Oct 27, 2012  Week 12

Hello family and friends!

Alright. So I’m going to try to lay out the day-to-day and paint a picture here for ya. Missionary life:

Every morning, we get up at either 6 or 6:30 and exercise at a fitness center in another Elder's apartment complex. It's dark and cold in the mornings, and always wet. Usually when we go outside it's foggy and the street lights and the lights on the radio towers are all misty and crystally lookin and stuff, and you can ALWAYS see your breath because the dew point's all weirded out and what not. You can constantly hear airplanes flying over, and the main take-off flight path for shipping planes, like 777's and 757's goes right over our apartment.
 
You can never see the planes because they're always stuck in the clouds, which are usually between 0 and 300 feet above your head. This morning is sunny and windy for some reason, and those low clouds are literally racing above our heads. It's like watching cars go by on a freeway in the sky. REALLY fast winds today. All the leaves are changing and falling, and the tree line’s golden up, and then blow away.  The leaves fall and stick on the cars, and stick to your shoes because they're constantly wet. We use our dryer ALL the time for towels after we shower and to warm our clothes in the mornings... hah.

The Hispanics' apartments and homes are always really warm, so when we knock on doors we're flooded by the smell of food and coffee or smoke or both, or neither, and then sometimes they let us in. These people are wonderfully awesome. They are very accepting and it's hard for them to tell you they don't want to talk with you, and yet once you say you share about God and Jesus Christ, they actually are quite interested most of the time. Those who are genuinely interested are EXTEMELY hospitable and always offer food and most of all, their time to listen to you. They work SO much and it's hard to find time to teach them, and it's hard for them to come to church most of the time.

We are teaching a woman right now who wants to be baptized so bad but her boss won't allow her to take Sunday's off until December. We are doing everything we can to set her up with members for other employment, and if we feel that it's right, and if the Spirit prompts, it would not be beyond asking her to quit her job in order to obey a commandment of God. THAT's what so hard sometimes. That might sound a bit extreme to some, doesn't it? To have to quit the only job you have to support a family? Think about it again. We are being asked to live the laws of God so that we can live in celestial glory with Him after this life. ANYTHING and EVERYTHING must be scarified for that, and yet all too often our message just isn't understood for what it is.

There have been a number of circumstance where I wanted so bad to tell the person at the door exactly how it is. "mmmm yea not really interested," they might say, as they close they door. I frequently want to respond something like this. "Please let me tell you one thing, and if you can refuse us after that, then so be it. But I have to tell you this: This is the most important conversation you will ever have in your entire life, and you need to take a second to think about that, and we can tell you why."

And yet......... the moment has not yet come to speak in that manner. It's not always my job. Our responsibility is to always have the Spirit around us and in us, so that when we talk to them, there's something they feel that keeps the door open. And there are SO many doors. Elder Kimber and I have chosen to contact every old record that we have for all of the areas we serve in. Because we're Spanish speaking, we cover not only our area, but SIX others. We went through and came up with over 300 names. We're contacting ALL of them. We anticipated that from those we could teach 60 lessons. From those we would extend 60 commitments. From those commitments we estimated approximately 20 would be willing to set a date to be baptized. Of those we imaged about 6-8 would with time. And THAT is what we're working on here. The salvation of EVERY soul. This is a mountain to be moved, and it's not going to get done without some serious faith. As our faith grows we will discover that those are terrible numbers. Every commitment can be filled with enough faith.

So that's the day to day. Working with all of these people and finding out what exactly they need to hear and feel. We knock doors, climb stairs, drive tree lined boulevards (past some VERY nice golf courses I might add, dad :) And apparently there was a tsunami warning for our coastline a few days ago...??? Tell me what's up there because we were on minor alert or something. Yup. Contacting people, teaching lessons, drying our clothes and trying not to ruin my suits, and then planning and collapsing in bed. Repeat.

I think I told you that the branch we had fasted for is going to be formed! It's starting on the 18th of next month. We are looking forward to working with the members there for getting the missionary work done. I am asking you SO sincerely to give every possible referral you can to the local missionaries. If you know as little as a name and residence, give it to them. ANYTHING helps. It's not effective to knock doors, and the number of missionaries is far greater than those wearing badges. So. That’s my advice. The Elders will love you.

Uhm... I can't think of too much more. I didn't get the package yet, but it's probably at the mission home. The zone leaders will get it to me tomorrow probably. I voted!! That all went well. I hope everything is going well at home. Love you guys so much!

Sincerely!

Elder Talbot