Week 8 - First Transfer

This week was kind of hectic.  Along with our baptism not going through, it was also the last week of the transfer, and we didn't know for most of the week if Elder Wible was going to leave or not.  Well, Saturday he got the call that he was going to go ZL and so that wasn't fun news for me.  Not only that but we've had another set of Elders in our apartment because theirs is infested with Hobo spiders and we were being nice.  But now with Elder Wible and Elder Clark going ZL, and Elder Greenwood going trainer, I'm going to have to send Elder Greenwood and his son somewhere else.  It's gotten us out of our routine and we can't afford to drive them into their area everyday.

I'm staying, as you probably guessed.  My step-father will be Elder Nielsen, I think he's from the south somewhere.  I'll try to find out tomorrow.  We've been trying to have a lot of fun during our last week together though.  We showed up to district leader training in half pros, wearing shorts instead of slacks but still rocking the shirt, tie, and coat.  Needless to say we won the high priesting competition.  I'll send a picture.

We should definitely have a baptism for sure this week though.  Our nine-year old, Travin, is all set to go.  So I'll have my first baptism then.

I've been really tired, I can't fall asleep, so last night I started taking sleeping pills again, and that seemed to help.  I woke up twice this morning and I only fell asleep once.  I got up and went into the bathroom to get ready and all of a sudden I woke up on the floor and my head was hurting really bad.  I was really confused and the other Elders were calling from the bedroom because they heard a loud crash..... I guess I passed out somehow.... That's never happened before.  The Elders said I was super pale and they insisted on giving me a blessing.  I felt a lot better afterwards.  I'm fine no worries, just thought I'd testify of the power of the priesthood.  I also got to give Sister Cox a blessing of comfort, it was a great opportunity.

We did service one day and Elder Wible and Elder Clark caught grasshoppers during break and ate them.  I have video footage that I will send.

Anyway, I love you all, I want to hear from all of you :)

I'll leave you with my testimony, that this is the true church, and our Savior Jesus Christ stands at its head.  I know that through the power of the restored priesthood, we can receive many blessings and revelation if we ask for it.  I encourage you all to develop a strong foundation in Christ, and if you already have one, make it stronger.  We are all working toward perfection, we won't get there in this life, but let's all try to see how close we can get.  I love this work and I encourage you to help the missionaries back home.

Elder Walker

Week 7 - Keeping Busy With the Work

Hellooooooooo Everybody!

I am absolutely stuffed, we bought way too much food before our Zone hangout.  We're at the singles building playing pool, ping pong, and basketball.  This week has gone really well, although for some reason I'm having trouble remembering specific events.  We have about 3 people on date for this month, and Mark is going to be baptized on Saturday as long as everything goes well, hopefully he can withstand the adversary for a week, and then things will go more smoothly.

We were eating lunch yesterday, and a lady was wheeled up in a wheel chair by her daughter so that we could cheer her up.  Her husband had died on Wednesday, so we just talked with her about the plan of Salvation and managed to get her to stop crying.  She thanked us and when her daughter came back she gave us a smile and they left.

Things have been going awesome though, we have been teaching a lot of lessons and it's been great, I believe we led our zone this week.  I am enjoying myself a lot, and I appreciate all the emails I have received, it's been really nice hearing from home.

I'd just like to leave you all with my testimony, that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church upon the earth today.  I know that Christ's atonement is real, and that through him, we can all be cleansed from sin and return to live with our Heavenly Father.  I encourage you all to focus more on the spirit in your lives, and to listen to him, he will not lead you astray.  I know that as we work to develop our spiritual in-tune-ness? that we will all see our lives improve and we will be able to handle any trials that we are given.

I love you all, keep Oregon strong!

Elder Walker

Week 6 - Greetings From Smithfield

Greetings!
This week went well.  We were able to meet up with the parents of one of our nine year old investigators who's date was set for this week.  Apparently he's still solid and wanting to get baptized, but they might not do it this week, just because they need to get family contacted ahead of time and they need more time to get ready.  So, it may still happen on Saturday, but it will likely get pushed to the 29th , which will happen for sure.

We have another investigator who apparently is all ready to be baptized, he just needs to meet with us once or twice, but the parents have canceled the past 3 weeks lessons, and it's been really frustrating, because he could have been baptized weeks ago.  We also have a few more investigators but I won't go into that.

I hope everything is going good back home, I'm still loving it out here.  My companion and I have a new hobby.  Lip Syncing.  We now have six fantastic videos, which include Let It Go, a Lion King song, Tron Legacy, Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock, and a few others.  Oh, our last one we did was a duet between Anna and Elsa, it was mighty fine.  Don't worry, we don't waste time, we make them on the way to appointments, so there will probably be a lot more, but I think I'll send a flash drive to my mom containing the sensitive film that can be used at her discretion.

We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders last night, so I was up in Preston.  One of the people we bumped into was an inactive man who was very friendly, and informed us that he had fallen away because of baptisms for the dead.  He started talking about Indian burial grounds and how we need to respect the dead, and he started on a 666 tangent, and lots more interesting ideas that he had, that we politely listened to for a bit.  Before he started talking however, he said "Hold on, let me grab a beer", and went back inside.  Luckily, the house we visited beforehand had given us cartons of chocolate milk, the juice pouch style with bendy straws, so we prepped those, and when he came back out we said we'd join him, so we popped in our straws and started sipping away while he drank his beer. That made him laugh.

I had to speak twice on Sunday, and I only had about an hour that morning to prepare one talk, and after that one, we raced over to another building where we had 15 minutes to prep the next one before sacrament meeting started.  It was hectic.  Oh, and President Price wants me to play my violin in General Priesthood Meeting this Sunday.  Still trying to find an arrangement.  (Note for mother, a book or two of violin solo arrangements would be awesome if you ever get a chance to stop by a music store).  Hopefully I will be able to buy some today if I can find a place.

Anyway, I love you all, hope you guys are safe and have a great week!

Elder Walker

Went on exchanges with Elder Greenwood (at the Benson's)

Week 5 - Interesting Week

Hello Everyone!
This week was pretty interesting.  My first surprise happened when Elder Wible was called up and asked to attend a Mission Leader Council, which is weird because normally only the Zone Leaders and APs go to that.  While he was there I went on exchanges with Hyde Park, and we had a good time. When my companion showed up to get me, he was like "Dude, I totally met your mom".  Well, we joke about each other's mothers all the time so I just assumed he was kidding.  He was like, "No Elder, look in the back".  I looked and saw my violin and I was like, "What the freak, when did this happen." Well, apparently I had missed my mom and Ainsley by about an hour....  But he airdropped me the pictures so I'll send them with the email.

Today we got to go to the temple as a zone, and I was able to receive a lot of answers to things that I have been praying about.  We will get to go quarterly which is exciting!

Anyway, the work is going good!  I miss you all and I'll let you know when the baptisms happen.

He met my mom