Family,
Well good to hear from everyone again. This week was certainly different. As you all know Elder Walker was shot and killed last Monday. I won't bother to write up the whole story but I'll at least give you a quick idea of what happened. Last Monday we had a multi-zone preparation day in Spanish Town where we played football. After we were done we all got in the mission bus. we drove to the Spanish Town bus park, we got out and grabbed a next bus to May Pen. The mission bus then worked its way out of Spanish Town where it was caught in a gun fight and Elder Walker was hit and killed. We get back to May Pen and emailed and finish up our preparation day. We had just walked in our door back home when the phone rang and it was a member asking if it was true that Elder Walker had been killed. We told them no, we had just seen him about an hour and a half before and he was just fine. Well about 5 minutes later we got another call from someone else asking the same thing. Well this was odd, so we called the Assistants, and it turns out that it was true! Elder Walker really had died. Well that was crazy news that was horribly unexpected. Elder Walker was a good missionary, about to finish too. He was in the same group as me so we have served our whole missions together. It was pretty shocking.
Today, a week later we had a memorial service for him. The family wanted to do the funeral and since they are not members of the church it meant it was going to be some chaotic pentecostal funeral. Pres. Hendricks had originally intended for the mission to go, but when the family took over the funeral plans we switched and held a memorial service instead. It was really good! Elder Coleman of the 70 was there, and we filled the chapel and most the overflow. The missionaries did one nice special musical number. Overall it was excellent and I think everyone in attendance felt of the spirit there.
So that has been the talk of the week, everywhere we go people ask us about it. If you want a bit more detail on the whole event here is a blog from a senior couple who was there for most of it and wrote up a report thing on it. http://tnsfamily.blogspot.com/ pretty good account. The news paper had a good account too, but I didn't get a hold of a copy of it.
Well other than that nothing exciting has happened that I can recall. My mind has sort of blanked here and I can't think of what else to write. ughh......seems like something happened that is worth typing.....hmmm.... oh so funny thing. Elder Ostrin is still learning to teach well and so often in lessons he doesn't say much and I end up teaching most the lesson, which is fine with me, I like teaching. My favorite part is that if I teach an investigator about The Book of Mormon I can expect that the next investigator we go to and teach about The Book of Mormon I will hear the same thing I taught to the last investigator about The Book of Mormon, only it will be from the mouth of my companion. He often repeats what I said in a lesson in our next lesson. It makes me laugh, not the most effective, but he learning. Every investigator is different and needs to hear different things, but oh well, he is learning. It is fun to hear what I said again though. He is getting there.
We have some nice investigators these days. Jezel is doing awesome. I am not sure how to spell her name, I actually think it is Gisselle. But oh well. She is reading steadily and will make a great member. We have a next boy named Rashane. He is 18 and has an older sister who is a member, that is how we found him. He is doing good; reading a ton and considering baptism. He is a good potential future missionary, if he gets baptized I see him serving a mission in a year or two. Just yesterday we were talking about him serving a mission haha, he wasn't really against the idea at all.
The branch here has not had a piano player for a long time; and it is apparent. They have sung the hymns with no piano for so long that they have sort of made up their own tempos and notes. It is hard to play with them for they don't hold the notes for the right lengths, they either hold it for to long or way to short. It is hard to keep up with them, seems like I am always ahead or behind, and if I try to get them to do it right they don't follow me, they just keep singing whether they are with the piano or not. haha, it is good though.
I am wasting a lot of my email time just staring at the screen, I just keep spacing on what happened this week. Seems like everything just revolved around E. Walker and his death, it is all we have talked about this week and now I can't think of anything else.... hmm....so I was challenged to read D&C 76 everyday this week. So I did. It was really excellent, I really like vs 40-42, very good simple definition of what the gospel is, what the message we go out everyday to share. That Christ has atoned for our sins and there is hope that we might enter into the Kingdom of God.
We ate lunch right before we came over here to email. The food was overly hot and I burned the top of my mouth, sort of annoying.
Well I really can't think of anything else to say. The week was good, I am glad that the E. Walker thing is now closed. He was a good Elder and the mission will miss him. This upcoming week should be good. So I hope things are going well back home. Hope you all have a great week.
Love
Elder B. Kent Talbert
Monday, January 24, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
QWERTY Keyboards Disrupting the Space-Time Continuum Again
Family,
Well somehow I have very little time today, it has been a crazy day thanks to some Zone P-Day that took up way to much of our time and left us with no time to do anything else today, but oh well, so it goes. Sounds like things are going well back home. This week was good, lots of random little things happened, but it was great! On a quick side note you should try to update my blog more rapidly! I have got a few emails lately saying I am slow at updating it haha.
So Zone Conference was this week! That was certainly the highlight! Bussed into Kingston and had our conference at the Constant Spring Chapel. It was great being back in Kingston! I love that city!! Well the conference was excellent, they talked a lot about obedience and a lot about getting investigators to church, it was superb. The best part of it though was that when it was finished we had to wait for Pres. Hendricks, he was supposed to drive us back to May Pen, so we had to wait for an hour and a half and during that time I got to talk to Sis. Flake for a while and get updates on everything going on in Kingston. Sounds like things are going well, Akeilah is still doing awesome!!!!! Well then I got to talk to E. Allen for around 45 minutes, that was great to catch up with him. When I first started serving with him I had my doubts on how much I was really going to like serving with him, but since then he has become one of my all time favorite companions! We had a lot of fun just talking and reminiscing on all the fun we had in Kingston. I am very thankful that I got to serve with Elder Allen, I learned a lot while serving with him.
On Friday my companion and I were waiting on an investigator to show up that we were supposed to teach and there was 2 other guys their also just playing dominoes. So I asked if we could join. It was excellent! I crushed everyone! I won 6/7 rounds, it was a lot of fun. I have found that it is now one of my favorite games these days. So that was good. Our investigator never showed up so in the end it seemed like we just waisted our time...but than again it was not intentional, we thought they were coming, they told us they were coming.
Sunday we had some Caribbean conference thingy broadcast from Salt Lake. It was good. Elder Oaks gave an excellent talk. The intermediate hymn was a struggle. They announced #3 and everyone just assumed that they would display the words on the screen. Well they did...in Spanish. That sort of threw everyone off and by the time everyone found the right page and started singing they didn't think to catch up so we were way behind the music. Pretty much sounded terrible, I gave up and just figured I couldn't really make it any worse so I spent the last 2 verses trying to sing in Spanish.
For some strange reason I have become horribly addicted to rice as of late. I find myself cooking rice for every meal these days. Lunch and dinner have become just seasoned rice, or rice and peas, or rice and beans, or rice and something. It is just so cheap and yet at the same time so delicious.
So back in December, before Christmas, Elder Allen and I and Elder Caplin and Pres. Hendricks went out to eat as a final lunch with E. Caplin as his mission finished. Well while we were eating this lady walked up to us and said hi and said she knew the missionaries and that her mom was a member. Now here in May Pen I have met her again, her mother is a member who we visit often enough. Well we have been teaching her, name is Jezel, she is very interested! She should be baptized here hopefully before I leave, it would be nice to have one final baptism before the mission finishes for me. She is great, a good listener and willing to learn! She is a good reader and understands the gospel really well. She will be one of my better converts from my mission, although I don't think it is physically possible to ever find someone who will ever top Akeilah lol.
Today we had a multi zone pday where we played american football. It was fun enough. I played for the first half but at half time I quit and became the photographer for the rest of the game. I think I would rather be the photographer than run around left and right in the hot sun chasing some ball everywhere it goes. It was good enough. The only thing I don't like about zone preparation days is that it takes so much time, especially if you have to travel an hour by bus to get there.
My companion is doing well enough. He is a good talker, he likes to talk in lessons, which is better than most new missionaries. He is energetic. He is also ultra stereotypical Provo, Utah mormon guy haha, he sort of drives me bonkers when he gets to talking to much about all sorts of foolishness. Nonetheless he is a good elder and will hopefully enjoy his mission.
Lately at meals it has become an unspoken competion between E. Lee and I on who can clean off their plate the best. It all came about because E. Ostirn always leaves so much randomness on his plate, rice everywhere and bits of vegetables and not well cleaned bones, so E. lee and I have been cleaning our plates to perfection. I have never really been a bone eater my whole life, but lately I find myself eating my chicken bones more and more just to have nothing left on my plate so that I don't lose to E. Lee haha, I don't think I will continue the habit after my mission, Anyways, I don't think they cook the bones long enough in the States to really be eatable.
Well that is about it for the week. Missionary work goes on, life is good. I am doing well. I can't believe that their are only 3 weeks left in my mission, almost unbelievable. I have been a missionary for so long that to think that I will be home in 3 weeks seems like it is false. I will certainly miss my mission here, I love this country and I love teaching the gospel. I hope everything goes great back home this week, enjoy work and school. I love you all!
Elder Bradford K. Talbert
Well somehow I have very little time today, it has been a crazy day thanks to some Zone P-Day that took up way to much of our time and left us with no time to do anything else today, but oh well, so it goes. Sounds like things are going well back home. This week was good, lots of random little things happened, but it was great! On a quick side note you should try to update my blog more rapidly! I have got a few emails lately saying I am slow at updating it haha.
So Zone Conference was this week! That was certainly the highlight! Bussed into Kingston and had our conference at the Constant Spring Chapel. It was great being back in Kingston! I love that city!! Well the conference was excellent, they talked a lot about obedience and a lot about getting investigators to church, it was superb. The best part of it though was that when it was finished we had to wait for Pres. Hendricks, he was supposed to drive us back to May Pen, so we had to wait for an hour and a half and during that time I got to talk to Sis. Flake for a while and get updates on everything going on in Kingston. Sounds like things are going well, Akeilah is still doing awesome!!!!! Well then I got to talk to E. Allen for around 45 minutes, that was great to catch up with him. When I first started serving with him I had my doubts on how much I was really going to like serving with him, but since then he has become one of my all time favorite companions! We had a lot of fun just talking and reminiscing on all the fun we had in Kingston. I am very thankful that I got to serve with Elder Allen, I learned a lot while serving with him.
On Friday my companion and I were waiting on an investigator to show up that we were supposed to teach and there was 2 other guys their also just playing dominoes. So I asked if we could join. It was excellent! I crushed everyone! I won 6/7 rounds, it was a lot of fun. I have found that it is now one of my favorite games these days. So that was good. Our investigator never showed up so in the end it seemed like we just waisted our time...but than again it was not intentional, we thought they were coming, they told us they were coming.
Sunday we had some Caribbean conference thingy broadcast from Salt Lake. It was good. Elder Oaks gave an excellent talk. The intermediate hymn was a struggle. They announced #3 and everyone just assumed that they would display the words on the screen. Well they did...in Spanish. That sort of threw everyone off and by the time everyone found the right page and started singing they didn't think to catch up so we were way behind the music. Pretty much sounded terrible, I gave up and just figured I couldn't really make it any worse so I spent the last 2 verses trying to sing in Spanish.
For some strange reason I have become horribly addicted to rice as of late. I find myself cooking rice for every meal these days. Lunch and dinner have become just seasoned rice, or rice and peas, or rice and beans, or rice and something. It is just so cheap and yet at the same time so delicious.
So back in December, before Christmas, Elder Allen and I and Elder Caplin and Pres. Hendricks went out to eat as a final lunch with E. Caplin as his mission finished. Well while we were eating this lady walked up to us and said hi and said she knew the missionaries and that her mom was a member. Now here in May Pen I have met her again, her mother is a member who we visit often enough. Well we have been teaching her, name is Jezel, she is very interested! She should be baptized here hopefully before I leave, it would be nice to have one final baptism before the mission finishes for me. She is great, a good listener and willing to learn! She is a good reader and understands the gospel really well. She will be one of my better converts from my mission, although I don't think it is physically possible to ever find someone who will ever top Akeilah lol.
Today we had a multi zone pday where we played american football. It was fun enough. I played for the first half but at half time I quit and became the photographer for the rest of the game. I think I would rather be the photographer than run around left and right in the hot sun chasing some ball everywhere it goes. It was good enough. The only thing I don't like about zone preparation days is that it takes so much time, especially if you have to travel an hour by bus to get there.
My companion is doing well enough. He is a good talker, he likes to talk in lessons, which is better than most new missionaries. He is energetic. He is also ultra stereotypical Provo, Utah mormon guy haha, he sort of drives me bonkers when he gets to talking to much about all sorts of foolishness. Nonetheless he is a good elder and will hopefully enjoy his mission.
Lately at meals it has become an unspoken competion between E. Lee and I on who can clean off their plate the best. It all came about because E. Ostirn always leaves so much randomness on his plate, rice everywhere and bits of vegetables and not well cleaned bones, so E. lee and I have been cleaning our plates to perfection. I have never really been a bone eater my whole life, but lately I find myself eating my chicken bones more and more just to have nothing left on my plate so that I don't lose to E. Lee haha, I don't think I will continue the habit after my mission, Anyways, I don't think they cook the bones long enough in the States to really be eatable.
Well that is about it for the week. Missionary work goes on, life is good. I am doing well. I can't believe that their are only 3 weeks left in my mission, almost unbelievable. I have been a missionary for so long that to think that I will be home in 3 weeks seems like it is false. I will certainly miss my mission here, I love this country and I love teaching the gospel. I hope everything goes great back home this week, enjoy work and school. I love you all!
Elder Bradford K. Talbert
Friday, January 14, 2011
Yodeling Turtles hewing on Rusty Nails
Family,
Well this week was good. First before I forget dad, are you still having trouble with the printing thing? I don't know how well it works but you might want to try Google Print, it is a service through Google Chrome that might enable you to do what you want there, sort of a way to half network things together. I haven't really messed around with it though, at the office we already had everything pretty much working when I was looking into networking our printers. Anyways, good to hear from everyone, sounds like things are going pretty good back home.
This week nothing to exciting happened, pretty generic. But I will try to at least make this somewhat interesting. We are still on foot, we finally got me a bike and I tuned it up and have it working great, but Elder Ostrin got a bike that keeps breaking on him and so he is constantly fixing it and it is causing a lot of trouble! haha on Saturday we had to walk for an hour and a half to get home, we had ridden way out to this next part of town and the way back is all down hill very easy very nice, but he hit a pothole destroyed his wheel and so we had to walk it.....that was a long walk, sort of a huge waste of time, but oh well. My shoes do not like all this walking, after 2 years of wearing the same pair they are ready to give up the ghost. Today we hope to finally get his bike in working condition, that will speed things up a lot, I am tired of all this walking, it wastes so much time and their is only so much to talk about.
We have some good investigators these days. Been working with this one lady named Gisselle, she is good enough, very interested, her mother is a member and is a huge help. She is probably our best investigator, other than that we have a few others that are reading and doing alright, just need them to do things like come to church! We have spent a lot of time searching for new investigators with little success, hopefully it improves this week, but it hasn't been too bad, we have still got plenty accomplished.
Every night after we plan, Elder Lee (a next missionary in our home, and a native Jamaican) and I play Dominoes until bed time. It has been fun enough, last night we got Elder Ostrin to play with us, I crushed them both! I never quite realized how entertaining that game was until the last few weeks. So that makes for a fun evening every day.
Wow....I am really just baffled at what to say, nothing happened this week that seems really worth mentioning. Studies have been good, I have been working my way through The Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants again, so that has been amusing. I read through 1st Nephi chapter 2 on Tuesday....or perhaps Monday, I don't recall. Anyways, I was reminded of a thought I had had previously when I read it in verse 14 and 15. Verse 15 is the classic "and my father dwelt in a tent" but in verse 14 we read about how Lehi sort of lectures his sons and he confounds them and he has great spiritual power. Well the interesting thing to note is that it doesn't really matter what position we are in in life as long as we are doing what the Lord commands. Lehi is living in a tent out in the middle of nowhere with more or less nothing, and yet he still has great spiritual power. His humble circumstances do not change his position with God.
As I type this email my feet are being eaten by mosquitoes, it is unfortunate, I knew I should have worn jeans today, but oh well, so it goes I guess. We have a tradition in our house here that on Monday we play Book of Mormon Golf, today was great, I dominated! Got nearly every chapter on my first guess, I felt bad for the other team...they lost miserably.
Hmmm...what else to ramble about....E. Ostrin seems to be doing well enough, he is terrified of traffic and is always jumping out the way of vehicles that would not have hit him had he just remained where he was, it makes me laugh. He also has one of the most forgetful memories I have ever seen, haha, it is fun though, it always makes me laugh when he calls someone the wrong name, or walks the wrong way, or any other number of things.
Happy Birthday Dad! I am sorry that I sort of failed at sending a card, I thought about it, and well..... I guess it never really happened....opps, none the less I hope it was great!
So we found another girl who is named Akeilah, she is pretty cool, although not as entertaining to talk to...partially because she is only 3 years old, we have been teaching her mother, but none the less Akeilah is pretty cool, always running in circles and causing mayhem in the lessons. Her mother is good enough, although I am unsure how interested she really is.
At church I got to teach gospel principles, It was on the millennium. Conveniently we had that lesson in Kingston like 4 weeks ago, so I essentially just duplicated that lesson because it was really good. It went over well, I think the class learned something...hopefully. It is a much quieter class than we had in Kingston, not a whole lot of talking, just me monologuing, no one really feels inclined to comment, but there were a few good discussions. It is always so much more difficult to teach when the class just sits their and listens, it is sort of a pain to have to monologue for 45 minutes.
Well I guess that was the week. I am doing well, nothing really all that new. Life is good, this week should be excellent, especially since we will have bikes! I hope this next week is great for everyone! Enjoy school, enjoy work! I love you all!
-Elder B. Kent Talbert
Well this week was good. First before I forget dad, are you still having trouble with the printing thing? I don't know how well it works but you might want to try Google Print, it is a service through Google Chrome that might enable you to do what you want there, sort of a way to half network things together. I haven't really messed around with it though, at the office we already had everything pretty much working when I was looking into networking our printers. Anyways, good to hear from everyone, sounds like things are going pretty good back home.
This week nothing to exciting happened, pretty generic. But I will try to at least make this somewhat interesting. We are still on foot, we finally got me a bike and I tuned it up and have it working great, but Elder Ostrin got a bike that keeps breaking on him and so he is constantly fixing it and it is causing a lot of trouble! haha on Saturday we had to walk for an hour and a half to get home, we had ridden way out to this next part of town and the way back is all down hill very easy very nice, but he hit a pothole destroyed his wheel and so we had to walk it.....that was a long walk, sort of a huge waste of time, but oh well. My shoes do not like all this walking, after 2 years of wearing the same pair they are ready to give up the ghost. Today we hope to finally get his bike in working condition, that will speed things up a lot, I am tired of all this walking, it wastes so much time and their is only so much to talk about.
We have some good investigators these days. Been working with this one lady named Gisselle, she is good enough, very interested, her mother is a member and is a huge help. She is probably our best investigator, other than that we have a few others that are reading and doing alright, just need them to do things like come to church! We have spent a lot of time searching for new investigators with little success, hopefully it improves this week, but it hasn't been too bad, we have still got plenty accomplished.
Every night after we plan, Elder Lee (a next missionary in our home, and a native Jamaican) and I play Dominoes until bed time. It has been fun enough, last night we got Elder Ostrin to play with us, I crushed them both! I never quite realized how entertaining that game was until the last few weeks. So that makes for a fun evening every day.
Wow....I am really just baffled at what to say, nothing happened this week that seems really worth mentioning. Studies have been good, I have been working my way through The Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants again, so that has been amusing. I read through 1st Nephi chapter 2 on Tuesday....or perhaps Monday, I don't recall. Anyways, I was reminded of a thought I had had previously when I read it in verse 14 and 15. Verse 15 is the classic "and my father dwelt in a tent" but in verse 14 we read about how Lehi sort of lectures his sons and he confounds them and he has great spiritual power. Well the interesting thing to note is that it doesn't really matter what position we are in in life as long as we are doing what the Lord commands. Lehi is living in a tent out in the middle of nowhere with more or less nothing, and yet he still has great spiritual power. His humble circumstances do not change his position with God.
As I type this email my feet are being eaten by mosquitoes, it is unfortunate, I knew I should have worn jeans today, but oh well, so it goes I guess. We have a tradition in our house here that on Monday we play Book of Mormon Golf, today was great, I dominated! Got nearly every chapter on my first guess, I felt bad for the other team...they lost miserably.
Hmmm...what else to ramble about....E. Ostrin seems to be doing well enough, he is terrified of traffic and is always jumping out the way of vehicles that would not have hit him had he just remained where he was, it makes me laugh. He also has one of the most forgetful memories I have ever seen, haha, it is fun though, it always makes me laugh when he calls someone the wrong name, or walks the wrong way, or any other number of things.
Happy Birthday Dad! I am sorry that I sort of failed at sending a card, I thought about it, and well..... I guess it never really happened....opps, none the less I hope it was great!
So we found another girl who is named Akeilah, she is pretty cool, although not as entertaining to talk to...partially because she is only 3 years old, we have been teaching her mother, but none the less Akeilah is pretty cool, always running in circles and causing mayhem in the lessons. Her mother is good enough, although I am unsure how interested she really is.
At church I got to teach gospel principles, It was on the millennium. Conveniently we had that lesson in Kingston like 4 weeks ago, so I essentially just duplicated that lesson because it was really good. It went over well, I think the class learned something...hopefully. It is a much quieter class than we had in Kingston, not a whole lot of talking, just me monologuing, no one really feels inclined to comment, but there were a few good discussions. It is always so much more difficult to teach when the class just sits their and listens, it is sort of a pain to have to monologue for 45 minutes.
Well I guess that was the week. I am doing well, nothing really all that new. Life is good, this week should be excellent, especially since we will have bikes! I hope this next week is great for everyone! Enjoy school, enjoy work! I love you all!
-Elder B. Kent Talbert
I am out of new Subject Headings these days.....
Family,
Well this week was good enough. It was fun talking to everyone on Christmas. So I haven't emailed for just over 2 weeks now. So I guess that should mean I have a lot to say!
Christmas day was awesome! After talking to everyone we went back over to the Sheafermeyers home and talked to Pres. Hendricks and some other senior couples for a bit, it was fun. Went home and E. Allen took a nap and I did something....I don't even remember what it was anymore that I did...oh well. At around 3 pm we went over to Akeilah's home and had a ton of fun! Played dominoes and forks (sort of like spoons...only with forks). It was great! I am a fairly terrible dominoes player, sort of just got destroyed over and over. Akeilah is crazy good at dominoes and just annihilated us over and over. Got dinner from her mother also, it was splendid! Great food! It was a lot of fun! Last year Christmas was good, but this one was certainly a whole lot better! I loved it! I certainly would not complain if every Christmas was like this!
Well Sunday church was good. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary, I enjoyed it a lot. Priesthood was as silly as normal, and gospel principles was great! Yesterday at church I was reminded of how much better of a teacher Akeilah is than most teachers, May Pen's gospel principles class could use some help...it was pretty pathetic. Anyways, back to a week ago. Elder and Sister Flake took us teaching with them. It was so much fun! Troy and Akeilah came with us and we all got smashed in the back of the Flakes truck. We went and visited a family in the branch and they performed a little Christmas program for us. It was cute! Over all it was a awesome day! I had a great time, it was a lot of fun to have one last epic journey with Akeilah and Troy.
Well Monday and Tuesday were good, last days in the office, so I finished up everything there and tried to get E. Allen and E. Stone ready for my departure. This is the first time since June 2009 that the office has not had E. Tanner or I in it, I sort of wonder how it will all work out, their were a lot of things that we were the only 2 that really knew how to do it effectively. On Tuesday night we had a farewell dinner at the Flakes home, it was great. Said good bye to Akeilah and Troy. I will miss both of them a ton!!! Troy has been of so much aid to me for the last year and Akeilah has become one of my best friends ever. I am excited to talk to them again though.
Wednesday was transfers. Got up early and went to the mission home to meet with the new missionaries. I was assigned and I am serving with one Elder Ostrin from California. He is cool enough, definitely a new missionary. He is pretty opinionated on how missionary work should be done, it makes me laugh, a lot of his opinions are definitely not from experience. He is very energetic about the work though, so that is good, he is a hard worker.
May Pen branch is nice. We don't have a car, or a bike, so we walk everywhere. It is fairly less-effective, but hopefully I get a bike soon. On Friday for new years we weren't allowed to go out teaching after 6 so we just got to do nothing. I played dominoes with some members for a few hours and then just went home and went to bed. It was fun, I am starting to see the strategy in dominoes, although I still sort of fail at it haha. My goal is to at least get good enough to give Akeilah a run for her money and not get destroyed so easily.
Nothing too eventful at the end of the week, just out finding lots of new people to teach, we didn't really have an investigator pool when we got here so we have got to do lots of finding. It is good though. The work goes on well enough. Sunday was good, the branch has no piano player so once again I was left to play. The piano in this branch is pretty worn out, has a strange hum to it and the keys are hard to push, you have to push hard on the keys to get them to make a noise, makes for a lot of errors and really loud playing. It is good though, I am glad that I get to play still.
Pres. Hendricks came and joined us at church, he gave an excellent lesson in Priesthood/Reliefsociety on murder, and also on The Law of Chastity. It was interesting, I learned a lot from it and I think the rest of the branch did too. Seems like everyone liked it.
Now that I am in May Pen I am stuck using internet cafe computers again....wow, I despise these things. Seems like the keyboard always has problems, I am constantly having to go back and edit typos that came about from sticky and broken keys. The internet runs pretty slow on the one that I am using, sort of annoying. haha oh well, only 5 more preparation days and then I am free of internet cafes and their less-effectiveness.
Our house has 4 missionaries in it, Elder Lee, Kraus, and Ostrin (plus myself). Elder Lee and I go home the same time, so that is cool. E. Kraus is really into Physics so that is fun, we have had some good discussions. We also have a keyboard at our house so at nights I get time to practice the keyboard a bit, nothing like a piano with those flimsy plastic keys, but it is better than nothing.
Well overall things are going good. I definitely miss Kingston! Especially Akeilah, I hope she is doing well. Here are two pictures that I have. Unfortunately you probably won't get any more photos for the rest of my mission. I sort of donated my card reader to the office and now I have no way to use my memory card. The photos I am sending today are on a CD that I had made in the office. The first is at the church on Sunday the 26th, Troy and Akeilah, sort of a cheesy grin on my part.
The Second really needs to be cropped, but it is of us with the Flakes by some Chrstimas lights. good enough.
Well that is about it for the week. I hope this next week is great for everyone. Have a great new year! I love you all and look forward to next Monday!
Oh yea, one more thing, my scriptures arrived! So now I have scriptures again, they got here Wednesday, so that is great!
Love
Elder B. Kent Talbert
Well this week was good enough. It was fun talking to everyone on Christmas. So I haven't emailed for just over 2 weeks now. So I guess that should mean I have a lot to say!
Christmas day was awesome! After talking to everyone we went back over to the Sheafermeyers home and talked to Pres. Hendricks and some other senior couples for a bit, it was fun. Went home and E. Allen took a nap and I did something....I don't even remember what it was anymore that I did...oh well. At around 3 pm we went over to Akeilah's home and had a ton of fun! Played dominoes and forks (sort of like spoons...only with forks). It was great! I am a fairly terrible dominoes player, sort of just got destroyed over and over. Akeilah is crazy good at dominoes and just annihilated us over and over. Got dinner from her mother also, it was splendid! Great food! It was a lot of fun! Last year Christmas was good, but this one was certainly a whole lot better! I loved it! I certainly would not complain if every Christmas was like this!
Well Sunday church was good. Nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary, I enjoyed it a lot. Priesthood was as silly as normal, and gospel principles was great! Yesterday at church I was reminded of how much better of a teacher Akeilah is than most teachers, May Pen's gospel principles class could use some help...it was pretty pathetic. Anyways, back to a week ago. Elder and Sister Flake took us teaching with them. It was so much fun! Troy and Akeilah came with us and we all got smashed in the back of the Flakes truck. We went and visited a family in the branch and they performed a little Christmas program for us. It was cute! Over all it was a awesome day! I had a great time, it was a lot of fun to have one last epic journey with Akeilah and Troy.
Well Monday and Tuesday were good, last days in the office, so I finished up everything there and tried to get E. Allen and E. Stone ready for my departure. This is the first time since June 2009 that the office has not had E. Tanner or I in it, I sort of wonder how it will all work out, their were a lot of things that we were the only 2 that really knew how to do it effectively. On Tuesday night we had a farewell dinner at the Flakes home, it was great. Said good bye to Akeilah and Troy. I will miss both of them a ton!!! Troy has been of so much aid to me for the last year and Akeilah has become one of my best friends ever. I am excited to talk to them again though.
Wednesday was transfers. Got up early and went to the mission home to meet with the new missionaries. I was assigned and I am serving with one Elder Ostrin from California. He is cool enough, definitely a new missionary. He is pretty opinionated on how missionary work should be done, it makes me laugh, a lot of his opinions are definitely not from experience. He is very energetic about the work though, so that is good, he is a hard worker.
May Pen branch is nice. We don't have a car, or a bike, so we walk everywhere. It is fairly less-effective, but hopefully I get a bike soon. On Friday for new years we weren't allowed to go out teaching after 6 so we just got to do nothing. I played dominoes with some members for a few hours and then just went home and went to bed. It was fun, I am starting to see the strategy in dominoes, although I still sort of fail at it haha. My goal is to at least get good enough to give Akeilah a run for her money and not get destroyed so easily.
Nothing too eventful at the end of the week, just out finding lots of new people to teach, we didn't really have an investigator pool when we got here so we have got to do lots of finding. It is good though. The work goes on well enough. Sunday was good, the branch has no piano player so once again I was left to play. The piano in this branch is pretty worn out, has a strange hum to it and the keys are hard to push, you have to push hard on the keys to get them to make a noise, makes for a lot of errors and really loud playing. It is good though, I am glad that I get to play still.
Pres. Hendricks came and joined us at church, he gave an excellent lesson in Priesthood/Reliefsociety on murder, and also on The Law of Chastity. It was interesting, I learned a lot from it and I think the rest of the branch did too. Seems like everyone liked it.
Now that I am in May Pen I am stuck using internet cafe computers again....wow, I despise these things. Seems like the keyboard always has problems, I am constantly having to go back and edit typos that came about from sticky and broken keys. The internet runs pretty slow on the one that I am using, sort of annoying. haha oh well, only 5 more preparation days and then I am free of internet cafes and their less-effectiveness.
Our house has 4 missionaries in it, Elder Lee, Kraus, and Ostrin (plus myself). Elder Lee and I go home the same time, so that is cool. E. Kraus is really into Physics so that is fun, we have had some good discussions. We also have a keyboard at our house so at nights I get time to practice the keyboard a bit, nothing like a piano with those flimsy plastic keys, but it is better than nothing.
Well overall things are going good. I definitely miss Kingston! Especially Akeilah, I hope she is doing well. Here are two pictures that I have. Unfortunately you probably won't get any more photos for the rest of my mission. I sort of donated my card reader to the office and now I have no way to use my memory card. The photos I am sending today are on a CD that I had made in the office. The first is at the church on Sunday the 26th, Troy and Akeilah, sort of a cheesy grin on my part.
The Second really needs to be cropped, but it is of us with the Flakes by some Chrstimas lights. good enough.
Well that is about it for the week. I hope this next week is great for everyone. Have a great new year! I love you all and look forward to next Monday!
Oh yea, one more thing, my scriptures arrived! So now I have scriptures again, they got here Wednesday, so that is great!
Love
Elder B. Kent Talbert
Monday, December 20, 2010
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.
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!
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
Monday, December 13, 2010
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!
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
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
Sunday, December 5, 2010
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
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