Transferred to Sanlucar!!

First things first, new address:

Avenida de Todos los Santos 11

11540 Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cadiz

España

Life is good, this place is soooo beautiful. I honestly haven´t seen so much grass for almost a year. Craziness. The feel of this small town is so different than that of Málaga. It is such a laid back feeling and attitude to life which makes it hard to try and have urgency in the work, and it is much more humid here than it was in Málaga and cold humidity has a tendency to stick to the bone. No me gusta. Pero no pasa nada!

These first couple days here have been good. Elder Clark (went to Mountain View with me) has been taking good care of me, and has made me lunch everyday that we haven´t been fed by our member that we live with. Yup, we live with a member.  We actually have our own little mini house out behind her house, but it´s awesome. This will be the only time in the mission that I will be able to have pets. 4 dogs, a pony, a cow and lots of chickens. I love it!

We have witnessed several miracles just these past few days, but one that I would like to share with you is this: We were able to give a blessing to a non member friend of a member while we were in this member´s home. Her name is Rocio. She has never talked with the missionaries before, and after the blessing, she was crying and we explained what the spirit was and she accepted to hear our message. I am so happy for here and hope that we will be meeting with her often to help her come closer to our heavenly father.

Our ward mission leader also lives with us. He lives in a room above the house that our mamita lives in. He is from france and his nickname in highschool was popeye. He is super strong. We helped a member move last week, and this 71 year old frenchman was lifting more weight than just about anyone else without any problems. He´s awesome and his name is Daniel, but we call him Danny.

Welp, that´s all for the week. The church is true, and life is good.

Love you all,

Elder Garrett B Turley

Needs new shoes after working so hard!!

Thanks for the money, I´ll most likely be getting some shoes that are needed. Just in case anyone asks, Croft and Barrow are garbage shoes. I´ll send some pictures of one of the pairs of shoes that I wore for the first 10 months of the mission. Completely destroyed. I´m actually kind of proud of it. My comp tells me I should only wear them when we go to special confereces with President Deere.

Well this week was a little tough, but our labors and more than anything our desires to do good were blessed yesterday.  First off, yesterday we had stake conference. It was very different for several reasons. First, the last 3 stake conferences I have gone to, I have had to take a 2ish hour bus ride to a different city, but this one was here in Málaga. Second off, it was a broadcast from Salt Lake with the main speaker being Elder Ballard. It was super good, but I still don´t like it when they translate for the Quorum of the 12 or the First Presidency just cause it´s not their voices. But it was good nonetheless.

Then that evening, we went by 2 less actives and they are doing so well. They really have desires to come closer to Christ and we were just so excited walking home and planning last night.

First off Sofia. She is from Bolivia, and has 2 daughters who are both members of the church also. She´s been menos activo for a while, but she has started opening up to us in the past couple weeks. Last night, she prayed so sincerely to our Heavenly Father, it was so beautiful.

Then there is David. We have been visiting him on average 2x a week for my whole time here in Málaga (4ish months). He talked to the Bishop yesterday, and then we went over after their talk, and he was soooooo happy. He had been depressed and sad this whole time and with a little talk with the Bishop, he gained hope and told us that he wants our help. We called the Bishop afterward to thank him, and he told us that David told him that he didn´t understand at first why we, the missionaries, kept coming over, but then he realized that it was because we loved him, that´s when he decided to talk with the Bishop, and that just made me super happy.

The Lord has blessed us so much just in the last 24 hours. And I pray to be the missionary he needs to help these two of his children continue to follow him as well as many more.

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Garrett B Turley

Garrett's birthday dinner

After 10 months of walking

Another Miracle!!

Well, this week was pretty good. We´ve redoubled our efforts as a companionship, and we have set high goals for this week (at the invitation of Pres. Deere) and will be trying to find lots of people to teach.

One miracle that happened this week, is that we finally talked to this homeless man that I have seen probably everyday since I´ve been here in Málaga. His name is Gospower and he is from Nigeria and he is so ready to hear the gospel. He lives in Italy and comes to Málaga regularly for vacation, usually during the summer, but this past summer, someone stole all his documentation and he is stuck here in Málaga until he can get back to Italy to renew his documents. When we contacted him, he was sitting in the street begging for money, and we just went and sat next to him and talked to him for a bit, and then invited him to come to the church building for a lesson. The Lord blessed us with a very cold and windy day the day of that lesson, and I think that was part of what helped him come. Apparently, 2 of the sisters in our ward have invited him to church and to listen to the lessons a ton, but he never accepted. He said that because  we sat down by him (Elder Landinez more so than I) and just talked to him and got to know his story, that helped him feel like he had friends. We gave him the Restoration pamphlet and saw him later the same night, and he said he had read 6 lines and had felt "something" in him. We are excited for him, and I hope that he will choose to let God bless him in this time in his life.

That´s been the biggest miracle this week. One thing that´s kind of weird for me, is that I am focusing on my goals that I have set for this year. As I´ve been reading the Bible (I´m in Leviticus!!!!) It´s been interesting to see how things connect to the New Testament, to the Book of Mormon, to the story of the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, everything. I absolutely love it.

Oh, yeah, and I´m not sick this week. It´s kinda nice. :)

Love you all!

Elder Garrett B Turley

Merry Christmas!!

This week was pretty good. Quick summary of the week. We tried to contact a lot of the people we have talked to in the street the past two weeks, and now we are trying to figure out how to contact people in the street and help them be interested in our message as well as understand that their eternal salvation depends on it. Haven´t got that one quite figured out yet. 

One of the biggest highlights of the week, is that we have a baptism set up with Cristina. She is a 58 year old Romanian woman, who is just so prepared for baptism. We taught her about the Book of Mormon about a month ago, and then she had a dream about it, and knows it´s true. She also had a dream (not sure if it was the same one or not) in which Angel Moroni told her that she needs to get baptized, to which she responded that she can´t get baptized till she has a job, and Moroni promised her a job. Well, she got the job real quickly after that, and she also has seen in a dream Presidente Muñoz (our ward mission leader and Gospel Principles teacher) leading her by the hand into the waters of baptism. We´re pretty sure she´s ready. Now, we´ve just got to finish teaching up the lessons, and we will be helping her take that first major step toward the Celestial Kingdom the 21st if everything goes smoothly. She is so ready. 

Other than that, we had special training on Friday, and it was awesome. It was the first one I have gone to where President Deere has spoken the whole time. He spoke of the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we need to present it as more than just a good book "comparable to the Bible". How we have to say, this is the test, this is the evidence that God has given you in this moment in time to know if this message we are teaching is true. It was powerful. And it was even more powerful because I finished the Book of Mormon this week. It was a great way to end reading the Book of Mormon and start it again.

But, the highlight this week was easily the choir concert in Granada. First off, before I forget, Mom, make sure you tell Brother Coffin that they had a band in the chapel. Trumpets, trombones, percussion, the whole deal. It was legit. We sang three Christmas hymns in English: "Far, Far Away" Joy to the World, and O Come All Ye Faithful. Then, there was a solo by a sister named Hermana Roan, and she sang O Holy Night. It was soooo good. I got her autograph afterward. And then, I was in a group that sang Winter Wonderland in a jazzy sort of way. Then we listened to this band play a couple songs. They played a song entitled Ivanhoe which was crazy-awesome and then another entitled Russian Christmas Music which was pretty good. Then they played Battle Hymn of the Republic and we sang, unfortunately in Spanish (it´s not nearly as good in Spanish in my opinion). The funny thing was, is that when the conductor cued us in, nobody started singing. He didn´t really give us a good cue, but so we just faded in slowly. It was quite funny. I hope there is some kind of video out there that I´ll be able to look up after the mission. And to end it all, we sand White Christmas with the band. It was just so much fun. The best part though is that one of the Senior missionaries, Hermana Castillo, bore her testimony at the beginning and said, "You will touch hearts that will not open up to the spoken word, but they can not keep the music out. That is why we are here."

Well, that´s basically been the week. This week will be another week of finding. The last time we did this, we had a goal of 555 new investigators as a mission, and we found 558. This time around, we are out to find 800 of God´s children to bring into the fold. It´ll be a week full of hard work, but it´ll all be worth it.

Love you all, and Merry Christmas,

Elder Garrett B Turley

Garrett and his comp.

I´m getting transfered to Málaga!!!

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

District Leader

Vale,

So this week was good. We had Zone Conference on Tuesday, and it was amazing. We talked about how finding new investigators leads to baptism, and that if we want baptisms, we have to find people to teach. We then proceeded to talk about how we were going to find people to teach. President Deere has also set the goal for us to read the BoM together as a mission starting Oct 7th, and finishing by the end of the year. 85 days in total, which is approximately how many days in total it took Joseph Smith to translate the BoM. I am excited for that, but I am even more excited for...

CONFERENCE!!!

This will be the 2nd General Conference that I will have seen since I have been on a mission, which is the only real proof that I´ve actually been gone for 6 months. It has flown by sooooo fast. I will probably be transfered to a new area in 2 weeks, which is exciting, scary and a little sad all at the same time. But that also means that my address will be changing. I´ll let you know as soon as I can what my new address is, if I actually get transfered.

But, I am so excited for Conference. I´m excited that I get to watch it twice (hopefully), once in Spanish and then again in English. Funny story: I got chastised and basically told I was a "sinner" by the branch president and my companion because we watch conference in the house instead of going to the chapel. But then I found out that they only watch Priesthood, Sat Morning and Sun. Morning in the Chapel. I almost chastised them, but decided not to. It is so weird how different this tiny branch in Spain is compared to our home ward in Mesa. Our ward is soo so awesome!

A little side note: in Zone Conference, I met an Hermana (Hailey?) Flake, and it turns out we´re related. She´s a descendent of William Jordan Flake, and so we are in the process of figuring out exactly how we are related, but who new I´d travel halfway around the world, hang out with a bunch of "Mountain View Punks" and meet a long lost cousin. I also met an Elder Orr from Thatcher who knows the Russels, so that was interesting. He was a little surprised that I knew where Thatcher was though, it was super funny.

I also had the opportunity to go and "pluck" almonds this week. We went out to an Almond/Olive orchard and picked almonds with our branch president. We then went and planted beans on a farm and it was super fun.

One of the Elder´s in Lorca got sick this week, so his companion asked me to go stay with him for a day (cause I speak English and so does the sick Elder) so he and Elder Simon could work in both areas here in Lorca. That was fun. It was quite strange and relaxing to be able to talk in English. 

I am also increasing my skills as a futbolista. Everytime we play (which is twice a week, Saturday Morning and Mondays for Pday) people tell either me or my companion that, and translated directly, "I give them fear". I think it´s so funny, because everyone and their dog can run circles around me. That´s not entirely true, I have a much higher endurance than most anyone I´ve played with, and I´m also bigger than everyone who is playing (which is super weird for me) and I´ve figured out how to stick my foot in front of the ball and then pass it, so I´ve got the basics down. It´s soo fun to play. And, what makes it even better. We are gaining friends and people to teach from playing!

And during all this fun we had, we still found time to teach. We were not able to meet with Yeccy this week, and so she was not baptized, but we will be meeting with her next week, and will help her continue to prepare for baptism. One of our friends from fútbol is named Figo, he is 16 and from Peru. He´s not exactly investigating the church, but is searching for the truth and we invited him to start with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He accepted and said he is coming to General conference. We also had a lesson with Flo, FINALLY!, and she is doing great. Her husband continues to open up, and hopefully soon we will be able to teach her in her home.

Well, that´s about it for the week, plus I´ve got to run. Love you all, and have a great week!

Elder Garrett B Turley

Garrett and Elder Patterson 

His District

the rain in Spain...

Well, it rained here in Spain just like it rained back in Mesa, but I missed it. This past week, I was basically in Málaga for a Zone Leader/District Leader Meeting, even though I technically wasn´t either. But I am/will be District Leader for the Lorca District whenever this transfer technically starts. I am excited for the responsibilitly, but a little scared as well. There will be 6 Elders in our district with the new Elders who are coming to Lorca, and they will be here on Thursday. It´ll be super fun, I just hope I´m ready.

Well, like I said, I wasn´t in Lorca preaching this past week, so I´ll tell you a little bit about the crazinees that happened in Lorca, and some experiences that I had in Málaga.

First Lorca:

According to our companions, as soon as we, Elder Patterson (our old DL) and me, left on the bus, it started to rain. Hard. It rained so much that the sewers started overflowing into the streets and apparently it was pretty crazy. I was a little disappointed that I missed it. Then they went to Huercal-Overa, where Elder Miller (Elder Patterson´s comp) is serving and they worked over there for a day, and it rained all day there too. But as they left to work that morning, they locked the keys into their apartment so they couldn´t get back in, and the keys to our apartment were also locked in their piso. Luckily they had the keys to the new apartment in Lorca (where the new elders will be staying) so they had a place to sleep, but that was about all they had. They ate dinner every night with the Branch President, and so they were fed that way, but everything kinda went crazy while we were gone.

Meanwhile....

I was on a bus for 8 hours as we went down to Málaga. Elder Patterson had gotten a ride in the Zone Leader´s car, so I was with the Super Hermana Entrenadores (or, SHE´s, or sister training leaders), some Elders from my zone who also were neither District Leaders nor Zone Leaders, and the leadership from a zone called Alicante. I basically talked for those 8 hours with the SHE´s, Heramanas Cano and Stark (Hermana Stark served for 3 months in Mesa waiting for her Visa before she came over here), and one of the Alicante Zone Leaders named Elder Powell for the whole time. It was such a great experience for me to have an opportunity to talk to missionaries who had been out for at least twice as long as I have and to recieve their advise and hear about their experiences, to practice my Spanish, and to learn about their lives before the mission. It was so much fun. And to top it all off, there was a crazy-awesome hail storm in the middle of our bus ride. There were huge chunks of ice just slamming against the top and sides of the bus, and you couldn´t see a thing out the window. It was really awesome.

Once we got to Málaga, we just went to the mission home and ate dinner and hung out there that night. The next day we went to the chapel in Málaga and had a huge meeting with all the Zone Leaders, SHE´s, District Leaders, and then some future Zone Leaders, SHE´s and District Leaders as well. There were about 50 missionaries there, and it was awesome. I felt a little inadequate at first, but that soon left and I felt just fine being there.

I also ran into Elder Hooper and Skousen for the first time. They are both from Mountain View, and it was great to see more people from High School.

We learned a lot about how to help missionaries overcome trials and dificulties in the field. It helped me realize ways to overcome my own struggles, and helped me to more fully realize the importance of being patient and loving, so that´s what I´ll be working on for this transfer, being more loving and kind. Wish me luck!

Well Gotta go. Love ya!

Elder Garrett B Turley

Here are some pictures he sent from his last baptism from a couple weeks ago.

 He baptized Fernando, the 9 year old kid, and Kevin, the 20 year old kid, baptized his parents Danilo and Pila