9-6-2010 "35 Days"

Well I have to say this was just a great week. We got to work, Elder Solis, and I. Hes got almost 5 months in the mission and is just a great missionary. He helps me in all the aspects that I need. I think the Lord saw that we were serious about giving it all this week, so he sent us even more help. Elder Lopez Trujillo, who has about 16 months in the mission, decided at the end of last transfer that he didnt want to be Zone Leader anymore. Its a long story, but last saturday, he became our companion. So we have the Old man, the Zone Leader, and the Excited Greenie. It makes for a great companionship. We ended up getting the Norms of Excellency this week, which just felt great. We had one of the coolest baptisms in my mission also.

Esahu, agreed to be baptized last sunday. The only problem is that he worked all week and we couldnt go visit him. He left at 9 in the morning and got home at 10 at night every day except sunday. So we prayed and his girlfriend taught him everything he needed to know. He did great in the interview and was really excited for the baptism. I got to get wet again, which is always nice. After church, we went and celebrated and ate lunch with them. We had the opportunity to talk with Esahu´s mom and commit her to baptism this sunday. Tomorrow we should find out her decision, but we are gonna work hard to baptized every single week this transfer. I really want to accomplish that so pray for our success.

Testimony meeting was just great! Our trio decided to go up first and start off the meeting with our testimonies, and then all the members, including an investigator decided to go up there and share theirs. 3 converts of mine bore their testimony, and just just made me feel so great. I love them all so much! They are really progressing here in this ward, and ive been priveliged to see that progress.

Im having fun, working hard, and really enjoying myself right now. I hope you all are too. Have a great week!

Con amor, Elder Turley

Im gonna send a few pictures...

The first ones our Baptism on Sunday

Second was us when we played Soccer today

Third is me and my companions Elder Solis is the little guy sitting on our legs (HES TINY!!!) and Elder Lopez Trujillo is the bigger one.

8-30-2010 "Sick Week"

So this was my sick week. I wrote a little bit about how I felt...but man things just got worse and worse and worse. On monday, we went on the ride, Elder Larson, Marcos and I. I rode a Montaña bike, while Elder Larson got the nice Giant from the Bishop. My bike had no shocks, but with a little help from marcos, we got some clips on it. I have to say that even though i was really sick, I enjoyed the ride a lot. It will be fun to go home and get good again.

So from tuesday on was the sick week. I woke up with horrible stomache pain, through up in the morning and we started our day. I tried to fake that I was alright and just hoped that it would pass but it didnt. Eventually I told my companion that I could walk anymore. So we called Sister Clark and she recommended some medicine for a Stomache infection. Unfortunately the day before Mexico had made a law stating that you cant bye antibiotics without a prescription. So i had to go to a doctor and he didnt give me the prescription for what sister clark told me. He gave me a prescription to go and get 5 shots in my butt of a more powerful medicine because my infection was really bad. So we went and bought it. I started feeling a little better each day. We couldnt go out and work but at least I was getting better...until yesterday, when I woke up with hives all over my legs. I thought that maybe a spider had bit me or something, and took a shower and went to church. The lord really did bless us with success yesterday, even though we couldnt hardly work. 2 new investigators came to church! And 1 is gonna get baptized on sunday! I looked over at companion when we saw how many people had gone to church and I just said, "I really must have suffered a lot this week, that God with bless us so much at church". We both just grinned and Church turned out to be a little peaceful moment. Anyways, in the afternoon Ivan, the convert doctor, came to the house to give me my 4th shot when we both realized that the hives hadnt gone away and had actually continued to grow. He told me to not inject the last injection and he took me down to his ambulance and they prepared something to stop the alergic reaction. So his partner started trying to put an IV needle in my arm. He first said that Gringos have Crocodile skin...i guess thats a compliment...and then tried twice and failed to get the IV in the vein. So Ivan tried and also missed... and then tried again in the same spot and got it. It wasnt very fun. They gave me the medicine that just knocked me out completely and the hives went down a little. Unfortunately I woke up today and they are even worse... so I had to go and buy some more medicine and now Im here. Thats my week. My very sick week.

So now we are starting my final transfer in the mission. Today at like 3 Ill know if I stay or I go. Ill see if i cant let you know with a little email. I was just meditating the other night and Im gonna hit this transfer full force. My goal is 5 baptisms, it will be tough but definately possible If I work as hard as I can. Im ready. I had a week of mandatory rest so Im ready to get back out and work. Keep praying for my success and my health please!

I love you all! Have an amazing week!

8-23-2010 "Hola"

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great week! Our week was alright. Some families in the ward threw me a couple parties for my birthday, so they took care of me on that side. The problem is that Im not used to eating that much food and cake, and it made me sick. Im still a little sick today, but I cant say that I didnt enjoy it. It made me feel good and loved here.

Yesterday, at church, Rosana, our most progressing investigator, came up to me and asked me if she could get baptized. Thats a first in the mission. I felt so bad that I had to say no because shes not married. Shes in a really tough situation with not very many solutions. The good thing is that shes determined to get baptized, so thats gonna help her out a lot.

Today should be one of the best P-days of my life because in the afternoon, I will be going on a bike ride. The bishops gonna lend me his specialized who knows what. its a really old model. Then, the son of Jesus, the man we baptized two weeks ago, is going to lend me his clip pedals and some clipless shoes and we are going to go on a real bike ride. The truth is, even though I am sick, Im so excited. Its one of the things Ive missed the most.

We are seeing some opposition with our investigators, but I think we havent tried hard enough with them. We have kinda been slacking off a little bit in these past weeks, so we need to pick it up. After all, I need to finish strong. Pray for me so that I can be more obedient, be more excited, be more diligent. Im sure your prayers will help me out a bunch in this week.

I love you all!

Have a great week.

Elder Turley

8-16-2010 "Hey"

Hey everyone! Isnt it crazy that its almost over? Josh is going home this week! You all need to go out and congragulate him on a great mission. I know he tried so hard out there. I am really excited to see him.

We had a lot of rain this week, which slowed us down a bit. It was one of the rougher weeks, that always happen in between the good ones. We did set two baptismal dates. Lets see what happens with them. One is for this sunday, but Im not sure. It seems really hard to accomplish. And the other one we had to set for september. We met a really prepared woman from Puebla. She is a Pentacostal or however you write that. We talked about the restoration and she accepted everything. Then we challenged her to be baptized and she also told us she wants to. The bummer is that she is in Puebla until the 15th of september. But she wants to get baptized when she comes back, so we will just sit tight and hope for the best.

Im doing good. Im sure all the return missionaries know how the last few months go, so im trying hard to get up and smile everyday. I still love a good lesson with an investigator, but I find myself thinking more and more about home. Im sure its normal. This week we are gonna see if we cant find a few more people to baptize in this and my final transfer in the mission. Thats whats keeping me motivated. These last few weeks of the transfer will be vital to me finding the last few and to complete my goal.

I hope your all doing well and have a great week!

Love you!

con amor, Elder Turley

8-9-2010 "22 months"

So, Im just realizing that my time is quickley coming to an end. How sad! I mean I really did miss going to Powell with everyone, but Im gonna miss the mission. 9 weeks left. Isnt that crazy?

We had a great week this week. It was really special for me. First of all, we went and had our capatication in Torreon, right across the street from my old area. It was 3 days of learning the new material and the new way of teaching, that we will be teaching all the missionaries in these months. It was a great chance to learn, review, and better my teaching skills. I wont lie though, it was overload. 9 to 4 for 3 days straight. I got tired, but also excited to try some new tactics in these last 2 months.

Ending the capatication on wednesday and thursday, Elder Larson and I went out to an area in Torreon to help out a companionship over there. We got to try and set a few baptismal dates with varied results. It was an opportunity to just try everything we were learning on the people. We had fun. The best part was on thursday night when the Assistants let me go to my old area and visit a few people there. It was just awesome. I hardly had anytime, but I got to visit a few families and talk to them a bit. The Pedrozas were home and that was just great to see all of them and laugh with them for a few moments. Then, I got to spend some short moments with Gerardo, who got baptized just a week after I left that area. We got to talk about how they felt and how they were still strong in the church. It was just great.

It looks like we will have another capatication my last week here in the mission. Im excited because I get to say goodbye too all my friends. Its just gonna be awesome.

So, we ended up getting back here on friday night. Kind of missed out on the whole week. But Elder Perez came through and followed up just great with the baptismal date that we had. The brother was really prepared and it was just a matter of supporting him and watching out for satans attacks. On saturday we did the interview and everything turned out fine. The Baptismal service was really special. I sang a hymn...alone....thats a first in my life. I was nervous but in the last 2 versus the spirit came and I relaxed and just tried my hardest. I sang Abide with me, tis eventide. Everything went smoothe and the spirit was present. Just another great experience.

This change we gotta push hard if we want to baptize more, but the baptisms are out there. Pray for our success and just prepare yourselves for the sensation when I get home. Things are gonna go off the wall. It looks like Ill be landing at around noon on the 11th of October, so we will have plenty of time to go to In&Out and then on a nice bike ride. Im excited. 5 more baptisms is my goal so everyone pray for our success!

I did get the cookies and they were intact. They were great mom thanks!

Love you all

Con amor, Elder Turley

8-2-2010 "Hi"

Hey everyone! Sounds like Lake Powell is going great. The truth is...I really do miss it. I hope youy are all having a blast out there.

This week for me, is gonna be a really busy one. Tomorrow I have to go down to Torreon for a few days. I write it like that just so it sounds like im a business man. I have a couple of meetings down in Torreon. Actually, they are going to change the whole mission. We will be teaching missionaries 8 new lessons to help them improve their teaching. The new lessons are strictly for missionaries. It should be really interesting to get some new material and see what happens with this whole new strategy.

Yesterday, we had some great attendance in Church. 3 for the first time and 3 for the second time. One of them was Jorge´s dad, Jesus. He told us on saturday that he was really starting to believe this stuff and getting excited to get baptized. He said that he didnt want to put a date, but that any day now he would just tell us that he was ready to get baptized. Usually I have the instinct to push and push and push, but this time I decided to just relax and show this Brother that I was confident in him. And thats how we left it until sunday, when, in Gospel Principles class, he just started commenting about everything. That was a pretty good sign that he had felt the spirit so I turned over to the Bishop and asked him to have an ¨Interview¨ with Jesus, but he was really just going to be challenging the brother to get baptized. Well, they were in the interview for a good amount of time. Like 40 minutes and we had to go to the sacrament meeting of the other ward. After the Bishop finished, he came in and got me to talk to me and told me that the brother decided to get baptized this coming sunday. Pretty awesome! What makes it even more awesome is that this guy has been an investigator for years. His son has been a member for 5 years now. It feels good that we were able to win his trust and then help him feel the spirit in order to get baptized.

So 10 weeks left. I hope to spend them all here, in Fresnillo. But lets see what happens with that. Have a great week everyone and some one needs to do the death run on a tube and jump off a huge cliff. Just to remember me!

Con amor, Elder Turley

7-26-2010 "me"

So, we had another week fly by. It just keeps going by faster and faster. The wedding sounds like it went just great. Thats awesome. I hope you all have a great time in Lake Powell. I think everyone but kimmy has gone soft , so I can only trust in kimmy to jump off a 60+ foot cliff this year. When I get back ill be able to fill that role again.

So we had an interesting time trying to adjust ourselves to 2 areas. Its pretty tough. Ill try to calculate it a bit for you guys. We walk by the way. Our area is like from where the Chesebro house is all the way to Best Buy in T.O. And thats all on foot. We are trying our best to manage. We have a few investigators in both areas, but Id always like to have more. Realistically, we are looking at 2 or 3 baptisms this transfer, but im hoping for 4. They are also deciding to change all the missions in the whole world. That means I only have 1 zone conference and 1 interview left. It should be interesting. Also, instead of 5 lessons, there are going to be 8 lessons. Its all focuse on makin missionaries better teachers.

Yesterday, we had a tragedy here in the ward. A sister was driving home from the city of Jerez, when she got in a car crash and her little girl died. She was holding the girl in her arms when the ambulance came. It seems like things like that are just increasing, with Sister Pace and this little Girl here. We are kinda on comfort control now. Just going around and talking with members. I think in a little while we are gonna go and visit the sister, who is a really good friend. They have the body in the chapel right now, and i think they are going to bury the girl tomorrow in the morning. At least the girls in a better place.

So thats my week. Just chugging along. Trying to work hard and enjoy my last moments as a missionary.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Con amor, Elder Turley