Transfer Week-Mom's Post

Well, it's transfer week, and Elder Talbot is staying in Smiths Falls!  Elder Leyton is leaving and Elder Shepperd is going to be his new companion.  Because of the travel, Elder Talbot wasn't able to write an email to everyone, so I'll share something that happened today instead.

I received a call from Brother and Sister McKeever from Smiths Falls.  Elder Talbot and Elder Leyton went to their home for breakfast this morning so they could say goodbye to Elder Leyton.  Elder Talbot did not wear his coat and since it was -15C, Sister McKeever told him she was going to call his mom and tattle on him.  He told her I would like that very much so they called me!  They talked about how he's 18 so he doesn't feel the cold, but she still thinks he should at least have his coat with him in the car in case of emergency.  They also wanted to tell me how much they love him and how he is such a great missionary.  They said he was quiet and shy when he first got to Smiths Falls but now he is outgoing and personable.  He's polite and always asking if he can help them with anything.  He always leaves them with a spiritual message.  And he is a good eater--of course.  They thanked me for allowing him to serve even though it's hard to miss him and not be able to talk to him as often as I would like.  He's doing everything I always hoped he would do, and I am so happy to hear that he is touching people's lives.  What a wonderful phone call to receive, especially on a Monday I didn't get to hear much from him.  

No pictures from Elder Talbot today, but I found this on his drive.  Of course he took his coat off....

Referrals and Food are Good

Well the freezing rain came back and it is still really annoying. This time though it snowed about 2 centimeters before it rained so it was really weird walking on it. I would just crack the ice a ton while walking on it. It wasn't as slippery like that. We spent a lot of Wednesday clearing ice off of our car/the church/members driveways. 

The Hatches got a referral from a member in our branch. She is a friend and a recovering alcoholic and really wants God in her life. They are hoping they are able to comfort her and get her happy. The Hatches are the best so I know they will be able to help her a lot. They are hoping that she is interested in our religion and she would let me and Elder Leyton to come teach her. I really love the Hatches. They are basically my grandparents. They make life a lot easier in Smiths Falls cause sometimes it can suck. But most of the time I have loved it out here. They feed us every Sunday and they were trying to think about what to have and I suggested Haystacks and they didn't have a recipe so I had my mother email them the recipe. They really loved it. I also loved it. Food is good. 

Speaking of stuff that sucks. I was on exchanges when we had the dinner with the less active and her husband. Elder Leyton and Elder Oldham went there. Elder Oldham was telling me about that night and he said that it was awesome. The family was super chill and was asking them about their missions and stuff, the food was super good. They got to the message and shared the restoration. He said that the spirit was there super strongly and at the end they asked them if they would read the Book of Mormon and all they said was "No." They just kind of awkwardly left after that. Elder Oldham was really upset. It is hard sometimes, especially when the spirit was super strong and they still say no. But people have their agency and we can't/don't want to force people to do anything. Agency is a huge part of the Lord's plan and I really love having it. 

Isaac is the name of the guy with the St Bernard's. We went by for our appointment but he had gotten called into work. His dad was home though and we talked to him for a little bit. He seemed nice. The St Bernard's were outside of his house when we pulled up and they jumped all over Elder Leyton. I'm pretty sure they were the same size as him if not bigger. It was pretty funny. 

This week really flew by. Not a whole lot has happened. but for some reason it just flew by. I went on exchanges with Elder Vargas on Thursday. He is from Mexico City and is just about to go home. He has one transfer left. He is probably the funniest person I have ever met. He can just tell stories so well they are hilarious. And he is absolutely crazy so he has lots of good stories to tell. 

Friday night after we had exchanged back we hadn't checked referrals yet, so we hurried to the church and the Richardson's were there. They were cleaning the church but the wife (who is like 80% of the member missionary work in Smiths Falls.)  had a referral for us! I really have hardly gotten any referrals so we were really excited for this. Sister Richardson works in a Hair Salon and a couple came into her Salon for a hair cut and they got talking about religion and I guess the wife's mom told her to join a Christian religion when they got to Canada. (Rose is from Vietnam and Dylan is from America.) Sister Richardson gladly told them about our church and got their number for us. We are going over tonight to meet them and stuff. Hopefully it goes well. 

Thought for this week come from District Meeting. Elder Vargas was telling a story about how his family/dad joined the church. His dad played baseball with some missionaries when he was ten and joined the church 30ish years later. Those missionaries probably have no idea that Elder Vargas' dad is the bishop right now, they have three kids on missions, and the Mom is the Seminary teacher. You never know what difference you could be making in peoples lives. Just something small could turn into something amazing later.

Love you guys 

Elder Talbot

Elder Talbot and Elder Oldham

Sandlot, St. Bernards, Supper and Stories

We had some ups and downs this week. But overall it was really good. We started the week off pretty slow but we had a super good couple of days. Then Elder Leyton got a stomach bug that was hard to work around for a few days but we finished off the week with a super cool experience. 

So here are some of the cool stories. 

The Hatches got a referral and they are hoping she is interested and if she is they will probably have us teach her. She is a member's friend and she is not doing so good so she agreed to meet with the Hatches. Malik and Lisa are both sick still. We are planning a movie night at the church and so we are trying to invite everyone. We aren't going to be watching a church movie so hopefully people will come. Elder Leyton was sick for a lot a the week so it was hard to work around that. 

 

I tracted one house in the last week, but me and Elder Olson tracted this whole street probably about 6 weeks ago. We had 4th floor-last floor vibes about the street and at the last house there was a friend or someone in the driveway with an ATV and me and Elder Olson both hunt and ride ATV a lot so we were trying to talk to him about that but he just looked at our name tags and wanted nothing to do with us. We literally didn't even say anything about religion to the guy. Anyways. Friday I got the feeling to go back and tract that house. I decided to just drop by on our way out of Carlton Place which is a town about 30 minutes away from Smitty. We stopped on our way out and we got there and no one was home. He has two St Bernard's though. And one legit looked like the beast from Sandlot. Anyways we are about to leave and the guy pulls up into his driveway. He isn't religious but he is really interested. It was super cool cause he was only going to be home for like 5 minutes then he was going to leave again. 

The other cool story was we dropped by a less active/part member family. She is from Alberta and I'm pretty sure she has never been to church here. Her mom is super active though so her mom came here and got her records moved. Anyways we went over there and she and her husband let us in and we awkwardly talked for like ten minutes then we asked if we could come back and share a message. They both looked at each other and said sure. And then they invited us for supper (which is a weird word for Canadians to call dinner). It was pretty cool experience. 

Smiths Falls branch really needs some help so we are really doing our best to try and bring people to this branch whether it is through reactivations or new members. We are really trying our best and working hard. But it is really hard sometimes cause there is a lot of normal missionary stuff that really isn't effective at all. So we have been praying a lot lately for the Lord to guide us to the prepared people in this area. We know that there are prepared people out here, we just need to find them.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Loves,

Elder Talbot

Testimonies are One of the Strongest Things to Share

Well this week was pretty crazy, but it stopped raining. It decided to get to - 20 instead of raining which was nice. It was actually fairly decent weather all things considering. 

We had Zone Council last week and the spirit was really strong there. It was one of the better councils I have had. We talked about all the changes that are coming to the mission. There is some pretty crazy changes that aren't official for a few more weeks but they are really exciting. We talked a lot about the spirit and being able to help our investigators realize the spirit and help them feel it. A lot of us bore our testimonies and the spirit was super, super strong. It was awesome. Testimonies are one of the strongest things to share with someone. It has been really evident to me since I came on my mission. And at the end of the meeting we got a text from a freaking 801 number in Utah. Somehow the Church referral system in Salt Lake messed up and sent us a referral for someone in downtown Salt Lake. We were  super excited at first cause we thought we had got a referral but I looked at the address and recognized it as a Utah address. It was pretty funny though. 

So the whole thing with Jamie was confusing last week. Me and Elder Leyton were really confused all of last week and we weren't able to call her till Friday. She was really excited about everything and we set the interview and stuff. Then we were talking to the lady from Ottawa and they decided to baptize her in Fallow Field, she just wanted us to do the interview. We were super confused so we ended calling the Mission President to see what we should do, cause we wanted this to be the best experience for her so we didn't want to mess anything up. President Shields was even confused when we told him the story. He called around and got everything straightened out and we don't actually have to do anything. He just recommended we visit her sometimes after she is baptized. 

We had a fairly slow week but we were able to get into some less actives houses that we hadn't before. We are really going to try to reactivate people to help this branch get built up. We have had very little amount of people come to church in the last few weeks. Most of the branch is old and so it is hard for them to get to church in bad weather. And lots of people were out of town. But good things are going to happen soon. 

A really good chapter to read is 2 Nephi chapter 4. It's super good. You guys should read it. (Here is an excerpt):

15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learningand the profit of my children.

 16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.

And you people should email me about your lives and the world I guess. I like hearing about all those things. 

Loves,

Elder Talbot

Exterior of Smiths Falls Church

Inside of church, multi-use room.  Used as chapel, Sunday School, Priesthood, Relief Society rooms.

17th Week Miracle--Prayer, Faith and Hard Work

So freezing rain sucks. I thought it was super cool when I first saw it and now it is just annoying. But that also means it's not -20 when its raining so I guess that's a plus? If there is any bright side. 

We had a slow but super interesting week this week. A large chunk of our investigators are sick but I think Lisa is just about done with her flu so we are probably going to meet with her this week, hopefully. A lot of people in our branch and our area were out of town for the holidays or super sick. But things are going to pick up now that the holidays are behind us.

Super cool story. So we had district meeting Friday and that was super good. Elder Vargas is super funny and is really good with keeping it entertaining but spiritual as well. Anyways. We got out of the meeting and we got a phone call from a random number like five minutes after we left the chapel. The lady that was calling us is in the Fallow Field Branch which is on the edge of Ottawa and just outside of my area/mission. She called to tell us she has a friend that lives in Carlton place, which is a small town 30 minutes away from Smiths falls. Side note, I got really excited when I heard this cause we hardly get any referrals here. Then she went on and told us that Jamie and her two daughters have been taking missionary discussions from sister missionaries in Fallow Field for about three months and are getting Baptized on the 15th!! We are super excited. That was super weird cause Jamie wouldn't live in their mission so we honestly don't know how they were teaching her or how they found her but we don't really care cause someone is getting baptized! She is going to attend the Fallow Field branch cause she knows more people there but she wants to get baptized in Smiths Falls cause she is moving to Alberta in 6 months so just for records sake she is getting baptized here. This is a huge blessing for this branch cause Smiths Falls is really hurting for people. Jamie isn't going to attend very much but I really believe that the people of this branch will get a boost of energy just from this. Just seeing that there are prepared people in this area will really help them get excited about missionary work. It also really gets me excited and happy cause I know that there are people ready for this gospel, we just have to find them.  Jamie is also a huge answer to our prayers cause we really thought we could get a baptism this transfer but we really weren't sure where it was going to come from. But we had faith and kept praying and working hard. I'm super pumped about all of this right now. 

We got to hang out with the Hatches on New Years Eve since we weren't allowed to go out at night. I really love the Hatches. Their testimonies are so strong and they are such cool people. They have so many different stories about their lives that are super cool. The spirit that The Hatches have around them is incredible. They are really helping the branch here and everyone they come in contact with love them a lot. 

I don't have a scripture for this week but I just wanted to talk about the power of prayer. I know that prayer works. You can pray for anything. If you have a question or if you need help with something. I would encourage everyone to pray for missionary experiences.  

I hope everyone has a great week! 

Loves
Elder Talbot

New Years Eve with Elder Leyton and the Hatches

Watching a blue jay out the bathroom window