Happy Anniversary!!!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

 

I meant to tell you that last week, and then forgot.  We´ve been BUSY little bees out.  How was it?  Good I hope.  I received my package and LOVED it thank you!!!!!  It´s been such a busy week.  It´s flown by really!  We have so much to do and everyone seems to want my attention being back.  Everyone again is suprised at how better my spanish has gotten and how much skinnier and tanner I am jaja.  Loved reading your email in Spanish Dad.  I have this obsession with Spanish and Latin culture now, if i come home turned into a Latin would you still except me?  Estoy super animada para tenerles conmigo en mi mision.  No puedo creer que solo tengo menos 4 meses en la mision.  Tengo muchas ganas para trabajar super duro estes ultimos translados aqui...

 

I am SOOO excited to be back here in my old area.  At first I was like, WHAT there again?  why am I going back there??  Now I feel this is exactly where I need to be and am totally eating it up.  I love it here.  I forgot how much I loved the ward.  They´re all excited to be involved in the work and help me out with dance classes, FHE´s, missionary work activities.  I felt very welcomed.  FINALLY a ward who´s excited about the work.  i like don´t know how to work with the ward anymore.  6 months being away does a lot. 

 

OOOhhh Craig super important.  I need all your information.  You HAVE to go baptize my recent converts family.  She´s sent the reference soooo many times to the missionaries and office and NOBODY has ever passed by.  If you´re not in the zone find someone who is.  I just know they live in Cochabumba.

 

We have been all over the place trying to get organized and find people to teach.  The piso is a mess!!!  We just moved into the Elders old sticky piso they´ve been living in for over 25 years.  I made us all do spring cleaning this morning.  3 trash bags later....I can finally somewhat breath in that piso.  We were able to set a fecha with Martina for the 15th of September.  She´s really excited!  We also are teaching a really promising investigator by the name of Rei.  He is the boyfriend of a menos activo whom I visited when I was here.  I saw that Tamara and Antonio were confirmed in Pamplona.  How exciting!  I love my new companion Hermana Stephenson!!!   We get along and work together so well.  She´s from Utah.  We´re a lot alike, but yet different.  She makes the work fun with her whitty humor.  I took her knocking from door to door for two days straight then we went on a contact attack.  we have nobody to teach!  she said it was the first time she´s ever done both of those in her whole mission and she goes home the transfer after me.  She told me she was excited to learn from my methods.  We also been playing games and taking surveys in the street of how many contacts smiles and hellos we can get.  It´s kind of fun.  We plan on teaching dance class this saturday to excite the members about the work so they will bring their friends.  We also have two investigators who said they would come. I´m excited to be back here as what will most likely be my last area!  I love life, I love this work, never once have I questioned it, I challenge you all to invite someone new to church this week.  That´s all we have to do, INVITE!  Love you all!!!!!

 

Con muchisimso amor,
Hermana Walker

And so it goes

In every heart, there is a room, a santuary safe and strong. To heal 
the wounds of lovers past, until a new one comes along. -Billy Joel. 
 
Dear family, 
 
So Billy Joel is pretty random, no. 
This week I´ve been pretty clumsy. I´ve twisted my ankle about 10 
times each day. cool stuff 
But as I was trying to say before, my area´s awesome, but large. No 
Mom, it´s not in the amazon. It´s a suburb of Cochabamba. Try 
searching in Quillacolla. Like I said before, my area is jinormous! If 
I were to walk from one end to the other, it would take 4 hours. And 
that´s just the area in Cochabamba. My area actually expands past the 
mountains all the way to La Paz which is about 5 hours driving. A lot 
of walking, and I feel like a lot of wasting time... Also, my area is 
pure countryside, everyone has a farm. Name an animal on a farm and 
I´ve petted it. Sheep, herded it. Cows, girl please, I´ve milked that 
sucker. I´ve also planted potatoes, helped harvest them, peeled them, 
and cooked them (and of course eaten it :) What really interest me is 
the irrigation system. Like I said in the other email, there is water 
flowing in all the streets. I´m interested in the mechanics of it. 
There´s limited water, but somehow the community works together to use 
their share on different days. It´s cool. But with all this land, the 
members are few and only a branch. There´s a lot of work to be done. 
 
Yesterday was pretty emotional. After church, we walked an hour and a 
half to see a sister in the ward. Her family told us that we should 
see her. She is in her last moments of life. As we came into the 
house, a lot of the ward was already there. Her family requested that 
we give her a blessing in her last hours. We went into see her. She 
probably looked way different than a week before.  Her face was 
desinigrating, her bones were frail, and her stomach was inflamed and 
huge just a pregnant woman.  She breathed really heavily with each 
passing breath. She couldn´t speak and I´m not sure if she could hear, 
but she would just stare at me. So we continued and laid our hands and 
her head and I gave the blessing. During most of the blessing and 
afterwards, I couldn´t help but think of Grandma. Grandma looked the 
same way in the same form before she passed away. ... Well, let´s just 
say that I was having a hard time talking to some family afterwards in 
a short little lesson. We are also going back there today for our 
P-day to talk with the whole family which the majority are not 
members. 
 
One of the great messages of the gospel is that death does not end 
everything, but our spirit lives on waiting for the resurrection of 
our body and spirit. It is part of God´s plan for us that we pass on. 
In Adam, everyone will die. but in Christ, we live. Like D&C 42:45-46 
says, it´s normal to mourn for those that die because we love them, 
but their death is sweet in Christ. I know that we can find joy and 
happiness in this gospel and that it blesses families. And I am also 
thankful for our Saviour, Jesus Christ. In his name, amen. 
 
-Elder Walker 

crazy busy emotional week....

Dearest Family,

 

Wow what a miraculous finish to my service in Pamplona! We were finally, after 4 months, able to see Tamara and Antonio baptized. What a great and moving experience to be there front row for the baptism.  I don´t think I´ve ever prayed, fasted, and worked hard to get someone baptized my whole entire mission.  And I´m exhausted, but that´s the way it should be.  The Lord did his part this week that´s for sure. We saw other little miracles this week that I will never forget. What a pleasure it has been to serve in Pamplona. I loved my time there but I am really looking forward to serving AGAIN in HOSPITALET (suburb of Barcelona)!   Yep that´s right it´s back to my second area to baptize a storm-load!!!!!  President must think that´s the way I baptize by sending me back to old areas.  As much as I wanted to see more of Spain it will be a good return.  First I returned to Zaragoza when they told me I would be transfered after that and to bring all my bags and stuff.  come to find out as I brought all of my stuff to Zaragoza I was randomly transfered back to Pamplona and now back to Barcelona. I loved my time in this ward in Hospitalet and am very lucky to be back here. Lot´s of work to be done!  these streets are full of Gold.  Even though it´s hot and sticky here!!!  OOOeee hijo mio, que calo que hace....

 

funny moment of the week, not that i´m trunky but we thought that it would be funny to go wedding dress shopping with the elders.  it was hillarious!!!  we totally put on a show at the shop.  Funniest thing ever!  It was hard not to laugh, we had to be serious so we didn´t get kicked out.  You usually have to get an appointment but we talked the lady into letting us in right away.  I´ll send photos.  some funny moments there, too much to tell, too little of time.

 

What a pleasure it was to be with Hermana Cozzolino, I learned so much from her! I look forward to working with Hermana Stevenson again as well. I enjoyed our time together in Zaragoza for a week and know that we will make a great team again. I look forward to also having Hermana Dalton and Pazuengo in piso. Especially a native in the piso to keep me on track in the language. My goal this week is to speak solo español and translate everything for her. I really want to work on my translation skills now. I had to translate a lot this last week and it´s work.  The hardest part for me is that once I translate one phrase I miss the next part that the speaker says.  it´s a lot of focus and energy.  Any suggestions on mastering this gift or skill??  Advise would be nice thanks! 

 

Well i love you all!!!  This gospel is great!  I hope you all are continually helping the missionaries because we need it.  We can´t do it without all you members!!!  Keep the gospel flame going by inviting all your friends.  that´s all you need to do is invite and we´ll do the rest.  Love you all can´t wait to hear from you soon!!!!

 

-Hermanita Walker

 

Bella Vista

Dear Family, 
 
It feels weird talking in English (or in Spanish for that matter (read below)). 
 
Well, I`ve arrived in Bella Vista! Whoever told me that it is the area 
near the temple doesn`t actually know what he`s talking about. Asi 
pues, My area is about 45 min outside the center of Cochabamba. It`s 
like Henderson is to Las Vegas. I look out of my house and it looks 
like I`m looking at Las Vegas. My house would be where Mission Hills 
is in Henderson. However, Bella Vista really is a ``beautiful sight``! 
My area is just at the bottom of the mountain and it is the greenist 
area in Cochabamba. It has trees, flowers, fields, etc. There is 
running water everywhere, but it is irrigation (spelled right?) 
systems. There are lakes and rivers in the mountains.. But anyways 
it`s pure country side. Or in other words, seeing pigs, roosters, 
cows, sheep, etc. on the streets is normal. For example, I saw like 10 
sheep on the top of a van with their legs tied. I thought they were 
all dead going to a restaurant or something like that. But then one 
winked at me. I got scared. Then all their heads poked up and looked 
at me. O..K.. 
But more important than the area is the people there. They are all way 
nice and always smile and salud us. They also all speak Quechua. It`s 
actually about 50 50. But they all tell me I`m going to learn Quechua 
fast here like some other gringos that were here. Do I want to learn 
another language? It`s hard learning an obscure language from a 
language that I`m still learning. 
 
Oh pucha my time is almost up!?? what happened. Oh well. Well, my 
companion is crazy, but great! Probably one of the most obedient 
Latinos in our mission. He is a real people person and talks with 
EVERYONE. That is something I´m probably going to learn from him. No, 
he´s not the best teacher, but he has love and the spirit, which is 
the most important thing! 
 
Have fun. I´ll write more next week.. Puchache.    Kaya Kama 
 
-Elder Walker 

called to serve him....

Dear Family,

 

It has been a good, but slower week.  We are without saldo(past our money and time limit) in our phone.  Which means no phone for a whole week.  The miracle of it is, is that the Lord has watched over and guided us from house to house.  People that have needed us just the moment they needed us.  The visits we were able to have were incredible!  It´s amazing how hoy en dia(today) we live daily off of our cellphones.  Something that´s been interesting this week without the movíl is that we´ve been more in tune with the spirit, as well as unified.  Prayer has taken place of the phone.  What a blessing in disguise it has been to have that testimony builder of the Holy Ghost and how it works in relation to prayer.  We have been lead by the Holy Ghost as if it has been by a GPS.  Tamara and Antonio will be getting baptized this week.  We are really excited since we have worked long and hard to get them in the water.  Something I enjoy about my companion that I have picked up from my companion is her connection with the people.  She has a way with people and the way the conversation flows, even though she is a native.  She is really in tune with people´s needs.  I have learned a lot from her.  Something I have also learned is that unlike most the Walker family, I LIKE SEAFOOD!!!!  We have a lot of it here, it hasn´t seemed to be a problem yet, I´ve actually enjoyed every meal of it.  We´ve eaten none stop here this transfer.  Today I realized I don´t need to buy any food.  That´s how much we´ve been fed by members and investigators....and you know what that means?   THEY LOVE US!!!!  That´s one good thing about being in an area for an eternity.  You get to know the people and become like family.  I love this work and know it to be the work of the Lord.  Hope all is well back home.  May God bless you!  Have a stupendous week!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Walker

 

ps-pictures of the hike we went on, us cooking, and doing the running of the bulls tour.  The clock is a countdown for the next running with the bulls in July.

AWWW, tomato face!!

My pensionista freaked out because my face was burnt... So she put 
tomatoes all over my face. I have to say that it actually worked. My 
face feels better and looks better :) 

well haleluja

Querido Family, 
 
Imaniya ´kasunki mamii y tatii. The language of Quechua - no big deal. 
I recieved a package and letters this week. They were all from June. 
It´s funny because all the events that you guys wrote about already 
happened about a month ago... 
 
This week was transfers! I always told my companion that he is going 
to train a gringito nuevo. He got the call and he was mad! He is going 
to train but he doesn´t know who just yet... Ok, now it´s my turn. 
This is how it went. Elder Walker, you are going to Cochabamba. 
Waaahooooo! There´s more, your area is vella vista, which I heard is 
the area with the temple. Waaaaaa! Your companion is Elder Palacio (or 
something like that). And there´s more, you will be the senor 
companion and his ``mom´´. WAAAAAA!. And there´s more, you will be the 
district leader. WAAA- What?! Umm, I just started my mission and I 
barely started understanding and speaking spanish. Well, you´re going 
to learn. And that is how it went. So it appears that I had prophetic 
words for my own mission. If you guys remember anything about my 
farewell talk, my mission is playing out exactly like my talk. I 
basically said three main things; be humble, willingly give selfless 
service, and love unconditionally. Well, if I split my mission up 3 
ways it would be 8 months. I have almost 8 months. The first part of 
my mission was all about being humble and the Lord definitely taught 
me many lessons here in Potosi about how to be humble. I now starting 
the next 8 months - willingly serve. I have a feeling that that will 
be the theme for this next area. That also means that my last 8 
months, I will learn how to love unconditionally my investigators, the 
members, my companion, etc. Cool stuff no. 
 
So who said I was getting trunky Cameron??? This week we had two 
baptisms. We also have two more for the next week (which I won´t get 
to see). This week, we baptized two brothers Alejandro and Ariel. We 
first got the reference from our pensionista and they were coming to 
church for the past months. We talked to Alejandro and he told us that 
he really doesn´t want to listen to us, so we left it at that. Well, 
it turns out that his girlfriend is the sister of our pensionista and 
I sure she doesn´t want to marry a non-member. About 3 weeks ago, we 
talked about baptism and the holy ghost in church. He wanted to get 
baptized, so the bishopric showed him to us again. He was golden. We 
taught him everything then baptized him 2 weeks later or this past 
Saturday. The baptism was a great site. All my converts that I´ve had 
were at the baptism and at church the next day. It was emotionally 
fantastic. None of my converts are inactive which is great. I think 
I´ve just been lucky. Or in other words, we´ve worked hard, but we 
still fall short. So after all we can do, the grace of the Lord fills 
in the rest. 
Another story this week. We have been working with Jesus Mullo - an 
inactive member who was baptized a year ago. He came to church about 3 
weeks ago. In priesthood session, the bishop straight up told him 
infront of everyone that he should get on his knees and pray to see if 
a mission is right for him. He can only leave in the next year for his 
age. He was a bit intimidated. We decided to teach him about 
missionary work and pull through with the promise from the bishop that 
the Lord will answer him. Well, this week, he told us that he recieved 
his answer. A great job opportunity opened up for him (uh oh), and for 
the next six months he will work........to save up for his mission! He 
is going to talk to the bishop this week and everything. It was 
fantastic. 
 
I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week and I was in Alma (by 
the way, you all should´ve finished the BOM from the challenged I 
extented to you about 3 months ago if you remembered...) The war 
chapters are always pretty sweet. But amongst all the wars that were 
happening in the land of the Nephites, it says that ``there has never 
been a happier people´´ (Alma 50:23). Right now in the world, there 
are many wars going on. The wars against nations, the war in the 
Middle East, against nations, on terrorism, on drugs, on pornography, 
abortion, political wars, wars between religions, wars between 
families, in the courts, etc. The point is that there is lots of 
contention. But amongst all these wars, I have never seen a happy 
people like the Latter-day saints are. Also, I have never been happier 
this week for everything that has happened! 
 
Bee (buzz) happy 
-Elder Walker 
 
P.S. The other picture I just want to show you how small the doors and 
people are here. Either that or I have grown.

MILAGROS passen de vez en cuando.....

Dear Family,

 

     Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers!  They were heard all the way out here in Spain.  Tamara de Equador finally told us she is ready to take the step of baptism in her life.  Antonio a Spaniard from Andulucia told us he will also be taking that step this Sunday.  After 4 months of teaching the both of them we are THRILLED and grateful to witness such miracles together as we come to an end of this companionship here in 2 weeks.  We have worked soooo hard!  I´ve honestly never worked harder with any other companion.  Miracles happen.  "Jesus the Christ,"  the big 800 thick book describes miracles as a phenomenon not susceptible of explanation, far less of demonstration, by what we consider the ordinary operation of natural law.  Christ worked many miracles that both the bible and the BOM testify of.  Many people were there, they witnessed these signs of Gods power, these signs that God the Father and His Son are real.  That Christ came to us, healed the sick, the broken hearted, raised others from the dead, etc.  In this field, science has not yet advanced far enough to explain miracles.  Science says to deny the actuality of miracles because we cannot comprehend the means implies that what man cannot comprehend cannot be, and that therefore he is able to comprehend all that is.  We all know we as humans cannot comprehend everything.  Science  says that what happened in the Bible were actual events that took place.  So miracles do happen.  Miracles are a sign of Gods power.  As missionaries we are to report to our President each week one miracle.  Well we don´t see a miracle each week.  We see miracles daily.  No matter how small or big.  How do we get the opportunity to see miracles each day?  We prepare ourselves by first being obedient, second daily prayers, third reading the scriptures, teaching so that others can feel the power of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ,  serving others, talking to everyone, keeping ourselves morally clean, WORKING, baptizing worthy converts and their families!  We SEEK miracles, key word SEEK, then God does the rest. 

 

     To comprehend the works of Christ, one must know Him as the Son of God; to the man who has not yet  learned to know, to the honest soul who would inquire after the Lord, the invitation is always there; let him "come and see."  READ, see after His word to know for yourself the power and MIRACLES  wrought by Christ.  The testimonies in the Bible and Book of Mormon are real.  They are real people who witnessed these miracles.  All we are to do is to have faith enough to apply the teachings taught.  It is happiness that one cannot understand until they try it and appy it in their own lives.  If you have not read the Bible and Book of Mormon, start today and see the power of Christ work miracles in your life.  I give my testimony because I have seen the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ change my life and work miracles.  Christ lives, the atonement, His Sacrifice for our sins, griefs, sorrows and pains is real.  For those who don´t comprehend it the invitation to "come and see"  for yourself is always available.  Though the world may change drastically God and His ways don´t.  I love the power of the Book of Mormon and Bible combined.  What greater power there is behind more than one witness that Jesus is the Christ.

 

     I love you all and hope you are seeing the blessings and miracles of Jesus Christ work daily in your life.

 

Con Amor,

Hermana Walker

Happy Bolivian Independence Day!

Dear family, 
 
Hi. The streets are empty right now. Every in the city is in central 
parading, fiestaing, and other things for independence day. On youtube 
or something, you should look up Caporal by Platanico. They are like 
the only famous band to come out of Potosi. The caporales are the 
native or traditional dancers in Bolivia. Just a little Bolivian 
spirit for you guys. 
 
This week was very busy, but not exactly with proscelyting. Tuesday 
and Wednesday, we had a conference in Sucre. That is where you 
recieved the picture of me playing the piano. I was talking with 
Hermana Dyer and then she wanted to take a picture of me and send it 
to you guys. The conference was all about obedience. 10 hours on 
obedience. It was intense, but much needed in this mission. That used 
some cool scriptures, but applied it all to obedience. Also, our 
district got a standing applause! Out of the two zones that were 
there, we were the only ones that reached our goals of baptisms and we 
actually passed the goal. The president was impressed! In my 
interview, the president really only said good things to me. He 
congratulated me and my companion on our hard work and great sucess, 
especially with the bishopric. In the whole mission, there is only 2 
bishops that do not get along with the missionaries and the president 
always has problems. One of them is our bishop. Also, he also 
basically told me that I am leaving the next transfer and said that I 
will like the next assignment. Wonder what that means. But I am pretty 
excited to leave. I mean, I have already had my adventure in Potosi 
and it is time for a change. I will find out and leave next week. 
 
 
Thursday and Friday, we proselyted like normal. We were teaching this 
one guy named Jorge. After the first little door contact with him 
(like 10 min), he seemed pretty interested and even read the whole 
pamphlet for next time. Nobody ever does that!! I thought he was 
golden. He said that his brother took the missionary lessons and was 
close to baptism and even went to seminary. He has 2 book of mormons 
in his house. He agreed with everything we taught him and everything. 
Then, Friday night, we had a little meeting with the bishopric. And 
afterward, we were filling out papers. I saw the list of all the 
members and believe it or not, there was Jorges full name there. I do 
not know why, but he lied to us about. He never told us that he was 
already baptized, but said that his brother almost was. I also 
realized that the Book of mormon was his and he went to seminary. We 
have not been back there yet, but I really do not what to say to 
him... He might be embarassed that he is an inactive member or 
something like that. but.. strange. 
 
Saturday, we moved houses. We live in the same apartments as our 
pensionista and her family. It is pretty sweet. A great move, everyone 
is happy. But it was in vain for me to pack up all my stuff, unpack, 
just to repack in the coming week. Oh well. 
 
We are all in crossroads in this life with many decisions to make. 
Follow your heart and common sense. Choose the correct path. Sometimes 
there is more than one acceptable path. But for God, there is only his 
path that is correct. The other one looks nice at first, but it will 
slowly lead you down to misery and endless wo. 
 
I just wanted to say wo. I dumb. 
-Elder Walker