Hi,
It seems crazy that Thanksgiving is already here this week, and wow, am I going to be missing those fresh rolls, and turkey! Most of all, I'll miss the good laughs with my amazing cousins! We always laughed so much at Thanksgiving. I'm happy with the work though, so don't worry.
This last week was a rough one. Every week has its struggles, but others are harder to carry than others. We had one investigator at church, which was bad but not terrible. I wanted more, but I'm confident that the spirit will touch them and they will go to church soon. However, I'm really happy for Johan and that he made it to church, and we expect him to get baptised soon in December.
We had a big surprise reunion this last week, and it seems like were going to have another one this week as well. The President is going crazy because were about to achieve our goal. In the last meeting, he changed the rule and now we don't report our obedience to our leaders. It may seem like a small change, but it was pretty surprising. Before we had to report out obedience every week on things like getting up on time, doing exercises and eating lunch in less than an hour. Every few months for the last year, we've reported more and more things until we got to the point where we essentially lived the law of moses. Now the focus of president is that we can be consecrated missionaries.
Lastly, I had another somewhat frightening experience with another missionary when he unexpectedly called me in the morning during our studies. He expressed a host of feelings of stress and disappointment and had a break down. He just was carrying a really heavy load and needed to talk about it. It made me think of a scripture in Mosiah 18:8:
"Willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life."
As part as our baptismal covenant, I know that we are called to lighten the burdens of others, lift the hands that hang down, and help each other in this journey. I hope that we can all help our neighbors in this hard life we live in and live worthy of our covenants.
Elder Walker
