Week Something, Probably

So. It was transfers. And we both thought we were staying. But at 10:25 we got a call. And I am going to Timmins. Which is the biggest area and its like half of the mission. I have been told it's an 8 hour drive. Super cool. I'm pumped. I love Heart Lake a lot but I am super excited for Timmins, it will be cool. My new companion is Elder Lowry's MTC comp. His name is Elder Johnson. I don't know much about him. Should be good. Heart Lake ward is going to start something up that we are calling the 30 day ministry. We are trying to follow up the 40 day fast which people loved a lot so now we are going to do that. The details aren't finalized at all but it is going to be sweet. I am excited for it. Hahaha. 

Yep, I don't have a lot of time today. But 21 

Elder Talbot 

We taught Jack Sparrow.

He cleans up nicely for church. Hahaha

So the map. The top half of the picture is my area.

Toronto Canada Temple

 

Heart Lake Pictures

Angry Bird Lawn Mower

Well it was quite the week this week. It was pretty fun. Weather was fine. I am the homework guy for the English class and the class was talking about the weather. It was pretty fun. These two Persian guys that are regulars are the only ones that brought it back. They aced the homework. They really probably have better English than I do. 

Tuesday was funny. We did service for the Salvation Army garden. We picked tomatoes for like an hour then I spent the rest of the time cleaning the tomatoes. Fun stuff. After that, the people that live above us asked us to mow the lawn. I really hate mowing lawns. I just get angry for no reason. But I mowed anyways. The front was fine. The freaking mower stalled like five times. Which was fine until I got to the back. I don't think that thing was mowed all summer. It was probably over a foot tall in most of the places, if not taller. The mower would stall after about two feet of mowing so I had to take the bag off and jam the cover open so it wouldn't jam full of grass. I have a video of it. I also hit a baby bird that was hiding in the weeds. It didn't die so we tried nursing it back to health. We got him worms and water and everything. But he didn't make it through the night. Unfortunately. But we did make a pretty funny funeral video. If you want it email me and I'll send it.  We helped out a member with a project in their back yard. We helped them last week, too. On our way out he gave us both a TTC tie. Which is the bus system in Toronto. We were pretty pumped. We ended the day at English class. Before the class, the Bishop from Mississauga was at the stake center for a meeting. So I met him for the first time like 4 years ago when me and my family were visiting Toronto. He kept the temple open for us so we could go through and do baptisms. It was a really cool experience and it was cool seeing him again.

Wednesday. I don't really know what happened. We had lunch with a Filipino family and they fed us food. It tasted really good. 

Ooh Monday we got a call from President Shields and two new missionaries had gotten to the mission and he wanted us to take them out contacting to give them some experience on the first day of their mission. We only had about an hour so we went out on splits for a bit. I went with Elder Bihon, I think is how you spell it. He is from Pleasant Grove I think. He is assigned to speak French. We had a good time, we walked around a park and literally the second person Elder Bihon talked to asked him this question right off the bat. "Do you think Jesus was a black Jew? It was pretty funny that whole thing. He handled it pretty well and just testified of the Savior, super cool. 

Thursday it was raining so we decided to go tracting, cause why not. A Filipino lady answered one of the doors and questioned us why we were in the rain. We just said we are missionaries and what not, and she said she was Catholic and fine that way. But she asked us if there was anything she could do for us, and Elder Lowry asked if we could get some water. She said yeah and let us in. Right as we get it she just starts showering us with food. It was crazy. Then her nephew walks in and starts asking questions and so we taught them the Restoration. It was pretty sweet. Hahah. 

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Baker. I don't think I took a picture with him but we had a really good time. We had two meal appointments and just contacted the rest of the time. We found a few potentials while we were taping up flyers for the English class. One we taught the restoration on the street, one lady was interested but she lives in Toronto so we need to send her as a Referral. These two other dudes fresh from India were pretty interested. It was super fun. We were just talking to all of them as we were walking around. 

Saturday we had dinner with the Lopez Family. They are from the Philippines. Elder Lowry has a brother in the Philippines and so last time we were over there we were asking about Balut which is a fertilized duck egg that is 15 to 20 days old. It tasted pretty good. Only a few feathers got stuck in my teeth. All the other food they fed us was delicious as well so it was great.

Sunday, Joanne came to Church for the third time. Her and her husband came off the street 3 weeks ago and have been coming ever since. They are from Haiti and love church. It is really cool. We finally got contact info so we can actually go over there and teach them. 

Spiritual thought comes from my parents: 

Dad

My thought for the week comes from Alma 49:13-14.  President Royall taught this at the Stake Standards night tonight.  Moroni built "forts of security" to combat the Lamanites.  He took that "which had hitherto been a weak place, had now, by the means of Moroni, become strong."  I love that.  It makes me ask the question, what are we doing to make our weaknesses strengths (see also Ether 12:27) in our battles with Satan.  It makes you think.  Or at least it made me think and I hope that it makes you think too!

Mom

Okay, now for my thought of the week:  I've been reading in Mormon.  These chapters are hard because it feels kind of hopeless.  They are so wicked (by the wicked are the wicked punished, see Mormon 4:5) and Mormon is pretty frustrated with the wickedness that will eventually lead to the overthrow of the entire Nephite nation.  But there are some good things written in there.  In Mormon 7:8 he says, "Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you."  On the title page of the Book of Mormon it says a man can get closer to God by abiding by it's precepts than any other book. Spenford gave his homecoming talk today in Sacrament Meeting, and he talked about the Book of Mormon.  He talked about how he challenged an elder he was training to read the Book of Mormon and when he found a precept, to follow it for that day.  After almost 2 months he was only in like 1 Nephi 3.  The Book of Mormon is full of precepts that can help us "Lay hold" upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.  To lay hold isn't just to know how we should behave.  I think we have to apply these precepts to our daily behaviors before we have "laid hold." I am so grateful for ancient prophets that gave their time and great effort to write the words they were commanded to write so that we could have those precepts with which to change our lives.  I know the Book of Mormon can bring peace, can teach us how we should be, and bring us closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior.  I love it!

Peace
Elder Talbot ​

 Huge Salvation Army Garden Tomato

Open Your Mouth

So this week lasted about 5 minutes. Because of the Tuesday P-day last week, the week was already short. But we also had Zone Conference which kills a whole day. 

We did some service for the Salvation Army Garden and Food-bank. It was fun. One of the people that works there is going to Salt Lake and while he is there he is going to be getting a tour of Temple Square. He seems pretty receptive so hopefully he has a good experience. 

Thursday was zone conference. Elder Hafen was there so that was fun. The conference was really good, the spirit was really strong. Learned about OYMing more and planning. (Open your mouth) It was good. We got an award for having one of the cleanest cars. 

We didn't teach a whole lot. Got dropped by two investigators and Stephanie is going to Bosnia for a undetermined amount of time but she is still interested so we just have to wait at this point. 

Sunday was good. I spoke in church. Only prepared it in about an hour. It was on First Seek ye the Kingdom of God. It was cool. 

Not a lot happened and I don't have a whole bunch of time. But this week will be good. I am excited. 

SHOUT out to Ethan Erickson for emailing me. He's the real MVP. Killing it out in Japan. 

Peace.

Elder Talbot.

Toronto Temple

Parents visiting the MTC

The Flood is Coming

So we had a fantastic week. The weather was pretty tame and didn't get too hot, thankfully. I hit my 11 month mark yesterday. That is pretty weird. People keep telling me that a mission is like climbing a house. The first six months is like going straight up the side of it. The next 6th months are like going up the roof. The next 6 is going down the roof and then the last 6 is like free falling down the side of the house. Which means, since basically the first year flew by, the last year is going to last about 6 minutes. 

We had an appointment with Amber at a Tim Horton's, and I really don't like Timmy's, especially for teaching, it is just really hard to get someone to feel the spirit there. But we went anyways and we sat there for like 30 minutes and she didn't show up. We texted her asking if we were still good, and she responded saying she had forgotten. She wasn't close so we offered to meet her in the middle at the church. She said yes and we met her there. Sister Conley was at the church (which I don't know if I mentioned or not but the Conley's moved from Orangeville like right at the same time I did.) So she got to meet her. We shared the restoration, the spirit was really strong. Amber really wants to know which church is true. Which is sweet. Cause we can help her with that, haha. 

So we also met with Stephanie this week. She is 50ish and from Bosnia Hergosomethingorother. She is really sweet, her husband died about a year ago and she really loves the plan of salvation. She also wants to know if that is true or not. Which is awesome. She came to church yesterday and she said she felt really peaceful there.

We got a member referral for 2 less actives that have non member fiancees. We have visited both of them and they are all interested in taking the discussions again. The work here is going really well, I love it. 

So Brother Martinez, the ward mission leader, is doing two things with the ward. One is that  he and we are giving out Books of Mormon with our testimonies in the back of them and challenging members to write their testimonies in the front and give them out in 7 days. It is going really well. The idea is we want to flood Brampton with Books of Mormon. The second thing is he has started a 40 day fast to get the missionary work going, with the ward and the area. They are around day 30 and the ward is loving it. Every day one person from the ward fasts and everybody else is praying for them. The idea with that one is to end the famine that the ward is having when it come to baptisms and missionary work. The third thing that he is doing, is setting people with a date. I think I talked about it last time but I don't remember. So a person prayerfully picks a date that they will have someone ready to be taught the gospel. The idea is that you think about the day all the time and pray for help from God. The Lord really does provide people if you do that.

So when I say the flood is coming. Brother Martinez says that it will be a flood because a flood of missionary work and a flood of baptisms is coming to Heart Lake. It is some really exciting times up here. Me and Elder Lowry/Brother Martinez all get really excited after coordination meetings. Good stuff. 

I finally got pictures of the temple. Wooooo, it was after I did some service at the temple. We weeded the gardens a ton. It was fun. At the community garden I just pruned a bunch of tomatoes plants. Sunday we were having dinner with the Swendsen's who are the Senior missionary couple that is over the cars. They offered the mission vacuum so that we could clean our car for zone conference, and there are a whole bunch of areas closed right now, so we offered to clean those cars too. So yesterday since it wasn't P-day we spent all day detailing cars. It was pretty fun. I got to drive a Grand Caravan, and a 15 passenger van. It was pretty fun. Missionaries did not treat those cars very well so they weren't clean at all. It was quite ridiculous. But we got cookies so it was worth it. 

Today we are hiking the lake that our ward name is named after. Heart Lake. It should be pretty fun. 

Love you all. You could email me too. That would be cool.

Elder Talbot 

Elder Lowry and Elder Talbot after teaching a lesson (Thank you for the picture, Sister Conley!)

Elder Talbot and the Conleys

Elders...

Toronto Canada Temple

Toronto Canada Temple