Yes, it's hot!

The weather has turned hot again. Last week was so nice! We figured it was the Lord prepping us for a long time of hot weather again. I can't complain though...I'm in a car. Whenever we talk to the elders we feel so bad!

We just met our new mission president, Pres. Perry (formerly an Area Seventy out west) and so cross your fingers that he also will keep all sisters in cars. Haha I might melt out there if not. It makes for a funny day though. Some of the houses are pretty warm, but our half of the house is the hottest though. The night I hurt my finger it was 85 degrees in our rooms.

The Perry's are very nice. His wife is funny and I think will be quite involved. They have 2 daughters here (Eliza, 14 and Emma, 11) and they are just so cute. One of them is blonde. Yay! Of the 28 sister missionaries, only 3 of us are blondes. Weird! There were a lot more when I came out I think. Pres. Perry knows a lot of the General Authorities, so he drops a lot of big names. Maybe he'll be able to get some of them out here to speak to us! He is already starting to make some changes, but the ones for now are from SLC, not just him. The first order of business is that P-Day will now be on Monday.

YES, P-DAY WILL NOW BE ON MONDAY.

So yes, you are still obligated to send me a nice long email even though it will only be 5 days. :)

And another change is that they are experimenting with some changes that might take place in all missions eventually. But we are one of the testing missions. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but there is an additional booklet with 8 chapters that we will study from and there will be training meetings that the mission leaders (incl. trainers) will have to attend every transfer. They are cutting back on interviews with the mission president from each transfer to quarterly. So I'll only get to meet with him a couple of times I guess. But he sounds like he will be around more in meetings, so I'm sure he'll get to know us all pretty fast.

We had a great meeting and one of the assistants (who each time he trains I swear he will be an apostle someday) gave a training on praying. He used the story of Rameumpton in Alma 31 to make his point. We looked at the elements of the prayers of the Zoramites and then we looked at that of Alma's prayers. Some key differences are that the Zoramites were not humble and they did not seek for knowledge or ask questions. They were rote and they were not in real communication with God. Alma prayed for his fellow laborers by name. Alma stated what the problem the Zoramites had and prayed for them. He was humble and you could tell he was conversing with God. It was interesting to think of how important our prayers are and how much thought should go into what we say. I get so tired on the mission, that I have to say them outloud or they are just pitiful. We are taught to pray by the Spirit which requires us to pray when and where we can be in tune.

We have a new member whose family is in town visiting. It was so crazy to learn that they live in the city that Sis. Dunn grew up in and they know a ton of the same people. And the mom is originally from Mexico and is going to be cooking us authentic Mexican food this Sunday! Yay!

Well my finger is recovering. It's stopped randomly oozing and it now is just about 2/3 black. I don't think I'll lose my nail. It is cut half way down on the one side, so it'll be a slow growing out process.

We were at a dinner the other day and the mom asked if I was excited to go home. I laughed and said February is a long time away. And she's like not really. It was so funny because it's not really something I think about. Probably because I have no idea what I'll do. Hopefully I can figure it out when I get back. Maybe I'll take the summer off.... :)

Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from you on Monday!
Sister Talbot