A Powerful, True Book

It felt great all week, in between 5-10 the whole time. It rained for pretty much the entire week is what it seemed like. Super humid too, which is nice sometimes. 

Our basketball thing is going pretty well, we had 8 people out this week and only two of them were members. It was a lot of fun. It's mostly 14 year olds but they are all super good.

I got to go on exchanges last week which was super good. I went with Elder Martin who is from some place called the UK. He is a really funny guy, and it was fun being able to work with him for the day. We met some pretty cool potentials that said they could come back, and at the end of the day we were just about done and this guy started talking to us. He progressively got louder and more animated as he went on, we were pretty much only saying oh and yeah. The guy was talking about how if you ever think about what other meats taste like you are probably a cannibal. He ended the one sided conversation by walking away by yelling, "it's the times of Noah!" Good old Niagara Falls.

We met with Emily a couple of times this week. We just read some scriptures with her. She is awesome and is doing really well. She has had some cool experiences recently and is making good changes in the right direction.

Yesterday was pretty awesome. Church was fantastic, the talks were really good. One was about the hymn I stand All Amazed, suchhh a good talk. Gospel principles was about prayer and some people shared some really cool experiences. To end the night we went with a member to visit a different member in the hospital.  The one in the hospital is an amazing guy. He has such a big heart. We read 3rd Nephi 11 with him. Holy cow is that an amazing chapter. It has such a powerful spirit to it and there is so much I learn from it. 

P-Day we went to Hamilton for zone sports. Super fun. There are some good ballers in the zone. Elder Coffey the og was there. He's one of my favorites. 

Young mens on Wednesday was a missionary one and we were in charge of it. We showed them how to tie a tie, shine shoes, and iron shirts. It was super fun and we had them do a roleplay where you teach about something but you have to switch off every other word. It makes it interesting but they all rocked it. 

Spiritual thought comes from Alma 39:9.  Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things.

I was studying it and it uses the word cross twice but the footnotes give two different definitions for each word. It was interesting to see that. I love how it talks about self mastery and putting away the sins and taking up your own cross. I had some sweet studies this week and I am absolutely loving the Book of Mormon. It is such a powerful, true book.

I tried sending some of these pictures last week but they didn't work. So here they are hopefully haha.

Love

Elder Talbot 

Elder Johnson and Elder Talbot at Niagara Falls at sunrise for Elder Talbot's 20th birthday

Elder Talbot and Elder Coffey

Niagara Birthday Party

I don't know if it'

​s ​

done being cold but it sure feels like it. Last week it was around 0 all week and hasn't stopped raining for like 3 days. Today is 15 degrees which feels super warm. It's pretty exciting cause more people will be outside and actually doing stuff.

It was a pretty interesting week this week. It started off really slow but it ended up going by really fast.  Well I guess I'll just write some highlights of the last two weeks cause I didn't write anything last week.

I don't know if I said anything before but we met Diane and Ernie a couple of weeks ago It was honestly probably the first person I have ever found on a Monday. The husband let us right in before we really said anything other than HI. They are both religious but they aren't currently practicing and want to learn more. We haven't been able to meet with them since but we talked to them and they are still interested in meeting they are just super busy.

My sister had her first child. Almost landed on my birthday but not quite. Her name is Maylee and seems pretty cool from the photos.

Brother Hardt our new ward mission leader is awesome. He is really probably one of my best friends in the ward. He is so excited about his new calling. One thing he is really big on is the Book of Mormon. One of our goals right now is to get the ward reading it every day.

Both of these last two weeks I was able to go with Elder Johnson

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 one of my past companions on exchanges. He is awesome and is a great missionary. We found some good potentials on the first exchange. The second this past week exchange was also really good. We spent the day working Niagara falls and we got to talk to this really cool guy in his restaurant about the restoration. The next morning was my birthday so we went to the Falls in the morning at like 6:30. We pretty well had them just to ourselves which was really cool.

On my birthday the Curry's had us over for dinner. They are an awesome family, really great people. Kaleigh

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 a couple of weeks ago took us to a vegan donut shop which was great.

We met with Emily a few times recently. She is doing pretty good. We have just been reading the scriptures with her. She is doing a lot better. She is really cool too. Recent ish convert and has a sweet testimony.

Yesterday we were walking around in the rain and this guy told us that he commends us for being out on a day like today and that God was thinking about us.
It really touched my heart. That guy was cool.

I broke Elder Olson's ankles this morning. I just about died laughing after.

​ (For those that don't know, that means I did a crossover and he fell over.)​

We went to a Filipino birthday party yesterday. There was a ton a food and it was all really good and they all just try to feed us more the whole time. Super good.

​Love Elder Talbot​

Use the Smartphone for Good

The weather here keeps switching on me. It's seriously like a roller coaster.  It has ranged from like 5 above to like 10 below probably two different times this week.

Elder Olson and I had an interesting week.  We were able to meet with Nicole this week and it went really well! We talked about her experiences that she has had with church and what her goals and plans are with baptism and everything. She believes in the Book of Mormon and that is really awesome to see someone have such faith in the book.

We met with Emily this week as well, she was baptized a couple of years ago and she probably knows more than I do haha. She is super cool, we talked with her just about life and stuff like that.

The young men's activity this week was making Filipino food. Anthony helped them learn how to make it. Super good stuff. Played horse after with them, the young men here are pretty good at basketball which is fun. Fun fact, Nate, one of my favorite youth in Orangeville, his mom lives here which is pretty cool talking about him. Also more fun fact there is a member here that is related to the Lalondes in Orangeville which is also really cool. 

When we were weekly planning the members upstairs weren't home and so their dogs came to join us for weekly planning and decided to take naps while we were planning, it was really cute. 

We have a friend named John. He is a crossing guard near our house and a super great guy. He had been to church a long while ago but he told us it was a great experience. He said he is going to come to church next week! 

Our basketball thing went pretty well. A youth brought 4 non-member friends and it was a lot of fun. 11 people in total which makes for some good ball. I can grab rim pretty easily now.  Elder Olson is pretty good at basketball as well which makes it fun for sports. 

Brother Hardt is the man. He is so excited for his new calling. We currently have some plans in the works that are going to be sweet. If I remember I will tell about what they are when we get the plans straightened out. 

Saturday night the Welland ward had a member missionary fireside with President and Sister Shields. It was super awesome. I was thinking about myself and how I would be a member missionary. And it's a pretty intimidating idea for me but the fireside helped a ton and it will be cool relating to the members here with it and they can help me with ideas and stuff.

Lucy is a sweet Chinese lady that came to church today. She wants to become a Christian which is sweet. A member introduced himself to her and then he introduced her to us which was awesome.

We had dinner at the Bonfield's yesterday. Man they are an awesome family. Brother Bonfield is absolutely hilarious. There weren't any fish puns this time around but it was still awesome, the first couple of times Brother Bonfield and his son told a ton of fish jokes and I was dying. 

Spiritual thought 

Alma 27

vs 3-4 Like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis, I was less than enthused about having to get smartphones. 

vs 10-14 I changed my mind about being not excited because I was able to be helped to be excited to be able to learn how to use a smartphone for good and not waste a ton of time on it, and I am excited to see how the work will progress out here. 

vs 27 I am so grateful for Jesus to be trusting all of us missionaries, and I know that if I keep my purpose on the Savior I will be able to progress so much farther. 

Alma 28 vs 1-3 Just like the nephites, I wont die and I will know how to use a smartphone for good when I go home and fall back into old habits. 

Love Elder Talbot

Elder Talbot and Elder Johnson

Youth activity, learning to make Chicken Adobo, Elder Talbot's favorite Filipino dish

Elder Olson with the resident dogs napping during weekly planning