October 14, 2013  Posted by Travis's Mom

Here is Travis's letter from October 14.  He and his companion are working hard.  Check out what Travis wants to do someday.  It doesn't surprise me at all and I even mentioned to my friend that Travis would love to do this particular thing someday.  Pretty cool! 

I do love and miss my son but I know he is where he is supposed to be, doing what the Lord needs him to do. 

Here's a basic run down of our past week. We met our goal for lessons! We taught 7 this past week! Our bishop and his wife came with us to teach Angelica about The Plan of Salvation. The lesson went well and I think they're going to come to the activity on Saturday.

We're having a big cultural activity with a community open-house-tour of the Church building. We are exhibiting a room about "Meet the Mormons," "The Original Church of Jesus Christ," and portions of "The Plan of Salvation." It should be really neat. We'll be using the library tv's and poster boards, and conference segments and all sorts of good stuff. We're expecting over 500 people this year. There are also rooms exhibiting Jesus Christ in America through The Book of Mormon, and the First Vision as part of the Restoration.

We're basically leading people around the building, clockwise, and then ending up in the chapel. The little Spanish primary kids are going to be singing hymns there, and there will be a short testimony meeting. Then after that people go through the partitions to the gym and the cultural activity.
Here's some miracles that happened this week:

On Wednesday we visited our friend from Brazil that came to General Conference. He sat us down and had a TON of questions about the Gospel and the Church that he had remembered from the notes he took during Conference. He asked about the function of deacons in the church, the Relief Society, our manner of baptism, and many other things! We got through the first question and told him we had better teach him about the Restoration so that all the other questions would either be easier to answer, or answer themselves. Those prepared lessons are so great for that.

He was super amazed by a lot of the things we taught, and he definitely believes in the Restoration! Part way through the lesson, he made a statement that totally blew my mind, and forever changed how I view missionary work. Ready for this? Here's what he said:

"I think my neighbor, back behind me here is a Mormon; I'm not totally sure, but maybe. I just have a question for you about that; she never has talked to me about it. Is she not allowed to talk with me about her beliefs, or something? Is she not supposed to? I mean I guess I don't tell too many people about my beliefs, but I wouldn't mind talking about it sometime with her. Are you allowed to talk about your beliefs to other people?"

Can you believe that? This man has been here for over 15 years. He was waiting LITERALLY waiting to have the Gospel shared with him by a neighbor (who was indeed a member of the Church), and he didn't have the chance, because she never had the thought.

My view of missionary work, by the full-time missionaries or by members (because it's the same work), has totally changed. I HAVE to talk with everyone I see. I wake up in the morning and recite what's known as the Ensign Pledge which in part states, "...I will strive to talk with everyone I see, and to raise the warning voice unto all people..."

I promise that he IS NOT the only one like this! I suppose that if someone asked this good friend of ours if he was absolutely certain that his neighbors were members of the church, he would be obligated to answer in the negative. Apparently, if these neighbors were ever accused of being Mormon, there would not be sufficient evidence to convict them! Mom, that's one of the greatest ways of looking at how we live our faith, and I love that you shared that with me.

Oh, let's see here... Trying to think of other things to tell. Elder Foster is doing super good and we're enjoying ourselves. It's officially cold, and the leaves are all orange and red. It's super great!

Read Helaman 3:27-30 because it's super cool.

 I may have told you, but Elder Johnson of the Seventy is coming to visit this week. As well, an apostle, and a member of the Presidency of the Seventy are coming the end of the month! We'll see how it goes. That should be super special.

I'm glad you like the piano cd :) It was really fun to make. The Firpo family helped us a ton.

We're trying to do more community service. Kirkland does a lot of stuff with that, and they can send out email blasts about events. We try to attend those regularly.

We listen to only hymns and General Conference talks, and I really like listening to the Tabernacle Choir. My dream would be to accompany them on the Conference Center organ some day. We'll see how that goes. The Lord has preserved my musical refinements even though I don't have a ton of time for practice. I get to play for every sacrament meeting, sometimes in primary, and at many missionary functions.

There are tons of people we've invited to church, they're just having trouble getting there. That's where they're going to feel the Spirit and have desires to learn more. I choose to not be discouraged when they don't come, just work harder and bring the Spirit more.

I know that the Church is true and that I have the blessing of telling all people. These are trying times for me, but they are the best for me that I could ask for. I love the scriptures. I love the prophets. I love the truth that anchors me to destiny, as I choose to be true to it. I know that the Lord works in extremely curious ways, and I get to watch that happen, frequently.

I know that Jesus Christ loves us, and I want everybody to feel His love just as surely as the sun shines.  Pray for me, as I pray for you. Love you so much! Love you, So much.

Love,

Elder Talbot