Saturday, January 30, 2010

New driver's license. Horrible picture of course! Why can't we smile?!
Jamestown sisters and us. Sis. Schorzman is in brown and my comp Sis. Dickson is next to me.
Cool sign I saw that Sis. Marvin had.

Cool gold plates I thought would be cool if dad could make some for the seminary.

Keara's cousin who is dating a recent convert of the singles branch. We had a zone breakfast and she was there and recognized my name and I recognized her.

Me in front of some river on one the cold days!

All the missionaries that finished the year in 1st Ward: Spanish-Lusk, Zobrist...Timmons, Bishop Hamilton, Frampton, Me, Sis. Cox

Email on January 27, 2010

Hey how's it going? It's another one of those weeks that feels like I just wrote yesterday. Will I ever get used to how time flies? Sounds like you've all had exciting weather! Well we've enjoyed a long stretch of sweet weather! We had one day of rainy, but a lot of really nice days. We heard it was supposed to snow this weekend though. Everyone tells us we've had a weird winter this year. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be actually, so I'm doing good!

I'll try and send pics this week. My hour runs away from me! Today has been the most relaxed P-Day ever. We took a nap and it was great. I've been so exhausted every night...I'm not sure I've stayed awake in personal prayers in days! Haha. There is a lot of work to be done here, so it keeps us busy. We are going to Hampton all day Friday, so that will be fun. We LOVE going to Hampton!

Last week we had exchanges. I went to Jamestown for 2 days with Sis. Schorzman who was Sis. Dickson's comp in the MTC. It was soooo different. It's the richest ward in the mission and so there really isn't anything ghetto.  People with a lot of money aren't necessarily open to talk to missionaries, so we got a lot of doors slammed in our faces in Jamestown. I think I can count the number of door slams in NN on one hand. The sisters weren't teaching any investigators-they taught Less Actives all day every day. Well that's not how a mission should be, so we hunted down about 8 investigators over the 2 days. I hope they can keep teaching them! They were really cool people.

Last night we went to Ft. Eustis for FHE and we actually had soldiers there this time. The senior couple (DeLaneys) taught a lesson and then we played Apples to Apples. Well that was fun and so awkward at the same time. Imagine 2 sister missionaries and a handful of single soldiers playing a game like Apples to Apples.......hahahaha

Well we are building up a good teaching pool here and we're lovin it. I'll have to tell you about some investigators next week. We've got some real solids.

Love ya!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Sister Dickson - January 21, 2010

Sounds like you've had yuck weather. We've had 5 days of amazing weather. I haven't had to wear a coat! It's been great. Before that though was frigid. The boots I got helped a lot. We heard it's supposed to dip down again tomorrow. :(

My new companion is Sister Dickson. We were in the MTC together actually. She is from Gilroy, CA and went to BYU-I for a year and then went out to BYU-Hawaii and was there before her mission. She is a fun spunky girl. She always wanted to go on a mission too! Her first 2 transfers were a lot different than mine that's for sure. Her trainer had only been out 3 months and so they had a lot of struggles together. I don't think she pictured a mission being like her first 3 months, so she was glad for a change. We've changed the area a lot and are in the process of building up a good teaching pool. It may take us all transfer, but she should be able to see a baptism. This area has been pretty dormant, so it's taking a lot of work and late nights, but soon it will be awesome!

Sister Dickson and I have been having a lot of fun. She missed out on a lot of fun, so we are making sure we have extra. Talking to everyone is yielding crazy results, but showing the Lord that we want people to teach. We are still teaching our neighbors downstairs (the Africans). I don't think they really understand what we are talking about, but it's fun to try! We are also teaching a LA member's fiance. He gets 100% of what we are saying, but I don't think he is spiritually converted yet though. We will teach him tomorrow and may set him for baptism!
That's so cool grandma is getting baptized. I bet Elder Arntsen is bummed it wasn't before he left. Oh well. Don't all the missionaries in Eagar go to Chandler? Haha.

It's crazy that this transfer is half over. I will never get over the time warp on the mission.

Well I love you and miss you!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Hello hello from NN2 - Jan. 13, 2010

It's been another exciting week in Newport News 2nd Ward. It's been so different here than 1st Ward. When I got to 2nd Ward they weren't really teaching anyone, so the teaching pool was zilch...only people who had no intentions of being baptized. Well I'm used to baptizing, so we decided to red zone to the end zone them (baptize or drop). Since Sis. Dickson and I've been together we've found over 30 new investigators. We had a zone conference yesterday and Pres. Millburn said he is really excited for us and this area. We are excited too! It's weird coming to an area that had missionaries and treating it like an area that didn't have missionaries. Oh and speaking of an area that doesn't have missionaries...Hampton. The missionaries were taken out of there before the end of this last transfer because of some drama going on and so there isn't anyone there now full time. But President informed us that he wants us to cover it until next transfer when hopefully someone will be put in there. Crazy! So we will be teaching the recent converts and the rest of the people they were teaching. So we should have a couple of Hampton baptisms this transfer hopefully. They were teaching a wife of a member and she was really progressing. Now we just need to go meet with her. I'm excited. I really like Hampton and I was actually hoping to get transferred in there sometime, so maybe I will next transfer! Sis. Dickson also randomly thought she would like to be in Hampton sometime too. So this works out pretty cool we get to work there. We'll probably go over there once a week or so.
So I was thinking of getting a haircut today. This ward actually has 2 ladies that do hair, but I think we will play volleyball instead. My hair is so long right now, it's crazy! Luckily my hair is pretty healthy.
We've been enjoying the oranges very much, thank you! Sis. Dickson's fave fruit are citrus and she says these are soooo good. Good as always!
That's awesome that grandma is going to get baptized! I'm really bummed she didn't do it 6 months ago!!! Haha.
Well stay tuned for the good news that will be soon to come from 2nd Ward. With good members and motivated missionaries there should be lots to write about soon.

I love you all and thanks for the letters. I love to get them from you.

Sister Talbot

Saturday, January 9, 2010

NEW AREA - NEW YEAR - NEW COMPANION - JAN. 6, 2010

It has been BUSY in the 2nd Ward these past fews days. Because of weather and mechanical stuff I didn't transfer until Saturday. Not a lot of anything was happening in the area before Sis. Dickson and I became companions. Not sure why because the sister I replaced is a good missionary. They haven't had a convert baptism in at least 6 months and probably awhile before that. But since we've been comps we've found 20 new investigators. That's HUGE! Which means we are so wiped out! I haven't even unpacked my bags all the way either. We plan till 10:30pm every night. It is CRAZY! The ward is so awesome too! We've had members call and leave a voicemail asking what can they can do for us. So once we get these investigators going with lessons we will be using the members a lot more. The Bishopric is so good too. I am really excited to see how this ward grows over the next however many months I'm here.
Saturday and Sunday were freezing here. Oh it was so cold! Sis. Dickson and I are on the hunt for boots today. I don't think I could survive the winter without them. Cross your fingers we can find cute, cheap, warm boots.
We went to Fort Eustis yesterday and taught the FHE lesson. Nobody was really there. But I guess school is justing starting back, so more people should come next week. We talked to them about inviting others to the services and sharing the gospel. It was cool.
The 2nd Ward isn't very diverse. No Africans. No Spanish. But we are hoping to change that. Downstairs from us is the African family that we are going to start teaching. They speak Swahili and Kalundi (I have no idea how to spell that) like the branch I taught in SLC. There are from Burundi and Tanzania. I only know one Swahili word! And they don't have the Book of Mormon in those languages...I already checked before my mission, so that's a bummer.
Time is passing by so quickly out here. People ask how long I've been out and it's weird to say 4 months. I feel like it's been only 1!

I love and miss you all.

Sister Talbot