Here is Elder Talbot's letter he wrote on July 15. 

 

Dearest Family!!

Hello! We found five new investigators this last week! Two of them are living with less-active English members, and this is a great opportunity to help the whole bunch of them! We found them, and they came to institute class the same day! We taught prayer, using a self analysis sheet included in Preach My Gospel. They learned a lot and will be using that to improve their prayers.

I'll be going on an exchange sometime this week to go and teach a pastor from another church who I found last week. He's the age for the YSA ward, so I'm bringing two other Elders from that ward with me. He knows a great deal, but he needs so much more. At the doorstep he offered to make dinner for us and have us over, so we for sure took that up!

I spoke in church on Sunday about deepening our understanding of covenants. I gave focus to our covenant to always remember Jesus Christ (and would you believe that the 4 other missionaries independently prepared to focus on the same thing). I also taught about the other covenants we make in this life, and what their purposes are. There are members and investigators at every level in our ward, and I believe they were all helped to some extent.

A younger guy and his wife who aren't members are attending the ward, and want to meet with us! He is from Brazil, and she is American. His English is better than his Spanish, so we might teach him that way, but I certainly will practice some Portuguese. I highly believe they will be baptized. They come every Sunday on their own! We will be visiting them on Saturday.

We had interviews with our Mission President this last Friday. Elder Kimber and Elder Lutes and I were there for about 5 hours because as the Zone Leaders we had things to give to all the missionaries and sort of coordinated things for President and his wife. They are SO GREAT!!! He is hilarious and can kill you with one finger (not even joking a little bit; he was a body guard for the South Korean President for years). She is super sweet and brings a special spirit to the mission. I got to meet with each of them and talk about the zone and myself, and all sorts of stuff.

I received a special assignment from President Choi to investigate genealogy work and family history plans in the wards of our stake. I'll be working with our ward leadership and making plans for our ward, and then working with the stake president and seeing what plans and instructions work best. This needs to be taken much more seriously as part of the work of salvation. Ideally it should be as common as mutual nights, and as staple as family home evening. I already feel the help and guidance from Heavenly Father, and a peaking anxiety from the multitude of the deceased. I figure that the teaching of the doctrines of salvation, paired with good, interactive instruction, will make this work best in our stake.

I bet you're still on the plane at the moment! See, distance is covered so quickly today, I'm not all that far away. I'll be home soon enough and this mission will be over, that's why I have to use time with wisdom now. Please share everything you can, without fear, to the members of our extended family. The Spirit will attend because it HAS to by obligation. Do things with love, and the apostolic promise is that they will not be offended. "Members are ideally situated" for inviting others to come unto Christ.

Thank you SO MUCH for the birthday packages!! I really like the ties, and I'm wearing the purple one right now. The yellow one matches perfectly with my Murano suit, good choice there! Ryan, I really enjoyed your letter about everything that you're doing! Sounds like a lot of fun. Great work on inviting your friends and doing missionary work! Keep it up and reach your goals! :) And yes, the papaya spears, good stuff. I mentioned to my companions that the reason it's health food is that all the calories it's worth are burned in chewing it!!! I like 'em :P

Thanks so much to EVERYBODY for making an awesome birthday for me!! Dr. Narwid sent me a nice letter with some issues of Astronomy magazine, actually. Pretty sweet! Adelynn sent girl-scout cookies and a nice card and a note pad with awesome missionary doodles on it :) SWEET stuff!! It was great. And the surprise party was fantastic!! The cake was amazing, and the Firpo family and the Santesteban family took super good care of me. I also ate the hottest chili of my life that same night, and I'm doing it again tonight. I'll be taking video to send next week. It's unbelievable. Your head hairs tingle when you eat these things. Anyhow. That's what's going on lately...
 
Mom and Dad. Thank you for preparing me for missionary service. Every day there's something that comes into play that I'm prepared for because you could see where I couldn't. You scanned the horizon, and I'm being benefited again and again. Thank you for that :) I love you very much and hope you have a good time!

Love,

Elder Talbot