Finally Some Success

Hi,

Congrats Dougie and Melissa on their baby boy!!!! I know this is probably not new news but my mom just told me….I'm so happy for you.

So this week was pretty tough. The good news is that the toilet has been fixed. I repeat, the toilet has been fixed!! Finally some success! Someday I’ll send you all the video that the other elders took when I got home and saw that it was fixed. It was pretty magical stuff. They recorded it because they know how much the bathroom situation has bothered me.

Shout out to Jason he’s going to kill it over there in Washington! I'm so excited for him! This last week I can't remember anything that I did. So sorry my mind is just blank. 

Its been a fight getting investigators to church here and I'm starting to get annoyed with being stood up at church, but we’re working hard. I’m super excited for Conference this week and looking forward for some revelation on what I need to do. The one interesting thing was interviews with Hermana Barreiros. She taught us about the importance on not manipulating. As missionaries sometimes we like to manipulate people and tell them what they have to do, but we have to ask questions so that the spirit tells them what to do because then they’ll follow the spirit a lot fast and more than us. So I'm working on that because it's really hard. Questions are the key to good teaching but so hard.

Love y’all lots! Take your questions to Conference!

Elder Walker

The Saga of the Broken Toilet Continues

Hello,

So this last week has been pretty chill. There weren't very many people in their houses, so we sent most of the week walking around in the blazin heat of Chile. The best part about the heat has to be the crazy awesome sweat lines that you get from your backpack. We arrived at everyone’s house just dying, begging for water. Chileans are super nice though and have no problem with giving a stranger a glass of water. 

Anyways, update on the toilet. So I've kind of slipped into a dark age in my mission when it comes to the pension that we have. This last week has been tough because the toilet still doesn't work. Please don't ask me what we do when we have to go because its pretty awful. We've talked to a lot of people about it but nothings happened. It’s one of those awful things that in a few months I'm sure I’ll laugh at, but for now is just gross. So thats one more thing to be grateful for...a functioning bathroom.

Other than that it was a really awesome week. We have a pretty great investigator that told us that she knows that she needs to get baptized. Here names Alejandra and she's about 40 and loves the things that we've taught her. The problem is that she smokes so she already said that she feels bad about that and she want to quit, but she doesn't know if she can. It’s funny because we haven't even taught the word of wisdom yet, but her doubts got me thinking. It’s so important that the investigators have help in their conversion because we can do all that we do as missionaries, they can know that these things are true, but they a social conversion in the church just as much as a doctrinal conversion. What I mean by that is we can help them understand the Doctrine of Christ, how it really is, and they can believe it, and that doctrinal conversion is amazing. We all need it, but with that they have to change a lot of things in their lives sometimes their friends, their habits, their Sundays, and a million other things to experience to truly be converted. And that’s why we need member help. Really for both parts.

I’m loving life here in Chile!! Looking forward to Conference and all!! I saw a NCAA bracket today, and it was super interesting how crazy it is that I know nothing about something I used to care so much about!! Shout out to my two favorite sisters, Chloe and Anna! I would love to hear from them!! 

Love you all,

Elder Walker

Lookin' swag--like Hello Kitty. Why? I have no idea! haha.

I AAAAAAMMMM REAAAAADY!!

Hello!

Well, this week was a little interesting. From putting my hand in a toilet, teaching a lot of new investigators, to giving a talk in sacrament meeting. The mission never gives you the same day twice. It’s a paradox because we live the same day over and over, doing the same things, I could tell you what I'm going to be doing for the next 16 months, but at the same time is so different and entertaining. 

So first of all the Brazilian that lives with us just so happened to clog the toilet. Pretty awful! He has been having a lot of problems because of his stomach so I understood, but still asked him however how it happened. And he told me that he dropped the whole toilet paper roll in the toilet and was too lazy to take it out….Anyways, then he decided to flush try and flush it down. When I asked him how he even dropped the roll of toilet paper in the toilet, we figured out that he cleans himself a little differently than normal people. I’ll just leave that to your imaginations. The unofficial mission motto is “Fix It!” So in the end I put my hand in disgusting water to try and fish it out but it was stuck somewhere inside. We tried everything, but nothing worked. We still don’t have a toilet. Don't worry though.

After that I gave a talk in church that was pretty cool. Hard, but I wasn’t really nervous in the end just because that’s all we do as missionaries is talk. I also confirmed Kira a newly baptized member, which was pretty special. I loved it. After all that the Familia Lopez came to my ward just to find me! I sent you a picture of them. It’s been so gratifying this past week to talk to everyone about Nick. Crazy that everyone seems to know from the Lopez family that my twin brother is their son’s companion in Peru. There were a whole bunch of people that asked me if I have a twin. And it's ironic that I would love to hear that question so much. Me, who always hated that question. But is was really fun to say yes, I have a twin brother! haha. So yeah. It was great way to get to know the members better and for them to get to know me. Got to go.

Love, 

Elder Walker

Fix it!

Me with Nick's companion's family!

City Life

Hi,

My week: we do walk a lot, and we have a pretty big sector here in the City with just tons and tons of people. I love it. We spend the average day walking around our area in the burning hot sun looking for people to teach and contacting because we don't have very many investigators right now. We do use the metro a lot because we go into Santiago all the time. So I'm pretty fluent in using the metro (train), which is so much better than the buses. 

The funniest part of the week was also the best part of the week. So we had a baptism of this little girl whose family was less active. She’s 11 years old so I cant help but to think of my little sister when I talk to her. The baptism was on Sunday and our mission leader totally went M I A for church, and he usually plans the program and everything. So in church the Second counselor is like hey is the baptismal font full? So we had to go turn in on because they told me it takes a long time to fill. So we finished sacrament meeting and moved on to the program for the baptism after everyone leaves. After a song, a prayer, and a talk, we went to perform the ordinance, but as we walk out, we can see water coming out of the baptismal font somehow. The water filled up so fast that it overflowed. haha. So we got a little more water then we wanted, but Kiara got baptised and it was awesome. 

Also funny, my comp has fungus that’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen. It SMELLS soo bad when he takes off his shoes at night. Like wow! Poor guy, but wow! Pray for the medicine to work and his feet to heal, because he is really miserable.

So right now I feel pretty good, but I'm looking for someone that I just haven’t found yet. I feel like there is something really important for me to do here. Someone really important for me to find. I knew that when president told me this is where I was going. I felt it. I know there's somebody out there I just need more faith, to work harder be more obedient, to be more consecrated. I’m studying unity right now because our ward has a lot of problems with the missionaries. So anything on that topic would be awesome Mom. Unity and communication, I want to understand those to principles better. 

Love you all so much,

Elder Walker

Happy Birthday Grandma Leslie! Love you!

PS. Any ideas on how to bond with the members to get them to trust us and become unified with us in the work. The ward members don't seem to really like the missionaries much here. 

Sweet Week

Hello!

So a little bit about my ward. I’m in Lo Errazuriz 1. There are 6 missionaries in our ward, which is awesome. The two other Elders that we live with, Elder Moesinger and Elder Nobre and then the Hermanas. The ward is huge, well in comparison to my last ward. About 115 people go to church on average, which is a ton. The ward is split into 3 sectors because there are 3 companionships. The first two sectors are pretty nice with houses and nice apartamentos, but our sector is a little different. Nothing bad, just in my sector there are a whole bunch of Block. A Block is a huge apartment building where people live and there are probably about 40 of these buildings, which is awesome because there are a ton of people that live really close. 

The member are really sweet, and I can already tell I'm going to love their help and support as I try to figure out how to use them as a missionary. It was kinda funny we had lunch my first day and there was this huge Chilean dude, like massive, that ate with us, and when I told him our sector, he just started laughing at Elder Oliver and I. He told us that he’s scared to go into our sector because of how filthy it is. haha. No worries, Mom, I’m perfectly safe. 

Other than that the biggest surprise was at church. Elder Oliver had baptized this convert the Sunday before I arrived, and it was time for her to receive the whole Ghost, which I didn’t know until we got to church. We went up to the front and the segundo consejero just looked at us and says Elder Oliver do it, and he’s just like I can’t, I don’t know how. So they both looked at me and I'm just like okay. So for the third time I gave the gift of the holy ghost on my mission, which is pretty awesome. The first two times, I wrote it all out and practiced to make sure I knew all the words. This time I was still pretty nervous in front of everyone, my first Sunday and all, but they words came to me. All was well. haha. Good story for the journal though! Elder Oliver can do it next time—he knows how now. 

Anyway, I love all of you lots. The City is awesome and the sheer number of people amazing.

Elder Walker