Now stop, Hammertime

Dear family,

 

I´m good. How are you? How´s the weather? Did Cameron get the job at the MTC? How´s Ryan´s preparation for the mission coming? What´s Emily up to these days? What juicy, exciting things happen at work Dad, Did you take the tempting job offer? Marissa, did you make up your mind (do you ever make up your mind (I´m sorry that was mean)) for your job. Looks like everyone has a job to do there. That made me think of something, probably the reason why our family turned out the way we did. Perhaps people look at our goofy family and ask themselves how Mom and Dad did it. We all in the gospel and not that bad of people (so far). My response is that we always kept ourselves busy with good things. Think about it. In my life, there was never a dull moment and we kept the wheels turning, whether it be sports, music, school, work, church, etc, we were always busy. That didn´t leave much room for other, non-important or bad things.

 

I had some other cool experiences. I´ll share three. The first includes Marlene and Ivone. They were old investigators that never got baptized. We found them and have been visiting them for the past couple weeks. They are basically golden. They only had a problem with the word of wisdom at first, but have been clean for 3 weeks now! They are really showing to God that they want to enter into his kingdom and obey him. They even invited us to their birthday party yesterday (it was a surprise and we thought we were going to teach them..)

The next two stories are almost the same. One´s name is Miguel and the other is Felipe. Miguel came to the church this Thursday and the secretary called us to come. We went to meet him and we taught him the first leson (the restoration). He is basically golden as well. He is using his faith to come to us. It´s like the people who went to Jesus to get healed. He didn´t always look for them, but they had the desire and faith to find Christ. That also happened with Felipe. He always came to church and came to me to ask me if I could help him learn English. I also took advantage of the situation to teach him the gospel. It turns out that he has already heard the missionaries before, but now, it seems like he is prepared also.

 

These past weeks, I´ve mostly only been sharing stories of the people that we´ve been finding and teaching. I share these things so that you guys know the effort that we put in and the Hand of the Lord in our teachings, if there´s baptisms in the near future, you guys know why and who. I´m just saying that my companion didnt have very many people to teach when I first got here. And now we´ve found and can teach a ton of great people. He´s also leaving this Friday to his house in Guatemala (I´m killing him) and so i´ll be with either members or other missionaries until the next wednesday.

 

Take care,

 

-Elder Walker

 

Mom - I just have to write you about the comment you made about not dropping the people you teach. Well, would you like to hear my opinion? I agree that people can change the mind when the Lord touches their heart and everyone has the possibility of getting baptized. Yes, that is true. Now, the missionaries position. We find about 10 new people to teach a week. That makes about 60 every transfer, plus the investigators that were already in the area. That´s a ton of people and possiblities! However, the problem is, is time; there´s not enough to visit all of them and find other new people who are already prepared. So we drop the people that aren´t progressing. Maybe it´s just not their time yet. That´s what the area book full of old investigators is for. But the key is to tell them that you are dropping them, because if you don´t, they´ll be wondering why we don´t visit them anymore. When we tell them we are going to drop them, that gives them something to think about. Why? Why did they drop me? What did I do wrong? Maybe I´ll start reading this book they gave me.. Y asi, bautismo dos meses despues.

Can you hear the prayers of the children?

Questions from Mom

What is your companion like?  trunky, he leaves in less than 2 weeks

What is the pension you live in like?  I don´t live in a pension but eat. And where I live, it´s nicer than my others because my area is the center of the city.

What is the daily food like?  It´s actually really good here. Or maybe I´m just getting too used to the food. But I think I´m getting fatter in this area...

What are some interesting customs?  Too many holidays. Cholitas pooping in the street. Do you really want more detail?

How is the language going? Excellent. I´m now actually teaching English in spanish

Who cuts your hair?  How much does it cost?  A barber. 15 bolivianos or in other words $2.10

How much does certain things cost?  Cheap. But it depends. If it´s imported like technology, more expensive than the US

 Who are some ward members you have become close to? The people who I´m around with more like my pensionistas, and other families

Did you receive my pouch mail letters?  yes

while I am thinking about it, does the Elder from South Dakota know Joel? He said he did. But I´m not sure..

Dear family,

I´m all scratched up from today. We hiked ``cerro obispo´´ and I´m tired. Sometimes the p-days make me more tired than the actual proselyting days. 

Thanks for your letters and encouragement. Why can´t everyone just love without judging and then do what´s right. I don´t have very long to write today so i´ll just share a little experience that we had this week. There´s many, but one sticks out in my mind.

We went to go visit an old investigador that I had never met before. His name is Carlos and I forgot his wife´s name (that´s bad) and their son´s name is carlitos (casi lo mismo). His wife´s sister´s family are members and have been for a long time so they know about the church and have been before and have also recieved many of the lessons. Now as I recall, we really didn´t teach him much at all. He asked about my companion´s family and if their members or not. My companion told him a story that I´ve never heard before, it was very touching and the spirit carried it to our hearts. Then he asked me about mine. He asked the question that a lot of people ask. Are your parents members? yes. Then are you just following in their paths? I guess it´s suppoessed the ``trap´´ question that everyone asks. (come on, be more creative, I´ve heard it all). I just bore him my sweet simple testimony and a little bit about the book of mormon. That got him excited, so he picked up his book and said, ``well let´s read it then´´. We just read Moroni 10:3-7 with him. Something very simple. He´s very intelligent and likes to get off topic with his knowledge that he shares, so we had him focus on meditating on what he reads. And then we ended the lesson. Sounds like just a normal lesson. We then we asked him to pray. Words cannot descibe his prayer that he shared with our heavenly father. The spirit was soo strong that you could cut it with a knife. He balled after his prayer for a good 5 min. Then we talked so more with him. He basically shared with us his testimony of the book of mormon and I´m sure he´ll get baptized soon.

Well that´s my story and I´ll talk to you guys next week. Have fun

-Elder Walker

Ideas control the world

Dear Family,

I´m in Cochabamba for the leadership counsel again, which is why you´re recieving this letter late in the day. It looks like the 1st monday of every month you´ll get my letter a little bit late. It also appears that we´re running out of things to write each other, based off of your letters. Every week now, I´m just writing little experiences here and there because I´m really just not thinking in home much. I guess I´m so focused that when monday comes back around, I really have nothing to say. I´m sorry. That I´m boring. I could tell you about my haircut; that I´m still handsome and getting more each day, but you guys already knew that.

We´re having a lot of sucess in the area. I just think my companion is getting a little trunky, seeing that he leaves in 2 weeks. But we´re finding some great people that are progressing and it´s likely that they´ll get baptized and join the fold of God. It´s a little hard because I have a lot less time to work in my area because there´s always problems to be fixed or we have to go to other people´s area, etc. and that just leaves no time for my own area. But I have learned that as you worry about the needs of others, your needs will be met. I´ve seen that several times here.

So there´s this elder here that lives with us. His name is elder white bull. He´s from a reseveration in south dakota and he´s new in the mission. I just want to say that after 3 months in the mission (2 in the MTC and 1 in the field), he still doesn´t know or understand a lick of spanish. I feel bad. We went on splits and I basically talked the whooole time. Sometimes in the mission, it is the Missionaries that learn more than those being taught. Also, I realize that we are only young folks and so I worry about the missionaries here, that they get converted, just as much as the investigators.

Well, I got some cool ideas (when my companion leaves). But that´s for later. I´ll let you know when I put them in action.

-Elder Walker