Some Recent Thoughts

     When I first came home, I thought my life was starting over. I felt as though I wasn't sure where I belonged in the world, and that I didn't have a place there anymore. Which to a point was true. The Michaela Talbot that came home wasn't the same one who left home for Canada. I was a completely different person. I don't entirely believe that's why I felt the way I did though. 

    The person I was before my mission was so different. I was certain of what I wanted from the world and from my life. I wanted to be a faithful member of the Church, and I was, but I was more faithful to the world. I didn't make the Church a priority in my life as much as I would like to say I did. It was my convenient life preserver. The Atonement and my relationships with Heavenly Father and the Savior and the Holy Ghost were all just ropes that kept me from falling too far while letting me get close enough to the world to be "happy". I was happy because I felt like I had a sense of control in my life, like I was the Captain of my ship and my world was there to serve me. Instead, I was serving the world. 

    When I finally came to my senses, I realized that I wasn't as happy as I could be. I was a selfish kind of happy, and it was making me hollow and empty. The things that made me happy were like empty calories, and they made me full until they were gone and then I was back for more. Just like too much sugar, they were causing a painful cavity in my heart that just kept getting worse. Of course, I never let it hurt too much and I never fixed it, because that was an uncomfortable feeling.

    When I left for the Missionary Training Center (MTC), I was nervous but so excited because the change in me had already started and I was feeling the Spirit much stronger than I ever had before. It was fantastic! I met a bunch of amazing people and I made a lot of friends! I was amazed when we would share experiences and testimonies because until that point, I thought I was the only one who had the experiences and feelings that I did. Turns out, a lot of others felt the same way as me.

    Leaving the MTC was scary. I was the only sister in my group that was going to Canada and I felt like I was herding cats. Half my group was already on the next plane from Minnesota to Winnipeg, and I wasn't sure where to go so I waited for the elders from my district and we made it on the plane with little time to spare. I sat alone, away from the elders the entire time, and just studied my scriptures because I wasn't sure what else to do. 

    To make a long story short, I learned over the course of my mission that putting for the work to have a spiritual feast was so much better than using temporary pleasures to make me happy. Setting aside time every day to study my scriptures and communicate with my Heavenly Father gave my heart an incredible feeling of light, joy, and love. When I came home, I stopped doing those things. I didn't set aside any time to be with the Lord and I didn't make time to keep my heart full. No service, only turning inwards. No humbly kneeling before God, just a grocery list of blessings in my prayers. It started to make that cavity return and it has been a real struggle trying to change. But with the help of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as well as the healing power of the Atonement, I find myself changing, little by little. I still have a long ways to go, but I'll get there. With each and every step I take, I feel closer to the Lord, I feel my strength coming back, and I feel that hole inside of me get smaller and smaller.

7 Months Later...

     Well hey there guys! It's been a hot minute since I last updated you on my life so I thought I would just share a few things about what it's been like to be home! When I came home back in July, I took it easy for a while, but I had to jump on registration for school and get that all figured out. I am currently going to Idaho State University, majoring in Speech and Language Pathology. Right now, I'm working toward my Bachelor's degree. I am also working at Whispering Pines Assisted Living here in Downey. Working and going to school keep me pretty busy most of the time, but I have been able to meet up with some friends from the mission who are now home, and enjoy the returned missionary life. 

    I won't lie, it has been pretty tough to transition from being a missionary to being home again. I miss the people of Canada so much and I reeallly miss being a missionary, but I know I am where I need to be. The Lord has really helped me with the adjustments and I am slowly but surely getting the hang of life at home. I sometimes get a little depressed because I feel like I don't have a purpose anymore but I know that isn't true. As long as I am on the Lord's team, I will always have a purpose. So many tender mercies since I have been home have reminded me that the Lord is looking out for me more than ever and that He is with me all the time, especially when I am struggling.

    When I was coming home, I met this girl who would be flying back to Salt Lake with me. She was flying back to see her mission president and his wife! It was nice to know that someone understood my fear of going home and she seemed okay so I figured eventually I would be too. When we landed, I was worried about carrying my bags because I had so many but she came and helped me carry my bags out to where my family was. I firmly believe that in every aspect of our lives, God sends us angels, seen and unseen. 

    All in all, I am so grateful to be home and I am excited for all the adventures I have ahead of me. Covid has taken a few opportunities from all of us, but that hasn't stopped me from doing the things I love with the people I love. I am just grateful for my Savior and my Heavenly Father, and all the amazing family and friends that I have. 

I hope you are all doing well and that you are continuing to make the most of your life! 

Here are a few pictures I've taken since I have been home!

🙏The Start of Something New 🙏

 Well everyone, this is it. This is my last email as a missionary. To be honest, I don't know what to say or feel. I don't have any idea where to start but I guess the beginning is as good a place as any.

 18 months ago, I received my mission call to the Canada Winnipeg Mission and my first thought was "where's Winnipeg?"  well, here we are, 18 months later, literally in Winnipeg  

   Anyways, jokes aside, these last 18 months have been so incredible in so many ways. I've had so many amazing experiences that I never thought could happen to me. I've both seen and felt the hand of God in my mission and in me. I've felt the power of the Atonement in every aspect and I've seen it change not only my life but the lives around me. 

    There's so many things I could say that I learned and what I did or felt or saw but I don't have that kind of time nor can I think of all of those things. Some are too special and sacred to share, but I will share one experience that taught me a powerful lesson. I was reading my scriptures one morning, and I felt prompted to study a few different things, and as I did, a picture of someone we were teaching came to my mind. They were dressed in a baptismal jumpsuit and both my companion and I were standing by them. Later, my companion and I were shocked because we'd studied the same thing for the same person! So we put together a lesson and we felt very strongly about it. But when we went to the person's house, she told us she was getting ready to leave in about 30 minutes for a trip. To somewhere. She was a very busy woman but really nice. We had no idea what to do because we'd thought for sure this was our chance to invite her to baptism. Instead, the Spirit whispered to us to give her a Book of Mormon instead. So we did, and testified of it. She gladly accepted it, but as we left I felt the sinking feeling that she would never read it. As we followed up with her later, my feelings were confirmed, much to my disappointment, and I later learned she'd told the Sisters she wasn't interested in learning about the Gospel. But what about baptism? Wasn't I supposed to see her get baptised? I slowly realized that just because she isn't ready now, doesn't mean she never will be! It's all in God's timing. 

    My friends, God's timing is the biggest lesson I've learned above all in my mission. God's timing is so perfect and He knows what we need when we need it. There's been so many times in my mission where I've learned about how perfect God's timing is, right down to the minute. It amazes me every time. He's so merciful and loving and He just wants to bless us! And let me tell you, I've been BLESSED on this mission. 

  

 I know that my Savior lives, and that He is the Son of God. I know the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the words of God. I know that President Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God and that he leads and guides this church through revelation from God. I know that this Church is JESUS CHRIST'S CHURCH! I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and that he restored the church to the earth. I know the power of the Priesthood is real and that by keeping our covenants and the commandments, we will find greater happiness.

 I'm so grateful for all the things I've been able to do on my mission, for all the people I've served around, and for everyone I've met here in the North. God could never have sent me to a more beautiful place in the world. Thank you all so much for your love, your prayers, and your support. I love you all and I can't wait to see what this next chapter of my life holds for me!

 

 If you want to stay in contact with me but don't have any of my home info, I'll probably be using this email for a couple weeks so you can still reach me with this or Facebook. Thank you all again for being such bright lights in my life.

I want to share these last 2 scriptures with you, they're from 2 Nephi 9.

 "Come, my brethren, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come buy and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice...Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice."

 Rejoice and believe in the Lord's promises. ️

With love, and joy, 

 Sister Talbot 

Little Week of Horrors...And Blessings!

 What's up everybody? I hope your week was not as wild as ours  Soo much has happened this week, it's crazy! First of all, it was Sister Nelson's 21st birthday so that was mega exciting. How exciting can a missionary's birthday be, you ask? Well, let me tell you. To start out, we don't get very good service in our apartment so we have to go out on our patio to take calls. We also have 2 sliding glass doors, and a screen. Our first sliding door has a wooden rod that we put there so no one can open it, since it doesn't have a lock. When we open that door, we lift the rod and prop it against the side so it just falls down when we shut it. The second door has a lock and then our screen door... Is just a screen door  anyways, when we went outside this particular morning, there was a bug between the second glass door and the screen, and I didn't want it to go inside, so being my wise self, I figured I'd just shut the 1st door and everything would be fine.... See the problem yet?  I LOCKED US OUT OF OUR APARTMENT! We also had no shoes or socks and no car key either  long story short after about 2 hours we were able to get someone to come unlock it  ugh. The rest of the day was pretty good, we had a little birthday party during dinner so that was super fun!

   On Wednesday night, we went and talked to these Chinese ladies that come dance in our parking lot, and we asked if we could join them. They invited us to come on Saturday morning and that was so much fun! It was difficult because they dance so gracefully and quickly and I was like a little giraffe baby on ice  couldn't figure out what was going on or how to do it but it was super fun!

 On Friday, we had Elder Ellis film our video for tomorrow and we are so excited! He's super awesome. Filming was super funny, I'm excited for y'all to see the video! 

 On Saturday night, we had a wild time. We walked in, put our stuff down and I went to take off my shoes when in the corner of my eye, I saw something. Turns out it was a spider hanging from the ceiling like 4 inches from my head ️ I flipped out, Sister Nelson flipped out, we sprayed it with cleaning spray that contains bleach cuz i hoped it would kill it, but it just dropped to the floor and ran but Sister Nelson got brave and killed it for us 🤣 what an exciting time to be alive...we're pretty done with this apartment 

 Anyways, I cannot believe this is my last  full week in the mission!! It's so crazy. I want to share with you all a scripture I read this week that I absolutely love!

It's in Psalms 27:11 and 14. Verse 11 says "Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies". To me, it sounded like a prayer for the Lord to lead us in the right direction and then in verse 14 is His response. Verse 14 says "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." I love this verse because in verse 11, it sounds like we are asking to be led forward in a clear and simple path but in verse 14, it sounds to me like the Lord is just saying" Wait. Just wait and it'll be okay" I just love that because so many times we ask the Lord over and over to lead us forward and His plan for us is to just stay where we are. Trust in Him and let Him lead you as He will. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!  ️

Love, Sister Talbot

1. Birthday party 

2. Fun picture

3. We walked someone's chihuahua...good times

4. Birthday dinner

5. Filming

6. Elder Ash on set