Reminiscing Parral

 Hey everybody hope its been a great week!

I got a new companion. His name is Elder Green and he's from eastern Kentucky.

We have had some great lessons with the members this week. This 18 year old young lady is preparing for her mission in Brazil and so we taught and grilled her about the Plan of Salvation. Anyways so the parents told us they have lived in their same house for the past 17 years, and not once have they tried to share the gospel with their neighbors. They told us that they have felt inspired to start being bold and direct about inviting their neighbors. So we were excited to see how that goes for them! They told is that their approach is to ask "How has Covid been for you and your family? What has brought you peace and joy during this time?" And then share that, "For us it's been through having a living prophet of God who guides us" Then just simply asking "Would you be interested in hearing a message of hope and peace?"

I thought that this was an excellent way to tie the modern day circumstances of the pandemic, to an invitation to learn more about our church and the joys of the gospel. Afterwards, I asked myself, "Why doesn't every member make efforts to ask these kinds of questions to their neighbors? So you already know that, that is one of the challenges for this week

We had some other great lessons and invited families to read in Luke 22:42-44, which is the suffering that Jesus Christ Experienced in Gethsemane, before they partake of the sacrament each week. Doing so will allow you to put yourself in the right mindset leading up to partaking of the sacrament, and I can promise that your church experience will become more meaningful.

This week, I called a non member named James Garcia and started talking to him. He started asking me where I was originally called and so I told him in Mexico. He asked me which part since he had grown up in Mexico, and so I told him Chihuahua. Then, the very next question that he asked me was if I knew where Parral was?! So I told him uhhh yea I know where Parral was...as that was the only place I ever served when I was in Mexico. So then he went on and told me that he knows Parral very well, and I even told him exactly where I was living, and he knew! So we had a great time talking and he actually is just recovering from surgery, but in a few weeks we are planning on going to visit him and get to know him better. So that was honestly just a miracle and I am excited to see what comes out of it!

As you all may be aware, there are 6 YA devotionals coming up in the next month or so from the general authorities. So I hope you all get the chance to watch some of those. Another invitation that we have been making to the members is to start thinking of people that would be receptive to come to your house, and watch part of this upcoming April 2021 General Conference Session. As you start thinking of people now, you will be prepared to extend an invitation to those that are willing to listen to some amazing and uplifting spiritual messages.

Our main focus this entire time has been finding, that is the real trick these days. We have been calling and setting up our own member lessons with everyone in the ward councils and have found that to be significantly more helpful, in contrast to just having our ward mission leaders set up lessons with other members. We have obtained information regarding how we can best help in the efforts to find, help, and teach the part member families, unbaptized kids, and the less active families. We have been working with the members and encouraging them to get back into contact with these people. So at the moment, we have so many potential people right now that we are trying to transition to actually start teaching.

We had a lesson with the Ma family. Tony Ma is a recent convert and his wife is Budhist. He has 2 kids Albert Ma(11) and Anthony Ma(5). We have been working with Tony to prepare to bless the sacrament. As well as, preparing him to baptize his son Albert on March 20! We are excited and will make sure Albert will be ready to make his first covenant with God as he prepares himself for his baptism. Thats it for me today. Anyways, there was 3 invitations for you all this week, I hope that you choose to accept at least one of them haha. Have a fantastic week!

Elder Talbot

Connecting the Pieces

 This is the last day before transfers, so tomorrow I will be receiving a new companion, and I will be staying here in Sandy. This week we had two great service opportunities! One we got to smash cabinets and pull out wooden flooring. The other one was a zone service project which involved helping a non member move all of the furniture and all their belongings from their truck, into their house and storage. We also had some great lessons with some members and recent converts this week.

We also got new bikes because the other one's broke. I am on my 3rd bike now, so we'll see how long it takes until this one breaks haha. We have lots of member lessons and over the weeks, we have tried a variety of commitments with them. But what we have found to be the best recently is to do the following - Pick someone in your life that maybe you haven't reached out to in a long time, or maybe is going through a hard time. And then, PLAN to do something FUN with them! As we reignite our friendships with old friends, it strengthens relationships and eventually will unlock access to deeper and more meaningful conversations with them. If we as members, would be more intentional in seeking out more non member friends, there would be so many more opportunities to share the restored gospel. And there really isn't a better way of developing/strengthening a new friendship than by doing something fun together! We have been sharing this video and relating it to that invitation.

So, here is this week's short video to watch. It comes from the conference talk from Neil A Anderson

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2017-01-0007-a-witness-of-god?lang=eng

How are you doing your part to connect the pieces for your part of the puzzle, leading into the second coming of Jesus Christ?

Until next week, Elder Talbot

I’m in Bikini Bottom I’m In Sandy

 That title is for Dayton

So as I said last week, we are now covering the whole stake and so we have been busy with member lessons. We had 7 lessons one day, all in a row, back-to-back starting at 5 going until 8:30. This one guy we taught, told us a very very interesting story. He explained that 25 years ago, he invited some non-member kids to a basketball game. The non-members kids started cussing and made him upset. He tried to get them to stop, but they didn't. Eventually, he couldn't take it anymore and he forcefully made them stop. The kids' fathers found out about it and he says that 25 years later, the dad still holds him to it and refuses to forgive him. He then says, why did I tell you guys this story? I don't know it's for you guys to find out?" So we were like "Okaaaay" Then before we go he quickly brings out a book about Kirtland and says Jesus Christ visited Kirtland 60 times to normal people. That he is real, and he then tells us and says "I want you to Covenant to me and to God right now that you will not fall away" and so we were like "yeaaa we won't" and then he says "you will probably never see me again". I'm thinking yea I am pretty sure I will see you again, saying that I JUST got here. I guess he was just trying to make it dramatic, as we saw him the following Sunday haha. Anyways, that was a really funny and  interesting experience my companion and I got a real kick out of afterwards. We hardly have any time to do other things because we have so many lessons covering the whole stake  

We met with this member who is obsessed with trains and train sets.  I'm glad my dad only has a little one, cuz this old man's set was INSANE.

We had the opportunity to give service to this old fellow. We moved 6 cabinets from his basements - up the stairs  and outside onto his truck. We told him we only had 20 minutes as that's what the rule is, but we finished and it took an hour. We also had 2 member lessons about the Book of Mormon and we showed a powerful video. I'll be sharing it at the end of the email and I encourage all to watch it. Don't worry, It's only 5 minutes long

We had an amazing lesson with the Boshards! Their kid RJ, didn't join us and stayed upstairs and so we could actually hear what they were saying because there wasn't a kid screaming the whole time! But yea, the parents have been extremely concerned for their child RJ. At our lesson, Angie Boshard told us that one of her friends saw that she was sad at work and so she took her to the chapel to talk about it. They went and they opened up the book of mormon and they opened up to the part where Jesus administers to the children, and when the angels come down and do the same. She said that was exactly what she needed to read and she just started crying. She told us she felt like that was God helping her and she felt so much better and that a huge weight was taken off of her shoulders. She was engaged in the lesson and told us that she wants us to send her Book of mormon messages every day. It's crazy how one spiritual experience can cause such a great impact in one's life! She has seen a glimpse of the power that the Book of mormon can play in her life.

We also had a lesson with Tony Ma who was recently baptized a month ago and his kid Albert who hasn't been baptized yet. That was the first lesson with him AND his kid, so we are hopeful we can get him taught and baptized, just like his DAD!

We had a mission tour from one of the authorities of the seventy. He spoke how president Nelson told Elder Suarez that Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that he wanted him to be an apostle! Elder Suarez said he wasn't talented but he would give his best efforts every day. It was neat to visualize the Savior appearing to president Nelson and telling him that! He related this to how we as missionaries may not be extremely talented, but like Elder Soares, we should be committed to giving our best efforts EVERY day until we are released as a full time missionary. We all should give our best efforts in all that we do, every day.

We had a great sabbath. We went to 2 sacrament meetings and afterwards we had a nice lesson with a huge family who had a bunch of kids and grandkids in this really nice neighborhood.

Here is the video so that you can all watch it

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

Have a great week!

Pictures

-German guy that loves trains. He should be the conductor

-Service we did helping the old folks move their cabinets

-All my Eggs

-My NOW, broken suitcase that my mom found on the side of the road- the wheel somehow managed to fall off, as it was being stored on the ground...

-The 2 owners dogs

-Cool views of the sunset and mountains here

-And a big house in the rich neighborhood