Monday, February 14, 2011

Last email from Sister Talbot

Hello family! I realized that next Monday is a holiday and the libraries are going to be closed, so this is the last you'll hear from me until you see me next Tuesday. I hope you are all excited :) I am looking forward to seeing you all and hearing about what is happening in life and seeing Aiden and going to the temple with g'ma. Lots to look forward to about being back home, but also a major adjustment. I will be looking to you all to help me because I will probably be like a fish out of water. Neely if I sit right next to you on a huge couch, you'll just have to let me for a little while :) And if I constantly look at my watch and ask what we are doing later just laugh and hopefully you'll tell me that we have nothing planned. And if I don't watch a real movie or listen to real music for awhile, alert my friend Liz and she will know what to do. Reality set in this last week that I am really leaving because we have started to mention it to members, so I don't just up and leave with no warning. And we are speculating that Sis. Stoehr is also getting transferred and we are getting replaced with elders, so there will be a lot of goodbyes...although she won't actually know until Sunday night. Mom and Dad, it makes me laugh inside when I am visiting certain people and places to think you will be with me at these places in just a few months. How do you feel about cockroaches? Oh you are going to love my areas! Let's just say it's going to be different that what you are imagining VA looking like. But of course we'll see all of that stuff too :)

Can you call the weather man and let him know I would like 70 degrees by the end of next week? That is how nice it is today!!!! We have been having amazingly nice days here lately. Last year at this exact time we were snowed in in Newport News. I am wondering if Spring is on the way.

Did I tell you that we started teaching a Nepali family? We have taught them twice so far and just found out that 8 Nepali's are being baptized in Hampton on Saturday. Awesome! The BoM isn't in Nepali yet, so luckily there are ESL classes available to some so they can translate the English books. We haven't even gotten to the BoM yet because we can only teach so much because it all has to be translated by Uma, the 17 year old senior. She does so great and really likes to learn. They have been introduced to Christianity through the First Baptist Church, so they have a basic understanding of the things we've already covered. It is so fun and it's a new thing for Sis. Stoehr to teach people who are not from America. So it's been fun doing it together!

The Segway tour was awesome. Our tour guide's name was Buzz and he's this older retired man who loves history and loves being a segway tour guide. We were the last tour of the day and he really liked us, so he took us for a 2 hour tour instead of the 1 hour we paid for. It was awesome! I really want to get me a segway...too bad they are really expensive! I'll show pics when I get home because I have 6 minutes left.

Sis. Stoehr had her 22nd b-day last Saturday and it was so fun. We took Sis. Naylor out with us for a few hours and the elders took Elder Naylor out. We took her tracting because our appointments fell through. She loved it! We love the Naylor's!

So here is the coolest thing about last week...all of the recent converts we are teaching that are of age to enter the temple were there last Saturday for baptisms. HOW COOL!!!!!!!! They were just so enlivened on Sunday and we had the best Branch Conference ever. Sis. Derricott who was baptized in October had 24 family file names and had 2 of the YM (the 2 that are the only members in their families) be baptized for 14 of the men including her dad. The restored gospel is so awesome!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Hey ya'll

Hello! I wish I was able to tell you about the cool Segway tour we are going on. You will just have to wait a week for the report and pictures. Yep, we are finally going today and the weather is so nice. We are excited!

We had a great week last week. We went and gave service at the Food Bank/Meals on Wheels and it was so fun. The lady who coordinates the volunteers lived in Scottsdale when she was younger and is pretty familiar with the church. We have plans to go back and continue to volunteer there. All my other areas it was pretty easy to find volunteer/service opportunities through the members, but not so much here so we have been trying to do more community service type stuff.

We were able to have 2 lessons with Jay this last week. Both went really well and he is just progressing so well for his baptism. Pres. Perry wants us to start using mormon.org more with people, so we taught the whole 3rd lesson (Gospel of Jesus Christ) using mormon.org. The website as far as doctrinal stuff is based off of PMG, so it's all in order and everything. It was so fun and he really liked it it seemed like. The idea behind using mormon.org in lessons is to help people navigate the site. People use the internet for everything, so as we familiarize people with the site, it will be one they will use on their own. We've also been using it a lot with our members too.

We went to First Fridays this last Friday and it was quite the experience. It was not as good as before, but it's always an adventure. It reminds me of when I would go in Phoenix. We just stop everyone we see and give a pass along card and we had free hot cocoa too. That's always a big winner with the crowd. Our message wasn't so much though this time. I talked to one man for awhile and he believes that we have no personal responsibility for our choices and that we will automatically be forgiven. A lot of people I have met believe that. The more I learn about Christ and the gospel the more and more those people drive me nuts, because I know it's not true! We are responsible for our choices. If we weren't, where would the motivation come from to do better and be better? But experiences like First Fridays strengthens my testimony!

Almost out of time, but quickly...we did some inspired tracting on Sat. and found a family from Bhutan and a lady from Tanzania who we are teaching tonight and tomorrow. I'll let you know how they go next week!

Love ya'll,
Sister Talbot