodbye Academy Heights!

HEY!

          I have to start with a shout out (as Sister Turnbow did as well) to my family in SLC! It was fun to get those pictures and read all the little notes. It made my day! Thank you all very much. Also Mom I got the conference quotes you sent me. Thanks a ton! Those are way awesome. You know I love my motivational quotes :)

          Also before I forget. There is a Sister Silva here serving in ABQ from Burley, Idaho! She said she is/was good friends with Aaron! She wanted me to tell him hi! I don't know his email address because he never emails me... AHEM Aaron Ahem! haha

          Tenielle got her call here huh!? That's super cool! When does she leave? It's the best mission in the world! If you see or talk to her just tell her she got a good one! We will be excited to have her.

         Mom - It sounds like you did an amazing job on Sunday. No surprise there, you are amazing! Dad got pretty lucky! I still don't know how he tricked you so well. I will have to get tips from him in a while!

         I heard from my man Brady Bingham this week and it sounds like the gobbler chasing is a blast! I'm sure the boys are having fun. Track seems to be going well too! There is a kid here in ABQ who runs on his high school team, so I've talked to him a bit and I always think of Dylan and Matt!

        Dad- You always know what to say, I love your emails.

     Well you are probably wondering about the subject of this email, so I will get to it and let you know what has happened. Saturday night at 7:44 we were in the middle of a lesson, the phone buzzed and I looked at it real quick and it was from President Miller.. All it said was, "Can you be at the mission home tonight at 9?"  When that happens it's usually not a good thing. haha So we were both kind of scared. We went though, and President asked me to go to his office with him and we chatted for a good while. He called me to be an assistant.

      Elder Hanks and Elder Ballif are the assistants right now, it is the last week of this transfer and Elder Hanks goes home next week. They call assistants a week before the transfer ends so I can be with them for the week and be a part of all the transfer planning. So President told me that Saturday night, and told me I couldn't tell anybody besides Elder Eaton until Sunday night when he text the entire mission to tell them. 

      SO a lot has happened the last couple of days. I am so super sad to leave Academy Heights. It's an amazing place!! It stunk to leave Elder Eaton too. I feel bad because I left him to fend for himself for a week. He will be with other missionaries and do splits with the ward. He is an absolute stud of a missionary.

    So right now I am with Elder Ballif and Elder Hanks! If you recall from my last email Elder Hanks is one of my best friends out here, so I am excited to get trained as an assistant by him for his last week. ELDER BALLIF!!! I can't say enough good about him. We came out together! He is Spanish speaking so he is one transfer ahead of me. He is new to this too, so we'll be learning together :) 

   This week is transfer planning every single day! crazy. My mission just took a big turn-- there is no time to rest that's for sure!!  I was/am feeling very overwhelmed and inadequate. As I was talking to President Miller that night he invited me to pray to receive the confirmation that it was inspired. So I spent some good time on my knees and did just that. The next day during sacrament meeting I felt the spirit very strongly as I listened to a return missionary report on him mission. I knew it was an answer to my prayer. Today as we all sat together and started planning for the next transfer it amazed me at how much of a spiritual experience it was. The Lord knows what to do with missionaries.  

   Well I could share a lot with you and go on and on, but know that I am doing well and loving every minute of my mission. I can't begin to describe how much of a sacred experience it is. I have what many call 'Buck fever" right now. Or that feeling you get before a basketball or football game. Or when you are standing on the track waiting for the call "Runners on your mark!" I guess I kinda live for that feeling. I love all of these things! I am nervous and excited. The only thing I know how to do is my best. I know that if you put your heart in something your heart won't quit until you do.

       I love you all and pray for you as well! Thanks for all the support, have a good one!

Elder Turnbow

             

Grinning from ear to ear!

Dear Family,

Hi!

How is everybody!? It's fun to read your emails every week and see what crazy things you have been up to. It always sounds like a blast! I am glad you are doing well, hopefully it can rain there for ya. It's been gorgeous weather here. Good luck chasing the gobblers!

Yesterday was "Missionary Monday!" Every missionary in the NMAM gets to go to the temple for a session! Wow, I love the temple. I was reminded with power how much I love the temple. I never forgot how much I loved it, but it was reiterated to me just how much of a sacred place it really is. I went with a lot of questions on my mind and stress like never before, and I received peace and comfort with lots of answers to prayers.

We were the first session to go in the morning, so President and Sister Miller were in ours; it was very neat to go with them. We were put in charge of assigning 3 companionships to clean the temple later that day, so naturally we assigned ourselves! Neither of us have ever cleaned the temple before so we wanted to do it. It was awesome! That entire place is beautiful. You can rub your finger along a base board for 20 yards and not pick up any dust, it's crazy. There were times I was vacuuming or something by myself and I just felt so at peace. It's so quiet in there. (Habakkuk 2:20) It was fun to get to go to so many places you normally don't get to see. At the end a couple of the workers there took us on a little tour to see some more of those places. So cool! 

The Ortiz Family
North Valley, Albuquerque

Tuesday I went on exchanges back to my old area! North Valley!!! That is where I served with Elder Weston. Man, I love that place. Since I have left there it has now been split with Elders and Sisters, and they are both on bikes. It was fun to be on a bike all day riding the old streets we would walk and drive every day. The highlight of the exchange was the visit to the Ortiz family. There are no words that can describe my feelings properly for that sweet family. Ted Was baptized on August 18, 2012 and they have a temple date to go get sealed as a family on August 18, 2013 I cannot describe my joy! I cannot wait for the day to see them all at the temple. We were on bikes all day for that exchange, and it was raining and raining and raining, and I was grinning from ear to ear all day!! The Elder I was with probably thought I was crazy. As we were riding home for the day, we were a couple miles away and it switched from a down pour of rain to a big hail storm! I laughed and sang all the way home! I am weird, but I was loving it! (Boy, was I wet.)

  

Sunday we witnessed a miracle-- 9 of our investigators came to church! Only bad thing... none of them currently have a baptism date. Things have flip flopped on us. Usually everybody will say they want to get baptized and then not act, now people are acting and coming to church, but not accepting baptism. Church is a pretty amazing step though. I am a firm believer in revelation at church! We had a great lesson with Tristan this week, and he is praying with his wife for a baptism date. Good things are to come! I know it!

We are currently on exchanges with the assistants. I am with Elder Hanks. He is like my best friend on the mission, and one of my heroes. I have learned so much from him and love him to death. He goes home soon and I am super sad to see him go.

Things are well, we keep fighting the good fight! You all do the same! Lots of love!

Elder Turnbow

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

So run, that ye may obtain...

When trying to think of what to write you, I decided the best thing to do would give you a day by day "run" down... enjoy!

 

Tuesday: I was on exchanges in an area called Bear Canyon. It's up against the base of the Sandia mountains, and it's a bike area. You are either biking straight up or straight down. Let's just say it was a good workout, and helped me realize how out of shape I am. It was a blast though! As we would bike up the hills I was praying like crazy there would be someone outside so I could stop and talk to them :)

 

Wednesday: A pretty normal day for the most part, we did a lot of teaching and planning for our zone meeting and conference. Wednesday was our only full day this week to work our area, so we worked hard!

 

Thursday: Our monthly Zone Leader Council at the mission home. It is my favorite meeting of them all. I feel very inadequate being with the missionaries there; they are amazing. So we went to that all day, and then stayed up past midnight that night planning for our zone training meeting the next morning. We learned Sunday that we will no longer have zone leader council, and this is because of the new sister leadership thing. That should be interesting!

 

Friday: Zone training meeting! We trained the zone for 3 hours on what we learned at ZLC. It went great and I really do love teaching and helping other missionaries.

 

Saturday and Sunday: General Conference!! Wow, what a powerful two days. There is no way you can listen to conference and not feel the spirit. I saw Britton in the choir!!! I was sitting there watching them sing and then  "Hey... she looks familiar... Britton!!!!" I think it was her anyway? Correct me if I am wrong. You mentioned they were singing, Mom, so I figured it had to be.

           It would be impossible for me to mention just a few of my insights and things I learned at conference so I won't even try. For those of you who were at priesthood though did you like Elder Eyring's shout out for ABQ!? amazing that when he left here they were just barely organizing one stake. Now there is the ABQ stake, ABQ West stake, ABQ East stake, Los Lunas Stake, Rio Rancho stake, and Indian School stake. Also an amazing temple! Next Monday is our mission temple day! I can't wait! We will probably email Tuesday then just for the heads up.

          We were able to have 6 investigators watch conference, and it was a powerful moment for all of them.

 

One thing I did want to mention for conference that really stuck out to me was something President Monson said during the priesthood session. I will paraphrase. He said something to the effect of all the full time missionaries serving now will go home with in the course of 2 years to 18 months, and their replacements are among us now, the Aaronic priesthood holders. Instantly I thought of Dylan and Matt. It was a weird feeling when he said that, first of all because I am going to be a missionary for the rest of my life, and second because of how much this means to me now, I can't help but want all the missionaries coming out to be prepared! A mission is a very personal thing, it becomes a part of you, to think of having another missionary take your place is hard, so he better be good!!! I don't know if this makes any sense it's hard to explain, but you want those who replace you to be better than you, because I love these people, and can't imagine leaving the people in New Mexico if I weren't leaving them in good hands.  So get ready Dylan. You too Matt.

 

It sounds like you all had a good spring break! Stinks Dylan got sick, he must have partied way too hard! Matt harrowing by himself? What is this world coming too! He's still 5'4" 100 lbs right?

 

Love you all!

 

Elder T.

 

Easter Blessings

HEY THERE!!!!

  Happy Late Easter!! Thanks for all the goodies! Easter has become one of my favorite holidays since being on a mission. I love it! For breakfast we made waffles with shavings from Dove chocolate Easter bunnies. MMMMMMM!!! Last Easter Grandpa Richards sent me a quote that says "The most hopeless military command ever given was to those Roman soldiers to guard the tomb. No army or weapon ever assembled could keep the tomb sealed!" How true that is. I reflected on that many times this past week and can't help but feel the power of the atonement.

     Easter Sunday found us giving many blessings, 8 in total. When giving someone a blessing there is no doubt that the spirit is real, it is such a privilege to do.  You can tell how much Heavenly Father really does love all his children.

      So this week had its ups and downs, but let's focus on the ups ya? ya! We were finally able to meet with Dana after she had come to church twice with no contact from us, and we set a baptism date with her in our first lesson! She is a super sweet lady, and very shy. We had to really tune in with the spirit and ask inspired questions to help her open up.

        The biggest downer we had this week was we got dropped by 6 investigators, three young couples. No fun. It's very interesting the sorrow that you feel for people when they choose not to continue on the right path, it has to be a Godly sorrow. You all know I'm really tough on myself, and that's the hardest thing to deal with sometimes. It's crazy when you just don't know what more you could do.

         BUT! We were blessed this week in finding others to teach! A young mom with two kids referred herself on mormon.org. They are an awesome native family. Nadia, Lilaqoi, and Liesha. Nadia actually comes from a part-member family who lives in Shiprock. Her dad is still investigating the church. Her older brother was baptized, but she decided not too because she didn't want to do it just to follow big brother, and her mom is somewhat inactive so it's hasn't been such a big part of their lives. The reason she referred herself is because her grandma recently passed away and she was an active member of the church. She was very close to her and it has been hard for her to take. She remembered the Elders would bring a good feeling when they came and help with things they were going through. We had a really great first meeting with them as we focused on her needs and taught about the atonement and spirit world. After our first lesson they came to church yesterday!

Albuquerque Temple in my area

      Ok now for a quick giggle for everybody. Being April Fools day today, naturally we pulled a great prank! Sunday night is numbers night, so we are always up late collecting the numbers for the zone. Last night one of our district leaders fell asleep before we called so he had it coming. We called and called and called! It was getting close to midnight when we put the plan in action. We text and told him a companionship in his district had broken rules and went out to get McDonald's for a midnight snack and got in a car accident and that it didn't look good. We told him we would pick him up in 20 min to go to the hospital. Then we text a while later and said forget that just meet us there as soon as you can. We never heard a word back from him so we just went to bed. Right at 630 this morning our phone starts ringing and it was him alright! I answered and played it great! I told him we were at the hospital with them all night and that we would be going again today to see them. I said they both had bad cuts with many stitches and bad concussions. I played it smooth and then took all the numbers from him. To end the prank I sincerely said... "yeah it was a crazy night, we were just super luck they were able to get all the help they needed, ya know with it being April Fools Day and all." There was a really long pause and then he figured it out. It was hilarious!!! Awesome prank? Yes. A little too much? Maybe. It will always be remembered.

     Oh ya! This last week we also had a combined zone training with two other zones. It was great I learned a lot. We were asked to role play teaching faith, a principle of action, for all three zones. It was a good time. I always get a little nervous being an example for all to watch.

      Well I will end this long email by just saying thank you again for all the love and support, I wouldn't be able to do any of it if I didn't know you were all pulling for me. Have a great week and awesome spring break! Enjoy general conference!!!

Much Love,

Elder Turnbow