They won't be back for the Sequel

Family,

So that is to bad about the tabernacle, really sad. But funny story with that. We were eating dinner at a restaurant with President Hendricks and he gets a phone call. Well we could tell from the way he was talking that it was something not good. So he hangs up and tells us the news, he had been told that the Provo Temple had burned down! haha so we thought that was terrible news and were stunned. So for about 10 minutes we discussed that and then he got another phone call correcting the mistake from temple to tabernacle. So that was sort of a relief...I guess? But that really is to bad, those pictures look terrible!

This week was good, not much really happened that was all that eventful. Our investigator Sashi is good to go on her baptism! She passed her interview with Pres. this week! So that is awesome! Pres. Hendricks was really impressed with her! Especially when he asked her about Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson and then immediately she started telling him about her testimony of all the prophets and then listed to him all the prophets from Joseph Smith haha we had never taught her all of that but she had done that on her own. She is good, we are excited!

So I ordered new scriptures and they arrived, so that was great, but I had wanted them embossed but they sort of forgot to do it, although the receipt said that they were embossed. Well I didn't think to much of it, it is such a minor thing to really bother making a fuss about. We emailed church distribution anyways just to see if they wanted us to do something, I figured I would just keep them and not worry about it. Well they emailed back this week and said that they are going to send me a second set embossed for free! So now I have two sets of scriptures.....I figure I am just going to give one of them away, I really have no need for two sets, and I am from Utah and have a lot better access to scriptures than most of the members here.

Oh as for Christmas phone calls! haha I nearly forgot about that! I am not really sure what our plans are.....haha this week every single couple has asked Elder Allen and I if we want to come to their house to call our families and eat food..... so we are thinking we will go to a few houses and eat food and eventually call, it depends on how many other missionaries are around. Although my goal (and I think I will be successful) is 11 am Jamaica time (or 9 am Utah time). But if I am not on at 11 check again at 12 (well 10....), I think 12 will be the latest. 11 should be the time for me though, I have 15 computer options, now it is just a matter of being at one that isn't being used. The problem lies in that Elder Allen and I haven't committed to anything with the senior couples so all the other missionaries have, and have times figured out and now we are left to just find a time when no one is busy, but oh well, it will all work out.

It has been a fairly ordinary week. We have been getting all ready for the Christmas party this upcoming Friday, so that should be great fun! I think the missionaries will enjoy it! Yesterday we had Constant Spring's branch party, it was a lot of fun! They had so much food! I was worried that way too many people were going to show up and they wouldn't have enough food, but they planned well. It was nice, although the music could have been turned down a few notches, it was overly loud. I like Christmas music and all but when I have to yell to the person next to me so I can talk to them it is to loud.

I would attach some pictures....but Sister Flake took all my pictures for me this week and I haven't collected them from her camera yet! hopefully I will do that sometime later this week and I will have plenty for next week. Especially since next week I won't really have much to email about since we will have just spoken so I will just send lots of photos.

Last Saturday the branch had a YM/YW activity at the church all day, it was a game day, they played different sports and games and what not. Well we didn't have anything else to do for preparation day so we figured we would go and see if it was any fun. Played chess for 4 hours with Elder Allen and some other guy. It was a lot of fun, then I just played dominoes with the YW leaders and some little 6 year old kid, unfortunately the 6 year old destroyed me. It was good fun though.

Well things are going great, I look forward to talking to you all later this week. I am about out of time here. I hope this next week is great! enjoy the holidays and the cold weather! I love you all!

Elder B. Kent Talbert

I thought of a subject this morning...now I have forgotten it.

Family,

Well I am glad that this week was good. I am also glad that Sis. Herbert sent you those pictures, I have about 300 photos of that and I am glad that I don't have to sort through them and choose which ones to send this week. For the Christmas party each zone is supposed to do a skit, well we were invited to join the Kingston Zone in their skit so we are. They are doing some dance of some sort, Elder Allen and I already plan to stand in the back and mostly follow the dance but at the same time do sort of our own thing.....on a similar note this week the office has been making a video that is awesome! We are hoping to finish it today or Monday...I will mail you a copy of it once it is finished.

Well this week was good. Last Saturday we went to the wedding to play the piano, their were no members there except for us and the less-active man haha. It was a silly wedding, very stereotypical of what you would see on TV, I had a hard time taking it to seriously, Elder Allen and I kept laughing at all the foolishness, I am more thankful than ever before for temple marriages. The whole thing was just silly, I really don't ever want that.

So our scorpion is doing well, he likes to eat lizards we found. So now we try to catch lizards and feed them to him. For Christmas calls we can use skype once again. I don't know what time yet, I will let you know next week, but it will probably be in the morning, like 8 am Utah time or something around there, we will make final arrangements and let you know. It would be nice to know what your skype name is to make searching for it easier. We will be using something like Jamaica.Kingston.Mission or something like that. So that should be fun.

On Wednesday we went to the Kingston Zone meeting and then had a huge waffle Christmas party afterwards! It was great! I ate so many waffles! The Flakes and the Herberts put the whole thing together, so that made for a fun Wednesday! When we went to the meeting Elder Allen and I loaded up our truck with the mail and then after the waffle party we had to leave and we accidently drove away with the mail....haha too bad for Kingston Zone.

Sashi is doing excellent. She came to church on Sunday and seemed to like it, and she is still preparing to be baptized next Saturday! We are excited for that! She is a champion reader and will be a good addition to the branch. Akeilah is also doing excellent! She had all her school exams this week but even in the midst of all of that she still found time to come out and go teaching with the missionaries, she is an all-star!

On Tuesday we went up to Red Hills and did construction with Troys brother Teven. It was fun enough, we were building the foundation for a restaurant he is working on building. We spent most the time digging and then pouring cement. It made for a good afternoon.

Also I got new scriptures this week!!! Wahoo!! It is nice to finally have something to study out of that is mine! Unfortunately they don't have my name on them. I ordered them embossed and the receipt from church distribution says they were embossed with my name...but then it is nowhere to be found on the scriptures...but oh well, so it goes. They are nice! I am happy with them!

hmmm... seems like just a lot of little random things happened, nothing really all that exciting. The 1st presidency Christmas Devotional was excellent! Also during the Devotional we had an Earthquake! Yay! That made it more exciting! Most people didn't notice it at all thanks to how minor it was, but we noticed it and then we looked it up online and sure enough Kingston had been hit by some little earthquake! Pres. Monson's talk was really good, I liked it a lot.

Yesterday we had to do a little mini transfer, so I took a picture as we drove across some narrow bridge. Sort of a boring picture....but oh well haha. Sorry for the low quality, it was taken on my phone.

Thanks for getting that scholarship done mom, I think that is it for school. Overall things are going great here. I am healthy and well. Christmas is nearly here again, temperature is still great! Although it does get a bit nippy in the mornings...we normally wake up to about 22C. Sorry for the dry email this week haha. Well I hope this week is great! Enjoy the holidays! I love you all and look forward to next week!

Love
Elder B. Kent Talbert

Anti Matter Defibulator?

Family,

Great to hear from you all again. I am glad that you got a hold of Todd. I can't really think of anything that I desperately need....ummm......nope, can't think of anything.... although if you are feeling really ambitious Crest Whitening strips would be great for my teeth. Thanks again for getting those contacts mom, I will need those. This week was good, nothing to exciting happened, nothing got stolen this week. :D

Steve the scorpion is doing well, we have now created a nice home for him and he sits in the mission office. We introduced him to Pres. Hendricks, and now most of the mission, he happily sits out in our front lobby now. Some offices have nice aquariums, we have scorpions! I am sort of curious to see how long we can keep him alive. so far so good. He is fairly large, about 2 1/2 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. One of the senior couples had their family visiting and their grandchildren loved Steve! They couldn't stop looking at him and asking me questions about him.

We have this nice investigator named Sashi, she is doing great! She should be baptized sometime before the month is over. She is a star reader and has great desires. So that has been fun to work with her. We have a few other investigators, none really worth mentioning yet. On Tuesday we went over to Sister Williams' house and painted it all up for her! It looks great...I think... We had a good time painting and the color choices were nice, green and orange!

Yesterday evening we were teaching a lesson and I got a phone call from some man I have never met, a Brother Wallace, some less-active member that doesn't ever come to church. Well he decided that he was getting married tomorrow and he had heard that I could play the piano so he called to see if I would be willing to come and play at his wedding haha, so today after we are done emailing and what not we are going to a wedding of someone we have never met, but maybe it will be a good opportunity to reactivate him. Hopefully he doesn't really have anything to intricate planned with the piano playing, I have no clue what songs he intends for me to play.

On Wednesday we had Zone Leader Council. It was excellent! The zone leaders we have these days are superb. Pres. Hendricks gave us a good long lesson on why the shepherds were the ones that the angels appeared to at the birth of Christ. It was really enlightening, a lot more indepth than I would have ever imagined, I always would have just assumed it had something to do with Christ being the good shepherd, but turns out I was wrong. Pres. Hendricks seems to know more about the gospel than any other person I have ever met, it is always so great to just sit down with him and ask him questions or to listen to him teach, it is always enlightening.

Well on Wednesday we went out to a place called Morant Bay with the Yallahs missionaries. It was nice, we had to go to the bank there and then we went to see a member that lived out there. So this member lives in the worst spot I have ever seen. To get to her house you have to walk through the Morant Bay dump...possibly the grossest place I have ever been, just piles and piles of filth, piles that are 20 feet tall! It was disgusting! I feel bad for this member having to walk through the dump every time she wants to go anywhere, and the area itself just smells bad, I couldn't live there, I would rather be homeless living in the city than behind that dump. It was a nice visit though, the member was really friendly, a very humble lady.

hmmm....what else happened this week. Things have been pretty standard. We have been working on transfers as of late, it is sort of odd to be planning out my final transfer, I can't believe how fast it is coming to an end, I am not even really sure that I want it to end. Things are going great here, Elder Allen and I are getting a lot accomplished, he is a pretty cool elder, I really like serving with him (although I am not a huge fan of his driving haha).

Well time is running short at this point. Sorry for no pictures today, I accidently left my camera at home. Anyways, things are going great! I am healthy and well! I am excited to get new scriptures! Hopefully they will be here in the next week or so, I really don't like studying out of random sets that I find here and there. Good luck this week in the cold, I am happy that we aren't having that sort of weather here, we are still at 31 C on average. I love you all and look forward to next week!

Love

Elder B. Kent Talbert