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Oops!

FHE activity with the Mannis'...drawing things we are grateful for. No, my drawing skills have not improved yet.

With the Godown's kids...member family

Just one of the rainy days...

Some of the finer things in VA...we are creating a collage of cars very similar to this.

Hello Again - email from March 3, 2010

Sounds like things are going well out in AZ. I hope you are enjoying the sunny weather for me. We got snow again this morning. WEIRD!!! We are ready for the sun. I wonder if I'll still be saying that when I am sweating up a storm. Haha

Everything is going well here. We had a mission conference last Friday and it was pretty good. They had the Area Mental Health Advisor come and talk to us. It was really informative. I didn't necessarily leave spiritually uplifted, but I learned good things though.
I also got to see Sister Case. She is doing really good and is still in Salem. It was good to see her. We have a Sister's Meeting next week, so I'll get to see her then too. I usually see Sis. Cox every Sunday too. It's fun to see everyone! It feels like we have meetings all the time...I had to train on Recognizing & Eliminating Pride and Casualness at our District Meeting yesterday. It went pretty good I think. After I train I always sit down and wonder what it was I just said and if that is what I was supposed to say. Haha!

We took Sis. Woodard, a less active sister, to the Family History Library yesterday for a lesson. That was fun! We helped her start her pedigree chart. She's going to start coming to the FHL a few times a month. She is Greek, so it'll be really awesome for the temple work to get done for her family.

We started teaching another soldier. His name is Nunez. He has a lot of questions about everything. He is going to test my teaching skills and my knowledge that's for sure. We're trying to help him not eat the whole cake in one bite. Nunez is way awesome though. He didn't really grow up with too much religion. His family is Catholic, but he's only been a few times and didn't like it. The soldiers went on a temple trip Saturday and he went as well as Vader. It was awesome they both went. The only thing missing was Sis. Dickson and I :( But there is always after the mission!

We are still teaching Yinhoo (from Burma/Thailand, 16). He is so funny. Bro. Waller the YM pres. took him to a youth dance and I guess he had a really good time. He didn't know anyone or how to dance, but still had fun and met a lot of people. He went to YM a few days before though and said it was boring.  Ashley Pauley who was baptized in December was a referral from a YM. We are teaching a YM too. Her name is Briana. She is soooo quiet. Her mom just got deployed, so she is here with her dad and 4 siblings. None of the other family has come to any lessons though. She understands everything we teach her and she is so smart.

We've had some really great younger couples move in recently and the ward is starting to grow. And we've had some less active members come back too. Now if we can just get some recent converts...

The work is good here. I have this feeling that I will be around this ward for a long time. Who knows if that's true or not, but Sis. Dickson's been here almost 6 months and could very well leave soon, so I'm preparing to stick around for a little while. At the end of this transfer Sis. Cox will have 9 months in NN1.

We have exchanges this weekend with Hampton. Sis. Dickson gets to go to Hampton (jealous!) and Sis. Vawdery is coming to me. It should be a good time. I've heard she's quiet. I'm not, so this should be fun :)

Well I love you all and hope everything is going so good for you. I hope you are all able to be a part of the work in your own way. I really do want to hear about the small (or big) missionary opportunities that you are having. Sounds like Ryan is having a blast being a member missionary!

Hey hey!

We taught Vader again and he is set to be baptized on March 28th. It's right after transfers, so we are crossing our fingers we can help him to feel confident to move it up a week. Suddenly Ft. Eustis is booming. Well not booming, but way more than the rest of the time I've been here. We have a member referral we are waiting to meet. Supposedly this Sunday... And the senior couple on base, the Delaney's got a referral for us too. It's this man named Ryan who is from Kentucky. He has the sweetest accent ever. He is pretty desperate for religion. He didn't grow up going to church, but he had some bad experiences over in Iraq, so he really wants God in his life. We teach him on Saturday and we are so excited!

We also have 3 primary kids set to be baptized in March as well. One is the daughter of a lady who has recently started coming back to church. The other two belong to a couple that we randomly stopped by once and they were like "we want to come back to church". So they are really excited for their kids to be baptized. I love teaching primary kids. I've taught quite a few in my 5 months, so I hope it continues! They are the funnest to teach hands down.

We had a couple of really nice days and then it got cold again. We were told to expect light snow tonight. VA weather is so weird!

Everything is going really well. We have a mission conference on Friday that we are excited for. It is when half the mission gets together and Pres. Millburn and the assistants teach us for 5 hours. I always love the meetings. I learn so much and get so pumped to do the work. We had a zone meeting last Friday and it was really good as well. Sis. Dickson and I had to role play in front of everyone...I hate doing that! I had to with Sis. Cox and the last mission conference and it was so bad. But this one Sis. Dickson and I did good! I can role play just fine, except when I am in front of a group. Haha

Do ya'll remember that I hated birds? Well I've met someone that hates them more. Meet my comp Sis. Dickson. She runs and hides whenever there are birds near. I hardly ever see them and she's like "there's a big red bird over there." haha anyways!
Love ya!

Sister Talbot

It's Weird!

How is everything going? Going well here. Oh well minus the fact that my body is retarded, but what's new?! So my body has been getting really exhausted for a month and last week for like 3 days I could not stay awake and was a walking zombie. It was weird. We have a medical missionary and she told me to get tested for anemia. So I did and it turned up negative for anemia. So they don't know what's up, but they did give me Astelin for my allergies. Yep, they are already being super. And I had to go to the Chiropractor today to get cracked. He is a member and does it for free. My neck got all weird again like it does sometimes, so it's sweet that there is a chiropractor around. Sister Dickson thought he was going to break me...haha it was funny. So other than my body issues this week, it was a pretty normal missionary week.

We finally had an investigator to teach on Ft. Eustis yesterday. His name is Vader. They go by last names. He is actually RLDS, so it was funny teaching him. We kept asking him, so is this the same? Is this the same? Haha. He's cool and I think he might go on the temple trip to DC with the soldiers at the end of the month. That would be a good experience for him! And we also committed Corey and Lenae to go see the temple together too. It was a funny lesson because he was straight faced the whole time. At the end I finally asked him what he was thinking because he appeared to be weirded out or something. He smiled and said he thought the temple was cool. That was a relief, because I was like what did we say that would have weirded him out? Haha. He is so cool and I cannot wait for life to work out for them to be married, so he can be baptized. Sister Dickson and I are already planning on coming out when they get sealed!

We have recently gotten into a few less actives doors that missionaries have been trying for a long time. It's been so cool to talk to them. Some don't remember anything about the church and some are like I know I need to come back. We have made a goal to always have a member with us or have the lesson in a member's home to help the less active members bond and create friendships. It's is so crazy how willing the less active members are here to meet with the missionaries. I don't remember it being quite like this in NN1. Then again we had way more investigator's to teach. It's such a different area, it's weird how different it is just crossing over one road.

Well I am out of time. Oh how time flies on the mission. Oh I forgot to tell you. It's weird but all the members always guess I'm 23 or 24. I don't know why, it's weird. But I cut my bangs short again and someone told me I look like a little girl. Haha

Love ya!
Sister Talbot

New Pics

Sweet sign in Hampton. They had another one that said "God is like Tide. He gets the stains out."

                          
                I love this pic of Sis. Dickson! And yes, we use a dust pan to clean the snow of our car!

           We taught Lynn Walker in Hampton. She is so cool. She is from the Philippines and made us chicken adobo and lumpias yesterday. It was sooo good.

A cool old church that I really like!

Hello Again

So the myldsmail.net has started up this google email thing for us, so it gave me a new email address. It is now katy.talbot@myldsmail.net. The old one will still forward emails to my new one, but start to use my new one as soon as you can just in case.

We got transfer calls last night. Everything is staying the same. Sister Dickson and I will be together in NN2 again! We have been having a lot of fun and teaching and finding a lot of people, but still struggling to get these people baptized! This transfer we are really going to focus on and figure out what we can do and what we can change, so that these people will have the desire to become a member of the Lord's church. The "quality" of the missionary really affects the success in an area. It has been proven to me and I am convinced of it! So I need to figure out what I need to do to be a better quality missionary.

We had a lesson with a Hindu family this week. Hindu's have VERY different beliefs than we do, so we were so nervous! But when we got there the guy was like yeah I believe in Jesus Christ and that there is one "main" God. So we really had no need to be nervous. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he said he believed it all, but he doesn't believe in the important physical things like going to church, getting baptized, and well actually doing anything about his beliefs. So it was an "informative" lesson for him. But I've now taught a Hindu family!

We are now teaching this family from Burma...came here from Thailand though. They are awesome! They live in our apartment complex and we found them on one of the snow days when we went to check out the roads. The son is 16 I think and he speaks really good English. His parents speak little English, so we had him translate the first lesson for us. It went really well and they are excited about everything. We gave them the Lamb of God when we first met them and the son said he watched it 10 times. Hahaha. His name in Yinhoo (said yayhoo!), but he goes by Scott.

Hampton is getting new missionaries this week, so they have a set full time. We are sad to give it away, but it needs FT missionaries BAD! There is a lot of work to be done there. Maybe someday I will get transferred there...

Well I love you all and hope everything is going well! In my BoM reading I read 2 Nephi 31:20 today. I love this verse and it is a well used missionary verse. Do me a favor and pull out your BoM and ponder it and ask yourself what this means for you? How is this verse talking to you?

Well we are experiencing yet another snow storm. I remember Joseph Hamilton when I first got here telling me that we are lucky to get one snow the whole winter. This is time 5 or 6! It's so weird.

Love ya,
Sister Talbot

Baby, it's cold outside!

Katy's email from Wednesday, February 3, 2010

How's it going in AZ? Things are picking up here in VA. When I say picking up I mean literally. We had a snowstorm start Friday night and the snow is still around, but people are actually braving it now. It was a lot of snow actually for this area. Someone told us they haven't had this much since 1997. When this happens the city shuts down pretty much. They've been out of school all week, they cancelled church, and we were apt. bound all weekend. We were in Sat and Sunday and then Monday they said we could go if we felt safe. After being inside for 2 days, we felt safe enough! Haha. Monday was so warm and sunny, so it was a good day to be out. The roads are still covered in a lot of areas, but it's stayed warm enough that there hasn't been too much ice. People have freaked out about the snow, it's been so hilarious. When they hear I'm from AZ, they always are just like "oh this must be a lot of snow for you!" Haha, well not exactly.

So I have this curse I spread to my District Leaders or something. My first DL was emergency transferred out of Hampton and then my 2nd one went home sick. Now I'm on to my 3rd...Elder Frampton (from 1st Ward). Hopefully I don't curse him too. But I am back in my old district now!!! Yay! This is because my last one went home last week, so they combined our districts instead of bringing a new one in. So my first assignment from E. Frampton was to train at a meeting on how we can center our teachings on the Restoration of the gospel. I think it went pretty good, but I have never trained before in that setting.

I cannot believe transfers are already next week. I swear we just had them. I hope I can stay with Sis. Dickson...we think it would be fun to be shotgunned into Hampton. We love going to Hampton! We are teaching the wife of a member. She is from the Philippines and so cute. Here in NN2 we are teaching this woman named Latisha. We meet so many people whose name starts with La, it's hilarious. Latisha is awesome. She wants to find a church and to find the right one. She is really excited about learning and coming to church. She was so bummed they cancelled church last week! We love her! We are also teaching the boyfriend of a less active member. He is eating this up and doing so good. He wants to be baptized, but he said he thinks he might wait a year or so. Ahhhh! No way Jose! They are so cool and um younger than me. I just realized I am going to be 25 this year! Why didn't someone warn me I was getting old!?!

We are having Zone P-Day today. Volleyball and basketball. Too bad the sisters cannot play b-ball though!!! We can't play with the elders, which makes sense...but it's b-ball season! Haha

Love you all like Neely loves snowboarding. Have fun!

Sister Talbot

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!

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!