56th B-Day
5 months left...
5 months left...
Howdie y'all!
13 months in the mission yesterday!! 5 left... WOW.
So we all know, I'm in the ghetto. Now there's worse ghetto, but still... poverty, drugs, abuse, alcohol, etc. It doesn't really scare me at all. They're pretty chill here and have never bothered any of us Hermanas. We know where and when they hang out and we try to stay away from those places a night. And even if we pass by (rapidly I might add) you can hear them all saying: "It's the Mormon girls."... We are quite famous really hahaha. Anyway, so this past week we were talking with someone outside of her house and this wicked nice car drives up... spittin clean white, decked out, antenna in the back, tinted windows... I'm thinking: drug dealers. But oh was I wrong. Two guys in their 20s get out of the car, there's a driver still in the car, they walk towards where we are. First I see their guns, then I see their jacked bodies in hoodies and jeans, and then the shinny badge around their necks. I think my eyes were as big as dinner plates and my mouth was catching flies. Looking in the car, there were radios, GPS, leather seats, etc... Talk about Chilean Secret Service or Chilean Bounty Hunters! Everything went smooth. The boyfriend of the lady we are teaching signed something and they left. Super weird.
Object lesson: you've got a mason jar, ping pong balls, marbles, and sand. You gotta fit them all in the jar at the same time without overflowing it. Which do you put in first? The ones that take up the most space and appear to fill the jar...or the quickest ones to dump in that don't appear to take up much space? Winner winner chicken dinner. Pingpong balls in first, then the marbles, then the sand. Yes, the pingpong balls might look like they take up the most space, but in the end the marbles and the sand fill in the spaces in between. That's exactly how it is with the important things in life and our priorities. You put in first the time to read your scriptures, forgive, love, pray, go to church, institute/seminary, have weekly family home evenings with family activities, etc... then after comes the smaller items, equally essential but not the priority. If it's not done this way, it doesn't all fit in the jar... and ends up being overflowed and we become overwhelmed and exhausted. I challenge us all to put into our jars the important things, the eternal priorities we have, then to fill in the spaces with the less important tasks of life. We'll be happier in the end.
We passed a few days when we didn't have heat in our apartment. We use mini electric space heaters, but the breaker to our bedrooms and bathrooms burnt up (ooops). It was quite a challenge for all of us to charge our 3 cellphones and my iPod... and use the blow dryer... and the toaster... and.... at the same time. But we managed. Anyway, point of the story. I was in my glory at night. It was cold in our room. I bundled up in bed and slept like a baby. It was just like having a cold fan on my face at night. Ooohhhhh ya. Hermana Tax, I think, almost froze to death, but I was a lovin' it.... and now we have heat; I almost died last night of dehydration from sweating much.
Mom, I got your card with the photos. I need a bigger wall now. Thanks to the Riggs too for sending a picture. :) But Mom as to the card. You think I'm gonna be sitting out on the porch on the porch swing in the dead of winter??? You be crazy? I'm gonna freeze when I get home. I'm expecting there will be winter boots, snow pants, a ski jacket, thermal underwear, hats, gloves, wool socks, etc. waiting for me at Banger National Airport. :)
Question for the family. Do you all want to come to Chile to see me before I come home? I kinda just wrote it off and said no in my head, but I don't think we ever talked about it being a possibility. Hermana Jennings just went home this past week and her family came down to tour Chile and go home with her. The office here in the mission has a process for the plane tickets (making mine be the same day as you guys) if it's something you all want to do. If not, I'm fine to come back in a few years and we'll do a South American/Chilean tour. Let me know what you all are thinking.
I had a neat experience this last week with Lidia. I don't remember if I told you all about her. I'm almost sure I did. She and her younger son have ADD and he also has Aspergers. (He's the one that I'm teaching English.) Anyway, so we have taken the gospel lessons slowly with them because we were not sure how much was sinking in. Anyway, we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon a while back. The desire to read and pray was there; however, not all that strong. So I decided to read the introduction with her and explain all along of what it was talking about..... and she absolutely LOVED it. She was so enthralled with the intro that she was like 5 inches from her nose touching the book as she read. She was focused and understood everything... miracle. I saw the spirit of our Heavenly Father's love, once again, work through the Book of Mormon. Just this time, the promise of Ether was fulfilled because it helped someone's weakness turn into a strength, even if it was for a moment in time. (Ether 12: 27)
We had a special missionary conference with President Wright on Friday (we thought we were all in trouble lol). It was absolutely wonderful and exactly what I needed. He taught 3 hours about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The conference or rather the Spirit that was present was absolutely astounding. He taught there are 4 different powers in the Atonement that we can access. Redeeming. Cleansing. Strengthening. Enabling. Go read the talk "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" by Elder Bednar in the April 2014 Liahona. It will change your vision and knowledge (as it did mine) of what really is the Atonement of Christ and how we access these powers. This atoning sacrifice is the center of everything. Without it, we're all hopelessly lost. I need to study more on this Atonement which gives us life, hope, goals, love, strength, forgiveness, justice, happiness, joy, eternal families, prophets, revelation..... The list is never ending. How grateful I am for Christ's Atonement and also for President Wright and his thoughtfulness to have a special conference just to talk about this special topic.
Many things happened Friday after the conference, in which I was able to see the hand of the Lord more in the work of salvation. I do not know if it was because I had a renewed desire to preach about my Savior, or my enthusiasm was lifted, or if I was more in tune with the promptings of the Spirit. But anyway... 2 occasions that I can think about... (1) We were talking with a man, Isidor, who just looked like the Grinch. Seriously. The only difference was that he wasn't green. Hermana Tax talked with him for a bit and shared a scripture about prayer. When she finished talking I looked straight at him and asked, "Isidor, are you happy?". I think I almost astounded the pants off of him. He just looked dumb founded and said, "what?". I repeated the question and he responded that he believes happiness in life is only short moments, not a state of being. I testified to him that no matter what we are going through in life, that we can be truly happy... by living the gospel of Jesus Christ and accessing the powers of His Atonement. He argued with me and stated this was not true because his happiness comes in fleeting moments. I testified again that this type of happiness doesn't satisfy and in the end we live a life of sadness (because this moments don't come all that often); however, that there is another which fills the soul and changes our negative attitudes into a life of positivity. It felt wonderful to testify of such happiness to a very saddened man. (2) We met a man, Jaime, a Jehovah's Witness 2 weeks ago. It was a contact of mine as I felt the impression to knock on his door. He's probably about 70 years old and lives with his family. His knowledge of the Bible is outsanding and he is very firm in his beliefs. He expressed dissappointment at the image of Christ which we gave to him as he appears to be a "Gringo", has long, dirty blonde hair, and is wearing a red sash. I explained to him right off that it did not matter what the drawin of Him looked like, but it was what I felt for Him that mattered. He agreed but stated it was obvious we did not know the Bible because we used such an image to portray our Savior. Anyway. We finished his argument and moved on to the next.... There was something special about our conversation outside his gated yard. I know he felt it too because at the end of the contact I asked him if I could offer a prayer to ask for blessings from our Heavenly Father for him and his family. He agreed as long as he could offer a prayer for us after. I agreed. (this is a miracle in itself... Jehovah Witnessess cannot pray with other religions.) We ended the prayers and he invited us to come back the next day (miracle) with his very angry faced daughter (20s) standing behind him trying to convince him to go inside the house. So now for this week... We have been trying to get in contact with him. Each time, his son or daughter came out to meet us. This past week his daughter came to the gate to say he was not there, really that he's not interested in listening to us, and we shouldn't come back. Hermana Tax's face was priceless. Shock filled with an "excuse me?" attitude. I also thought "what chu talkin bout? I dont think so.". LoL. So I told her straight up that we were going to continue to stop by until he told us not to because he invited us to come back. I felt someone else was talking, not me; and my "this is how it is, straight up" response that I had in my head didn't leave my mouth. We left the house on good terms and they actually smiled and said goodnight (miracle). After, Robert Hart (who was with us) said "Hermana Talbot. Congratulations!! When you started to talk, I thought 'oh no, Hermana Talbot doesn't have patience for this... She's gonna be rude and tell them how it is. But you were litterally a saint! The tone of your voice was actually sweet." Hahaha. I told you it wasn't me talking. :)
Fact: I ate Pringles from Canada this week. Weird. =)
I love you all. So much. Thankyou for always emailing me and sending me things through the mail. I know I am loved and have a whole army of support behind me.
13 months in the mission yesterday!! 5 left... WOW.
So we all know, I'm in the ghetto. Now there's worse ghetto, but still... poverty, drugs, abuse, alcohol, etc. It doesn't really scare me at all. They're pretty chill here and have never bothered any of us Hermanas. We know where and when they hang out and we try to stay away from those places a night. And even if we pass by (rapidly I might add) you can hear them all saying: "It's the Mormon girls."... We are quite famous really hahaha. Anyway, so this past week we were talking with someone outside of her house and this wicked nice car drives up... spittin clean white, decked out, antenna in the back, tinted windows... I'm thinking: drug dealers. But oh was I wrong. Two guys in their 20s get out of the car, there's a driver still in the car, they walk towards where we are. First I see their guns, then I see their jacked bodies in hoodies and jeans, and then the shinny badge around their necks. I think my eyes were as big as dinner plates and my mouth was catching flies. Looking in the car, there were radios, GPS, leather seats, etc... Talk about Chilean Secret Service or Chilean Bounty Hunters! Everything went smooth. The boyfriend of the lady we are teaching signed something and they left. Super weird.
Object lesson: you've got a mason jar, ping pong balls, marbles, and sand. You gotta fit them all in the jar at the same time without overflowing it. Which do you put in first? The ones that take up the most space and appear to fill the jar...or the quickest ones to dump in that don't appear to take up much space? Winner winner chicken dinner. Pingpong balls in first, then the marbles, then the sand. Yes, the pingpong balls might look like they take up the most space, but in the end the marbles and the sand fill in the spaces in between. That's exactly how it is with the important things in life and our priorities. You put in first the time to read your scriptures, forgive, love, pray, go to church, institute/seminary, have weekly family home evenings with family activities, etc... then after comes the smaller items, equally essential but not the priority. If it's not done this way, it doesn't all fit in the jar... and ends up being overflowed and we become overwhelmed and exhausted. I challenge us all to put into our jars the important things, the eternal priorities we have, then to fill in the spaces with the less important tasks of life. We'll be happier in the end.
We passed a few days when we didn't have heat in our apartment. We use mini electric space heaters, but the breaker to our bedrooms and bathrooms burnt up (ooops). It was quite a challenge for all of us to charge our 3 cellphones and my iPod... and use the blow dryer... and the toaster... and.... at the same time. But we managed. Anyway, point of the story. I was in my glory at night. It was cold in our room. I bundled up in bed and slept like a baby. It was just like having a cold fan on my face at night. Ooohhhhh ya. Hermana Tax, I think, almost froze to death, but I was a lovin' it.... and now we have heat; I almost died last night of dehydration from sweating much.
Mom, I got your card with the photos. I need a bigger wall now. Thanks to the Riggs too for sending a picture. :) But Mom as to the card. You think I'm gonna be sitting out on the porch on the porch swing in the dead of winter??? You be crazy? I'm gonna freeze when I get home. I'm expecting there will be winter boots, snow pants, a ski jacket, thermal underwear, hats, gloves, wool socks, etc. waiting for me at Banger National Airport. :)
Question for the family. Do you all want to come to Chile to see me before I come home? I kinda just wrote it off and said no in my head, but I don't think we ever talked about it being a possibility. Hermana Jennings just went home this past week and her family came down to tour Chile and go home with her. The office here in the mission has a process for the plane tickets (making mine be the same day as you guys) if it's something you all want to do. If not, I'm fine to come back in a few years and we'll do a South American/Chilean tour. Let me know what you all are thinking.
I had a neat experience this last week with Lidia. I don't remember if I told you all about her. I'm almost sure I did. She and her younger son have ADD and he also has Aspergers. (He's the one that I'm teaching English.) Anyway, so we have taken the gospel lessons slowly with them because we were not sure how much was sinking in. Anyway, we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon a while back. The desire to read and pray was there; however, not all that strong. So I decided to read the introduction with her and explain all along of what it was talking about..... and she absolutely LOVED it. She was so enthralled with the intro that she was like 5 inches from her nose touching the book as she read. She was focused and understood everything... miracle. I saw the spirit of our Heavenly Father's love, once again, work through the Book of Mormon. Just this time, the promise of Ether was fulfilled because it helped someone's weakness turn into a strength, even if it was for a moment in time. (Ether 12: 27)
We had a special missionary conference with President Wright on Friday (we thought we were all in trouble lol). It was absolutely wonderful and exactly what I needed. He taught 3 hours about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The conference or rather the Spirit that was present was absolutely astounding. He taught there are 4 different powers in the Atonement that we can access. Redeeming. Cleansing. Strengthening. Enabling. Go read the talk "The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality" by Elder Bednar in the April 2014 Liahona. It will change your vision and knowledge (as it did mine) of what really is the Atonement of Christ and how we access these powers. This atoning sacrifice is the center of everything. Without it, we're all hopelessly lost. I need to study more on this Atonement which gives us life, hope, goals, love, strength, forgiveness, justice, happiness, joy, eternal families, prophets, revelation..... The list is never ending. How grateful I am for Christ's Atonement and also for President Wright and his thoughtfulness to have a special conference just to talk about this special topic.
Many things happened Friday after the conference, in which I was able to see the hand of the Lord more in the work of salvation. I do not know if it was because I had a renewed desire to preach about my Savior, or my enthusiasm was lifted, or if I was more in tune with the promptings of the Spirit. But anyway... 2 occasions that I can think about... (1) We were talking with a man, Isidor, who just looked like the Grinch. Seriously. The only difference was that he wasn't green. Hermana Tax talked with him for a bit and shared a scripture about prayer. When she finished talking I looked straight at him and asked, "Isidor, are you happy?". I think I almost astounded the pants off of him. He just looked dumb founded and said, "what?". I repeated the question and he responded that he believes happiness in life is only short moments, not a state of being. I testified to him that no matter what we are going through in life, that we can be truly happy... by living the gospel of Jesus Christ and accessing the powers of His Atonement. He argued with me and stated this was not true because his happiness comes in fleeting moments. I testified again that this type of happiness doesn't satisfy and in the end we live a life of sadness (because this moments don't come all that often); however, that there is another which fills the soul and changes our negative attitudes into a life of positivity. It felt wonderful to testify of such happiness to a very saddened man. (2) We met a man, Jaime, a Jehovah's Witness 2 weeks ago. It was a contact of mine as I felt the impression to knock on his door. He's probably about 70 years old and lives with his family. His knowledge of the Bible is outsanding and he is very firm in his beliefs. He expressed dissappointment at the image of Christ which we gave to him as he appears to be a "Gringo", has long, dirty blonde hair, and is wearing a red sash. I explained to him right off that it did not matter what the drawin of Him looked like, but it was what I felt for Him that mattered. He agreed but stated it was obvious we did not know the Bible because we used such an image to portray our Savior. Anyway. We finished his argument and moved on to the next.... There was something special about our conversation outside his gated yard. I know he felt it too because at the end of the contact I asked him if I could offer a prayer to ask for blessings from our Heavenly Father for him and his family. He agreed as long as he could offer a prayer for us after. I agreed. (this is a miracle in itself... Jehovah Witnessess cannot pray with other religions.) We ended the prayers and he invited us to come back the next day (miracle) with his very angry faced daughter (20s) standing behind him trying to convince him to go inside the house. So now for this week... We have been trying to get in contact with him. Each time, his son or daughter came out to meet us. This past week his daughter came to the gate to say he was not there, really that he's not interested in listening to us, and we shouldn't come back. Hermana Tax's face was priceless. Shock filled with an "excuse me?" attitude. I also thought "what chu talkin bout? I dont think so.". LoL. So I told her straight up that we were going to continue to stop by until he told us not to because he invited us to come back. I felt someone else was talking, not me; and my "this is how it is, straight up" response that I had in my head didn't leave my mouth. We left the house on good terms and they actually smiled and said goodnight (miracle). After, Robert Hart (who was with us) said "Hermana Talbot. Congratulations!! When you started to talk, I thought 'oh no, Hermana Talbot doesn't have patience for this... She's gonna be rude and tell them how it is. But you were litterally a saint! The tone of your voice was actually sweet." Hahaha. I told you it wasn't me talking. :)
Fact: I ate Pringles from Canada this week. Weird. =)
I love you all. So much. Thankyou for always emailing me and sending me things through the mail. I know I am loved and have a whole army of support behind me.
LOVE LOVE LOVE =)
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