Hey,
So, I don't have much time, sorry, but I had a great week. I love being with Elder Ewell and have already learned so much about the power of prayer. The other day we were in the street with nothing to do and all the lessens had fallen through so we went and said a prayer, and then the next two houses let us in so teach them. Prayer is real and the power is real.
Other than that Juan and Patricia are progressing super well. Juan told us the other day that he wants to go to the temple for when his daughter gets married. These people are so prepared. We need your prayers to help them get baptized on the 19 of September they still have to go to church and everything, but please pray.
Love you all so much,
Elder Walker
As you already found out from the picture Gonzalo emailed to you, I'm with another Gringo comp. Keeping the all gringo companions streak alive!! Haha. Elder Ewell is super great and just happens to be another companion from St. George, Utah, and went to the same school as my last comp. He's super big and spent most of highschool in the gym. This change I've decided to gain a little muscle so watch out guys I'm going to be coming back with a beach body...if i can stop eating all this delicious bread. Elder Ewell is a great missionary, and I love being with him. We get along great and can already tell that were going to have great change together.
So the exciting news this week is that we found some pretty special people. A family whose daughter married a Returned Missionary named Gonzalo (He emailed you). He's a great guy with a huge testimony, but his wife and her family aren't members of the church. It was a miracle because we just happend to knock on their door when Gonzalo was there, and we set up a time to go back and to teach them with him. It really is the kind of miracle I didn't think would happen to me. Now they want to get baptized. Were going to teach them this Thursday so please pray for us. The parents are named Patricia and Juan. So if you go to the temple or have some time please pray for them.
Right now everything's just groovy as Dad would say. Thanks so much for the emails. Love you guys,
Elder Walker
So this last week was pretty exciting with a lot of changes. First of all I still dont know about the transfers because President moved the changes to Wednessday instead of Monday, and as you know, Pday is now on Tuesday, weekly planing in now on Monday, which is a normal day. Having said that, I am still with Elder McDormett and will know of changes and who my comp is tomorrow morning, so well see if I have another gringo.
In terms of the sector everything is going really well. We have a few really great investigators, Juan Pablo, Carlos, and Anthony. They're really great, and I have learned a lot form teaching them. With Juan Pablo, he's probably one of the coolest investigators I've had. He bought us Dunkin Donuts and Popeyes the other day, just because. He's huge like a body builder dude, and he know his Bible. I love him, but have had to study up on my doctrine to be able to teach him. It's really humbled me, and I have learned that the Book of Mormon and the Spirit are the only really persuaders, my words dont really do much. Revelation and the Spirit are way more powerful tools than years of study. I'm learning a lot with him.
Other than that things are chill. I know that zone meeting I described sounded kind of harsh, but I love my mission president, he's a baller. I didn't really minds the activitly the other day, and I just want to work hard in my sector. Thanks for the letter. Talk to you next week, I'm excited for the changes.
Love,
Elder Walker
So this last week we had a pretty edifying Zone Conference. President taught us a lot of things and gave us a few presents as well from the mission. We got an awesome new notebook from the mission and other things that to be honest are awesome and everyone was really excited but on email it doesn't have the same effect. Guess its just a mission thing. Another funny thing is that President has given us some rules with respect to our companions we cant hug for too long or call them “my companion” in lessons because people think were gay…
We also had an interesting activity where we all stood up and gave a report on our sectores in front of President and the assistants and 2 zones. It was pretty intense to be honest. The assistants asked each of us about our baptismal dates and new investigators then I stood up with Elder McDermott and said with my head held high that we didn't have any baptismal dates nor any baptism this month. Considering the circumstances I was a little upset but confident because I tried my hardest God knew it and I knew it and nothing else really matters. I can always do more and pray that God will show me what more i should be doing. Other than that this is the last week of the change and next week my Elder McDermott will probably be leaving because this is his first sector and has been here for 7 months. I’m happy here and looking forward to the changes, excited who my new comp will be I’m going for 8 gringo comps right now but well see what happens.
In terms of other events during the week I’ve got nothing. We pretty much contacted. Actually on Saturday when I completed a year we decided to contact like the whole day. We wanted to contact 100 people in one day. In the end we only contacted 40 which was alright because we got rejected more than 100 times. After contacting almost the whole day at about 8 o’clock in the night we were pretty tired and I had to use the bathroom really bad. Let’s just say I had a close call that night but someone finally let us in and I was able to use the bathroom and teach the Gospel.
Elder Walker
Wow!
This week was incredible and full of some of the biggest miracles that I’ve had in this short year here in Chile. It’s amazing to me to see the tender mercies that the Lord gives us to answer our prayers and give us strength. I have been praying every day for a month straight (since I left my last sector), and I know that HE answered my prayer.
On Saturday, we planned a temple trip with the ward with all the recent converts that we have. Attending the temple is a huge point of emphasis in our mission because we have the temple so close to us, and it’s such a spiritual builder for new people in the church to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. In fact, President wants us to go within a month after their baptisms. So as a ward we left in the afternoon to go the temple and ended up arriving at about 5 o' clock. As we pulled into the parking lot, I looked out the window and saw there in the shadow of the Santiago Temple, the counselor of my old ward, Hermano Meya. We became good friends in the 5 months that we spent together. We greeted each other and began to talk, and he then told me the 3 of the people that I had been teaching Fernando, Jose, and Elizabeth (2 from the Familia Cortez) had recently gotten baptized!
To be completely honest when I heard that news, I started to tear up and my face burned from excitement and joy. The very people that I have prayed for every single day of the last month to keep their baptismal dates, achieved the goals that we set. I was very sad that I had to leave them before they could make that important step of baptism with me, but they weren’t ready in that time. It has been one of the hardest trials of my life to leave such great people and put all my trust in the Lord that he might help them because I was helpless miles away in another ward. I had to put all my trust in Him. It also hurt my pride to have to leave and have other missionaries come. I had gone 4 months without a baptismal date and the moment that God gave me success, He asked me to leave. That was hard. In this one experience, I’ve learned so much. In the temple I then saw and talked to the old Bishop as well. He shook my hand and told me all the good news as well. He knew my investigators by name and told me how great they were, which gave me such comfort. My heart was so full that day on the ride back, I even started to cry again...but just a little bit. Haha.
Right now we have a couple of great families of investigators. They are the Familia Monriquez and Gonzalez. I love them so much. We have taught them lesson 1, and they loved it. They have shared their desires to get baptized, but we need them to go to church, so pray for them. More than anything I have a testimony of prayer.
Working hard here in Chile. I love you,
Elder Walker
Hello,
Well, this week came and went quickly, but I´m super happy to be here on the mission. The experience this week reminded me of the special opportunity that we have as missionaries to be her in HIS work. Elder McDermott and I are working hard, but to be honest really hard, and I love this work.
On Friday morning Elder McDermott, and I were contacting in the morning. That’s one thing about the mission here: we’re pretty basic. There are no IPads or special ideas, just hard work. If there’s nothing to do, have faith, be happy, and knock doors. At this point there’s nothing that anyone can say that offends me, so it’s almost fun to contact. Anyways, we were contacting and we knock on this door and a man walked out and said right away to come in. So we walked in, and he is honestly one of the coolest guys ever. We started talking about religion and his family and then he said to us, “ Hey, let me play you a song.” So he pulled out this guitar and started playing some really complex song; it was insane. While I was siting there, I just though ONLY in the mission can you knock on some random person’s door, walk in and have them play a song on the guitar for you. I loved it! He also boxes. Anyways we invited him to church, and he came with his girlfriend this past Sunday! It was a milagro.
We’ve found a ton of people to teach in our sector. In total this change, or in the first 3 weeks of the transfer, we’ve found 26 new investigators, which is a ton. The best part is that a few are families that have a lot of potential. Thanks so much for all the prayers. They are working! This has been an awesome change so far. I love it. Looking forward to this next week of hard work, but more blessings. Winter is here so the people are a little reluctant; they don’t want to leave their houses in the cold mornings to come to church. We need even more faith to help them overcome these challenges because it’s hard sometime. Like is says in Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?" NO!
Love you all,
Elder Walker
Yeah,
So my week was actually pretty great...Let’s just start with the good parts, and then I’ll move onto the better parts and finish with the best parts of my week. haha.
My new area is really good. I’ve been super content with my sector for a lot of reasons. Like I have previously mentioned, I love the ward. The people just are genuinely happy to see the missionaries here, which is amazing. It’s good to be loved. The second great thing about my sector is the house that we live in. We live in a very nice house and my companion and I are pretty neat, which is a relief, and combine that with hot water and a nice bathroom and I’m pretty happy. I was so sad to leave my last area, but I realize now how much I needed just a little break because that area was really hard for me even though I loved it. My new area a relief; it is great! I now have the energy to work even harder.
Better than all of that is how great the contacting was this week. We’ve been able to find a several very humble people and have high hope for them. We have found and taught many people. The goals and vision of the mission has changed because President has been less than pleased with the success that we’ve achieved these last few weeks. The focus is now more on quality of lesson and bringing investigators to church. My comp and I are working diligently to reach the new goals estalished by President B. but we have a lot of new investigators and this week should be good for them to attend.
The best part of my week was the rain. Haha. It rained for about 2 days straight. Saturday and Sunday, which hurt our church attendance, but that’s okay. We got soaking wet, but I wouldn’t consider myself a real missionary if I had never proselyted in the rain. It was a good growing experience and a right of passage as a missionary. Chile has been in a huge drought, so it was also really good for the dirty Santiago air. One day my comp and I were trying to cross the street, but the gutter was more like a river so we had to walk a long way down the street to cross. As we were walking a car drove by and kicked up a wave of water drenching us from head to toe just like you’ve seen in a movie. It was so funny! We just started laughing because it was so ridiculous. I wish I had a video of it. Haha.
So proud to be part of this family. I love you all!
Elder Walker
