Taken by Tarzan - 29-Sep-2014

Seems like the jungle took me captive for a bit, I don´t have TONS of time to describe ALL of the adventures we´re been having, but i want to share the  most important. It´s about miracles.

The miracle rescue
Jaime is our recent convert, and lately he´s been busy with work, and studies, and he hasn't come to church! but the other day he was driving his motokar around, and found two elders. He picked them up dropped them off, and they tried paying him. He said, no, it´s free. and Elder Henriquez immediately asked him...ok, what ward are you from? Primavra said Jaime. haha, then he said he felt as if God was pulling on his ear, letting him know he had another responsibility to fulfill. two seconds later he called us, after being lost for like 2 weeks, i received his call, he said he wanted to take us to our appointments at night and it didn't matter how far. Well, he was an answer to our prayers and pockets. We had a family home evening with a family that lives practically on the border of Peru and Brazil, so its far, and we aren't doing so hot money wise. he got us there and the family felt blessed to be visited by the members too.

The miracle find
through contacts, and through the mercies of our Heavenly Father, we have been finding FULL families who want to be baptized and join the church. They had testimonies. they are reading the Book of Mormon, they are coming to church! and they want to by married! We have tons of famliies like this! and we dont have enough time in the day to visit all of them! and i feel like such an instrument in the hands of the Lord. He brings us to these people. and them to us....one family, we found based on a small impressioni had. We were walking about Saturday night, ALL of our appointments fell through. no one accepted us into their homes, and it was already 8;40 at night. something told me, visit hermana Marlith. which was strange..she´s already a member, and her family is REALLY active. but we went, and siting under a light post, right next door was a woman, i knew Heavenly Father wanted us to talk to her. So we contacted her, and we´ve taught her already. She and her twin sister want to get married with their spouses and be members of this church. We bring them a book of mormon tonight. I love this work. and i love these people. and i LOVE having the spirit with us.

The miracle companion
If i haven't already mentioned. i´m training! and hermana Reyes is SO humble, so likeable, so polite and she always has a smile on her face. She is forgiving and she always the atonement to work in HER life, as well as everyone else's. we are seeing miracles here. and she´s only just begun this work!

The miracle Sunday
This one´s pretty obvious. it was Fast Sunday after all.
First of all, we woke up to rain! Heavenly Father watches out for us. When we fast here, i don´t do it halfway. The mission says we can drink water too. but i´ve stronger than the average sissy. So we fasted the full 24 hours, and waking up and NOT finding heat, and NOT finding sun.was SUCH a beautiful blessing from the Lord. THEN we continued to knock doors, so remind our investigators we had church. Hermano Hernan was already. he had his Book of Mormon all wrapped up in plastic, and we headed to church with Kiara, a 14 yr old. who was baptized without her family. (we´re teaching them and getting them married this november). At church our baptisms from the last night came! (thank goodness and thanks to Heavenly Father) they were confirmed, and then! we realized that Cesar, couldn't sign his own baptismal register. HIS PARENTS had to!!! woops. He´s the one that lives near the river that seperates Brazil and Peru. (exaggerating a tiny bit, but really, Brazil is like right there). We didn't have money, nor time to go, and whats more, if we got there, and his parents weren´t there.....likewhat!?! Two minutes later, his cousin walks in and told us that his parents were outside the chapel waiting to take him home!!!!!!! we ran out of relief society, and his parents signed his register.
all is well that ends well.

There are only a few of the moments that the Lord has let us have. and it is sufficient. We´re praying, fasting and working for more! I love this work, and i know this church is true.
I have traded 18 months of my life for this. and i am willing to give it all, all that I have, to show Him I love Him. I will teach it from the mountaintops, from the wooden huts, or at the corners of the grifos. I will testify this, that I know Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that He lives, and that we are in His work, that God has a plan for everyone of us, and we can understand it too. I know everything will be alright. I know that this life is more than the things we can have, it´s so much more beautiful than that.
I know this church is true, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and anyone can find happiness in this book, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that Thomas S. Monson speaks to God for the benefit of us and our families.
i love you all too! and i hope that you can see the miracles that God gives to y´all this week!
Hermana Talbert

I love Peru! 22-Sep-2014

While we are missionaries, we must learn different things and lessons and get to know certain people that can help mold us to be the people we need to be for the Lord and for our future families. I know i am learning those things here, through the people, lessons, the place and the challenges. 
This week i`ve been thinking a little bit too much about that family, a tiny bit distracted in lessons worrying about them. but this morning, as i prayed to know if the LDM is true, and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, i also wanted to know if they would be ok, their family and they will be. i felt it, and i have faith, i have hope that God knows why. Their family will be ok!
i love you dad! and i love our family everything is good here. never forget me and my comp. in your prayers!
oh yea, and please pray for her family! only her sister is a member. and her mom, recently is listening to the elders!!!!! Pray that her heart changes ,and that she will be baptized too! Cristina Reyes, and her family from Ecuador! 
I`m doing so awesome here. I love Peru. I love the freaking hot sun, I love this gospel, I love seeing the gospel change peoples lives. I love it when they ask God and get an answer. I`m learning SO much about life here, about the family, about poverty, about how harmful drugs are, about how selfish people can be, and then I learn how much love a mother can show to her children, about how much faith can do. Literally, it can move mountains.
take care! I love you a lot!
read your Book of Mormon
Hermana Talbert

Mangos, spiders, and snakes - 11-Aug-2014

its always summer here. we have two days of rain la lluvia de san juan, nd la lluvia del dia de ...another saint, i forgot. So it rains one day every june and one, no two days every August. and then its just hot and sunny all the time. so.......i really couldnt tell you what season wé´re in. haha i DO know that the season of the mangoes is september and october, which is GREAT because we just changed houses nd we have like 3 mango trees. ooops. theres a downside to mango trees, the mango trees have the biggest spiders, but whats worse....do you know what eats the big spiders? venomous snakes. best combination no?
one day we were sitting under a mango tree and a woman started screaming! and so we ran away from our sitting post and we spotted a thin little green snake, they told us it was venomous....then killed it with a machete.
in the house we havent seen any snakes, nor do we see anymore spiders..........but just to know. thats a thing.
oh what a after-Eden world I live in. with sweet fruit by the plenty, come spiders and snakes. the two things i have the MOST fear of.  cool.

hey, but i´m doing fine. i´d appreciate more money :) or letters. or peanut butter marzipan, but prayers too.
i always pray for our family. you guys are seriously such an example to me, and now the people i teach. because i learned how to tell stories in spanish! haha, take care this week mom, REST! and recover
hermana talbert

It´s in spanish...sorry.... - 28-Jul-2014

Wrote to the president about my week. I want you to know what happened to......but i dont have time to translate it....loooooo siento!
Woof Presidente Gomez,
Esta semana, yo sentia especialmente estresada. Elder Ramero debe ser muy muy muy estresado, porque Hermana Gutteriez, su companera y yo y imagino mucho mas sentian el pressure de el esta semana. Yo entiendo que el no tiene un companero esta semana. Yo entiendo cuan dificil es.....pero yo sentia tan solo esta semana. Mi corazon dwele mucho por el dolor de mi companera, y ella no pudo hacer nada. Yo tenia que buscar cada dia una o dos companeras para mi y ella, y cuando nadie llego, sentia como estaba gastando el tiempo del Senor. Sentia como una mala misionera, y todo de esto sin el apollo de ningun lider. Todos estaban frustrado, o mas occupado con otra cosas. Presidente, fuimos a la clinica cada dia esta semana, lo  siento mucho por los numeros. Yo esforce mucho que yo pude,pero disculpama, no era todo que pude hacer. Mi companera es muy biena, solo que siga mal. Ella quiere trabajar y caminar, pero cuesta mucho. Puede caminar un poqito, pero cansa rapidemente. Como puedo ayuderle....
En otra noticia, tengo mucho tender mercies del Senor esta semana. Fuimos Jueves en la noche a un cita con Hermana Surma Quispe. Ella es un menosactivo, su hermano fallecio en Junio, Beans. Extranamos Beans. Esta noche me fui con Hermana Grazzli, su amiga, y mi companera de esta dia. Solo encontramos ella en su casa, no habia nadie mas, o nadie mas queria escuchar, uno de los dos.....Presidente, que paso era una experiencia, que nunca me voy a olvidar...Antes de empezar la oracion por hma. Grazzli, yo estaba llena de amor por Surma. No le conozcgo muy bien, su hermano si, pero ella, casi nunca hablaba ni conocia....pero en esta momento,yo estaba llena, todo mi cuerpo y corozan de amor and entendiemento por ella, y no era de mi parte. Al orar, y compartir yo, y mi companera testificamos sobre el amor que Dios tiene por su hijos. Presidente, ni un palabra era de mi, casi no puedo recordar que yo decia, pero yo recuerdo el sentimiento. Era veracidad, era sincera y era amorosa. Le dije que Dios le ama, y nunca le deja solo. Nos dijo que sentia muy solo esta mez pasado, Beans murio en una manera muy grotesque y sin signas....Comparti el historia del hombre que esta caminando en la arena del mar, en la orilla, Dios esta caminando con el, y puede ver dos parejas de pasos de pies, pero cuando el pasa por tiempos dificiles y tristes, por mirar, solo hay una pareja de pasos de pies. En el fin  de su camino, esta hombre dice el Senor,porque me dejo solo. Porque en mis momentos mas duro, mas triste, porque tu me dejes? El Senor,respondio, no te deje solo. En los tiempos cuando solo vio una pareja de pasos de pies, eran mios, le carge en mis brazos. Nunca voy a dejarte.
Cuando yo cuento esta historia, estaba lleno hasta mis ojos del Espiritu. Tenia un poder que brillo a fueda de mi. Nos terminamos en una cancion, y oracion. Cuando terminamos la leccion, su otro hermanos aprecio! Uno por uno hasta su familia estaba alredor de ella. No pudo ser una mejor ejemplo de que solo segundos atras fuimos testificando que Nuestro Padre Celestial nunca va a permitirnos estar solo. Su familia estaba con ella. Yo siento que los angeles estaban con nosotros ensenando. Tenemos un Padre Celestial quien nos ama, y un hermano mayor que hecho posible por nosotros tener esperanza y fe en todo. Siento que Beans estaba en la leccion con nosotros, el era el amor enviado por Dios que yo necesitaba a tener por su hermana.
Yo amo esta obra, y sabe que Presidente??? Fuimos a visitarle de nuevo iyer, y tiene un hijo que no es bautizado! Ya le invitamos a ser bautizado, y vamos a rescatar hermana Surma, y preparar su hijo a hacer un convenio con su amoroso Padre Celestial.
Yo se que mi Senor vive. Puedo tener desafios en la mision, puedo sentir solo y estresado, pero nada puede frustrar el obra del Senor. Estoy muy agradecido por mis desfios, por ver mejor mis bendiciones, no soy solo y todo estara bien.
Woof, what a week Presidente. Muchas Gracias!
Hermana Talbert



(Here is Google Translate's version of this:)
This week, I felt particularly stressed. Elder Ramero must be very very very stressed because Sister Gutteriez and his companion and I guess they felt the pressure much of the week. I understand that does not have a companion this week. I understand how hard it is ..... but I just felt this week. My heart dwele much pain my companion, and she could not do anything. I had to search every day one or two companeras for me and her, and when no one came, I felt like I was spending time in the Lord. Felt like a poor missionary, and all of this without the apollo of any leader. They were frustrated, or more occupado with other things. President, went to the clinic every day this week, we feel sorry for these numbers. I tried hard as I could, but disculpama, it was not all I could do. My companion is very goog, just follow evil. She wants to work and walk, but cost much. You can walk a little but rapidly tired. How can I ayuderle ....
In other news, I have a lot of tender mercies of the Lord this week. We went Thursday night to a meeting with Sister Surma Quispe. She is a less active, her brother passed away in June, Beans. Beans miss. Tonight I went with Sister Grazzli, friends, and my companion on this day. Only she found in his house, there was no one else, or anyone else wanted to hear, one of the two ..... President, what happened was an experience I'll never forget ... Before starting the prayer for hma. Grazzli, I was filled with love for Surma. I did not know very well, if your brother, but she rarely spoke or knew.... but this time, I was full, my whole body and heart and entendiemento love for her, and it was not for me. When praying, and sharing me and my companion testify about the love God has for his children.
President, not a word was to me, I can hardly remember that I was saying, but I remember the feeling. Truth was, he was sincere and was loving. I told him that God loves him, and never leaves you alone. He told us he felt very lonely this past mez, Beans died in a very grotesque way without slogans .... He shared the story of the man who is walking on the sand of the sea, on the shore, God is walking with, and may see two pairs of foot steps, but when going through difficult and sad times, look, there's only a couple of steps away from feet. At the end of his road, this man says the Lord, because I leave you alone. Because my hardest, saddest moments, because you miss me? The Lord, answered, do not leave them alone. In times when you only saw a couple of steps feet were mine, they carge him in my arms. I'll never leave you.
When I tell this story, to my eyes was full of the Spirit. I had a power shine fueda me. We ended up in a song, and prayer. When we finished the lesson, his other brothers appreciation! One by one until his family was long around her. Could not be a better example of that just seconds ago we were testifying that Heavenly Father will never allow us to be alone. Her family was her. I feel that the angels were teaching us. We have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and an older brother who made ​​it possible for us to have hope and faith in everything. I feel like Beans was at the lesson with us, the love was sent from God that I needed to be at her sister.
I love this work, and know that President?? We went to visit him again iyer, and we have a child who is not baptized! Now we invite you to be baptized, and we are going to rescue sister Surma, and prepare your child to make an agreement with your loving Heavenly Father.
I know my Lord lives. I can have challenges in the mission, I can feel lonely and stressed, but nothing can thwart the work of the Lord. I am grateful for my desfios, for better watch my blessings, I am not alone and everything will be fine.


also, here are some picutres from our baptisms! We had three :)

What are you looking for? - 09-Jun-2014

Our zone leaders gave us another lesson on being focused on the work. I think they really feel like our minds or hearts aren't here in Zona Centenario, in Pucallpa Peru. So Elder Peacock asked us what our desires were, setting aside what we were going to eat for lunch. As missioneries, we need to leave behind EVERYTHING to be something else, someone else here, an instrument in the Hands of God. Elder Limon asked us, which is harder, to leave behind your family, your car, your studies, your medical practice, or to wake up at 6:30 en punto. woof. They realy burned us in this meeting, but in a good purifying fire kind of way. Why is it SO hard for us to be obedient, to be diligent, to be humble? Well the answer is, if we are not looking to be obedient, nor diligent, nor humble, we´re not going to find it. Alma 29:4 dice la siguinte, ¨No deberia, en mi deseos, perturbar los firmes decretos de un Dios justo, porque se que el concede a los hombres segun lo que deseen......¨ The Lord gives to us, what we strive for, what we look for. But if we are looking for this or that, looking to sleep in till 7, or looking to only teach the attractive investigadores, or looking to be better than another companionship. We will acheive these things.
I had to ask myself, am I looking for the right things? Am i searching for treasure....or for trash? Because if i´m looking for trash, i´m not going to see the gold thats shining right in front of me!
This week we contacted a woman while she was raking out the tiny stream in front of her house, I stopped to help her while my comp. got her info. I told her jokingly, i wasnt going to stop until i found the treasure i was looking for. We laughed about it because i{m just really funny in spanish now, and because no one was going to find anything valuable in the muck and filth i was raking up. Like it was super nasty. But i was thinking about it later, and it occured to me that even if their had been something good there, no one was looking for it, so they wouldnt hve seen it anyway.
The gospel is like that. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the MOST precious gift from God. More precious and beautiful and sought after than gems, or gold. Tristemente, it´s apparently the most gaurded as well. People dont know what it looks like, sounds like, feels like. It´s a treasure that will REALLY bless people´s lives. so much in fact, that they NEED this gospel, but they arent searching for it, so they really can´t see it when its right in front of them!
Last week we thought it´d be fun to practice lesson 2 and contact in the cementary, so we walk inside, and waiting practically 2 steps behind the gate is a woman watching us. Im excited to run to the back and find people crying at the gravestones and preach eternal life....but my compnion walked over to this woman instead, with her two sons playing behind her. We started talking to her, i introduced ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ and began telling her that we were sent to help her. She told us her husband died last month, his heart had just stopped working. He was a great, intelligent man, and she was still in shock. We set up a time to come teach her.
What happened is that houses here are impossible to find. But since this is an experience about finding treasures....
AFter a week of not being able to track her or her house down, finally one night she called us! My compnion was dead asleep, and i went to set our phone´s alarm to get up for church, I saw we missed a call from an unknown number. I called and i asked who it was, Nany! soy nany! OH! nany, wow, how are you? We wanted to invite you to church tomorrow. how are you doing? She told me she was not doing well. The following 10 minutes she was sobbing on the phone, she was sharing her testimony of her belief in God, but that she feels he abandoned her and took her life away from her. She told me she didnt want to lie, that she was drunk. She put her two sons on the phone, Rex (6 years) asked me if i was the hermanita from the cementary, si, i said. Ayuda mi mama, ayuda mi mama. ella esta mal, esta triste. This same boy hasnt eaten in weeks, he doesnt want to, he misses his dad. Nany put her other son on the phone to talk to me, he asked me to help his mom, and asked when we were coming. I asked him for his direction again, they told me they´re house was like gold, a yelllow one story house. I promised we´d come and take them to church.
After i hung up, i realize I had promised i´d find their home, after a week on NOT finding it. and that we´d find if before the church service at 9:00 am........I fell to my knees asking my HEavenly Father to keep NAny and her sons safe while she was drunk at home. I prayed that He would help me find this house of gold, and that i could keep my promise and help this family.
I have a testimony that the Lord gives to us what we ask for. The difference between looking for this woman´s house Sunday morning, compared to the rest of the week, is that I had the Lord´s help Sunday morning, and because I knew what i was looking for. We found them. Nany has lost her faith, her husband, and she didnt know how to find it, or what any of this looked or felt like. We are teaching her how to find her faith again, that she will see and hold her husband again.
Her story is a story of searching for treasure. I found her house of Gold, a real treasure and answer to my prayers, and she is finding her eternal family.
I know the Lord loves me, and loves this family. Even though we experience losses, the Lord still loves us. He has treasure, hidden in this life, that we need to only search for, and it will be revealed to us. But if we are not searching for it, we will not find it, we will not be able to see that it´s shining right in front of us.
I have learned to pray that those who dont know what they´re looking for will realize what this treaure is, and then i pray that we can be worthy to bring thise treasure to them.
I am not Jessica Talbert, runner, reader and what not student. I am a missionary, I am doing the Lord´s work. Jessica could not have found this house, nor found this woman in the cementary, just watching us. But Hermana Talbert, she can. I am trying every day to be someone different here, someone better. I know that the Lord will help me to help Him realize His work, and bring His treasure to those who are in need of it and searching.
Pray for me to be receptive to His spirit, to find these people.
Pray for those who are sick, who are suffering, who don´t know what this Gospel is like, that they may find it.
I know these things are true and I will never forget them.
Take care family and friends! I love you so much!!! Be kind
Hermana Talbert

Just the Bare necessities..... - 02-Jun-2014

Living in the jungle isnt as hard or primitive as it sounds. I´m still waiting for the day when I get to live in a treehouse...but thats fine. i´ll learn patience through that. Because of the nutso situation with my companoin and her boyfriends idea to leave her mission, i´ve been studying alot about the family.....and i learned this..
Excerpt from another letter that i want to share with the family:
I promise i´m not trunkie, haha, but this week in personal study i´ve have just been studying the CRAP out of the family, and marriage. Mostly because my comp. has issues with wanting to leave early to get married, and stuff like that. but I find it SO helpful when we teach these families. The scriptures are our manuel of ´how to live a happy life´. how to find happiness, how to study, how to be kind to our brothers and sisters, how to work and be successful, how to have a happy marriage and just any problem you´d ever have! I´m so far from perfect, but i am learning. I know i am progressing, because i honestly used to detest my companion, and now! i love her, i´m not worried or upset about anything. i honestly took a chill pill sometime this last week and the effects are marvelous. I can find the guidance of my HEavenly FAther MUCH quicker, and much more sincerely. So, back to my estudios. I´ve learned so much about HOW to be a parent. My calling as a missionary doesnt stop after i take this plaque off next year, We have been instructed as parents in Zion, to teach our children the doctrine of JEsus Christ. we are asked to teach them that they might understand, that they might develop a testminoy of their own and choose to be baptized and follow Christ. They will be our mini investigadores that we will need to teach, commit to read and pray and study, then help them to be faithful in the church. Mainly through our example i think, and through our teachings. With this companion, more than i´ve learned about marriage, i´ve learned about how to be a mom. And let me tell you, when I forget about myself, I honestly feel like i don´t have a burden in the world. When i carry someone elses burdens, sometimes it really  hurts. Sincerely, my heart hurt this past week listening to the stories and problems of others, and trying to help my companion get healthy..but i couldnt make a list of my problems to you right now. none come to mind! I am so greatful to have a FAther in HEaven who loves me, and gives me all of these experiences to be a better person and to learn to love unconditionally.
Thank you all so much for your prayers.
I´ll tell you once again, i love my mission. i love what i´m doing and i love the people here. Remember that the Lord has a plan for each one of us, and that this plan is unique por cada persona. But it all ends with the same purpose, in the same place, with Him. There is only one kingdom of God, only one Christ, our Savior, only one bautismo, one faith, and one church. That is the Church of JESUS CHRIST of latter day saints. His church was restored with all the same powers and purposes as when Christ came. I do not doubt this, and I know that by no other way, can we receieve all of the blessings God has for us and our famlilies, than by our membership, loyalty, obedience and knowledge of this.
I love Peru! and i love being a missionary!
Take care!
I love you al bunches
Hermana Talbert

My very own China Town - 26-May-2014

So I was thinking about this the other day. I REALLY wanted to serve a mission in Asia, like Dad, but turns out, Peru is my own little china town. The people here, the majority of them look like they`re from Asia! They have squinty brown eyes and we had one return missionary come to church yesterday that could pass as the asian prince from the Roger Hmmerstien african Cinderella. Also, remember when Allison would bug me about `cooking rice for all of China` They totally cook more than I did. They`re cooking for all of Peru!!! They eat SO much more rice here, and so much food in general. Oh yea, and they have motokars, which are like rikshaws, but instead of men running them, they`re motos.
So this week. I am learning patience, charity and love. We went to the clinic Lunes, and then Martes again. My companion has gastristis, and she was saying that her stomach was burning. So we spent all monday night in the clinic and then tuesday morning. She doesnt have anything. just pain, for eating things she shouldnt. So this week I`ve been trying to watch her. but she just eats this stuff anyway. I gave up trying. I hope the elder`s blessing will be enough to sustain her until she goes home to her country. She`s always plnning out her mission. She wants to leave this November to get married, but she wants to finish in her country, so she can also plan her wedding and apply to college.........I`ve really tried to help her. but I must not be a very good teacher.
Along with the life coaching, We tried to go running the other day, and i couldnt for the life of my me, FIND my shoes! My dearly beloved blue nimbus, worn running shoes. nor my proselyting shoes, nor my alarm clock, nor the makeup nd shoes of my companera..........Turns out the men who were putting in a cieling in our house, were also slowly snatching our things too. and when the owner of the house called them, no one answered. They left their ladders and a bunch of wood in the back.....
Haha, while I had hopes they would return, I starting thinking about shining the other shoes they left to give to them...because apparently they really needed women`s shoes, my companera starting fuming. calling everyone she could, furious. While i began studying about how to have charity. I felt so humbled that day, when we had discoverd our things lost to these strangers whom we had trusted. I really felt sad more than anything, but it went away and i was able to relax and continue our work. She is still upset bout this. I can testify, that when we can focus on our spiritual gifts and blessings, we can save ourselves from the stress and depression of things temporal. We lost more than our things that day, we lost a part of the spirit, and that more than anything really killed me.
I really love these experiences. They really are the best. It`s like a workout plan for cross country. I KNOW there will be days when we hve to `run intervals` when it will be tough, when I just want to stop carrying the burdens of everyone. but through these experiences. I become stronger. We are all running, or walking the same road, but we can become stronger and faster, and better, depending on how we walk, or run it.
Yesterday in fast and testimony meeting, our investigator, Ani 11 anos, said she wanted to bare her testimony, so i walked her up there. Haha, when we sat down, the daughter of our pencionista told me she wanted to talk to 6 years, then when i sat back down, the bishop`s daughter told me she had something to say too, 6 years. By the third time, i realized the Lord needed me to share my testimony as well as build it up to that point. After Elena had born her sweet testimony, I testified that, haha, obviously, i was being used as an instrument in the Lord`s hands, in that very moment to help these girls share their testimonies, hahaha, nd in this work. I know without a doubt I need to be exactly where I am. I don`t know who i am impacting, who i am to meet. But i know that i will impact someone for the better, nd that i will meet those i need to. and that the Lord has a plan for me while I am here. And for that i am SO grateful. I am SO happy to know that the Lord loves me, and that he loves me enough to challenge me and let me struggle through rough companionships or days. I know the Lord loves His children. Every single one of them. And i pray every single day that he will help me recognize these people that NEED the gospel and that NEED to know that they can recieve blessings if they obey His word.
Well I have to write the president about my week now, but take care everyone. and Enjoy this first week of summer vacation!!!!! woohoo! bacanaso para todos :)
hasta luego, y`all
hermana Talbert

Saluds de Peru! - 12-May-2014

Elder Henriquez es aca! He followed me from Tarapoto. My old district leader is now the Zone Leader of the other Zone here! He is the coolest, i`ve already learned so much from him and his testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. So that`s WAY fun.
also, FELIZ DIA DE MADRE! para, grandma talbert, makemson, MOM todo de mis tias, and all the moms from work, like bakers peak, and MOMS TIMEOUT and Mrs. Gibson and KATHY KLINGERMAN, wow, shes the coolest. and Hermana Dunford, and HErmana Ellis, Hermana Schulte, i could go on...but in summary, hay una escritura that talks about the fruits of the spirit. If it is a good seed, a good beginning, it was bring forth only good things. I can recognize good mothers, by their children. All of these mothers have worked, are working so hard to raise a family, a happy family. And Their children are the BEST. especially the children of my mom ;) haha, no lo siento. But besides their fruits, and their efforts, these women, the mothers of the world deserve so much love and respect for who they have chosen to be. In the bible dictionary, or in spanish scriptures el guia de las escrituras, the definition for Madre, Mother, says...`El titulo sagrado de la mujer que da a luz o adopta hijos`. The name mother, is sacred. and it indicates that you have been chosen to help the Lord bring to pass his eternal plan for every one of us. Thank you mothers!
i don`t think i said it well enough, or enough times last night, disculpa Mami. Seriously, you are such an example to me! Dad must`ve been SO obedient, to recieve a blessing such as you. Bien hecho, dad. i´m sorry i coudlnt have been there to try and make you breakfast in bed, or write a a beautifully sweet, tear jerking poem, but i`ll make up for it and the next mothers day in 2014, in years to come. All i can do now is hope you had a GREAT day! and know that you are not just any other woman, not just any other mother. You are mine! and you are a strength to more children than just the 6 of us. You are an influence in the lives of so many more! and i hope that you never feel disappointed, or feel alone, or feel insufficiente, because YOU are a pride to me, because YOU have dad, siempre! and us, your children, and your Heavenly Father, who is SO proud of who you are and who you are learning to become through your immense faith. and NEver feel insufficiente, because you are everything you need to be and more. You`re perfect for our family. I love you so much mom! And I miss you and our family, and JAke, but I am so happy here, and I hope i´m making you proud too! I hope you had a great day, and i hope you have a GREAT semana, and a strengthening year. FEliz dia de madres!!!
Wow, like i really wish i could explain my weeks better. Next time ´ll bring my journal and jot down the highlights of my week. I just sometimes have el mente de pollo, and it doesnt help that these weeks go by in a FLASH!. seriously, so so fast. I`ll work on that this week.
Well, haha, i really dont know what else to say.
i hope everyone is doing well. reading their scriptures, paying tithing, going to church and praying. It`s really the little things that count. Alma 37:7.
Cuidence, les quiero tanto

Ok so, we have a photo of.....our distrito! We were showing them a family we had found, which was in their area, and while we were walking to lunch, we saw this sweet, well organized tree farm. Like a tamed chacra. Then we have me crossing the sketchy puente, in our shortcut between areas. It literally saves us like 45 minutes to use this and approx. 6 soles, woohoo! Except when it rains we can`t enter through the walls on the other sides, so thats a downer. then....i forgot what this other picture was.......oh yea! Feliz CUmpleanos and merry christmas to me! in may.....Wow, it was SO great to get a package. Love the mints, i eat them like every second and yes, i gave mi companera the duplicates of things, she really appreciated the lantern, because she`s scared of the dark, in our room, when we`re sleeping. so glad she has that now! 
YAY cumpleanos! This was one of the 3 cakes we ate yesterday.
aaand this tortuga is going to be our soup tonight for cena.
We watched the video of Hermano Humberto killing it, wow, it was actually SO sad, but they found it near the rio, and brought it home and..yea, made plans to make a dinner out of him.

April Showers - 28-Apr-2014

 So every night i have to pound my bed to tell the spiders i`m going to occupy it for a hot second. preferibly 7 or 8 hours. Killing them isnt an option, because they breed faster than rabbits and because the spiders here are SO STINKING fast, oh and they jump. so like, thats impossible. hopefully the only thing that becomes of this is that i obtain spidey powers.
Sleeping situation, check. Now i`d like to address a thought i had while eating at a members house one day.
Hermana Sonia cooks for us every pday and she`s the best. Last monday we ate chifa, but it was so cool. Rice and every kind of tiny sea creature you could imagine. there was squid, or something like that, snails, mussels, clams, fish, and a tiny salty red fish that looked like a kidney bean with legs and antenae. But then i had this thought....wow, i feel like the little mermaid, if i eat more fish will i become one? I could proselate to those areas that are floating villages if i became a mermaid. My train of thought came to a hault when i realized every fish in that movie had a face and it was her friend, so she was probably a vegetarian anyway. Dream bubble bursted.
Tambien this week, since my comapnion was in Lima AGAIN to get her card, she went with our sister leader too. So Hermana Child and I got to be companions for like 3 days! haha, slumber party! It was SO fun. But since we both had citas fija in nuestra areas, we were taking motokars back and forth from her area to mine. it was a crazy time, but so so fun! One of her investigadores asked me to be the madrina of their baby. I said sure! but then i asked what it was exactly and they told me its like a testigo, a witness for their wedding. Hermana Child knows the same amount of spanish as i do and so we were both like, uhhhh, we`ll talk to our leaders about that and get back to you, but probably not. because hermana Talbert isnt from Peru......They asked me to be the godmother. haha, because that reqcuires i buy all of the necessidades for their baby, i will not be their babies godmother, thats also a catholic tradition, so yea no.  Hermana Child is the BEST missionary. She already knows so much and she only has like 2 months in the mission. She`s from Salt Lake and she showed me pictures of her family, they are the CUTEST! Haha, they sent her a pìc of their easter egg hunt. (I really feel like this continent broke my heart when EAster never happened) Honestly feel betrayed, but it`s fine, next Easter i`ll show Peru how to celebrate the right way. Feelings aside, I did have a really fun week. Hopefully Hermana child and I can be companions somewhere down the road!
Oh, a miracle showed up yesterday! Efran, a man who has been assisting iglesica por 5 anos, dropped off the radar these last two months. His baptism was supposed to be tomorrow! and we couldnt get a hold of him!!!! Then yesterday we received a call from him, he asked if he could still be baptized tomorrow and that he`d been on a trip until just now. So he had his interview yesterday night and tomorrow , on his Birthday he`ll be baptized. lo maximo!!!!!
Other than him, our investigadores are having a hard time progressing, the church is really SO FAR AWAY from where they live, and i can testify that if it rains, it is so hard to get to church. When it rains, the ground, the earth just starts moving beneath your feet, it swallows your feet up or becomes a river entirely. I dont know how to motivate them. I wish i could take away their agency, and give them my faith, my determination. I wish i could walk all the way with them, but im just one person, and i cant do that for all of them every sunday. One day i´ll leave, and i cant be the only cause for them to come. I`m struggling finding the way to show them their faith, to help them find their determination, to make their hearts and minds make their legs move. It is SO hard to herd His sheep, when they dont realize that they are wondering. If only they realized the urgency of being in the right pasture at the right time. If only they understood that the right time is NOW and the right pasture is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Seriously all we can do is love them and invite them, and encourage them, haha, but like, sometimes their just not listening. Learning patience........
That`s all for now, have a great week.
love one another, dont litter, study hard
Hermana Talbert

woops, lemme explain the pics. This tarantula lives in our bathroom sometimes kitchen. he`s the size of my hand and FAST. This is this morning in Luz Divina, an area in ours thats SO lejos, and thats so beautiful. The dew was settling on EVERYTHING, haha, so beautiful and so frightening. Like Edward Cullen, this campo.

Feliz cumpleanos! - 21-Apr-2014

yay! Today`s the birthday of Elder Hormaechea, so we had hermanito Humberto  make an appearance at breakfast. After you get over the inicial fright of barney, he`s really funny.
So this week they sent my companion to Lima to get her visa, so i got to have a sleep over with Hermana Child and Hermana Gutierrez. SO fun! I got to see their area, teach with them, and it was a fun experience.
Also this week i`ve been thinking ALOT about the Plan of Salvation. Mostly about our life after this one, and if we really do live afterwards. I`ve been saying it and teaching it until this point, without really KNOWING. But after reading in 1 corinthians 15 and Alma 40, and after alot of prayers, I am not worried for my soul after I die, I know there`s a home waiting for me, with a family whom I love after this world. I´m not talking about my mission, haha, i mean, I know i won`t be lost after i die, and I know that Grandma B isnt either. Heavenly Father has had a plan for her since before the Earth was created, and she continues to progress along that path even now. I know Grandma B, and I know she will want to be kept very busy, so I don`t worry for her. I will be a little dissappointed when I dont get to return to see her sugar white head, or her rosy pink sweaters, or her sweet old smile. But I won`t be sad, I know she is happy and I know she received the grandest welcoming party. She was a missionary like me once, and again I know she`s returned to do this work, only on the other side.
I know this Gospel is true, everyday I gain a testimony of that. I kknow that God has a plan for me, and it`s my job to try and figure it  out as i go. He knows all that he has in store for me, I need to strive everyday to walk that path,and its hard. but I don`t walk this path alone.I have a wonderful family, great examples of friends and I have my faith in Jesus Christ, and that He lives.
tenga una linda semana
Hermana Talbert

When it rain, it pours - 14-Apr-2014

There`s no happy medium here, either it`s scorching hot and dry here, with dust storms blocking sight of anything, or we get super cold rain that creates rivers in the streets in seconds. Today it`s raining, and we are SOAKED through, haha, soaked. It`ll just make my bed tonight feel all the more comfortable.
We had a baptism last Saturday! Maria and her daughter were baptized, much to the chagrin of the grandma, who is REALLY evangelical. She tried keeping JAunita hostage last Saturday, but this Saturday they essentially told her to shove off, and were baptised! yay!  They are so happy. They really have new spirits, they smile al the time and nothing can bother them.
Well i`m cold and I have to write the president for this week.
Take care, i love you, have a great week!
Hermana Talbert
I hope everyone is ok, I`ll be praying for everyone.

Pina. no mas. - 07-Apr-2014

Pina. no mas.
Elder Peacock told me that this means, suck it up. but in translation its only pineapple, no more.....so yea haha, not always translations work. But Hasta la pasta, is just something I say, it confuses the latinos too. but it rhymes....so i like to use it when i´m in a dr- suessy mood.
So my camera doesnt load onto this computer, but next week! oh man, have i got PHOTOS for everyone. A baby monkey thought my fuzzy head was its mother, so it climbed up my arm and started to fall asleep on my head. when the boy who had the monkey before, i think as a pet, well he started getting angry that i  `took`his monkey, so he wanted it back! yea, ok, i told him. but not my will, but the monkey`s...because when my companera tried to remove him, that baby monkey cried so so sadly, and held onto my hair for his little dear life.
I have pictures of this sweet monkey...but next time, ya?
Haha, also, something pictures can`t show, i talk charapa. It`s como, in the selva people talk funny here, its spanish todovia, but it sounds like they sing..idk, you´ll get to find out this mothers day...When is that actually?
Conference was AMAZING! I loved every part of it. I left my cuaderno at home, but next time i´ll remember to bring it and highilight those partsi want to share. wow. wow wowo wo wow, I LOVE listening to these men. AFter it was over, I hadn`t a doubt in my mind ni mi corazon, that Thomas S.  Monson is a profet of God, and that all of the talks were inspired. I know that this Church is true, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ lives. I have hope that all of my friends and family who have not this testimony yet, will learn to know, learn to love and learn to live this testimony, in time. Pero, espero que esta pronto.
I love you all so much, and i love this work.
Hermana Talbert

Adios, cuidad de los cocos - 31-Mar-2014

Hey, they kicked me out of Tarapoto.
So we had cambios this last tuesday and everyone in the branch, in the zone, anyone anywhere knew Elder Henriquez and Elder Rodriquez, veterans de 8 meses or something like that, were leaving. A few of the missionaries were ready to leave too, but surprise, the Lord works in mysterious ways.....Only yo e Hermana Benyo got transfered. She`s in Iquitos right now, and I got shipped to Pocallpa Peru. Tarapota was a paradise, but I like Pocallpa too. It doesnt rain as much here, and it`s really flat, no hay montantas. The only struggle is the dust! My hair has turned another color, from the sun and from the dust and dirt that accumulates cada dia. OH yea, if you can think of those scenes from the Mummy whenever that guy travels anywhere he takes a dust storm with him, that that`s us.....except we can`t ever control it.
Mi companera se llama, Hermana Guidos, she`s from El Salvador and she`s only 19 years old. Haha, she is the sweetest little missionary ever. She definetly acts her age....well she acts 16 to be quite honest. but she has a strong testimony of the gospel. and she LOVES these people and you can see it. She is the most charitable person in the world.
With a lot of these latinos, they don`t have the support of their family back home. a lot of them left home without even telling their parents, a lot of them are defying generations of tradition to be here. They are so inspiring to me. Mi companera is so great. Estamos apprendiendo juntos ahora. haha, The work here is especially interesting. While they are baptising, they`re really focusing on rescuing those menos activos. we`ve had more lessons with members and less actives than with investigadores. These families are so great. i really have an instant love for all of them.
I still struggle like a gringa here, but sometimes people think i`m from Argentina, so I feel better about my spanish. It`s a process for sure.
Muchisimas gracias for your letters. Especially Uncle Jim, and Dad, always. I love getting advice on how to get along with my companion. I know I have so much to improve on, i just hope that those around me have the patience to help me learn.
Um in other news....What`s new. Idk what else to write about. Oh yea, my feet hurt. but it`s a good hurt. Haha, we walked 30 minutes in the BURNING sun just to get to a lunch appointment con el obispo. I`m going to come back black, well, bien rojo es mas accurate quizas.
This change has been so fun. My zone has so many of the same missionaries that came out of the CCM conmigo. Elder Hormeachae es en mi distrito y two other elders are in my zone. also, que mas, idk, i just really feel at home here already.
Especialmente con los miembros, i really feel their love and support.
I can  understand everything..haha, mas o menos. I know what`s being said, i still can`t reply with perfect grammar, but people understand me for the most part.
More to come, i love you all so much. I hope everyone is well.
Thank you so much for your help, your words, your examples, I use them all to strengthen my testimony of the Lord`s love for me and His plan for cada uno de nosotros.
I`m loving the work and working to love it all the time.
Hasta la pasta mis amados
Hermana Talbert

This is the picture of our house!
the segundo is the picture after my first day here. because their are THE MUMMY worthy dust storms here, when it rains, the mud just eats your whole leg into the earth. hahaha, i havent fallen yet. so thats a plus. It`s not quite as bad as KElsey`s area though.....I hope nothing lives in that river she`s standing in!

Mi Jungle part 2 - 10-Mar-2014

pronounced, (whoonglay), enserio, that´s a Word they use. its mas intense than the selva, el jungle is like the selva negra! dense stuff.
Elder Grow of the 70 came to visit us!!!! Last saturday he came to help us with our áreas, and talk to us and englighten us in pretty much every way. he´s awesome and he answered a lot of my questions, I didnt have to voice them, I just arrived for this conference, and durante el dia, he just spoke to my heart! Hermana MArtinez felt the same. Haha, at one point he told us how to improve our goal setting strategy, and he said we should fast to know, and ask the Lord what our goals should be, so I thought we should do that at the fin de la mes and in the beginnning. I wrote her a note, and when I pássed it to her, haha, she showed me the same message in her notes. I know that the leaders of the church are callled of God, and through them, He can speak to us individually.
Speaking of which, i am STOKED! stoked. bien animado por Conferencia General. wowowowowow. so ready. HAha, i´ve been teaching lessons about the prophets just to prepare everyone else for it. haha, it´s the best, especially the Easter sessions.
Speaking of easter, secularly, if the easter bunny could perhaps drop an egg en this lado de la equator, I´ve really love......
no se, some shoes? Mine are wearing thin, oh or some socks, haha, I´ve worn holes through all of my socks for my flats.
Letters!!! pictures! de crayón, or photos de su caras! o de hogar, de Utah, de indiana, de whereever you guys are.
OR for kicks and giggles, could you send me tons of talks? the BEST there are.
Well, that is all for now.
i love hearing from you all!
hasta la pasta
Hermana Talbert

Pics! haha, ok, my eyes look funny, i{m way tired here, but Sylvia y Katia are members . theyre the best! the help me teach lessons almost everyday. haha, and allyson Naomi and her cousin Daniela, tagged along this day too! they´re so sweet. i love them so much! I hope i can stay her until may. because thats her birthday month!?! woohoo! in 3 years shes already asked to be baptized...we just need to have her dad baptized first, and receive the priesthood. poco a poco

Semana 11. Part 1 - 10-Mar-2014

So I made a video of our walk to our pencion´s house, but the file is too big. Guess you´ll have to wait and see it in a year and a half. haha, esta bien.
Well the work here is pretty much the same.....It´s hard to find people who will keep their commitments, and the rain keeps people from coming to church. Like, what even are you afraid of, you guys live in an oven, the rain won´t make you sick. Only it does, because they think it will. The power of the mind, is so much greater than the body. If you don´t want to get sick, or you decided you don´t have time for such things, you don´t. That´s been my experience at least. With enough faith, prayer and will power, there´s nothing you can´t do. Without faith, without prayer, without the will your subject to any weakness. Given, there are gente aqui, que are really sick or incapable, but they are SO few in number. It really irks me that wet droplets from the sky keep members and investigadores from coming to church and renewing or participating in those saving convenios.
 On a positive note, we have been finding people who have that desire now. I think before we were just teaching to teach. It was frustrating because these people really were not prepared to accept His gospel yet, they do not want to change yet. But lately, we have been teaching and finding people who have the light of Christ, who have the hunger to change, to mejorar sus vidas! No solomente, a escuchar a nosotros. but to really learn and have a different life for themeslves and their familias. One beautiful woman, accepted to be baptized the first lesson, last night she told us she needs to be baptized, she wants to, and she understands everything! Its just that, ella needs to attend two sacarament meetings to qualify, and she missed this morning because she was coming home from a viaje....well, she wants to be baptized the 22.....but she cant, and she leaves for Trujillo Peru the 23, for 6 months for work.....I dont want to lose track of her, she wants this, she needs this but Trujillo is un otra mision entirely! We going to find a way, just we dont know what to do right now....tiempo a orar.
Another family, we were teaching her daughter and nothing came of it....but we stopped by to say hello, and she invited us in. We taught her and she wants to be baptized as well as her sister!!! She told us...well, she recounted an awful history of her house, of the people that lived there and she told us this story, and said the day we stopped by, the day we came to teach her daughter, Paola, this seriously inquitious man left and those bad things that had happened stopped.
This was honestly such a testimony of the plan God has for us. We didnt know that day that our seemingly fruitless lesson con paola, would be a sign to her mother and her home of our message, of our love  and blessing in that home. As people, even as missionaries, we cant even comprehend all of the little circumstances that create experiences create blessings in the lives of others. It´s amazing how the Lord works miracles in this world. I don´t know how i am giong to effect someone today, i just hope that it will benefit them sometime in their lives, if not them, then their children, or their childrens children.

Bloquedor del Sol au natural - 03-Mar-2014

Mis amados!
Well, the sun has really gotten the best of us this week. The beautiful mix of my SPF110 and sweat, and the sand and dirt in the air, you´d think, would protect us from the sun´s rays...but when we walk around from 10 am until 9 pm, it´s hard to avoid the sun. Also, Little of the members know me as Hermana TAlbert. partly because they can´t pronounce my name, and partly because Hermana martinez doesn´t call me Hermana Talbert, i´m her Gringa. mi gringa mi gringa! la gringa. yea whatevs,
So this Sunday was fast sunday again, and we were looking for milagros. porque, we need them, this área needs them. So we have 3ish familias, and we had hoped for all of them to attend, to progress with their fecha bautismal, but none of them came. Who DID come, was Marker Delgado, a single dad who we´ve been  teaching unsuccessfully for two months now. but just recently hes shown interest in lessons and in coming to church! His daughter has come to church since she was smaller con su tia and she is SUCH an example to her father. She wants to be baptized in 3 years when she turns 8, and if Marker puede continuar a guardar su convenios and in tiempo receive the priesthood, he can baptize his daughter! We wont be here to see that, to celebrate that with them, but we can set this family up for eternity and maybe someday see them in los cielos. He was our only investigador that came, but we had a less active family come! and another less active girl.
I congratulate the missionaries before us for sharing their testimony and inviting these really great people to baptism.....but a lot of our menos activos in este Rama, este área, son niños. they´re children and only parts of families.....they have NO one to support them, after the missionaries who baptized them left, they never returned to church. Viviana is 15 years old, and she is the only member of her family of 6. and we visited her once on saturday, and asked her to come to church, and she appeared! and was talking with the other girls her age!
Though our testimonies and our faith should be enough to bring us to church and fulfill those convenios con Dios..........it´s often the members, those liders, those people who KEEP us there.
When we fill out our informes por este área, cada semana, we list los obstáculos del área, those problems for us, como missionaries.....and i´d have to say, every time, its the members. ALL of our less actives don´t come to church because of another member, and something that happened with them, or something that was said, or borrowed and not returned. ay carumba. enserio, this is the worst. People are so prideful and so slow to forgive. ALSO!
of the 400 members of this rama, only 5 of them pay tithing. lasdjfiahswgfih g! What is that!?!? They´re never going to receive a temple in the Iquitos misión if they don´t have the faith to sacrifice. It breaks my heart, not sometimes. but everyday. When we listen to these poeples problems and desafíos and issues....they can ALL be answered by the atonement of Jesús Christ and the steps to develop faith in Him and the Lord´s plan for each of us......but they just dont listen. they just don´t want an answer, they want to live with this anger and THIS, this, just kills me.
Anyway....this has been my week.
My companion and I are a lot more united, I´m beginning to understand her more and more, in the language and in action también. Haha, she´s still so weird, but i´ve learned a lot from her already. Como, how to share without thinking, and how to work hard. I´ve learned a lot of how NOT to do things as well, but i{ll just keep those for my personal journal. voy a aplicar en un fecha luego.
Thanks so much for your kind words of advice and encouragement! ciao for now. love you bunches
Hermana Talbert

Proclamation to my Family

Buenas Dias yáll

My shoes are already so worn. Since we have no money, we walk everywhere, it takes about 30 minutes to go from cita to cita a veces (appointment to appointment sometimes). Which means I arrive sweaty and wet. Haha, great image right? I love to walk, so it´s fine, but we also don´t like losing that time. This next month I told her we´re going to do finances and proportion out the money we need for Marzo (March). Ugh, probably the longest month of the year, and this was the shortest! I wish I could pay tithing, so we could be blessed with that financial security. Alas....there are others ways to make this possible. 

So this week was better, companionship wise. We both realize we need to make changes to teach better, feel better, act better, and when we constantly help the other remember these metas, we accomplish them more often. I think the turning point for me, was realizing that she does share these same goals, and that i´m not in this alone. And I think that she gets less frustrated with me because she has realized how hilarious I am. These last 8 weeks have been rough because when I was dropped into a different culture and a different language, I really felt like I lost my identity. I knew how to be clever in english, i knew how to make jokes in english, i knew how to make people laugh, without entirely offending them, in english...I knew how to be myself in english. And it has honestly been so hard. But I feel like myself again, for the most part, with the people here. What a gift this is. When we can share happiness, when we can share laughs, it really feels like home. This is just like the gospel! When we can share our testimonies when we can share our knowledge of God´s plan for each of us and the HOPE and the LOVE and the JOY we can have in this life for the life to come. WOW, in this work we can truly find ourselves, in this work we can truly feel like we are at home. I testify that when can share this joy with others, our joy increases. When I can share my humor with others, I feel like they understand who I am, what I enjoy. When I can share this Gospel and my testimony of it, I feel like they understand whom I represent and how I want to live my life and what makes me happy. I know that with or without this missionary plaque this joy can be shared! 

CHALLENGE: especially for your missionaries serving in the Google, Facebook mission, share what makes you happy. Share a part of your life with others, help them conocer (know/understand) the source of your happiness.

The Great Thaw of ´14

Would you please send me pictures!!!! I want to see your faces! and pictures of the Ice Age EEUU (USA), because it´s hard to believe anywhere could be colder than 80 degrees. Haha, it was 75 degrees and overcast yesterday, so Hermana Martinez and yo wore sweaters. 

My dearest Katherine! I hope you feel better, I know you LOVE bananas, especially con (with) peanut butter, so eat up! Bananas are stuffed full of potassium. I love bananas, the ones here are pequenas (little), but muy delicioso! and Despite the millions of other fruits here, I still have an ifinity for these. oh yea and this challenge goes for you too! DAILY, could you share your testimony with someone new? I know you can do it! you´re so friendly, and i want a picture of you and your family too! I want to see your beautiful smile! it´s contagious after all!

How is the work on the Indianapolis Temple coming? When will it be completed? The people here have to fly to Lima to visit the temple, and the people in Iquitos! wow, if they´re wealthier, they fly. if they´re everyday citizens, members of the church, they take a boat down the Amazon for 5 days and ride in a bus for 2 or 3 and spend a few precious hours in the temple of the Lord and return the same way. Dedicacion, si (Dedication, yes)?

So this month, we didn´t have any baptisms. We have been working with a woman ,and her family, the fma. villanueva. Let me tell you her story.....

For ten years, she has accepted the knocking of missionaries, elders and hermanas and let them into her home. For ten years she´s listened, once she visited the church with her two sons, 12 and 8 years old, and had never returned.

January 01, 2014, Ella had made yearly goals, had written them on little pieces of paper and put them away in a jar. This morning she remembered those papers and pulled one out, her goal for this year would be....have a unified family in the Lord....Later that day around 11am, Hermana Martinez and I found her name on our list of antiguas investigadores (old investigators) and found her cleaning out her garden, we offered to help and after shared our message of the Gospel. She accepted a return visit and we have been slowly teaching her, and her now three sons, renzo 18, frans 17 and leo 15. She accepted to be baptized and she could teach anyone the story of the Restauraccion of this church. But she has chosen to wait for her husband to hear and accept this gorspel so her whole family can be baptized together. She wants to be married to Fernanado for time and all eternity in the temple of the Lord and to have her family with her forever. We didn´t make our goal for the number of baptisms we wanted this month, but in the coming weeks we will try to teach her husband and help him gain this desire to be with his family for eternity and to live the commandments of God and to be steadfast followers of Christ. It´s times like these, that I remember the work and the glory of God, and not the statistics. 

When in doubt, Grill out

So sometimes our pencion is in his house, and sometimes he´s not. So we, mi companera and Elder Henriquez and Elder Nina, were all waiting for dinner, which is supposed to start at 5. and still no cena! We were hungry, and Hermana Nimia, the pencion´s mother, and our mother essentially too, told us to just eat something that night at the baptism. Well, this was not fun to hear for the two Americans. Hermana Martinez and Nina hardly eat anything anyway, but Elder Henriquez and I were like......uh, can we have something small to eat?  She looked at us like, what is there to eat, what could you want? She´s used to Mario preparing a banquet of fried food, and she knew we didn´t have much time. So I proposed we make grilled cheese sandwiches, because that´s quick and simple. She had no idea what this was, Elder Henriquez and I buttered up some bread, and made some delish grilled cheese for us all, and THEN haha, we used their tomatoe paste ketchup stuff to dip it in. WOW, was it satisfying. You can´t go wrong with American food from time to time. When in doubt, Grill out. 

So Elder Nina and Enriquez have been really succesful lately, their investigadores have really felt the desires to change. and their baptisms have been these last two saturdays! Enrique, from my previous letter is in this picture. He has such a LARGE HEART! and I love that Hermana Martinez and I could help him conocer la iglesia. The other night he gave me this sweet keychain, and he asked me what the significance was in english, It was ´Luis´ but it looked like Luz, which is light? and he said no, it´s a name, oh, cool......haha, he´s like it´s my name! I want you to keep it to remember me. It was really tender. I hope his children serve their missions in the US, and someday I get to meet them and feed them SO much food and help them baptize millions of my friends. So I can understand situations more and more now, and the conversation. My ability to speak is still lacking, but I can follow along with the conversation for the most part, unless people randomly change the subject, this is where I falter. We´ll be getting to know how someone has heard of the church or what not, and then they´ll be asking for a change, I hear the word cambio. ok......transfers? they were last week. no, they still look confused, ok, cambio, you want to change your life and be baptized? no, now my companion is giving me her ´you said something stupid´ face, ok, ask what the question is again.....she wants to trade eyes. yea, ok, sure, take them. no explain how that was relevant to what we were talkiing about. Haha, whenever we talk about the 10 commandments, and others that we as members should follow, whenever we talk about not coveting things, she always talks about my skin or my eyes. like freaking, i{m a missionary! not a posterboard you use to help you teach. woof, i´m struggling with her still, but hey, who doesn´t like a challenge? anyway, the spanish is SLOWLY improving, i think. haha, i hope. Last point..This saturday Maria Villanueve is getting baptized!!!! She has been visited by missionaries for 8 years now, and not until now has she accepted to be baptized. She is a lawyer and she had well, has SO many preguntas (questions) about everything. She is thorough and tough, and dedicated and faithful and strong. She plans on teaching her family and especially her husband so they can be married for time and all eternity in the Temple of the Lord. Her sons, Renzo, Frans y Leo, want to be baptized, but need to learn more and assist church. Our investigadores are few, but they are quality people! So, Morales is beautiful. It´s been really rainy lately though, which makes for more mesquitos. and uh....there´s a dengue warning for the area. A kid in our ward, Oscar had it this last month. but he´s still alive! So, I´m really very hopeful that if I get it, I will live. but really, my legs are so ugly. The elders have to wear hot pants...but at least their legs are covered. I{m going to have scars for the rest of my life, but I guess it can be something to show the children as evidence of my adventures in the Jungles of Peru! 
Yo tengo un testimonio del Libro de Mormon. Se que es un otro testimonio de Jesucristo y yo se porque yo leer cada día, yo meditar cada día, y yo preguntar a Dios in oracion si los contienes en este libro son verdadero. Como un misionara, yo nesecite un testimonio fuerte a dar mi conocimiento y mi testimonio para otras. Si yo no lo se, yo no lo ensenar. Yo se que Dios tiene un plan por cada de nosotros. Estoy aqui ahora, con Hermana Martinez, no a sufrir, para aprender y cambiar y desarrollar por mi experiencia. Se que Dios envio Jesucristo a la tierra a sacrificar y salvarnos de muerte espiritual y fisical tambien! Este es la Expiacion. Cuando Jesucristo vino, and suffrio en el Jardin de Gethsemene y muerte en la cruz por nosotros, el paved the way por nosotros a overcome our sins, our sorrows, our trials, and to even overcome death. That podemos volver a Dios con nuestros cuerpos perfecto y con un corazon y conscience perfecto. Este es mi testimonio, me ama este Evangelio y estoy MUY agradecida por los pactos yo hecho en el aguas del bautismo y en el templo. Se que este iglesia es verdadero, se que Jose Smith restaurado la iglesia bajo la direccion de Jesucristo, nuestros hermano mayor. Se que no hay un otra manera a volver a vivir con Dios y nuestros familias despues este vida sin el Doctrina de Cristo y un acceptance of this conocimiento. I love you all very much, and I am grateful to be here with my district, my companion, these members and siempre, con mi Padre Celestial and Jesucristo.
(I have a testimony of the book of Mormon. I know that is an another testament of Jesus Christ and I know because I read it all, registration I meditate, and I ask God in prayer if this book is true. As a misionary, I need a strong testimony to give my knowledge and my testimony to others. If I don't know, I don't teach. I know that God has a plan for each of us. I am here now, with Sister Martínez, not to suffer, in order to learn and change and develop my experience. I know that God sent Jesus Christ to the earth to sacrifice and be saved from spiritual death and physical too! This is the Atonement. When Jesus Christ came, and he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemene and death on the cross for us, he paved the way for us to overcome our sins, our sorrows, our trials, and to even overcome death. That we can return to God with  perfect bodies and with perfect hearts and consciences. This is my testimony, I love this Gospel and I am very grateful for the convenants I made in the waters of baptism and in the temple. I know that this church is true, that Joseph Smith restored the church under the direction of Jesus Christ, our elder brother. I know that there is no other way to return to live with God and our families after this life without the doctrine of Christ and an acceptance of this knowledge. I love you all very much, and I am grateful to be here with my district, my companion, these members and always, with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.)

Take care this week! HAsta la pasta

Hermana Talbert

Elder Henriquez

This is a featherless chicken. haha, the grandma had an idea to dress him, to keep him warm, and really for the wellbeing of everyone else, because it was quite disturbing to see him before clothes. trust me. 

how would you like your chicken nuggets to just get up and trot around the house. 

you wouldnt.

Hermana Talbert cooking some plantains