Elder Dallin Talbot's Mission Fresno California 2015-2017

This week has been great.  We had transfers last week so my new companion is Elder Belmont, he is so much fun to work with and has a great desire to help serve and love people.  Not too much has happened this week, but Brooke, Jr, and Katie and their kids all came to church and it was wonderful to see them.  Brooke and Jr have real intent and so we are hoping that by the end of March they will have allowed the gospel to change them so that they will be prepared for baptism.  Have a great week. That is the big struggle is trying to have enough contact with Brooke, her date is the 26th, but at our last 2 teaching appointments, our ward mission leader took over and we were not able to share really anything from the plan of salvation or to follow up on what she remembers from the Restoration.  She is in San Jose for like half the week so we are trying to see when we can call or text her during the week and if we can try and get 2 appointments instead of 1 a week....

They would probably say that I get off topic at times, but that I am great at planning and trying to get the most out of every day, I would also think obedient because my current companion gets annoyed with how much I talk about the rules.  I would also say that I tend to follow instead of lead and I am trying to break that so much.  I have had 3-4 interviews and it amazes me that whatever my concerns or questions might be, the Spirit guides him to the answers I need.  I feel the great love that he has for me and that he wants whats best.  I have never thought much about being a district leader but being a trainer would be interesting because I feel its every few weeks I find out about rules I have never heard about, and so I feel I would overload people with information.  I would tell my brothers to start thinking about the Spirit more often, I felt I rarely did that before my mission, but that is everything here, so I wished I had been studying the Spirit more...

Brook is doing great, she came to church, we committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and next Saturday we are going to teach her the Plan of Salvation and commit her to be baptized.  She seems to be prepared to hear the gospel at this time and hopefully she will be able to attend the baptism of Daniell next Saturday!!  JR is great in everything but not coming to church, which is a problem.  He says he will come once he gets his teeth in 2 weeks, so we will have to see as time goes on.  Katie is moving to Viselia soon, she is doing great, the only thing holding her back is she is living with her boyfriend, the problem is they a 6 year old daughter and she can't afford to live by herself, so they need to get married.  Angela, for whatever reason we have not seen her in too long, but we saw her last week and are going to call today to set an appointment so we can bring a member and teach her the Plan of Salvation in her home.  Robert told us...

This week we found Brook and Christian, Christian lives outside our area so we handed him off, but Brook is a single mom of 3 and is dating a member Taylor and wants to know more about what we believe. I just decided to ask another missionary and he let me use his card thing and it worked.  I was able to pay off the credit card and will avoid using that in the future.  Biking is great, we get to talk to people, I have not crashed yet, and I always lock it.  I don't really have any idea how far I bike a week.   That sounds like an awesome week.

That sounds like so much fun.  This week it has been hard to see our investigators, JR, Katie, and Angela because they have been sick and busy, so we have found other ways to stay busy by just talking with everyone, and going through the ward directory getting to know everyone, mainly the people we don't see at church.  Because of that we were able to meet the Hakker family.  The father is not a member, but the mom and son are, the son was baptized about a year and half ago so the family was coming to church at sometime.  We set up a return appointment so that we can better get to know them, teach to their needs, bring a member to fellowship and invite them to church, see if the father is interested in being taught again, and if they know anyone who is going through a hard time or wants to hear our message.  It was super awesome because Elder Rust says he has been knocking that door for the past 6 months and not once has it opened, so we never know whats going t...