Oct 14
First things first, after 6 months in Lorca, I´m getting transfered to Málaga!!!!!!! I can´t tell you how excited I am. I´ll be companions with an Elder Lopez from El Salvador. He´s been out for a while (I don´t know how much time, but more than double of what I have) and Elder Hooper will be in my District or Ward or both assuming he doesn´t get transfered (He also went to my High School). And Elder Oldroyd, my trainer, Elder Patterson, my old DL, and the AP´s will all be in my Zone, so it´ll be great when we have Zone meetings and activities. I´m excited and scared to be going to the big city after being here in Lorca, which isn´t excatly a small town, but from what I´ve heard it´s nothing like the big cities.
Oct 27
I´M IN MÁLAGA!!!!! It´s so great. My first day, we had a ward English and Spanish classes, FHE, and Branch Council. We had Branch Council!! I had almost forgotten that there were those. Wait, it was a Ward Council. I´m in a Ward, it´s so awesome and different. I won´t say that it´s better in every way shape and form, but it definitely has it´s benefits.
One of those benefits, which is near and dear to my heart, is food. We have been fed so much over the past almost week now. I love it!
Things are a little bit rough in the area, it´s a little bit new (I think it became an area last transfer) and so we are working on building it up, but everything is good. I am so lost in this city, but I hope that will change within this next week.
Nov 4
Love you guys, everything is going really well with the companionship. We are getting along much better, and joking around and becoming good friends now. Now we just have to work better together. Our teaching styles are suuuuuper different, but I´m trying to learn from him (since he does have like 3x as much experience as me in the mission). We are starting to do a lot more practicing lessons in the apartment, and the Lord is blessing us a lot. Now the trick is to just stay humble and act on the blessings we are receiving so we can continue to receive them in abundance.
This week has been amazing!
First off we found 5 new investigators to teach. Well, let´s say the Lord placed 5 of his children in our path to teach. And they are all excited to learn about the gospel.
First off, at the beginning of this week, instead of planning to go and try and visit people who hadn´t been available for the last 2 weeks, we decided to go and knock doors in certain neighborhood in our area so we would be able to plan more effectively every day. My experience in Lorca with knocking doors was horrible, almost nobody accepted us, and we had much more success in the street. However, here in Málaga, we have had little to no success with street contacting. I think in 3 weeks, we have had 3 people give us their contact information, and 2 of them were Nigerians who spoke English (kinda). In one morning, we found 5 people who said we could come back, and this couple (not married yet) who let us come in and teach them. It might not seem like a whole lot, and it´s definitely not enough to fill our plans in our agendas, but it´s improvement and a blessing from God.
Nov 11
Well, the week´s been good. We are continuing to move forward and the work is picking up a little. We have 2 baptismal dates set and 2 more on the way. The plan is to have 4 baptisms here before the end of the year. I really think we can do it.
Also this week, I was really impressed with Alma chapter 13, and how much it talks about the priesthood. I invite you to read it to think a little bit more about the callings that you have now in life and that you will have in the future. It reminded me a lot of something our ward mission leader said in a sunday school class about the premortal life. He asked why 18, 19 and 20 year old kids can be sent out to preach the gospel to all the world. They didn´t have all that much time in this life to prepare for it, but then he said that we were prepared in the premortal life, and it gave me so much comfort knowing that it doesn´t matter if I feel inadequate, if I rely on the Lord, he will help remind me of things that I already know.
Love you all, and take care!
Elder Garrett B Turley
Garrett's new address is:
C/ Daoiz Nº3 3ºH
29014 Málaga
España
Garrett and his old comp. on a hike
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