Final Stretch

My dearly beloved,

Don't think I´m homesick when I say I think about every single 1 of you, in fact I really couldn´t not miss you more, but I always pray that you can all stay safe, healthy and happy I know HF answers my prayers.

¿Que tal? (What's up?)....

Stephen turns 8 in 6 days!!!!!!!!! Feliz cumpleaños Sunny D :)

Also, Padres, happy late anniversary. Thanks for getting married and having me.

In 7 days I fly out to the jungle, aka Iquitos.

I can kind of carry a conversation in Spanish. Prayers are TOTALLY appreciated, because I am still trying so hard to understand this language to no avail.

Luzitos de Cristó (Lights of Christ that she cares for)......

Mornos, non mormons, all christians alike, by the way you dress, speak act think and do...stick out! You already carry the glow of the Light of Christ in your facade. Know that you stand out. Stick out, stand out and be set apart from those around you. but " stick out, stand out and be set apart" in a GOOD way. become like Christ. That´s what this life is all about.

 

"My Words Never Cease" by Jeffrey R. Holland

Elder Holland explains that the LDM is another testament of Christ, just like the Bible, and it is true. "we invite all men..." Thats found in the intro. then read and follow Moroni 10:4 through 5 (And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true ; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power... 5And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.)
 (k, this is me now)  I DARE everyone, anyone to read the Book of Mormon, follow Moroni{s promse and still not feel and know that it contains a fulness of the truth of God. IT can transform your lives, if you are looking for a transformation. IT can improve your lives even when you think life can´t get any better.  Therefore, be ye humble. You can receive many blessings upon many more if you try. Yo promeso, con todo mi corazón (I promise with all my heart).

A Change of Plans...

This week was full of surprises, challenges and changes. 3 of our distritc´s Hermanas chose to switch into the Latino districts, so two thirds of my trio left and so did Hermana RAnsom´s compañera. I had to move rooms and I became Hermana RAnsom´s comp! She´s so intelligent acirca del Libre de Mormón y otra (about the Book of Mormon and other) Gospel principles. I still miss my old compañeras, but I´ve noticed that showing my loyalty and admiration fro hermana R. has really strengthened the unity in our companionship. DAD, all of you advice and letters really have helped me to realize my rose as her compañera. I always mean it or try to mean it, when I tell her, {Yo vivo para servir usted!} (I live to serve you) Our district is only 3 elders y 4 hermanas now. And all but 1 elder and 1 hermana were on the immigration list to visit Interpol to finish their VISA paperwork this week. Guess who the Hermana was....yea it was me. I don{´t know what this means for me at the moment, but I´m not too worried. Elder Largent and I split into different existing districts on Friday. He got to be with the 3 new elders from Norte America, pero I was blessed to find a comp. in a latino district. The day was easy, personal study, and fútbol but THEN we had classes....at this time in the day my district shouold´ve been arriving home already....but instead I was Proxy Hermana Benyo. The maestro (teacher) spoke muy rapido (very fast), but by a mircale (the gift of tongues. Moroni 10. 9 through 18) (8 And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all; and they are given by the manifestations of the Spirit of... 9 For behold, to one is given by the Spirit of God, that he may teach the word of wisdom) I understood and participated! Since latinos don{t need grammar lessons, they just learn how to be awesome missionaries. Among the many insightful things the teacher mentioned, was that when we pray, we always kneel. His reasoning was that, when Christ suffered the pains, guilt and sins of the world, infinitely and entirely. He knelt. As a sign of humility and respect unto Christ and our HF, we kneel too. There´s always rhyme to reason in this church I´ve just barely noticed. Our "culture" is the way it is because of the teachings of prophets past and present. Mormóns typically don´t strive to tattoo their bodies, or have more than 1 piercing (girls). These seemingly trivial things though, are guidance from prophets, thus they are commandments. an dthere is a good reason for every single one of them, whether or not we know it yet.

I also wanted to share some Gems of knowledge from 2 of the elders in my district. Elder Largent (Oklahoma) going to Cuzco, shared his testimony and talk on Sunday on our purpose of being here in Perú. With the Libro de Mormón, we are here to testify (2 Nefi 25:26) (26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.) and teach of Christ. Elder Boyd K. Packers said, " In a world ever more dangerous...The Book of Mormon: Another TEstament of JEsus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world." Elder Largent said that " we cannot merely offer these people a crumb, we have so much more to offer! A crumb will not fill them, it cannot satisfy the hunger to know that they are beloved children of God and that they have a purpose here on this Earth." We must let them FEAST on the words of God. My cause for the next 17 months is to reduce spiritual world hunger. Without food we cannot live, without Hope we do not want to.

Another Elder (Allan from California) Piura mission, spoke about the HG. As missionaries we're expected to know the teachings of this Gospel. We must take every moment to treasure up in our minds the scriptures and principles of Christ, so we can fill the filing cabinets in our minds. When we teach, with the HG, it can search our cabinets and bring to the front of our minds and mouths, the perfect scripture for that exact persona  in that exact moment. The HG cannot find a file that doesn´t exist. It´s our job to stock it full, it is the HG´s role to command it when we teach and testify.

Con permiso,

love yáll!

Hermana Talbert

(I have pictures and I will put them up soon)

Bueno Bueno Bueno

Estoy un chistadora! (It is kinda like I'm a joker) haha, Hermana Benyo and I made up this wonderful word to say, like, JUST KIDDING, cuz theres no equivalent in spanish. The latinos used to be confused when we say it, now they just accept it and use it!!! IT{s spreading around the CCM like wildfire.

We did secret Santa, so I bought and wrapped the COOLEST Peruvian soccer ball. and i wanted to keep it for myself, but I actually wrapped it...which is really hard....then gave it to Elder Geddes. He LOVED it. haha, he was like the squirrel from ice age treasuring his precious, only one in existance, nut. He was happy with it, i was happy with his happiness. There{s just so much happiness in our Distrito. I got some sweet headbands, earrings, AND a little pan pipe. Im so excited. i{ll learn how to play it. Just you wait.

In other news, I{m sick. My voice has left me, but it comes back every now and then. The Latinos keep on telling us it{s because we like to pump the AC, so were not sweating bullets....but, we keep it on anyway. I love this country.My friends here really made sure I had a great day. It was a Happy 20th.

Well, many things happened this last week, pero (but), I just don{t have enough time allotted to me, while also obeying the rules....so, let me just tell you one experience I had this week. Our teacher pulled the trio outside, me, hma benyo and hma ogden, to just evaluate and give feedback our investigators. Maestro Meza told us what we needed to improve, and he also asked us what we were feeling. I didn{t like that question. I have a pretty effective, most of the time, philosophy that if you ignore it, it goes away. When I can ignore my feelings of frustration with a lesson, or an investigator, i figure it goes away....um, not true. When he asked us that, i just kind of opened up and told him, in broken caveman spanish how I felt that we weren{t progressing in our lessons and I was afraid we were just getting stuck on single topics lesson after lesson. I was getting impatient because I felt like the investigator was learning the first and second and third lessons over and over again.....but with no goal in mind? We were planning lessons and teaching just to teach.

My maestro (teacher) took a second and reminded me that we don{t teach....we lead to baptism in the true church of Jesus Christ. It was a total, hands to head, mind blowing moment. Right afterwards, I just scribbled down my objectives as a missionary. so i{d never forget why I was here, i wrote.

Who do I teach? Different people, with different knowledge of the Savior and His Gospel. ASK if they understand or have questions or worries. SHOW you love them.

What do I teach?

Why they should follow Jesus Christ

Why do I teach?

to invite to baptism. I must remember my objectivo (objective). Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe in Jesucristó y Su Expiácion, el bautismo al arrepentimiento, la recepcion del don del Espiritú Santo, y preserverar hasta el fin. (Invite people to come to Christ by helping them to receive the Gospel restored through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, baptism unto repentance, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, and enduring until the end.)

I pray for every one of you. night and day.

Have a great week, Stay safe, and make good choices.

con todo mi corazon,

Hermana Talbert

(So I have two pictures from Jess, but I am struggling, so I will try again later in the week. lo siento)

Friends, Americans, Family

Friends, Americans, Family

Before I try to recount everything thats happened this week, I need to explain how the Holy Ghost feels. I was sitting in a devotional, and I just thought, hey, maybe in your next email, you should talk about the holy ghost. So, that was actually the Holy Ghost telling me to talk about it, you can{t deny it after something like that.....

For me, I feel the Holy Ghost in different ways. Just like revelation, it can be a gradual understanding or, like Joseph Smith, and rarely like this, it could be through maravilloso blinding visions! When I{m sitting down in testimony meeting, its the increase in the beating of my heart, trying to pull me up out of my seat. When I{m pondering on how to prepare a lesson, its the sudden lesson or sentence that pops into my mind! During a lesson, its the words that come out of my mouth, without me expecting them to be comphrehensible or even heard. I do NOT know how to speak spanish, but Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost do. The Holy Ghost is the slight physical prompting to stay in one place, exactly long enough for the right person to walk into the room and answer the prayers of my heart.

I know that when I pray in the morning, and all throughout the day for the guidance and gift of the Holy Ghost, I am empowered and my faith makes me SO confident.

So, I don{t know how to top that. Besides, telling you all that I LOVE my district, with a Christlike love, and we did a Secret Santa!! I got my secret santa the BEST gift ever. Sorry, this is lacking, but I}m out of time. I love you all, and I hope that your weeks are successful, happy, and productive.

If you pray for a chance to share this Gospel it will come, HF will give you the opportunity. Don}t let it pass. Also, the Expiación was a gift of Jesucristo for ALL people. When we have transgressed, or even sinned...there is NOT a point of no return. Sometimes the world, or others, and sometimes our own pride will tell us this is not true...but all things are possible through Christ. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador and Estoy muy agredecido to serve a mission for the Lord, in this wonderful country.

muchos amo!

Sincerely, Hermana Talbert

Entonces, sobre el Arroz

     Life in the CCM, was a bit difficult the first half week, but this last week has really improved. I honestly never realized how much I expected of myself, until I had someone with me constantly to tell me, hey. Hermana, we{re doing our best, we can{t be perfect. I}m in missonary mode, like, yea we can!!!.....but I remembered no one can successfully master a new language in 6 days, AND also be a master teacher...in that language.

I don{t even know where to begin about my week, my life, my companions, the people here!

  The place

     so Peru is humid all the time, but it{s been really breezy and cool lately. My Maesta told us the earthquake has made the weather kind of odd. Everyday is almost always an overcast day, but its still always warm and paradisiacal (spelling?) I am so taken care of here, and I speak English way too much of the time, to realize that I{m in South America right now. It{s cool here, I love it, and every week. on Pday. we get to take the autobus to the temple here in Lima, as I sit with my fellow Hermanas and Elders, I also get to see the regular temple attending citizens of Peru. And I never cease to fall in love with them! They{re beautiful skin, eyes, dark thick hair! Even better, they have such a rich history  here, and they are so so kind. I think their hearts are just 5 times as large as any other peoples. Maybe its because they live so close to the equator, I dont know?

Speaking of the Equator, jajaja, the CCM president, Presidente Cardon, told us when he first got here, he and his counselors checked to see which way the water drained. Apparently, the toilets here flush in the opposite direction.....ponder that for a bit.

  The people

     Well, I guess I already mentioned how sweet and beautiful they are. But I am so especially thankful to have had a roommate who was from Peru. Hermana Castro was the MOST AMABLE, amigable, just most caring individual ever. She left this morning to serve the people of Ariquipa, Peru. Hermana Benyo and I said our goodbyes this morning at 3am, when they bussed out of here. Actually, our other 3 latinas left to Ariquipa then too. Hmna. Garcia from Mexico, Hmna. Amador from Honduras, Hmna. Rivera from Chile. Wow, we got so lucky rooming with these girls. We became so close in such a small amount of time. They will make the BEST missionaries their mission has ever seen. I love them so much. Last night Hma. B. and I sang , Para Siempre..something something, I only memorized that much of the title to find it in the index of the Himnos. so we sang that, everyone cried...except me, I drained my tear ducts as a child, and then we let them pack. This morning though, when they left, they turned off the lights, after hmna. B and I laid back down and shut the door. I immediatly was empathetic towards all of Andy{s toys when he grew too old for them. My heart broke. I said, in a half awake stage, Hmna...I feel like little bo peep....and weve lost all our sheep. then real tears were shed by both of us. mostly because we were missing our latinas, and partly because we are so exhuasted all the time...in a good way I guess.

  The food

     They serve rice everyday. WOOWOO! It{s so delicious too, because they cook it with oil and probably tons of butter. Then they give us whole chickens each, lots of potatoes, I{m getting into beats, they stain my food pink and I think they{re good for me, so dos puntas por Hmna. Talbert! I like the food, needless to say. Especially the churros. The street vendors deep fry these pastries that are filled with dulche de leche and dust, neigh, dump lots of sugar on them. So good....Hermana Benyo and I are trying to put on as much weight as we can before heading into the Jungle. the skinny mission. we keep on getting told that because we{ll sweat a lot, and because apparently its pretty common to get a parasite, so we{re eating for two essentially. Esta Bien, though, everybody. Todos Cosas son muy bien.

The culture {out of these waters} mermaid reference. hmna. benyo loves her too!!!!

We went on splits on Saturday, and went Proselyting in North Peru. We drove for a while, and passed such eye opening things. Hermana Castro and I tracted behind the church building, but on the way, we passed shacks and literally just walls that were built into the mountains. Some people had to climb steep steep stairs all the way up the mountain to reach their homes.

Hermana Castro and I were able to hand out a Libro De Mormon and a few pamphlets. It was so fun, and so cool. I prayed Id understand these people. And guess what. I did! I am so poor at speaking. but I can know what they are feeling and referring too. Maybe I just rock at reading body language. no, actually its called the gift of tongues. and I pray for it everyday, and thank Heavenly Father for it more than that. So, another funny thing, the neighborhood was so just run down and dirty, they were chopping a chicken up just on the sidewalk, for what? dinner maybe, idk. Then there are dogs EVERYWHERE! Hma. Castro was so scared, and I poked fun at her, and told the member that in America dogs are so sweet...they both paused and said, well their not in Peru. So like, Ive been instructed not to make eye contact or run at any of these sweet, killing, creatures. ok. got it.

  My district

     they{re so great! I love them all. I{d say more, but I{m running out of time. We decided to do Secret Santa for each other. cute right?

Randoms of the CCM

So I{m really into playing futbol, not because I{m very good at it. but solely because I{m in south america, and I can.

Tis the Season

They putting up a nativity scene at the temple! They play Christmas music in the stores and they{re putting up Christmas lights around the tropical bushes and trees in the CCM. They are so sweet.

Favorite scripture was Alma 5: 38 (Behold, I say unto you, that the good shepherd doth call you; yea, and in his own name he doth call you, which is the name of Christ...) this week, because I was just really down on myself and my ability to learn Spanish and teach. I prayed to know, or just to have comfort. and I opened to this! Like, it was just so powerful, I was CALLED of God, to be here, and to teach those people I have been assigned to. I am so grateful to be a missionary. And I know this is when and where I should be. I love you all! I know your prayers for me and for anything else you are asking for, are heard by Heavenly Father.

sincerely, Hermana Talbert

Pictures next week!

The First Epistle of Jessica the Missionary to the People of North America

 I miss you guys! But luckily mi compañera y I found a really funny district! We love ALL OF  THEM. Haha, the hermanas are super sweet and they really like us. and the elders are  SO  funny. They were talking about INKA KOLA today, and I just couldn{t (her apostrophe  button doesn't work so every bracket is really an apostrophe)  handle it. One of them just  cracks jokes like it{s his second language and he keeps a stone face. It{s amazing. 

 

 Jessica and the other sisters arriving at the airport in Peru

Earthquake, so there was a minor earthquake yesterday. It was kind of scary after I realized what was going on, but like, nothing toppled over, and we{re all fine. It was  just a little jarring for Hermana Benyo and I because we were on the third floor and all. nbd.

CCM, um...the fruit is SO good. And I only recognize the apples, bananas and oranges...then there are like 2 or 3 random fruits, they{re yummy. and the JUICE! wow. They literally take an orange, squeeze out the juice, mix a ton of sugar and some more sugar water and make some good juice. It{s delish. the fruit that really wigs me out is the  grenadin....which is french for pomegranite. And it is similar in that it has tons of fruity, juicy  seeds in the middle....but you open it like cracking an egg, once you get through the outer  shell, the seeds look like a tiny sliny monkey brain. and you slurp the seeds out. Without  chewing them! Cuz they{re bitter I guess. and yea. it{s super delicious.

 Temple, Today we got to take the bus to the Lima Temple! Haha, it{s such a fast paced city  here. Like it{s not in some regards, it{s your typical relaxed, yoga in the grass, stroll through  the park, sit in your chair and drink some coca cola kind of South American life....but the  streets are another story. They use every bit of space they have on their roads. and the  busses? fire codes...what are those. They pack as many people as a can packs sardines into  it. It{s quite an adventure. each ride costs .50 soles. I think that{s what the elders told us at  least....so the conversion here is like $1 to 2.7 soles. so I became almost 3 times as rich when  I came here. woowoo! So the temple was awesome! I got a headset to listen in English, but  by the end I said, the heck with it!...in my mind...and took them off, and I understood only    like some of the words that were being said. The church is the same everywhere. It{s pretty  cool.

 Classes, everything you think you know about Spanish. forget it. Your spanish  class...actually any spanish class you every take in highschool is strongly influenced by  Mexicans, or just straight up Spain. Um, they totally forgot about a whole other continent!  Que en el mundo?!? (What in the world?!?) In Peru it{s not polite, cortes, to say, hola! to  people. that{s way to personal. You have to greet people with, buenas dias! or tardes-  noches, depending on the time. Also, never use Tu. or you won{t sound like you respect  people. Its a demeaning or like super informal way of saying {you}. Classes here are intense.  None of the teachers will speak english to you, except they do and I love my teachers. They  say some key words in English to help us translate or understand. They{re also so beautiful.  Peruvians are gorgeous. oh yea! i{m the tallest hermana in my room of 6 hermanas. haha,  sweet right?  

Jessica and her companion

 Compañera. Hermana Benyo is mi gemelas  (twin). holy cow! We have the coolest  companionship. She kind of looks like Katie  Gray-warren and like Bailey High from  BYU. She{s honestly my favorita persona  aqui! (favorite person here!) She{s has the  most amazing voice, and whenever I start  humming a hymn, especially one from the  BYU VOCAL POINT cd, she starts hum  harmonizing with me!!!! QUE?!?  (What?!?) She{s so awesome. We are so  similar!!!! Haha, and she{s knows SO  much espanol. I really am getting a free  ride when we talk to latinos. she interprets  for me, and i slowly pick up on what  everything means.

 First discussion with an investigadores (our teacher pretendning to be an investigator,  Lilliana) Holy nachos. It wasn{t a real investigator, but I felt the spirit so strongly as I  roughly bore my testimony in espanol. like, seriously. 1 Nefi 11: 17 ( And I said  unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all  things). I don{t know anything in spanish. I{m just so humbled, after knowing  EVERYTHING about the english language...but I DO know and I do know HOW to say that  God loves his children. Dios ama a sus hijos. And I just kinda said that a few times in  different ways, and everytime I told that to our { investigator } I just was so full of the spirit.  Hermana Benyo and I have a lot to learn still, but it went pretty well. I can{t wait to know  spanish and go out and teach the people in my mission.

 

The Missionary Training Center (CCM)

Fun fact of the day. its 75 degrees here. I live in paradise aaaand I bought a sweet llama keychain.

Latinas, que asco (how gross). oh hombre oh hombre oh hombre! (oh man oh man oh man!) Hermana Benyo and I LOVE our latinas. There are four in our room, Hmas Amador from Honduruas, Castro from Peru, Garcia from Mexico and Rivera from Chile. They are so funny and they are so loving. they want to help us understand their culture and their language. The other night, they....well I think they were telling me that they were leaving this next Tuesday...which is muy triste (very sad), because they dont stay here all 6 weeks like Hermana Benyo and I. so  anyway. the only like, bad, phrase? in spanish I learned was que asco! so I said that.......they  looked at me so confused. and then they told me that que asco actually  means...disgusting...so then we all got to laugh at the silly gringa. oh yea. gringa isn{t just a  white person. it{s just a person with light colored eyes. didnt know that. didya.

 um....what else.......oh yea. yesterday during our physical activity I played some el futbol  (soccer). I{m not even that talented, but I felt just, tanto (so) legit as I ran around that field  with the other latino elders and hermanas jugando? (playing) some el futbol(soccer) in Lima  Peru. haha, i love it here.

 Mi objectivo as a misionara de JEsuCristo es

 invitar a los personas a venir a Cristo

 al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado

 mediante la fe en JEsucristo y Su Expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo

 la recepcion del don del Espiritu Santos y el perdurar hasta la fin.

 (My goal as a missionary of Jesus Christ is

 invite others to come unto Christ

 to help them receive the restored gospel

 through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism

 the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit and endure to end.)

 that{s mostly correct, because I had to memorize it for yesterday, it{s maybe a bit rough.  so....there are some gospel spanish words for you!

 There{s also, gozo=joy, esperanza=hope, paz=peace, bendiciones=blessings,  Sacerdocio=priesthood. pienso que?

 I love you! and I miss you guys, but not too much. haha, I love being a missionary.

 make good choices.

 mucho amo  (Much love)

 con permiso, (sincerely) 

 Hermana Talbert

To-Do Lists

 Since I won't be in America for Christmas....or Thanksgiving...or my birthday in the year of 2013-2014, I decided to celebrate pseudo holidays with my family. We had Fakesgiving October 27th, and this week we've been celebrating Quasi-Christmas. I've decided to extend it for another week, so we can do some gingerbread houses-Talbert style. Happy Quasi-Christmas everyone! (12 days left)

 We could probably hold our own on the Food Network, think Peruvians will appreciate this skill?

The beginning of our candy village...

 My sisters and I made a temple, for the North Pole, this whole time we were listening to some Bing Crosby Christmas music.

(3 days left)

Called to Serve

On June 18th, 2013 the First Presidency of the church assigned me to my mission. Although I lack an abundance of excitement or weeping emotion, I cannot wait to serve the Peruvian people come November! I think I felt at peace more than anything, especially since I'd been waiting at least two days in anticipation and impatience to open this call. I'm still in shock and I think everyone else is as well.