Work and Hope

Well this week was pretty interesting, we had a suprise trip to the temple, I got super sick, then I made some pizza. So my week was pretty normal. 

So after 9 months, I went back into Providencia and it was pretty weird. Santiago is really similar to the U.S. It's almost the same actually, super nice and clean, more dogs but pretty much it looks just like Los Angeles. After being in the country and run down areas, it was real weird to go back to a place where I feel like I'm in the US. The temple was amazing, and I had one of the best temple experiences that I've had. It was so amazing to be in the House of the Lord. 

Anyways, Friday I got sick. After lunch, I felt awful, just really bad, and I being super stubborn decided to go work anyways. We just walk around my sector for a bit looking for someone to teach, but my sector is not good for a sick stomach, and we finally got into a house and started teaching. In the middle of the lesson asked to go to the bathroom. I just stood up and pushed my way in. Right when I got in, I fell to my knees and threw up in there toilet. Pretty gross. But after I got up finished the lessen and said the prayer. Later that night I threw up about three more times, and it was just peachy. haha. but life's good. 

It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes. I'm siting in the cyber next to a man with a big gage hole in his ear and a cigarette lighter hanging in the hole. He's probably a great person. I don't know, but I look at him and think why waste my time. Then, I repent inside and feel bad. I contacted a house this week and talked with an old lady who was super sweet and nice. She was holding her little grandson, and I told her she could live with him forever. Then, she told me she wanted to hear more on Tuesday. So I left to move on to the next house. Just outside the door, I stopped to write down the adress of her house, and I could hear her laughing. I stopped and listened, and I heard the same sweet old lady laugh about us and say, "No, don't worry. I won't be here on Tuesday". It is so hard to find people who want to change. I want to help give these people the same joy that I've felt, the eternal happiness that God loves us, but they don't listen. I'm working hard with my investigators, but it is hard to keep the hope and fait and enthusiasm going.

Oh well! We get to talk in a week. Right? All chill. I will plan on calling at 5 my time. Work it out with Nick.

Love you lots, 

Elder Walker

Temple!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Hi,

Wow, you go to church from 5 to 8 my time. It would be pretty hard for us to call after church, so I think it would be better if I could call before your church. I would like to start studying college level text books in the only two things that I can study: Spanish and the Book of Mormon. So if you could send me those books when you have time or when you can that'd be awesome. Other that the normal stuff for a package would be great: ties and sweaters and such because its about to get really cold here. Well, I guess Boulder City got the message about eternal marrage!!! Lexi and Preston!?!? That is some crazy stuff. The world keeps spinning over there, I guess. 

Anna! Twelve years old!!! ¡¡Mi hermanita!! ¿Dejes de crecer ya? No me gusta eso. I can't bieleve it!! I sure that everyone in the family remembers whe you were born. I remember being in Challenger school and being picked up from school to go see you. Who can forget the 21 of Abril?? Expecially when weve celebrated you birthday 3 times that one year. haha. All right, so I've thought of a few things to say as you enter young women's this week!! Wow no lo puedo creer. Don't forget to pray. Ever. It's so important. I pray all the time: before lessons, during lessons, 2 times in the morning, in the night, and every time that I eat. We can pray and ask for help always in any moment. I was thinking about you in personal study the other day and found a scripture in Alma 39:10, so go read that--it's pretty awesome. I love how the scriptures just talk directly to us sometimes. Listen to your older brothers and sister. Life's rough sometimes but that's why God gave us the amazing gift of prayer to talk to Him and counsel with him in the good moments and in the bad moments. Love you so much!!!

Anyway so this week was pretty cool. We taught a ton of people had a few people swear at us, had some investigators at church, so a pretty great week as a missionary. Love the mission.  Sorry ran out of time. It's pretty dirty sometime here after the feria. haha. That's one random thing. They have huge ferias, like street fairs with venders and things, and that's where everyone buys their food. After the streets get really dirty. haha. Love this country.

Love,

Elder Walker

A baton for when the Chileanas come runnning. haha 

Working as Missionaries Do

Hello again,

We split our Sector, and now I have a super different area to work in. I honestly have nothing to say this week. I studied pretty hard and worked pretty hard and slept even harder.

I'm with Elder Moesinger, who is just really awesome, and in fact he's teaching me how to smile more. He is just always smiling during the lessons and the contacts, and I love it. I find that he has so much faith. The thing that we've been working on is our teaching. He is quite new and for that it's been hard to have fluidity in the lessons so we've been studying really hard. It's pretty awesome because President just changed it so that we can study more, and I'm really excited. 

So the work has been pretty exciting finding new people and talking about the restored gospel. One thing was difficult about the week, well really just one day in particular, was that we had to say no to teaching three different investigators and menos activos because there were only women in the house. This is a common rule, and when you enter the house and realize that the person is alone and obviously doesn't care about the rule, it's a little hard to stand up and leave. But obedience, that's pretty much my life.

Chloe, you're going to be fine--there are a lot of fish in the sea. Actually, I feel sorry for him. Good luck finding anyone as good or better than you. That guy has just messed up his life! haha. I'm excited to see the house in 2 years!! Things look great, Mom.

Love ya'll,

Elder Walker

Working, Conference, and Changes

Hi,

SO this week was pretty full, just like every other week for the last 8 months or so. Being missionaries, going to Conference, and having changes kept us busy. 

First, being missionaries. So as usual we left the house and taught people last week, and with the toilet finally being repaired after six long weeks of it being broken, I've really found a new passion for the work. Haha. We have a few good investigators but none of them attended Conference :( but I'll keep you posted on them. Really I'm just trying to find a way to have success, but I'm realizing more and more that there isn't some secret door or hidden anwser that gives us the key that we need to have sucess. Life is more about hard work and endurance, and that's why we have the gospel to give us the strength we need to overcome that natural man...and work. Nefi gives us a great example in Nefi 7:17 he prayed for strength from God to break his cords, not for some magical solution that would free him from his problems. He was very specific, and God gave Him the power that he needed in that moment to free himself and save his own life.

Second, going to Conference. Honestly all the stuff about marriage was a little much, but at the same time I liked it. It's good to keep the eternal perspective even in the mission. I did however love the talk given that used the allegory of dancing to the music. We can learn the dance moves and even become great dancers, but if we don't hear the music we're not going to enjoy it as much. Conference makes me a little homesick though. We as a mission didn't view the priesthood session which makes me a little sad, but I'll read it in a few weeks. But President B. did tell us that well be going to the temple now after President Monson's talk, and the mission is super excited for that.

Third, having changes. So we had changes and now I'm with Elder Moesinger. I love this guy and as clearly identified from his name he is not Latino. I've had all Americans as comps in my mission!!!!! Its just kind of funny now. haha. The crazy thing is that I already knew him because we've been living together in the same pension; however,  President shut down a sector in our ward, which makes our sectors huge with just us to work in it. I love it! He's from Ogden, Utah, and he actually knew Elder Brown (the Elder that trained me) before the mission. So that's cool. He just finished training and now were comps and super stoked to go find some people with him. 

Love you guys so much, 

Elder Walker

New companion, Elder Moesinger, and I

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!