The Best Two Years in Saltillo Mexico

This past week has been really good. We are still struggling with getting our investigators to commit to come to church and setting up baptismal dates, but I feel things are starting to change. And maybe the Christmas Season is helping things move along. But I want to share an experience I had just yesterday in a lesson. For a bit of background, we just met this man only a few days earlier and when we first contacted him, he said we could come back at like anytime to talk with him about "la palabra." So we returned yesterday to talk with him about the third lesson, El Evangelio de Jesucristo. As we started discussing some of the things of him, he immediately brought up the Book of Mormon. He started coming at us with all these questions concerning many different items of the church, and repeatedly stated that he accepts that the Book of Mormon supports the Bible, but isn't the Word of God. I knew that this lesson wasn't going to to anywhere if we let him continue ...

The Old Professor Look So this past week has been insane. The first snow that Sabinas has seen in apparently 15 years, and an awesome Friday to Saturday stay in Piedras Negras for Ilumina El Mundo. So let's get started shall we? So Tuesday we had District Meeting and one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Alarcon, came with us for the day. It was awesome and one of our investigators that we visited, Roberto, is showing really good signs of progression. Though him coming on Sundays will be hard because he goes to Muzquiz to visit his son on Sundays. Then on Wednesday, one of the new investigators we found we talked to for like an hour about various things in our Church, from the Restoration, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to even temples and marriage. We believe that is really prepared. Then on Thursday, it was freezing. But we went to the baptism for Rufina, which was one of Elder Atkin's and Elder Diaz's investigators, and I gave a super short talk on the Holy Ghost...

So needless to say, it seems that nearly every P-day there is something that just makes it a pain. So here goes... My name is Elder Turner and this is my story. It was 3 am. I had woken up with the need to go to the bathroom. So I went, flushed the toilet, got back in bed, and everything was good. 5 minutes pass, and a CRACK sound fills the room, followed by the gushing of water coming from our bathroom. I jump out of bed not knowing what lies ahead. I turn on the lights and see water seeping from the toilet tank and spreading out on the ground of our bathroom. Luckily, our bathroom has about an inch of a lip from the kitchen, so water wasn't in danger of spreading that way, but nevertheless, this was a disaster. So I quickly turned off the water valve to the toilet and then ran outside to grab the mop to start pushing the water towards the shower. In the midst of rapidly pushing the water, I look down and see my middle finger bleeding without any idea of how it started. Well t...

How goes everyone? So this past week was pretty good. We extended baptism invitations to 4 people this past week, Luis Gutierrez, and older guy who has been progressing pretty well, and Jose and two of his kids, who we only had our first actual lesson with on Saturday. None of them accepted because they wanted to find out more and find out for themselves of its truthfulness, but we are hopeful to get baptism dates with them during this week sometime.  So as you might know, or maybe not, Elder Atkin his companion Elder Diaz are in the same Rama as Elder Garcia and I. So we get to see them a lot, which is awesome. But Elder Diaz is Elder Atkin's new trainer, and he is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. So that was cool to find out that he is from Dad's mission! But Luis Gutierrez is probably our best progressing investigator we have right now. Everytime we have set a time to meet with him, he is always there waiting for us with his Book of Mormon open! And our last lesson ...

So to start, I wish I could say that we have baptisms lined up, but sadly, not yet. But hey, we're working hard.  So today we found out what the changes were going to be, and man, there were a lot of them. Every companionship in our zone changed, except for Elder Garcia and I. We're still together and kicking it in Sabinas 1-B. So that's awesome. Elder Garcia is now the District Leader, so that is the one change that happened with us! One of our Zone Leaders stayed, Elder Alarcon, and our other new Zone Leader is Elder Lorenzo, who was Elder Atkin's comp. It's a bit crazy with the changes, but I am glad we get to stay. It's crazy to think that my first change is already over. On wednesday, we had the best food I have had here in Sabinas. We ate with one of the converts who is a cook, and he made sirloin steak and ribs and potatoes, It was fantastic. And then a dessert of awesome chocolate cake and flan! Oh boy was it good. On Friday, our ward cel...

I was able to talk to my parents yesterday on the phone, and they informed me of the passing of my brother-in-law, Kadin from heroine addiction. It definitely isn't news you want to hear while on a mission, let alone while not on a mission. My heart is both saddened and yet praising our Heavenly Father for His Plan that he has for us, and of the infinite love that both our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ has for every single one of us. I know that Kadin is in a better place now and that his journey isn't over yet. And that we will see him again one day in the mansions of our Father with a joyful reunion. I want my family to know that I love them with everything that I have, even though I am in some other place right now. Life is hard. This mission is hard. But that is exactly what we knew it would be like before we came to this earth. We chose to follow our Savior's plan, and I am so glad that we did. And I hope including this next bit from my sister will help ...

So yeah, like the title says... I miss some of my worldly music. But hey that's no big deal. I have some great uplifting church music now to listen to.  And some pictures of my speaker in the dark that somehow looks kinda cool.  But let's get to the good stuff from this past week. Which there was a lot of things that went down. Not bad things, just good things. So first things first, I got bit by like a spider or something so I had this nice red spot on my arm for a few days. It didn't really hurt at all, it was just more annoying than anything else.  Entonces, there was this book of workouts at Elder Atkin and Elder Lorenzo's house that was left by some Hermanas that lived there before, and it is pretty hilarious. Some of the workouts are pretty funny because they are all themed after like a superhero or something. I'll send a few as pictures. ...