Hope

The weather was pretty well the same all week. Just about 1 or 2 the entire time. With the exception of when we went to London for zone conference. Lucky for us it snowed while we were driving there and driving back. Pretty fun Hahaha.

A few really cool things happened this week, to finish P-Day we got to go on a hike with the District. That was pretty fun. We walked along the river beneath Niagara Falls. The water was really cool looking and this district is really cool. We got a little lost at the end and ended up on a private road but that's alright hahah. We met with Emily at the end of the day. She is cool to meet with. She is doing pretty well. We talked about hope. Hope is really cool. For me, hope is everything is going to get better as long as you do what you can. It makes life so much more happier knowing that the Lord is keeping His end of the deal. 

Basketball Saturday was pretty good, the people that came are really good and really fun to play with, but it got cut short because of Jack's baptism which was awesome. Jack is the Bishop's kid that was getting baptized. He is a stud. Super nice and friendly with everyone. Baptisms are awesome to watch and to see people make the covenant with our Heavenly Father. He was so excited about the whole thing which was awesome. He got a new suit and shoes for it which was awesome. 

Zone conference was fantastic. We went to London which is about two hours away.  Driving still seems like nothing for me since I came down from Timmins. The conference was really good. Since we were approved to use Facebook they talked a lot about following the safeguards and building spiritual protections for ourselves. It was an amazing spirit filled conference. I am very excited for the new tools that we have been given to use and help people come closer to Jesus Christ. With Facebook, they didn't give us a lot of straight forward rules but they want us to keep our focus on our missionary purpose with it and sharing the Gospel. 

Church this Sunday was super good. I surprised myself and stayed awake even with daylight savings haha. I have been getting up at 6 for the last 3 months or so, so I was expecting to be just about dead with daylight savings but I lived. The talks this week were great. A youth spoke first and she talked about standards and living them and staying strong. Another talk was about not judging and that was a solid talk as well. That is something I have been trying to work on this year so it was good to hear. 

I also hit my 18 month mark this week. It is absolutely crazy how fast time flies. I seriously can't believe it. 

This is one of the things President Shields talked about at Zone Conference that he typed up for everyone. 

This is my ten (10) point summary of the nexus between Safeguards and Book of Mormon (Alma 46-50): 

(1) Amalickiah (Satan) is after you!! He wants to administer poison (social media filth) to you by degrees and kill you (spiritually) just like he secretly killed Lehonti.

(2) Amalickiah's fraud and deception has no bounds. Satan desperately wants to take your liberty and bring you into slavery and bondage to him. Satan wants to spiritually massacre you, and your family, spouse, and children. 

(3) If you alter the management of your (social media) affairs, you will disappoint and utterly and exceedingly astonish Satan and his army. 

(4) Use your device after the manner of instructions of Moroni (modern day prophets)--which have never been known before (Safeguards). 

(5) Compliance with Safeguards will make your former (pre-mission) weak social media practices become strong. 

(6) Safeguards will force Satan to come at you by the entrance (no secrets or deception) and if Satan tries to climb up to enter your places of safety by any other way, you can cast stones and arrows of truth and maintain "all power" over your enemies through full disclosure. 

(7) Expect a few non-mortal wounds, but know that a single soul need not be lost. 

(8) Righteous armies will increase daily because of the "assurance of protection" which Safeguards will provide. 

(9) Compliance with Safeguards will cut off the strength and power of Satan such that he will have "no power" over you. 

(10) Even in times of difficult and dangerous spiritual wars, you can say, "there never was a happier time." 

I love the connection that he made. The Book of Mormon is such an amazing book. I am so grateful that I have it and it has been able to change my life for the better. This week reading the book it was calming me a lot and it is such a powerful book.

Love
Elder Talbot 

Jack and Elder Talbot

District hike in the Niagara gorge