Norfolk, VA - May 12, 2010

Has everyone recovered from Mother's Day weekend? I sure hope so. Sounds like it was a great time! Has it gotten too hot to be outside down there or can you still bear it? Sister Woodruff's family told her that it was freezing in UT. Haha I remember those days of being cold in May. I'm in a long sleeve today, but last week was melting in short sleeves. It's really random weather here, but I am so grateful, because from my exposure so far...I don't love the humidity!!! Well except that my hair is curly

I am learning the area slowly but surely! Norfolk is a totally different set up than Newport News, so it's going to be a little harder to learn. Newport News has 2 main roads (for example....Country Club and Alma School) and the whole city runs along those streets, so it's a skinny long city. Then you have a couple roads that connect them (like University...go for awhile and then Southern). Here you have a lot of main roads and not really any sense to where they are at. But things are looking familiar! And I've met a few more of the investigators and can actually match some member's names to faces. Haha, it's quite the process.

Elder Duke and Elder Hall are the elders in the ward. Elder Hall is from Yuma. They are great missionaries and so it will be great to have a co-effort in the ward again. They live with the elders in Norfolk 1 and we live with Sister Jacob and Sister Allgood who are the sisters in Norfolk 1. The sisters are great. We have so much fun and we all are lively and love the mission. It's such a blessing to have my companion and to be in the apartment with them. Sister Woodruff is so great. She came out a transfer before me and has been in Norfolk her whole mission. The first half in 2nd Ward and then the next half covering both wards with Sister Jacob. Then when Sister Allgood and I came, they split the sisters back up again. Her dad is a Seminary/Institute teacher, so she went from Cedar City, to close to Fargo, ND and then to Heber City. She definitely picked up the teaching from her dad, she is a GREAT teacher!

One of the investigators I've met so far is Carolyn. She is so cool. She takes pages of notes when she reads every night. She has the triple and bible, so she is cross referencing all over the place. Her struggle is her addiction to smoking and it's a bad one too. Why do people smoke? Ahhhhh, Virginia needs to pass a law against smoking!

So cool story. We have hardly any miles here for some reason, so we decided to walk to this place a few miles away. While we were walking on this random neighborhood street a car pulls up beside us and we hear "Sister Talbot" and we both look and see Melissa Richardson. It was weird because both of us were like who in Norfolk would call my name. Haha. Well Melissa Richardson is a member in NN2 who I've been teaching regularly for 3 months! I wasn't able to call her before transfers, so it was so cool to see her. Her husband is Navy and she was in Norfolk picking him up and they saw us walking. It was so cool to see her and of course get a picture. I can't email pics from this computer I'm on, so I'm going to try and trade comps...so we'll see about pics.

My companion shared with me some thoughts from 1 Nephi 8 and it helped me to learn and get a new perspective on Laman and Lemuel. One thing I never internalized before was that they NEVER partook of the fruit. They weren't those that ate it and then strayed, but never tasted it. Interesting eh? Well if you haven't read that chapter recently, you should pick up the Book of Mormon and read it. It's such a great chapter, I love it!

I hope you are all doing so well! I love you.
Sister Talbot