Elder Alex Talbot: Loving being here!

Reunion in Lakeland.

Hey! Everything is going great over here! It's starting to get really hot (and it's just going to get worse from here...). General Conference was great! I only got to watch the first and last sessions and the priesthood session. The other two we left to follow up with people who hadn't shown up. The Ivara family (Venezuelan) didn't show up. Hipolite Martinez ((ee-po-lee-teh) the guy I thought was a member did show up and enjoyed it. We are baptizing him this Saturday. I am so glad to have the car back! Although the bikes were giving me a good tan I did not at all enjoy them.

Missionary tan lines.

Sounds like the missionary mom thing was a lot of fun. I know of Elder Cowley, I think I have only met him once or twice though and only in passing. I don't think I know Elder Canfield.

Easter sounds like it was fun as well. I definitely miss those family parties. We didn't really do anything here. We went to conference and on Saturday the ward had a huge Easter egg hunt and party.

Alex with his crab dinner.

Over the week we had a few good lessons. This lady named Concepcion and her husband David have really come a long ways since when they first were talking to the missionaries. We are going to teach them today at 4. We thought that they were going to show up for conference as well but never did.

We are teaching this lady named Alicia now who is a Guatemalan lady. We are also teaching a lady named Emma who is from Mexico. She is pretty smart and asks questions when she doesn't understand something. She is in Mexico right now so we are waiting for her to get back.

I still think I want to do something with languages. I love hearing the similarity of languages and finding out the roots and origins of words. I don't know how I feel about translating any more though. It's hard! I guess it gives me experience, though. I traded one of my Spanish phrasebooks from the MTC to Elder Arrieus for his Creole one. Hopefully I can learn a little of that before I go somewhere where there are Haitians.

I'm doing really well. I am still loving being out here. It's hard work sometimes but it is way neat. Being able to see families and individuals progress in the gospel is worth every frustration that comes. I love being out here serving.