Learning Dutch · leaves for Guyana Nov 17
Provo, UtahDropped off Wed, Oct 21
See his photos The Guyana Georgetown Mission — headquartered in Georgetown, Guyana since 2023 — covers six countries and territories: Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.
Tal may start in Guyana while his Suriname visa is processed.
Whats Up everyone hope you are having a great week! Time in the MTC has been flying by so fast it feels like it was 3 days ago since I got called to be a zone leader!
On Thursday me and my companion had our first HOA in Dutch. We were scared to do it so we said a prayer and asked for help and guidance. Also we took 1 hrs to prepare. The lesson went actually really well. We took up the full 15 min and taught her all about prayer in Dutch. I messed up only 1 or 2 because I forgot a word but overall the Dutch words flowed naturally. It really testified to me how powerful the gave van talen is and without it there is no way we couldn't leren dat taal dat sniel.
I had been wondering for a little bit on how to make my personal study more spiritual each day even when I am dead from class. He told me to always start and end with a prayer in my study and express to god exactly what I am feeling. If I am feeling I am going to have a hard time focusing I will pray to him and tell him that and ask him to help me focus during my study. As I have done that each study has been way more spiritual and I always feel so locked in.
Today was Fast Sunday. It was one of the coolest experiences because in sacrament meeting me and my companion assigned a asl district to do the sacrament prayer. So they did the prayer in ASL. It's very weird because you keep your eyes open but you could feel the spirit so strong it was amazing and they do such a great job expressing their emotions and spirit. Then in the Sacrament meeting sense it was fast sunday we all were able to bear testimony the spirit was so strong. It was so cool hearing everyone's testimony and taught me so much about the love God has for all his children.
Then in class I was asked to write a question and I wrote How to look at Repentance as a Joyful thing. I forgot the question and during are 1:30 hr personal study I saw repentance come up so much I was reading in Helaman when he is teaching the laminates about christ birth and repentance then I pulled the question out and on the back was someone who answered it in are class and they said one word washed and then the spirit guided me and taught me and answered my question. I have never thought of it this way I realized that repentance is like taking the sacrament it's a gift to remember his atonment and him bleeding for are sins. Repentance should be a daily way to rember his suffering and helps us be more like him.
Today we got the opportunity to have Garret W Gong speak to us and also because my whole district joined the choir we got to sing We Thank Thee of God For a Prophet the spirit was so strong as we sung that. Then gong spoke all about atonment of Jesus Christ I love one part he said the answer to everything is Jesus Christ and nothing is unfair because of him. Then he also shared how we need to be patient with ourselves because God is pleased with are sincere desires and will bless you for your effort even when you feel it isn't a enough.
To end I would like to encourage all you guys to try to read the book of Mormon each day. We learned in a Devotional all about the Book of Mormon. They said that the Book of Mormon is the greatest source of direction and it will change your thoughts and actions and help you with choices you need to make.
Love you guys and miss each and everyone of you guys. Send me emails i would love to hear from you guys!
Talmadge — Tal to everyone who knows him — is a son, a brother, and the one with the biggest grin in every photo. These pictures were taken at the Meridian Idaho Temple just before he left, holding the flags of the two countries he's been called to serve.
His call to the Guyana Georgetown Mission came by text on May 12, 2025. Now he's at the Missionary Training Center learning Dutch so he can teach in Suriname. While his Suriname visa is processed, he'll begin serving in Guyana.
“I am loving it here in the mtc everybody is so nice and friendly and everyone shows christ love and its such a spiritual place.”Tal, in his first letter home
On Tuesday, November 17, Elder Stevens flies out of Salt Lake City, connects overnight in New York, and lands in Georgetown, Guyana the next morning. He'll serve in Guyana first while his Suriname visa is processed.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026 · 5:40 PM Mountain Time from Salt Lake City
Our family's pre-mission photos at the Meridian Idaho Temple. Tap any photo to see it big.
The Guyana Georgetown Mission is one of the Church's newest standalone missions — renamed and reheadquartered in 2023, having previously been administered from Port of Spain, Trinidad. It covers a vast and diverse territory spanning three countries and multiple island nations across the Caribbean and northeastern South America.
Elder Talmadge Stevens will serve in a mission spanning six countries and territories— Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao — stretching across the northeastern coast of South America and into the Dutch Caribbean. One of the most geographically and culturally diverse mission territories in the entire Church.
The Dutch language assignment reflects both Suriname (the only Dutch-speaking country in South America) and the ABC Islands — Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao — three Dutch Caribbean islands off the Venezuelan coast where Dutch and Papiamento are spoken daily.
Called by the First Presidency, President Van Gils began service in July 2024, succeeding President Richard E. Lamprecht. He previously served as a missionary in the Netherlands Amsterdam Mission — bringing firsthand Dutch-language experience directly relevant to Suriname and the ABC Islands.
It came as a text message at 5:30pm on Monday, May 12th, 2025. Not a thin envelope in the mailbox — a notification on a phone screen, the kind that stops everything. We'd been watching for it for weeks.
We opened it together that night as a family. When Talmadge read the words Guyana Georgetown Mission there was a moment of pure silence — the kind that only happens when something is exactly right.
He reports to the Home MTC on October 7th, then the Provo MTC on October 21st. He'll be gone for 24 months. He'll come home changed. We all will.
Tell Tal what's happening at home, share a scripture, or simply let him know you're thinking of him.
Write to Elder Stevens →