Toss Me!

Hey Family,

                  This week has been awesome. On Monday we played lots of basketball. I am not good at basketball at all and playing against my companion who is like 6' 5" makes me look horrible. On Wednesday we had specialized training in Little Rock. It was about how to gain the trust of the members and how to get your investigators to trust you within the 1st visit or so. The president has also challenged us to memorize scriptures (around 84 I think) that go along with the lessons. I have been trying to memorize as many as I can this week. My goal is to have it all done by the end of April. On Friday we had a dinner appointment with the Lunds. Sister Lund was sick so they gave us some money to go out to eat. We went to this Mexican restaurant and had our meal payed for by another member. On Saturday we used the money to go out to lunch. At 4:00 we had a baptism. YEA!!! The baptism was for this kid named Derek Bruce. It was lots of fun and the next day he got confirmed in church. Sunday morning we went to go and wake up some of our investigators before church. Then we went to church and they still did not show up so they must have gone back to bed or something. It was a bummer but this next week we will go see what happened. Church was very good. The talks were about the youth conference. They went to Nauvoo to see the sites and stuff. It's good to hear that you are all getting cold weather as well. This week started out good but by the end of the week it has been rainy and stormy nonstop.

 

                  A few random side notes. First off, thanks for letting me know where my friends are going on their missions. It is always fun to know where they are going. Second off, I think it will be better if you send my meds every month as you have been. I already have about an extra month supply. Thanks for all the love and support you give me

                                                                                                                              

                          Love Elder Talbert 

At the Fraido's House

Elder Talbert and Elder Jacobsen with the Zone Leaders

Derek's Baptism Day

District Meeting Time

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Hey Family,

                  It's great to hear that you are all doing good. I'm glad to hear that grandma Joanne is doing good. It sounds to me like you had a fun week. I got the newsletter l from bishop this week. I started to read it and I realized I had heard the story already. Then I started laughing because I realized it was about my family. It was a good newsletter and I let my companion read it and he liked it too.

                  My week has been great. This week was transfers. Me and my companion were sure that one of us was getting transferred because I was getting trained and usually after your first 12 weeks you get a new companion. It ended up that because this transfer there were like 14 sisters and 1 elder coming out that all the sisters got moved and not much happened to the elders. I am still in Hot Springs for the time being. On Tuesday the Zone leaders came up and interviewed the kid that is getting baptized this Saturday.  We went on blitzes with them and that was lots of fun (a blitz is when you go on splits with two other elders but you all stay in one area). On Wednesday we were excited that we didn't have to go to transfers because we got to save about 150 miles by not driving to Little Rock. That evening however, we got a text from the AP (Assistants to the President) that said that all Zone leaders and district leaders had a meeting in Little Rock the next day. On Thursday we went to Little Rock and used those 150 miles we thought we didn't have to use. Well during the meeting, me and all the other missionaries whose companions are district leaders sat and talked about how to better help each others investigators. Then that evening we had dinner at Jim Griffin's house. Jim Griffin is a ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctor. He is the one that sold grandpa his first set of hearing aids so it was fun to have dinner with him. Friday and Saturday we biked around almost all day. Hot Springs has lots of hills so riding bikes is an adventure. 

                That's about it for my week. Thanks for the pictures Heather. I think that you now have enough shoes to last you a life time. It is also really cool that Savanna is coming here. I will keep an eye out for her. Thanks for all the support and I will send an email with some pictures in it next week.

                                   -Elder Talbert 

I heard you killed young-lings

Hi Family,

                  This week has been good. It has been a fairly ordinary week. On Tuesday we had zone meeting. They talked about how we need to focus more on the fundamentals of the doctrine. The president told us at the zone meeting that we need to be BOLD in inviting investigators to keep commitments. BOLD is an acronym for "Because Of Love Diligently invite". The zone meeting was very good. Also on Tuesday we had an appointment with this family named the Bruces. The Mom is a member and the Dad is not a member and both the kids are not members. One of the kids named Derek is getting baptized next week (He is nine). That will be pretty exciting. 

                 One of the members in the ward has started playing volleyball every Thursday. This past Thursday we went and played. I learned that I am really bad at volleyball. My companion however is so tall he can just put his hands in the air and block the ball. It was lots of fun and there were a couple of investigators there. This next week we should have more investigators there. On Thursday we had planed our day and the dinner appointment we had lived way out in the middle of no mans land. Well about 2 hours before the dinner appointment the Stevens ( the people we had dinner with) called us and said that the dinner was going to be at some other part members house because their son just got home from Afghanistan. It was supposed to be a surprise thing for him but he showed up earlier than expected. It was still lots of fun though.

                 Church was very good yesterday. However there were not very many people at church. I think it was because of the time change. Then after church we went to the Hot Springs Village for dinner. It was lots of fun and we had gumbo. I don't know if you have ever had it but it's rice with a spicy soupy stuff on it. It is OK. I think it is too spicy.                    

                  The movie quote this past week was G.I. Joe. I will try to make it easier for you guys. Thanks for all you guys do.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Love Elder Talbert

yea go Joe

Hey Family

                    This week has been really good. Nothing exciting or out of the usual has happened though. On Tuesday we had a district meeting. My companion is district leader. He talked about how we need to find more investigators and ways in which we can find people to teach. It was a very good district meeting and he challenged each companionship to find 7 new people this week. 7 doesn't seem like it would be hard to do, but the way the district has been doing, it was a good goal. That evening we went out teaching with a member in the ward named Bro. Devaux. He is a really nice guy but he always tells us that the perfect investigator has 3 qualifications: 1. they have a job, 2. they have a car, and 3. they play the piano. Well we don't have many investigators who qualify for all 3 of those. He took us to dinner, then we went out and saw some people. Then on Thursday we went out teaching with another member named Bro. Siller. We went and visited Mallory and had a great lesson with her. We also went to go see some other less actives. Then he was hungry so he took us to go get food. It was lots of fun. This week we went out on bikes lots during the day. Because we cover such a big area we use all of our miles pretty fast. On Sunday, we had Derek and Sheleta come to church. Also about two weeks ago we went to Malvern to go visit some people and we met this less active couple named the Nutt Family. Well they have been coming to church for the last couple of weeks so that is awesome. Also on Sunday we had an appointment to go see this couple named Ryan and Stephanie. We texted them making sure we were still good to come over and they said that they had moved to Little Rock. We are going to see if the Elders in Little Rock will go and visit them and keep teaching them. Sunday night my companion calls every one in the district and gets their numbers for the week. It turns out that we found the most and we only found 6 new investigators. I guess we will need to work on finding still. 

                       Thanks for the package this week mom. Hopefully you can get the whole 3 month thing worked out. I will send some pictures next week. Thanks for the addresses  Hope you all have a great week 

                                             Love Elder Talbert

it's a bird, it's a plane...

Hey Family,

                     This week has been great. We have been focusing on going out teaching with members and have gone out almost every night with a member. We also have been going though the area book and looking up past investigators and trying to go and visit them. On Monday, it rained all day and some of the rain was freeze rain. That night there was supposed to be a big storm and everyone was telling us to go in because of the storm that was coming. Well we went home and were hanging out when it sounded like the rain had stopped. We looked out side and the sky was clear not a cloud in sight. Well we decided it was safe to go out so we went out and visited some people. It turns out that there was no big storm and I think people here don't know how to deal with storms so they over exaggerate when it comes to storms. On Wednesday, we had a meeting in Little Rock. It was very good. We talked about the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion and the role of church in conversion. Saturday we rode are bikes all day. Towards the end of the bike ride I got a flat tire. Well, we patched up the tire and when we got home the tire was flat again so I went out and bought a new tube. After dinner we took the car and went out finding. We knocked on this one door and this lady answered the door. When she saw us she said hold on let me get my daughter she is from Salt Lake. Well her daughter came to the door and said she had been looking for us. She asked us a few questions like where is the church and said she would like to come. She said she went a lot in Salt Lake and took all the missionary discussions but never got baptized. We have a return appointment with her tomorrow so that should be awesome. Our investigators have problems coming to church. Lots of them work in the morning and if they are not working they sleep in too late because church is at nine thirty. Besides church our investigators are progressing and are fairly good at keeping commitments.

                     

                     It was great to hear that you are all doing good. Hope you all have a great week. 

                                                                                                                                                                    - Elder Talbert