Hey

Family,

We had a great week. I liked Emily´s story about her little miracle. That´s how the mission is every week. There aren´t any huge miracles like parting a sea in half, baptizing a city, or raising the dead (mainly because our faith, we don´t believe we could do that); however, there are several small miracles that help us concentrate and know that this is the Lord´s work. 

A little cool miracle that happened to us was realizing the function of the Holy Ghost in our work, teachings, and lives. We taught a guy my age named John Uña (fingernail in Spanish). This was the second time talking to him. We previously contacted him in his door and gave him a pamphlet to read. The next few times we came back, he wasn´t there. So after a month we went back and he was there and let us in. He said he read the pamphlet (The plan of salvation), but he had a question, Why are there so many churches. So we taught him the restoration. It was a great lesson and he was interested the whole time. When we taught about José Smith and bore testimony, the spirit was really strong there and I know he felt it. It also looked like he was trembling a bit at our words. At the end, told us that he is convinced and he believe us. That almost never happens! I mean, it happens all the time that they are convinced, but they never admit it. It was awesome because he also told us that he has to come to church to find out more information! Yeah, I mean it´s fine by me if you want to come..haha. Just goes to show the importance of the Holy Ghost in our lessons. 

So yeah, things like that happen every week that I just don´t have time to write every little thing or lesson to you guys. I calculated it out. I you teach an average of 20 lessons per week for 2 years, that would be about 2080 lessons! And finding 10 new people to teach would be 1040 people in a mission. Now when you add it up, You can see how Alma baptized thousands of people in 14 years. He would´ve met more than 7280 people and taught more than 14560 lessons to people! That´s a lot of numbers but that´s basically what I do every week trying to find ways to help out other missionaries. Miracles happen one person at a time. Little by little.

So that´s my small email for you guys this week. Next week, expect a bigger one...

-Elder Walker

boo

Dear Family,

We worked hard this week. The end.

Have a good week.

-Elder Walker

The real message

Dear Family,

I should really write stuff down. That´s what I did last week, but this week I´m forgetting. Let´s see, we did service, we preached, teached, and baptized. That´s to stress the importance of writing in a journal, thoughts, impressions, etc.

We put some of my ideas in action this week and put good 10 dates for baptism. Some of them were a familia, Pablo Mamani, his wife Hilaria, their kids and their nephews. We found them looking through the area book. Some Elders taught them in 2009. They are seriously prepared to enter. They all came to church this week and met the bishop and everything. We are also preparing a marriage for them at the end of this month. They are some of the humblest people that I´ve ever met! More news coming from them in the weeks to come.

Another idea that we did that I didn´t mention (and probably shouldn´t). Saturday was the day of testigos de Jehova (Jehova´s witnesses) and alot of them came to my area. I´m a nice guy and say hi to them. Of course. Then as they contacted people and then left, I contacted and knocked the same doors. I asked them if they know why there are so many churches because many come to their door and how could they know which is true. It works because the people are a little confused by so many religons. I don´t to bash the jehova´s witnesses because I know that they help people believe more in God and sometimes prepare the way for the restored Gospel.

We had a baptism this week. His name is Crisologo. He´s in his late 60´s or early 70´s. Intense right? I actually talked about him to you guys about 4 months ago when I talked about his wife that passed away and we taught him The Plan of Salvation. He was the first investigator that I talked to here in Sucre. We was a little weird before. We explained the restoration and the book of mormon about 5 times to him. He said weird stuff like he didn´t like the Sacrament because it was blessed by sinners. Then he read the story of Lot in the bible when he got drunk then got with his daughter... he questioned his faith in the bible. Yeah, so we dropped him like 3 months ago. THEN about a month ago, we felt like we should visit him again. We started teaching him and he accepted everything and progressed really well!! I think he believes that he´s going to die. He always says in his prayers that his children could make it to his house this year before he dies. And I actually believe him. At least he´ll die happy! 

So in a personal study this week, I studied Jacob 5. It was really interesting as I applied it to my area. There´s one verse in there that the servant is asking the master of vineyard why he planted the seeds in most unfertil place. The Master says that he knew what he ws doing and he took care of it a loong time. So the most unfertil place was very fruitful while the ''good choice spot'' was only half fruitful. That´s like my area here. The spots where you think you couldn´t have a success has the most investigadors there while the other part of our area isn´t that fruitful.

Now go and enjoy your summer break!

-Elder Walker

Animos

Dear Family,

July 4. What a pleasant day... I did nothing. I know you read the news about what was going on here in Bolivia. Well, they made all the 创Gringos创 stay home :(. I told them I was Bolivian, but they didn磘 believe me. It wasn磘 even bad at all here in Sucre, maybe La Paz and Santa Cruz were a little extreme but nothing happened here. So I spent the day washing clothes and pretending I was lighting off fireworks.

Well, we are working 10X better with members than before, and there磗 still alot of room for improvement. We visited a lot of active member families this week and alot of them bore their testimony on missionary work and how they磖e grateful for the missionaries (oh you磖e welcome). The church is a bit different here than in Henderson or Utah. The missionaries usually do most of the work. Now we磖e getting them excited to work. It磗 a blessing to have sister missionaries here in the ward too. They are helping us and the ward get organized with the work, activities, etc. I even spoke with the stake presidency for the first time and the high council about missionary work, it is apparently one of my duties. They are now excited too to work with us.

One thing we are focusing on in the mission is creating new ideas on how to find people. New, out of the ordinary ideas, ya know mixing it up. I will list some of my ideas that we will put it action in the coming weeks.
-Here the people are very catholic and have their virgins, saints, etc. So when they say, ''sorry, I磎 catholic'' I going to say, ''Well I got a message about the virgin Mar韆'' and then I will read Alma 7 or maybe 1 Nephi 11.

-Go to institutes and ask who磗 not a member and wants to get baptized. I heard that their are a ton of people that go there. Jackpot$$$

-Wait by elementary schools to contact people. There, you will see fathers going to pick up there kids. Families.

-Soccer championship... for the primary. Again, their parents are obliged to go.

-Pass along cards of the baptism of Jesus. Ask the people if they had recieved a baptism just like Jesus Christ. They磍l usually say no for being catholic. Then I will ask why not, Christ set the example.

-Another card idea. But this time with the 10 principles that were in Christ磗 church in the olden days. And if they can find a church with exactly those things. There磗 only one. Yep, you guessed, La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias.

-Shine people磗 shoes for free and then contact them.

-and there磗 more.

I don磘 know if you guys are feeling the same strong feeling for missionary work as I磎 feeling. This same spirit is filling the whole world. Have you ''caught the wave'' as Elder Russel M. Nelson puts it. I just wish my new companion would feel the same and tag along. He磗 kinda lazy and even has a year in the mission. With opr without him, I磎 on this wave. Maybe you guys ask, you need to go to his level. But I say unto you, it磗 not necessary to pull down the strong to bring up the weak.

D&C 84:33. If we magnify our calling we磍l have a renovation of our body. That磗 how I磎 feeling. If you would look at me, I probably look tired. But I have more energies than ever. If you look at all the apostles, like Jeffery R. Holland, they look exhausted but I bet they feel as young as ever. Sometimes we need to climb so high up in the mountains that we don磘 hear the world shouting ''Come down!''

-Elder Walker

''To be a great champion, you must believe you are the best. If you磖e not, pretend you are.'' -Muhammad Ali

Operación Chuño

So let me know if you´re getting this email. The mail service told me that Ryan nor Dad got the last one. I´m not sure if that´s true. 

Dear Family,

I hit my 6 month mark...And to start it off, I was really busy and focused in the work. I´m sure you guys will get bored with the details, but we bought all the necessary stuff like beds and dressors for the missionaries that didn´t have anything. As we were buying the stuff I got a call from the secretaries saying that I had to come to Cochabamba that Tuesday night to do tramites to be legal here. So in two hours, I left to cochabamba on a 10 hour bus that night with only the clothes I had on my back. I got there wednesday morning at 5 without any sleep. I filled out papers during the day for 30 min and did nothing else that day. I was sooo bored there doing nothing. Is that really how I felt before the mission! I mean, I have to be doing something active at all times now. Well, I left that night again on a 10-hour bumpy bus ride and arrived Thursday morning. Luckily I met with the president during my stay there and he gave me permison to sleep until 6:30.... thanks.

The rest of the week, we worked pretty hard. My favorite parts are when we find families to teach. There is something special when the whole family takes time to sit down and listen to us. I sometimes feel a bit more nervous when that happens because I know I have to teach it good and leave an impression. Now I´m in Cochabamba again going to a leadership counsel. 

Even though I´m pretty busy, there´s nowhere else I´d rather be. When I really don´t have any energies, a burst of energy chills my soul and we go back to work. It´s a win-win situation with the Lord. 

Sorry that I don´t have much to say. But I love you guys. Thanks, until next week,

-Elder Walker

The two zones

Dear family,

So I don´t know if you guys watched the conference yesterday, but it was pretty awesome. We´ve got to work harder and work better with members. We´re not two churches, missionary work and the bishopric (even though here in Bolivia it sure seems like that. We´re basically the people that run the chruch). ¡El Señor esta apresurando su obra! And as for the facebook thing, I´m not sure yet if that is for all the missions. I would have to ask the mission president what´s going to happen with us.

So this week was pretty busy and stressful. Transfers are always like that. And this transfer they split the Sucre zone as I mentioned before. We have opened up three new areas here this past week. In my time here, I´ve opened up 7 areas. But they´re sending even more missionaries here but without sending more money and supplies. I got 6 missionaries without beds, desks, closets, etc. Luckly for the new sisters that came to my ward, the pensionista let us borrow some extra beds for them to sleep on. 

On a side note, the new sisters in our ward are great and working like crazy.   They are helping all the members be missionaries and soon there will be a lot of success here. All the members are treated them like queens and putting alot more trust in them than with any other Elder. Not that we´re doing anything terrible, its just that they´ve had bad experiences in the past with some not-so obedient elders. 

My new companion Elder Cusiatao is great! He´s probably the calmest and most patient person here. We met someone this week that hates the church and the members. The funny thing is, is that her husband´s a less-active that we went to visit. As we starting talking, I was getting a little angry and put on the defensive. So I looked at my companion so that he can start talking. In the calmest, most loving voice, he started baring a simple testimony of the church. It was perfect. I almost bore my testimony telling her that one day we will be judgeed and you and I will stand face to face. There, you will have to admit the truth. And then we left. Even though this hermana didn´t accept us in that moment, I know she was left thinking that whole about what we said.

I know that the Lord is hurring up his work. We´ve got to be better as members and missionaries and share it with our friends, family, neighbors, etc, everyone! These are the last times. 

Elder Walker