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