Teaching and Eating

Well, another week has absolutely flown by. I thought the first part of my mission was going to be slow but it has been super fast. Which is good that it isn't slow, I guess.  

This week was super fun. We got to go finding a ton which is pretty hard since I don't really like talking to people. But it has been really good getting out of my comfort zone and also it is super awesome to meet so many different kinds of people and seeing how cool people are. 

We had dinner with a member on Friday I think and the food was super awesome. After though, the wife suggested to all the missionaries that we should go visit some of their neighbors. Which was cool. And the husband came with us. It was pretty cool and we are going to teach some of them next week. :) We had a lesson with an investigator on Saturday and the husband came with us. He is a convert of about ten-ish years. He is super awesome and really helped with the lesson. 

This is the end of my first transfer and it has really helped me appreciate how much this gospel can help someones life for the better. I don't have too much time to write this week but I just wanted to let everyone know that this church is super awesome. And go read 2 Nephi chapter 4 its pretty good if it is what i think it is. And if it's not it is probably good anyways. 

I hope everyone has a great week!:)

Loves

Elder Talbot

The elders at a baptism in Scarborough East Area

Sister Rose and Elder Talbot.  She feeds the missionaries several times a week.

Food picture overload....After seeing these, it's surprising to hear he has lost 15 pounds.

Baptism stories and a Filipino Bakery

Well this week was pretty crazy. I went on exchanges twice and one of them was with the zone leaders. The zone leader I went with literally talks to everyone we walk past. It was pretty cool to see how he can get random people on the street to hold conversations with him. Opening up a new area, finding people was about all I did the first little bit. It was pretty hard at first but the more I did it the more comfortable I got with it. 

Me and Elder Hernandez met with a member for dinner on Sunday and the dad of the family is super cool. He had this awesome missionary experience and he was really humble about it and didnt make a big deal of it at all. So the story was he was working and during his lunch break he was talking to a store owner about the church. He wanted to give her a Book of Mormon but he was about to go back to his hometown since he lived about five hours from where this store was and it mightve been his last chance to give it to her. He called the missionaries that night and had them meet him in the morning and introduced them to the store person and went back home. The lady kept meeting with the missionaries and she's probably being baptized. Super awesome story. 

The Scarboro east elders had an investigator baptised last week! I cant remember if I have been to a convert baptism before but it seriously was so cool. The spirit was so strong there and you could tell how excited she was to join our church. 

There is a Filipino bakery like a block away from my apartment, and since we get fed by members quite a bit we have extra money, and we can only spend it on food. So naturally we buy so much food from it. We go seriously four or five times a week. There is a lot a Filipinos in my area/ward and they all love basketball and are super good at it. They all play like the Spurs and it's sick. 

Thanks for all the awesome people who wrote me, it really means a lot.

Much love,

Elder Talbot

Week 12 (Actually, it's 6 but who's counting?)

Hello people! Last week was Thanksgiving for Canada. As far as I've been able to tell they have no reason for it being a different day than America except to be different than America. But its cool cause they also celebrate regular Thanksgiving. I had three meal appointments in the span of six hours on Monday for Thanksgiving. The ward here is super nice. Most of them love the missionaries and they really help with the work we do. There is a lady in my ward that feed me and Elder Hernandez probably three times a week. She is this old Filipino lady that absolutely loves missionaries.

The work was slow at first but it is picking up. We found a family about a week or two ago and they are pretty interested. They ask a lot of good questions that go really well with the message. At the end of the appointment a member shared her testimony/conversion story, and it was one of the more powerful spiritual moments Ive been a part of. They seem fairly interested and hopefully they keep meeting with us. 

Elder Hernandez is pretty cool. He plays the saxophone and played professionally for a while before he came on his mission. He traveled across the world performing to places like England and Japan i think.  

I got to go on an exchange with Elder Jensen last week. His area is kind of close to mine which is pretty cool. Since my companion speaks Spanish he went with Elder Jensen's companion to go visit some Spanish people in their area. It was pretty cool to be with him the whole day. We didn't get lost which is really surprising/lucky. 

My mission experience has been so much fun so far. My testimony has grown so much since coming out here and I hope it just continues to grow. One of the biggest testimony builders has been just seeing how much the gospel can have an effect for the better on peoples lives. Someone that I can't remember in my MTC district said 30 seconds of awkward for me can change someone's life forever. That is seriously so true. 

I love hearing from everybody and hope everyone is doing well!

Love,

Elder Talbot

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

I got plenty to eat for Thanksgiving - three meal appointments in the span of six hours! I don't remember who asked but Canadian Thanksgiving literally has no reason, that I have been able to find, for being different a different day. Just to be different. 

We found a family to teach and they seem really interested.  We found them through a young woman in my ward and she is actually going to Halifax for her mission in November.  Scarboro is a big city but it is the same distance away from downtown Toronto a suburb is. Toronto and the areas around it are super packed together. It might be the same size as something in Utah but it is packed in as tight as they can and have random gaps everywhere. Opening a new area is hard cause you don't have anything to go off of. Scarboro is interesting. it doesn't get to scary till late at night so we just hurry home. The diversity here is crazy. Toronto is basically like it's own country. 

I'm with Elder Jensen today.  We went on splits yesterday because his area (Don Valley) has lots of Spanish people and Elder Hernandez speaks Spanish. I'll probably be with Elder Jensen once or twice a week. Me and him and our companions went to a museum today and now we are all at a library. 

(Dad is taking over now) Side note about Elder Jensen - Elder Jensen is one of Elder Talbot's MTC companions.  They have grown to be very good friends both in the MTC and out in the field as they are now serving in areas that are close to one another.  Well, come to find out that Elder Jensen's father served in the Michigan Lansing Mission about the same time as I served in the Michigan Detroit Mission.  Further questioning resulted in finding out that Elder Jensen's father and I reported to the MTC on the same day in 1989 and were even in the same MTC district.  What a small world!

Well I am off for good today. Love you guys and have a great week. 

Elder Talbot 

Riding the bus is the way Elder Talbot gets around the city.

Even though it's blurry, this is a fun picture of the happy Elders with a family having Philippino food.

Week Something (4)

Hello!
 My first week out in the mission has been crazy! I'm not sure I am actually in Canada cause just about none of the stereotypes are true. My area is Scarborough West. It is east of downtown Toronto. The city here is busy pretty much all of the time. When I got here it was weird at first cause there is a lot of diversity. My mission has 7 different languages that missionarys speak, just to put it in perspective of how many different kinds of people are out here.
The weather right now is 60 most of the time i think. The whole Celsius thing confuses me a lot.

Me and my companion opened our area after it was closed for about 6 months, and cause of that we don't have a whole lot of investigators or anything like that. We ride buses everywhere and its pretty cool talking to so many different people. My companion is Elder Hernandez. He was born in Mexico but grew up in Calgary since he was about ten. He speaks Spanish but our area is technically English. Which is good cause I struggle with English sometimes, haha.
I don't have a ton of time today and I cant figure out the computers so I'll just send some pictures next week, but I did just want to share my testimony with all of you guys.

I knew this church is true before I left on my mission but after being in the MTC and being out in the field and seeing how much it changes mine and other peoples life, I have absolutely no doubt that this is the one true church. My faith in this gospel has never been stronger. I know that this will be one of the best experiences of my life and I am so happy so be serving the Lord on this mission.

Love, Elder Talbot

Elders Talbot and Jenson at the Toronto Temple

(These pictures were sent this past week from his camera.)