"Home" for Christmas

Hello everybody! So I'm sorry that the last couple of weeks I haven't sent very much emails cause the last couple of Mondays have been crazy. Both times I've had to drive to Toronto. And it's like fiveish hours away and we also had lots of stuff to do both days. It was pretty crazy and we spent lots of time in the car. It really isn't any fun sitting in a car for that long and it is really tiring. I had to eat about two thirds of a bag of spits. Sun flower seeds really start to hurt after about an hour. But it was all good in the end. We got there and it was a party. 

Last week we had zone conferences in Toronto. We had the conference with Oshawa and my old zone from Scarborough! I got to see lots of people from North York. Zone conference was super sick. The spirit there was really strong and President Shields gave some really good instructions. It was super cool.

Elder Leyton doesn't drive and so I'm the designated driver. Being the driver it has really helped me realize how much Tiwi sucks. Tiwi is the thing that keeps track of the car and stuff. When you are going too fast it lets you know very loudly to 'check my speed.' It is so annoying and even President Shields thinks its annoying. Zone conference he was talking about cars and said he had to drive a car with Tiwi the other day and he said it is obnoxious. 

Christmas was super good. I got to spend all day at members houses. I went to the Branch President's house for dinner, He has 6 daughters but 5 of them were at his ex-wife's house so he invited us over. It was pretty good food. We went to the Mckeevers house after and they are super awesome. Brother Mckeever is super funny and Sister Mckeever might be the best cook I know. We went over to hang out and we just talked to them which was super fun and on our way out she handed us two pie tins full of turkey and potatoes. It was super awesome.

I was so happy to be able to Skype my family on Christmas. None of them have changed at all. They are all still crazy and my mom was still crying. Being away from home makes me really appreciate our Church and that our families can be forever together. I'm so glad that I can be out here being able to share this message with everyone.

I have been reading a lot of the war chapters in Alma this week. (which are super awesome). One of the verses that stuck out to me was Alma 48:17-19.  It says, 

17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

 18 Behold, he was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Mosiah, yea, and even the other sons of Mosiah, yea, and also Alma and his sons, for they were all men of God.

 19 Now behold, Helaman and his brethren were no less serviceable unto the people than was Moroni; for they did preach the word of God, and they did baptize unto repentance all men whosoever would hearken unto their words.

They were all studs and The Devil probably really didn't like any of them. I think that is something we can all try to strive to be like, be so righteous and good so that the devil is sad when we wake up cause he knows we will do something good and against him.

I hope you all had a good Christmas! 

Loves Elder Talbot

"Home" for Christmas

His view on Christmas Day

Not really sure what this is besides maybe someone breaking into the neighbor's house?

Family Picture

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

In case any of you were wondering, it is cold. Right now it is -18c. Idk what that is in Fahrenheit cause the conversion is screwy. (It's 0 degrees F) But it has been about that cold all week. With the exception of yesterday when it was -5 but it also had freezing rain. It actually was a ton of fun trying to scrape off 2 centimeters of ice from my car so we could get to church. I probably had more fun than I should've hitting the car. And yesterday church was cancelled cause of the rain. So we went anyways and just messed around on the piano for an hour. It was a party. 

Well, sorry I didn't write anything last week. We had a busy day cause of transfers. We didn't get very much time to do anything cause we had to drive to Brampton that night which is five hours away. Got to love being in the boonies. My new companion is Elder Leyton. He is a Spanish missionary from Peru. He has been out on his mission for about a year. We get along good. Sometimes he words his sentences funky tho. 

We didn't teach too much this week so we really focused on setting more appointments for next week. We got a lot set and we are hoping we are going to be busy this week. Life is a lot more fun when we work around appointments. 

A thought for this week is about trials. Last week I spoke in church about trials and overcoming them. I shared Doctrine & Covenants 122:7-9. 

 7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.   8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? 9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever. 

A lot of people came up to me after and told me about how that was one of their favorite scriptures. It is pretty cool how much scriptures can help people and I know for sure it helps me. 

I unfortunately don't have very much time again this week but I hope everyone has a fantastic week! 

Loves

Elder Talbot  

Not cold enough to need gloves, evidently!

If your car has frozen rain and you punch it, all the ice cracks!
It hurts a lot though.  

Elder Leyton

Message in the Kinder Egg

Elder Talbot didn't have time for a long email this week because it is transfers, so we will piece together a little bit about what is going on with him this week.

We got an email from his camera on Sunday that said there was a bike in his kinder egg.  He explained today that the elders like to buy these chocolate eggs with toys inside then they try and guess their transfer.  We thought for sure he was being transferred and would need to buy a bike. Bike in the snow?  Elder Talbot will be staying in Smiths Falls, but his companion Elder Olson was transferred.  Today they had to pack Olson's things and drive to Toronto to the mission home, a 3 1/2 hour drive.  They will be staying the night there and Elder Talbot and Elder Leyton, his new companion, will be going back to Smiths Falls tomorrow.  He doesn't know much about Elder Leyton except that he is from Peru and speaks Spanish.  The work is slow in Smiths Falls, but he is cheerful and happy to be serving.  When they don't have anyone to teach, they spend their days trying to find people to teach.  He says it can be hard sometimes but he likes it.

We received such a fun surprise today!  The senior couple that is serving with Elder Talbot sent us a sweet email with pictures!  He has said that Brother and Sister Hatch feel like they are his grandparents.  We feel so blessed to hear that he is doing so well.  This is what they had to say about him:

Hello Sister Talbot:

We tried to send a message through Facebook which apparently didn't make it through.  So will try e-mail.

You have a fine son.  He is a very good missionary and has progressed really well under Elder Olson's tutoring.  He holds a special place in our hearts because he looks so much like our grandson who is also a Football player.

We are so privileged to associate with these spiritual giants.  They study and know their scriptures better than we do.  As Senior Missionaries we are serving in positions in the Branch and visiting active and less-active members.  We love to go to the District and Zone Meetings.  We enjoy our associations so much and they treat us so well.  We do love to feed them on occasion.

I know Heavenly Father will bless you and your families as your son serves here.

I will attach a couple of pictures.

Sister Merlene Hatch

Without Charity, You Isn't Goodish

Well the snow left for like three days then it all came back very quickly last night. Kind of. It really isn't that bad but all the Canadians make it seem like the world is ending when it snows a few inches.

So I wore a tie yesterday and I got a lot of mixed reactions about it. People either really liked it or they didn't like it at all. So please let me know if you like it or not. I won't be offended. If you are reading this on the blog just tell my parents.

Anyways. We didn't teach a whole lot this week so we visited a ton of less actives and members. Whatever day December first was we were about to go home for some food but the Light The World thing was help lift someone's burden so we went and helped this old guy install a tire wall holder thing. It wasn't too much work, but he was just so grateful for our help. It really helped me realize how cool the Light the world initiative is and how inspired it is. It can really help a lot of people, even if it might seem little to you. 

One of the days this week we went to the branch president's house to help them design cookies for their neighbors or something. It really helped me realize how not talented I am at drawing. It just makes it worse when it is with frosting. One of the cookies I made was a penguin and I felt like I did a half okay job with it, then Heidee, (one the branch presidents daughter, and they have five so its nuts most of the time.) puts this freaking perfect penguin that made mine look like a blob. It was good my confidence in my drawing skills was already low. But I made some American flag cookies and Lily? I think, came out and rebuked me for it. It was hilarious. 

We had district meeting Friday and The Hatches fed everyone tacos after. I dont know what they put into the taco shells they made but they were super good. I wanted to eat 20 tacos. but I didn't unfortunately. 

A scripture for this week is 1 Corinthians chapter 13. It is a super good chapter about charity and if you dont have it, you isn't goodish. 

1 Corinthians: 2, 4-8, 13  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away...And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

I hope everyone has a super good week. 

Loves 

Elder Talbot. 

Elder Talbot and Elder Olson

Flower tie.  Yes or no?

Time Flies When You Are in the Service of the Lord

The days are starting to fly by. It legit feels like it was just yesterday that I wrote my last email. But anyways I had a great week. We got two new investigators this week and I also went on exchanges so it was sweet. 

The first investigator we found is a sick (cool) dude named James. He has a dog that barks really loud. But anyways he is very open minded about religion and really likes the plan of salvation which is awesome. The second friend we found was through a referral from the temple president in Calgary who gave it to us through freaking President Shields. He called us Friday morning and whenever we get a call from the Mission President we tend to freak out a little bit. But it was pretty sweet. The Calgary dude had a friend and he talked to his friends mom about religion a lot and the friends mom lives in Smiths Falls. Her name is Lisa and she is super nice. Just like James, she really likes the plan of salvation. It was pretty great. 

Yesterday as we were driving to church we saw a truck that is always in front of the Tim Horton's, and the guy was there literally all freaking day. We drove by Timmy's quite a bit yesterday and he was there every time we drove by. He was there for 12 hours. I guess it isn't bad if that's what he likes but it was still hilarious. 

The exchange was pretty hilarious as well.  The missionary was weird as all get out but he taught me a lot. He really just loves the people he teaches and doesn't really care what people think of him. He really just loved them no matter who they were. It helped me to realize I need to love the people I teach. 

A scripture of the week is John 11:35--Jesus wept. It is a simple scripture but it shows that Jesus was human and even though he was perfect he still experienced emotions. I think it can help all of us relate to the Savior more, because He is human and we can strive to be closer to Him every day. And a way to do that is with the new Christmas thing the church is doing. If you haven't gotten on mormon.org in the last week or so you totally should cause the church has started their new Christmas initiative which is all about being like the Savior.

I hope everyone had a great week!

Loves 
Elder Talbot

Zone Council

Zone Council pizza buffet (the business lost money on this day)

The reflection of the moon on a local lake

Spider the size of a Oreo

Elder Talbot says the temp ranges from -2 to +3C.  But it isn't too cold, that's only 32F which is still fairly warm.  To him....

Happy Tracting in the Snow!

Well it snowed for the first time. Super excited. It's gonna be great cause all I do I tract so it'll be a party walking in snow all day. This week was super good. We got to teach a lot of awesome people. There is a recent convert that we are teaching. Their life has gotten absolutely crazy since they joined the church. It has been amazing to see how positive they are staying and how much they love this gospel. They also have two really cute pugs. Probably going to send pictures of the pugs next week. 

We were teaching this dude from Egypt, and after the lesson we gave him an Arabic book of Mormon. Arabic is this weird squiggly language. and he just translated a scripture perfectly to English on the spot. It was nuts. 

The Branch here is super nice. We had 12 meal appointments in the last week. Freaking crazy. I've had to cook myself food twice since I got to Smith Falls. It's great. Being in a branch everyone gets so much closer to each other. All of the members are such good friends with each other. 

There is a Missionary couple in the area as well and they are super nice. They are pretty much my grandparents. They take good care of the branch as well as us. 

At all the meal appointments we would share little messages to the members after and most of the time we wouldn't prepare at all. And I would say random stuff that comes to my mind. Most of the time it didn't even make sense to me but I guess it made sense to them. Haha. It just showed me that as a missionary if I have the spirit with me they will learn what the Lord wants them to learn.
A scripture this week is Alma 18:27 And he said Yea.  (A favorite scripture he once saw on a sign at the BYU Las Vegas Bowl game. Funny!)

I hope everyone has a great week!
Loves, Elder Talbot

Fishing Out in the Sticks

Well there is nothing out here at all and I love it. I went from one of the smallest size and most populated areas to one of the bigger areas and smallest populations. It's super great. There is seriously almost nothing in Smith Falls. I think there is a train museum but that is it. 

This week was a blast.  We mostly tracted and contacted which is super super fun in 4 degrees Celsius. We found a lot of super awesome potential investigators last week so this week is going to be super awesome. A cool story happened Wednesday or something. We were walking to an area that is good for talking to random people and there was a house that Me and Elder Olson walked by that we both felt like stopping at. The family inside of the house was super interested. The way they described their religious ness is "in-between" religions. They were super nice and hopefully being baptized soon. Elder Olson is a pretty cool guy.  He is from Calgary and has been serving for a little over a year. He has served in most of the small towns in Canada so he's fairly used to the small ness of Smith Falls. We have a lot in common so he's pretty easy to talk to.
We are covering a branch and it's my first time even being in a branch and it's interesting. The building is super small and can probably fit inside my home wards gym. There isn't very much people there but they are all super nice people. Branches have a lot of weird people but so do wards, it is just easier to hide the weird people in wards.
Seeing how much this church means to people has helped my testimony so much. It is seriously such a rock in peoples lives and mine as well. A message that we shared a lot this week has been on prayer. One of the things that has helped me most on my mission has been prayer. Heavenly Father has always been there for me and is always helping me out. There isn't ever a time that He doesn't ever want to hear from you, and it's awesome.

I hope everyone has a super great week. 

Loves 

Elder Talbot ​

Filipino spread, Elder Talbot loves the chicken adobo

Elder Hernandez

Elder Talbot and his new companion Elder Olson

Fishing at the Falls

Well I got transfered and I am going to Smith Falls. Literally know nothing about it and I go there tomorow. It's going to be awesome. It is on the East border of my mission and I have heard it is colder than Toronto. My companion's names is Elder Olsen. I am fairly confused about him cause I think there are 4 or five different ones so I've heard a lot of different things about different Elder Olsens.  Elder Jensen is getting transfered as well he is going to Weston so I won't be able to see him all the time. Scarborough is unique cause it is so close to so many missionaries and I have been told by old missionaries that I probably wont have that kind of interaction with missionaries for the rest of my mission unless I go back to North York Zone. 

This last week absolutly flew by. We had six week follow ups on Thursday, which is for all the new missionaries that came out with me. They talk about missionary stuff there and just make sure none of us are dying. Cause that would be bad. After the meeting we go through the temple with the mission president. The Temple is always such a cool experience and it was especially awesome being with the mission president. 

Yesterday was fast Sunday and it was a party. There was a ton of people that bore their testimonies and they were all super awesome. It is pretty incredible how strong some people's faiths are and how much it grows through the hard times. I've met some really awesome people in Scarboro and I will definitely miss a lot of them but I am so excited for Smith Falls.  

A scripture this week is D&C 122:7-9 

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

 8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

 9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Loves Elder Talbot

Scarborough Pictures