Cleyde desires baptism

Dear family,

We didn't take very many pictures this week, as we hardly were able to get out of the office.  The Elders from the office were in zone conferences, so Margaret and I held down the office ourselves.  Being confined to the office does not give much opportunity to take very many pictures.

We did meet with Cleyde Colome on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  She leaves on Tuesday night to go back to Ovalle, Chile to School.  It has been an interesting experience getting to meet Cleyde.  We have met with another investigator for some time.  His daughter was having a birthday party, so we were invited to go.  We usually like to go to things like that because it gives a chance to meet a lot of different people who may be interested in hearing the Gospel message.  While at the birthday party for Gabriela, Margaret met Ideide, who invited us to go to her home.  We had a home evening with she and her husband Wilson just before Christmas and had a good time with them.  We were thinking they were going to progress in receiving the Gospel.  As we met with Ideide one time, her sister Cleyde was there, but went into the Kitchen.  I got up and went in and told her that she would be welcome to come in and listen if she would like.  She then joined us and became interested in the message, and now is prepared and wants to be baptized.  In the meantime, her sister Ideide has indicated that she wants to remain Catholic.  She declined to listen to the messages we were giving to her sister who was temporarily living in their home. Ideide is a lovely person and I think we can still work with her, but have now concentrated on Cleyde, since she has been so receptive.We will hate to see Cleyde leave, as she has studied about the church and has received a testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon.  It will be sad to see her leave, but I have sent her name to the missionaries in Ovalle, so hopefully they can pick up where we left off, get her integrated into the ward, and see that she gets baptized.


Pascal Nunez - Young daughter of Ideide who turns six on the 25th of March.  We have been invited to her birthday party.  I told her to smile, and this is what I got.

I decided not to have Pascal Smile, and this is what I got.She is a lovely little girl.

It was sad today, as Cleyde was wanted to go to church with us today, but we are not allowed to take members or members (except missionaries) in mission vehicles for liability reasons.  We were told that a member of the church was going to pick her up and take her to church.  We waited at church, but she did not come.  We learned that the member had lost her cell phone and the missionaries were not able to contact her, so no one stopped to pick up Cleyde.  Margaret and I therefore left Church after Sacrament meeting and drove up to Cleydes.  We apologized for the mix up and read the Book of Mormon with her.  We had a really nice Sunday School meeting with her at her home.  As we were going to her home, we met a man outside that we talked to.  His wife is in the hospital in Santiago with Pancreatic Cancer.  She is coming home on Wednesday, so he invited us to his home on Saturday to meet her and talk to them.  Perhaps allowed this to happen this way so that we could meet this new family.  We will have to see what happens.

 All are happy because Cleyde is desiring baptism into the church
Picture of Elder Talbot, Hermana Gemin (Peru), Cleyde Colome, Hermana Talbot and Hermana Lorenzo (Argentina).

I took a picture or two of the Ocean, as it is now fall season here, and the ocean is quite turbulent.  From our apartment, there are a lot of huge rocks out in the ocean, and when the big waves hit the rocks, it looks like an explosion.  The ocean can be quite fascinating to watch when the big waves some  ashore.

The next two weeks are going to be very busy weeks.  We have two zone conferences next week, and one is the Antofagasta Zone conference, which we are in.  We will be attending that conference all day.  When you take a day away from your regular work, you have to catch up in the other four days.  The following week is transfers, and we have 8 missionaries going home, and 10 new missionaries coming into the mission.  When transfers occur, we have three very long days.  The day after transfers is leadership council, so we have to host all of the zone leaders who will be coming in to meetings for the day.  We provide lunch for them.

We hope all of you are doing well.  It seems strange to have you talk about spring, and I see pictures of flowers blooming in Utah, and here the weather is getting cooler, but does not vary by very many degrees winter or summer.

We love all of you, and pray for you in your lives.  The Lord loves us all, but struggles are what tests our faith and makes us stronger.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Missionary Work is Hard

March 15, 2016

Dear Family,

We have kind of got of schedule in our letter writing.  It seems the days come and go and we are not sure which day it is or which week we are in.  Since tomorrow is Thursday, I felt we should send something newsworthy.  We had a very busy week as the office elders were going to zone conferences and we're trying to get everything ready to leave.  They required our help in getting ready to leave.  We also had a number of meetings in the evenings, so we were not getting to bed very early.  This week has been much quieter with the elders gone from the office.

We had two or three good things happen to us this week.  Claudio Villalobos came to church for the second time.  We also had the bishop give him a blessing, as he was worried about a job interview that was coming up on Monday and it was going to be in English.  Although he can speak some English, he was really worried.  We spent one evening helping him with English and giving him some things to say at the job interview.  He has become a very good friend, and calls us his mother and father.

We also met with Ideide.  We were told by her that she is Catholic and wants to remain that way, but treats us very cordially.  Her sister however, has also been listening to the lessons and at our Tuesday meeting said she would like to be baptized.  She is 30 years old and single.  We were quite surprised at her statement, as we felt she needed more instruction before desiring baptism. We have given her a lot of information, and she has done some reading in the Book of Mormon.  We don't know quite what will happen with her, as she is leaving to go back to school in the south.  We think it might be better to notify the missionaries there and let them teach her so that she can be integrated into a ward there rather than quickly baptizing her here and then having to have her find a ward where she is going.

We met with Javier Leyton and read the Book of Mormon with him.  He is a member, but not very strong.  He was baptized very quickly, and I don't believe he has much of a testimony.  He is the only one in his family that is a member.  Other family members are very nice, but we have not been able to motivate them to read and really pursue the truthfulness of the Gospel.  We keep hoping.

It is difficult trying to get anyone here to pursue a testimony of the gospel.  It seems they are all to busy about worrying about today and do not seem to worry about tomorrow or the future.  We keep trying different approaches to see if we can motivate them, but as of today, we have not been too successful.

We appreciate our calls and prayerful support.  Margaret keeps saying she did not realize that missionary work was so hard and sometimes very disappointing, as those who you have come to love and hope for a change in them, disappoint us as they choose a different path.  That path is the path of least resistance.  We keep saying we will give our best effort each day, and that is all we can do.  We know that we do not have the ability to do it alone, as without the Lord's help in touching their hearts in some way, we will not be able to succeed.

We love you all.  Thanks for being so good and for being YOU.

Love,

Mom and Dad

"We Love Having You Here"

Mom and Dad

DEAR FAMILY Wed Feb 24 to Wed March 2, 2016

The days go by so fast we can hardly keep up with them. George said he sent the photos so here are a few stories to go with them. We hit our half way mark this past week.

84 BELLAVISTA STREET WORK PROGRESS Feb 2016 (photo)  Our street we walk by has huge equipment and they are digging down through solid rock. The height of a normal home probably 12 to 15 feel down. They say that Antofagasta is built on ROCK, sort of like volcanic rock. It is black. This is why when another Earth Quake hit this past week it did not alarm anyone. Like we told you earlier unless the earth quake center is in the ocean, they do not pay much attention to them. However we did have our water turned off for several hours but think that was from the street construction.

85  ALEXANDER and JIMAMEZ for DINNER Friday Feb 26 (no photo) This was a couple from our ward. They came and we had dinner and then read from the book of Mormon in Spanish for over an hour. This husband has sort of a (not come to church) then (come to church) problem. We hope we can be an influence for good on them, and asked them to be our 'Home Teachers" and come for dinner once a month and we will read the Book of Mormon together. We gave them a chart to mark the books they have read so far.

86 ORIGENS WARD HIGH PRIEST DINNER Saturday Feb 27  (photo) The Chileans have a (late to later) problem. We came on time at 7:30, but the dinner started at 8:45. We surely enjoyed it, even though there was a small turn out. But those who did come were well rewarded. One family even brought their children (it was a pay meal) and that was fun for them. The women at the table all want to learn ENGLISH so I told them about the MEMRISE program on the Internet. They went and found it and we were talking about it. For those of you who have children learning Spanish, go to this program and sign them up. They will like it.

87  MANGO CAKE DESSERT (photo) One lady came in carrying a huge cake from a bakery here in Antogagasta. We should have had a photo of the whole cake but George took one of my piece. It was mango cake, with mango slices in the layers. Very good.

88 BUGS ATTACK GEORGE SATURDAY Sunday Feb 28  Your father found some bug bites on Saturday and more on Sunday. We looked up on the internet and they looked just like "Bed Bug Bites."  We washed all of the bedding and sheets even though it was Sunday morning.  Hope they go away!  

89 INVESTIGATORS WENT TO THE WRONG BARRIO  Sunday Feb 28  We had a family with two children and the wife's sister who were all coming to church for the first time. George wanted to meet them at their home and make sure they got there. Then they insisted that they knew where the church was and would just meet us there. They never showed up. We were so surprised. But during the 2nd meeting George got a phone call and they went to one of our churches, but not the church building we were at. We plan to meet with them on Tuesday at their home.

90 MAKING OUR HANDOUTS at the OFFICE on Monday Feb 29  This was a much bigger job than we imagined. We do not have photos but will send them next week. We made one for the Where did we come from, Why are we here, Where are we going, (in Spanish) and had 20 scriptures to go with it. We then typed all of the scriptures out (in English). This took us nearly 4 hours. Then we made strips of the scriptures and cut them to be book marks.  We had told Martha that we would bring this to

91 THE TABLE WORDS "We Love Having You Here" Monday PM Feb 29 We took our handouts and also took the (meal) a soup I had made, rolls, salad and brownies. The table was all set so beautiful. Then she brought out the WORDS each in wood painted white and made the above saying It was a tender moment for us. We really love this couple and their son Goga, and the extended family members. We are taking them one step at a time with teaching them the gospel. It took Brigham Young a year to finally accept it, so we don't plan on anything too fast.

We took dinner over to Rodolfo's and Martha's and they had this on the table for us.  We were really touched by their kindness.  We keep hoping they will join the church.

 Margaret and Maria Antoineta.  We really like her.

 Left to right - Martha, Margaret, former employee of Martha named Nancey, Maria, Martha's mother from Brazil and Maria Antioneta.

92  MARIAS GOODBY DINNER(Martha's Mother) RETURNED TO BRAZIL Feb 29 Her mother flew back to Brazil the next day. We loved sharing some time with her. She was raised in almost poverty. She said she never had a pair of shoes when she was growing up in Brazil. The family was large and they had a farm. She milked the cows too. She never had very many clothes either, and hardly any toys or dolls or anything of the sort. A very humble beginning, but she turned out to be a lovely young mother of two daughters, and they love their mother very much. She LOVED the plan of salvation chart and discussion we had over a week ago.

93  JAVIER VISITED US at OUR APARTMENT Tuesday March 1  Javier is the member of the church who was baptized nearly three years ago come March. He had been going to the church for activities and one Saturday he was attending a baptism and the young elder Parker, said why don't we baptize you too. He said his parents nor his siblings came because it all happened so fast. We do not recommend this kind of pressuring someone to be baptized. But he never really had a strong testimony and has never wanted to receive the priesthood, so he is just baptized and confirmed. He called and wanted to come and see us. He came at 7:30 and stayed until 10:30 when his mother and family members came to our apartment to pick him up (he is 29). We do have a photo. He told us a wonderful story where he had a prayer answered. George gave him a priesthood blessing. We read the Book of Mormon together. We plan to meet with him every Sunday evening (as that is when we have a car) and try to strengthen him. He has never come to see us like this before. We do go to his place, and we stopped by last Sunday and no one answered so we left our church card and our names. 

Elder Talbot and Javier Leyton.  He is a member of the church, but not very active.  We would like to get his whole family in the church.  We went over and read the Book of Mormon with him.

94  LESSON AT IDEIDE'S HOME WEDNESDAY Wednesday March 2 This is the family who did not get to the right church building on Sunday, to be with us, but they did go to church. Ideide said it was certainly different from the Catholic church. We met her at her home today with a ward sister (Kathy Hermanis) and the two sister missionaries who only speak (Spanish). Kathy speaks English and Spanish. We had  to introduce everyone, and then we left to go back to the office Ideide's sister is the one most interested at this moment. We plan to have the family and Kathy and her husband (Area 70 Authority) over for dinner this coming Saturday at 6 PM. Hope some good will come of this.

95   OUR OWN FAMILY NEWS (recorded on Wednesday March 2) Well, tomorrow Thursday March 3, is our first born son Bryan's 52nd birthday. We just tried to call him and got an answering machine. One WISH we have, is that all of our children will call their siblings on their birthdays.  We hope this wish comes true, 8 phone calls for our 8 children every year, and then each child receives 8 phone calls on their birthdays.  In a day of emails and Internet face book, a phone call is a rare thing. It would be an extra mile to call all of the spouses of your siblings too. We have many birthdays coming up in March for SIX other family members. It is a time for me to remember my sister Kathleen too. I MISS her so very much. She died so very young. We also SO appreciate our daug. Julie keeping up with the mailings and sending the money we gave her to do this,  for all of these birthdays, since we cannot do it from here. Also congrats on our granddaughter Kristin Talbot being accepted to BYU, with her photo on the BYU home page too. WOW! She will be attending for summer term and live with her Davis grandparents. We are so proud of all of the accomplishments of all of our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren. We are still loving the fruit and vegetables we buy here in Chile. The cantaloupe we bought today was the sweetest and best one I have ever tasted in all of my life. It probably came from Peru.  We also so appreciate Amy keeping up the blog. We skyped with Stephanie this past week and saw her children, had phone calls from Bryan, Merrill, David, Jonathan, and a good long newsy email from Laura, and photos from Amy, so we caught something of everyone. Had a nice visit with Hannah too, she is SO excited for her mission to Florida and she also has to learn Spanish!  We love and miss you all very much.

MARCH Family Birthdays

  2   Bryan Talbot            (our first born child)

  9   Lisa Mecham Talbot    Reed Talbot 12 (Deacon)    Grace Klein

17   Kathleen Fawson Pearce Savage (my sister who died would have turned (67)

18   Allyson Talbot

21   Merrill Reed Talbot  (our third born child)

We know the church is true and hope we can help others to come to this knowledge too. We so appreciate your prayers for us and for our investigators, and pray that we will also find more people.

Love Mom and Dad

96   STORY of the WEEK    One of the APs is from Chile and speaks fluent Spanish and a little English. He was at the office and since George just gave he and his companion (Elder Hart the other AP) a good referral that George got at when he was getting the oil changed for the mission van.  This elders was telling George (both at the office) that he cannot believe how many referrals George (Elder Talbot) gets!   Side note from me - he generally averages (1 or 2) every time he is out in the car to go some place. This elder then said  (in broken English) "Isn't it scary to talk to people like you do, aren't you afraid?" George said "Oh No!"  My commentary, for George is that he is just a natural at talking to people. Today we were in a long line at the grocery store. He started doing coin tricks with the little girl behind our cart, who her parents had their cart behind ours. It was a LONG line and we waited a LONG time, so he had a long time to talk. He ended up with a name, address and phone number and we will be seeing them next week. It all amounts to just "Opening Your Mouth" and talking to who ever your can when ever you can. But for George it just comes natural.  

 This is my tomato garden.   Unfortunately, the one on the right blew off and broke a lot. Of branches.
Some had tomatoes on,  I doubt it will have time to produce now.

My first tomato.  The cost of this tomato right now is about $30. I have a few more coming, but I spent about $30 for soil pots and seeds.  When I get my second tomato, this will only be a $15 tomato.  I have one more that is turning red.  Unfortunately, the wind blew off my really good plant and broke off many of the branches - some with many tomatoes on.

 A brand new Chilean baby at church.

 Alexander and Jimena.  Members of the church in our ward and friends.   We have them over to have Mac and Cheese once a month on the last Friday.  

From left. To right - Elder Talbot, Claudio Villalobos, an investigator who came to church, Catherine Jimenez, her husband is an area 70 here and they are moving to Ely,  Nevada in April and then Hermana Talbot.

 Sister missionaries at our recent Zone conference.  They are displaying their happy smile pink bracelets.  Hermana Oswald, Lorenzo, Gemin, Scolice, Machado, and Caraveo.

 Our recent zone conference elders and sisters waiting for their picture to be taken.