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 

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 

Miracles Happen!

Hey family!

       So this week was pretty crazy, like most weeks. We went on 4 exchanges, and saw miracles with every single one. We switch off who stays in our area and who goes to the new area, so it's fun to coordinate what happened with who in our area when you do 4 exchanges in a row. I love being with the zone leaders, I am best friends with many of them, so it is always a good time. Here is one miracle that happened on Tuesday while I was with Elder Steffensen in our area. We found a YSA named Tuesday, and it was on Tuesday :) We invited her to be baptized in our first lesson with her and she accepted! Her mom is a member but her dad is not, she was taught off and on by the Elders growing up but never got baptized, we are super excited about her, she is really cool! No we didn't set the baptism date for a Tuesday Frank...

Last night we had a neat experience. We were at dinner with a member when President called and asked us if we could speak at a stake youth fireside at 6 30, and right then it was about 6. Of course we said we would, and we booked it to where the meeting was. I had no idea what I was going to say to those young people. right before I got up to speak I said a prayer in my heart, I knew I was worthy of the spirit, and prayed I could say something that would help the youth. Honestly I don't remember exactly what I said, but I knew I was guided by the spirit. Elder Ballif and I both spoke for about 7 minutes, and we really enjoyed it. I feel like I'm still really learning how to rely on the spirit, but it is something that I have really come to cherish.

Here is some transfer chisme for all of you back home! President told us last week that Elder Ballif will be stepping down from AP next transfer to train a new Elder for his last two transfers. He is super excited! I am happy for him too, he has really missed teaching in Spanish. He will miss our YSA branch like crazy though. I will be sad to see him go, he has been my longest companion, and we have had a blast together.  It will be interesting to see who President calls to be the new assistant, and my new companion. That will be in 2 weeks. Stay tuned!

 

Last night we were with President at the mission home until after 11. He is really feeling the weight of some things on his shoulders, and we just talked for a good long while. He is an incredible man, and cares about this work so much. I love him and Sister Miller to death. They are amazing people. The load they carry is a big one, I want so much to do all that I can to help them. 

Ok, so Sister Turnbow invited you all to write her your testimony, and on one of our many drives down south this week I was pondering that, and I decided I wanted to do something similar. My invitation is for all who read this email. I wold like to invite you to jot down some thoughts on your mission. Why is it special to you? What do you feel like you learned the most? How is your mission still helping you today? Follow the spirit and write about your mission. If you wouldn't mind doing this I would love to hear some experiences from all of you. This is for anybody who feels prompted to do so, please don't hesitate, I feel like this will be special for me to read.

Thanks for the pictures mom! I am glad you had another good time at the cabin with grandma. It's always great to read about everybody's adventures. Keep up the great work with the harvest dad. Good luck with 2 a days Matt! Love every minute of them. Dylan, keep it classy.

Love you all much!

Elder TurnBallif 

I love my mission!

Elder Ballif and Elder Turnbow

Hey everybody! Things are still amazing in the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission! I feel like I can't say much more than that. I love my mission! 

Ryan was baptized Saturday, it was a great day. We had the service early Saturday morning because he had to go into work later in the afternoon. It was an Albuquerque sunrise service! Ryan walked in to the church with a big smile on his face and was excited to tell us he had finished the Book of Mormon just the day before! Remember that we met Ryan just 4 weeks ago. Watching him gain his testimony by feasting upon the Word of God has been a witness to me once again of the power in the book. Every lesson we have had with him has been amazing, and it's simply because in between our first and second lesson he gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so he loved everything there was to learn. One of our investigators, Lynsie, came to his baptism and really enjoyed it. We have been teaching her for about 2 weeks now and she is doing really well. I think I mentioned her in my email last week, so I won't go into too much detail. She doesn't really believe that Christ is her savior, our lessons have been powerful as we testify of Christ, we Have been fairly bold in our lessons, and she responds well. Ryan asked me to confirm him, and I was honored to do so. Our assistant ward mission leader Mike Yao baptized him. Mike is an amazing missionary, and that's all I have to say about that. 

Fast and testimony meeting was amazing. Two of our recent converts Desiree and Jessica both bore their testimonies! It was super awesome to see. I love this gospel. 

So... Do you want to know something pretty cool? I am typing this email on an iPad! Elder Ballif and I both now have iPads, and engraved on the back of them are New Mexico Albuquerque Mission. Besides President Miller, we are the only ones with them right now. It makes things so easy! We do a ton of our work for the mission on them. The calendar, scheduling presidents meetings, numbers, and trainings, it's great. President has been in El Paso for the past little bit too, so we have face timed with him to keep everything up to date. It's pretty fun! 

It was great to read about Grandpa and Grandma at the MTC! Former Sister Miller emailed me and was pretty excited too, her sisters husband is the MTC president! I'm sure they were amazing, thank you for the notes on the talk, it was really fun to read. Is there any way we can get a copy of the talk from the MTC? I know they record them all. 

I saw that picture of Chelsea with Jimmer!! Way cool. 

We went to lunch today at a place called R U Cereal. All you can eat cereal buffet! 

Well, I'm going to go play a game of ping pong, keep calm and carry on everybody! Good luck with the Harvest Dad.  I am praying for you. Love you all!

Elder Turnbow 

The Power of God in New Mexico!

Hey Everybody!

How's life? If your answer is anything other than incredible, may I suggest you go out and fix that!

Things are great here! Sounds like that famous Preston night rodeo was was success! That is always a good time. I am super jealous that you all get to go listen to Grandpa and Grandma Richards this week speak in the MTC-- that will be an amazing experience for all. Please take lots of notes ;)

I am excited today because we will get to play basketball for the first time in weeks! Basketball always clears my mind so much, and helps me reboost. I always think of you mom, chucking a ball at me when I would get super angry and telling me to go dribble or go shoot. I am sure glad you found out what helps calm me down. Any bball skill I do have, I thank you for.

Ryan! Ryan is a stud. We met him 4 weeks ago, and he is ready to go for baptism this Saturday. He is now in 3 Nephi, and loves the Book of Mormon. Seeing him become converted because of the Book of Mormon before we even really taught him has helped my testimony of the Book of Mormon grow even stronger. That Book has power, and I know it's true with all my heart.  Teaching him has been amazing. He is one the Lord has truly prepared. The Lord is blessing us, we are working so hard with President, and doing all we can to help the mission, and the Lord takes care of our proselyting area.

Here is a neat experience I will share really quick.

     A couple months ago I was on exchanges with a new Elder in the Bear Canyon ward. We were out on the streets talking to people and we knocked on the door of a lady named Natalia. She seemed very nice, and we had a great conversation with her. I told that Elder he better go back and teach her! He was a new Elder and it was a great experience for him. So those Elders went back and started teaching her, and she is preparing for baptism. Recently her daughter got back from Europe doing a study abroad, and she learned her mom was meeting with missionaries. The Elders referred her to us because she is YSA, so now we are teaching Natalia's daughter Lynsie! She told us straight up that she was not interested in converting, and that she only wanted to learn more because she wanted to know what her mom was getting into. We gave her a tour of our institute building, and had a really good lesson with her on the restoration. We could feel the spirit working on her, and her demeanor changed throughout the lesson. about halfway through her questions changed, and she really was becoming interested. She came to church yesterday too!  

There have been multiple Thunder storms the past couple of weeks. Lightning like I have never seen! We were driving home at about midnight after being on a special errand, and we were right in the middle of it all! With one flash of lightning there was no time difference between lightning and thunder. It was so bright it hurt my eyes! Loudest thunder I have heard. I was having a blast, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The power of God was displayed in the New Mexico night sky.

Well, time to go lace up and hit the hardwood. Have a great week and keep being awesome! Much love!

Elder Turnbow

Stay Strong and Carry On!

Hey!

    Things have been going well since I last wrote, life is good.    

     Saturday night was Jessica's baptism, and it was a great success. There were so many people there that we had to do the program part in the chapel, and that filled up too! She had a lot of support from the branch, and family and friends came in from out of town too. It was a spiritual experience for all who were there, and it was because of how ready and excited she was.

     Monday we picked up 26 new missionaries from the airport! That is always a blast. It is fun to spend the day training them and getting them ready to go out into the field. Sister Mendenhall from Preston came in with this group so that was pretty cool! She will be a great missionary. It's awesome to fill the NMAM with Cache Valley natives!

     Tuesday was the crazy transfer day! Monday night we left the mission home at about midnight in our bball shorts and t-shirts after a long night with President getting the final plans made. I love spending so much time with him and Sister Miller.  It is so much fun and I learn so much. The transfer went smooth for the most part, the only hiccup we had is a sister who was suppossed to go from Las Cruces to El Paso went from Las Cruces to ABQ! yeah.... haha We had it right, but some missionaries just read the instructions wrong. It was pretty funny, but I felt bad for the sister. We got her where she needed to be today though, and she is training a new sister.

       We spent most of Tuesday evening with the missionaries going home. That was strange because all the Sisters were the ones that I came out with. weird. it is always a good/stressful day. Makes me never want to leave.

     Wednesday morning we had them at the airport at 5 am. President looked and Elder Ballif and I and sent us home to take a nap after the drop off. It was much needed! We got home at 6 30 and woke up 6 hours later at 12 30. I felt like a new man! I didn't realize how tired I was, i was past the point of being tired, it was more like a numb feeling. 

     Desiree invited her friend to a YSA activity and we taught him the restoration last night, it went super well and he is great! I love recent converts! They are so good at sharing the gospel and have no fear.

     Ryan is still doing amazing and on track for baptism! He started the Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago and is done with Alma already. We invited him to be baptized in our first lesson, in between our first and second he read 40 chapters in the BoM and got an answer to be baptized. He's great!

     Dad you mentioned that Sister Dennis keeps posting pics; she is like my mom out here, and she is a hoot! She takes good care of us. I am glad she does that, it makes up for my lack of emailing.

     I got a letter from Grandpa yesterday and it had "It's in the Blood" attached that Mom wrote to him. Every time I read that and about my ancestors their stories burn within my heart.

     Sounds like you all had a great 24th! I love the Sunday  ice cream notes-- it's so fun to read everybody's comments.

     Ya'll have a great week and I'll do the same!

Stay Strong and Carry On!

Love, Elder Turnbow

President Miller is out of town...

Aunt Jen, Uncle Jason, Cousin Maddy, Uncle Craig taking the elders and President and Sister Miller lunch in Santa Fe
July 13, 2013