Sound the war cry

Querido familia,

Sounds like all of you had bad weeks this week.  Except Marissa and Jacky, cuz they never write.  But your letters bring me joy knowing that I dont have to worry about these things and the world for another year and a half.

I dont have much to share this week, as every week consists of the same goods.  I finally learned how to fill out the paperwork for investigadors.  Turns out my companion hasnt done it for like 2 months so of course I have to clean up after him again.  ja.  But to be honest this week was a little discouraging.  We had a baptism all planned out for Saturday, for the son of one of our recent converts.  But then his father (the same man who wouldnt give up drinking) told his son things that a father shouldnt and scared his son out of his baptism.  Im really at a loss for this man.  As dad put it, he "sounded the war cry".

But enough about bad news, In good news we have several investigadors planned to be baptized this satuday. :)  After many months Dina and her son will finally be baptized and already feel a part of the family and happiness that resides in the Church of Jesus Christ.  The church really is a giant family that we can always turn to apart from the hardness of the world.

The work is going good, I hope all of you are staying strong and faithful!  The church is true, and God has a plan for all of his children!!

Con Amor,

Elder Walker

Ps Sorry if my letters have offended any of you.  Everyone is different, and frankly, I do write weird.  But missionarys are allowed to make mistakes too.  Nobodys perfect, and the purpose of agency is to learn.  And someday well all get there. :)

To whom it may concern

Pictures:  my friend wilbur, our trip to canta, and more...
Querido familita,

Rather than bore you guys with the usual intense missionary stuff or my amazing trip to Canta, I figured Id share my short talk I gave in Domingo yesterday.

Ive been thinking alot this week about how people become inactive in the Church.  Its still quite puzzling but for me it comes down to the "small and simple things."  Really we dont notice how profound little daily things turn into habits that then become who we are and change our future lives.  Id like to show unto the world that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass".  Now this is a universal concept, but right now Id like to apply it to church and our own spiritual progression.
One can easily lose himself in his way of life; a routine thats pleasing and comfortable.  But when we stop progressing and changing, whats happening?  Well if youre not moving forward, youre moving backwards.  Hence, we become camplacent.  And when complacency sets in, all it takes is something alittle bit stronger, something that is moving forward, to conquer us.  And in this case, that is Satan.  Satan is always working, just as God is.  And just as God has a plan for us, so does Satan.  So the question is what side are we on?  Well it is really determined by your "small and simple" choices.  One can say he has faith and does whats right, but if he is not constantly acting on that faith and getting stronger, he will only slow down, get lost, and lose himself.  (Hence faith without works is dead).  It is a daily effort, a daily battle to choose the right things.  What will I wear today?  What will I do with my free time?  What do I do when this happens?  Blah blah blah.  With so many questions and choices to make on a daily bases, I suppose the ultimate question is What will I do to make the right choices?  And perhaps Where can I find the answers?
Well, Im glad you asked.  Allow Elder Walker to explain.  The answer lies in everything we learned in Primary.  Read the scriptures EVERYDAY.  Pray EVERYDAY.  Attend church EVERYDAY.  Just kidding, only once a week for church.  As it says in 3 Nephi 18:18-22, "18 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch (read the scriptures) and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for aSatan desireth to haveyou, that he may sift you as wheat.

 19 Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name;

 20 And awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given untoyou.

 21 aPray in your families unto the Father, always in my name,that your wives and your children may be blessed.
 22 And behold, ye shall ameet together oft; and ye shall not forbidany man from coming unto you when ye shall meet together, but suffer them that they may come unto you and forbid them not;"  These are the simple things we must do every day of our lives to recieve the guidance, strength, and direction of the Holy Ghost.  And we are promised that if we do these things, if we "build upon the rock of Christ", we will "never fall."
And this is my testimony that these things are true.  I promise all of you that if you are lost or seeking direction in life or even fallen, if you do these 3 things and build upon that rock of Chris, you will be blessed.  And your life will dwell on a foundation that can never fall.  This is my desire for everyone of us that we "Read & Pray, everyday!"  (thats my motto!).  And we will never fail, but lives peaceful and happy lives full of the Spirit.

As always, I love all of you and hope for the best.
Con Amor,
Elder Ryan Walker

Moving up

Querido familia,

So funny story, straight out of training this transfer I was called to be a District Leader!!!  We also had 7 baptisms this week and a hot tub party.

Now if youre listening to the Spirit, none of that is true.  But a missionary can dream can´t he?  Nah transfers this week were boring.  Literally nobody changed in my zone, especially Gaibor our zone leader who has 9 months in this area and I was really hoping would be transfered.  Naquiche and I are still companions which means I still wont get any sleep for another 6 weeks (His snoring gets worse every day).

But in good news we found 3 more golden families this week!!  Only one went to church, but hey things are looking up.  My spanish has reached a point where its not one of my big concerns.  I can understand and speak fluently without problems or having to continuously ask Como? or Que??  or Laughing awkwardingly and dumping the conversation on my companion haha.  Frankly, things are looking up :)  My teaching has gotten pretty solid.  I focus more on pure doctrine and direct questions rather than talk alot of flower or dance around a hard question such as marriage or keeping committments.

Other than that things are going well!  Im healthy, happy, and try to be as obedient as I can, especially since many Latinos are terribly disobedient.  I love you all, pray for you all, and hope you have a week full of sunshine and flowers!  Cuidense y siempre recuerden que su Padre Celestial les ama ;)

Con Amor

Elder Quaker

Im a big boy now, wow!

Querido familia,

Yijole por fin el transfer ha llegado!!  Transfers are finally here and we find out in 2 hours who goes where.  Im mostly excited just to be a normal missionary now.  When youre "nuevecito" (new) no one really listens to you lol.  My training ends today, which is weird because i feel like it ended last transfer, and im sailing on.   I hope I get a flat area, Im tired of living on a hill

 Im not too sure how i feel at this point.  If I had 3 words to describe my first 4 months, Id say hot, dirty, and stressful.  Maybe alittle exhaggerated, but its true.  Ive learned so much and experienced a complete different life style here.  Ive made alot of new friends and memories too.  Im alittle sad that I might leave Naquiche today, but im ready for change.  We had alot of fun memories together.  Just yesterday there was a large temblor (small earthquake) and he was in the bathroom at the time, JAJA!  So poor Naquiche was freaking out trying to escape the bathroom without finishing during the temblor.

 A drunk guy stole my lucky pencil this week.  Very sad day for me.  I also ate some seviche for the first time, which i really shouldnt have done, and was sick all saturday and sunday.  Seviche is gross raw fish sprinkled with lemon juice and salt.  Dont ask me why I ate it, I was curious.  I payed the price the next day.  Never eating seviche again.  Never.  Nope.  Never.

We dropped a few investigators this week, and suprisingly found 3 new awesome golden families to teach!  A little sad now that we might get transferred, but nothing makes a missionary happier than finding and teaching awesome families that are interested and understand the Gospel.

Well thats all folks.  Tune in next week for transfer and companion news!  Hope you all have a great week, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Con Amor,

Elder Walker

Zzzz; Dis fruit

Querido familia,

I could really go for a sponge bath right now.  And some of moms famous creamed eggs.  And watch a movie at the same time.  And a hot shower- oh wait I had that this morning!!! WHOOP we got our freezing cold shower fixed!  It was amazing until my head got within 5 inches of the shower head and got the biggest electricution Ive ever felt in my life.  My brain still feels like spinach.  Probably the most dissappointing moment of my mission.  For a second I thought we had a little peice of heaven....  So now I have to lean over my whole time in the shower like in the movie elf.  Well at least its warm.  I also had my first PB&J this week.  My whole life I hated PBJs but there now a delicacy to me.  Also Valentines was crazy because Latinos love to play a game called Carnival which is basically where everyone hangs out in the street all week and soaks everyone that passes by!  This week was so dangerous for Naquiche and I haha, every street we had to run from kids or dodge flying water balloons.  It was funny cause he was the only one that ever got hit.
As you can tell, nothing really happened this week.  We worked especially hard and found little success, but we did put alot of bap dates for the next month which was nice.  Javier still doesnt want to give up his "refreshments".  I know he wants to change, but he really just doesnt know how.  He tells me he repents- but all he does is finish drinking then pray for forgiveness.  haha.  Does that makes sense to any of you?    Im gunna call in a life line for this one- Whats your advice family?

But yup thats it.  Hope you all had a great week.  I got 3 awesome packages this week from my 3 bffs- Hailey, Toni, and mom.  Thank you all for all of your support!  Whether its packages or even little prayers for me and other missionaires, I feel them, and theyre much needed.  Happy late Valentines Day!! 
Con Amurrr ooxxOxXo,

Elder Walker
Personal note to mama Walker:  Yes, I did kiss that goat.  And yes, I did shake hands with a monkey.
The monkey was like the size of my hand!  haha  and btw I disapprove of you guys going to disneyland right after I leave.  As a representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you eternal blessings if you save all partyings, fiestas, vacations, and yummy breakfastes untill november 2015.
Also I did get the package.  Easily the most awesome package Ive ever seen!  Some missionaries get really cool packages but my mommys trumps them all.  Not only was there so much fun stuff, actually I cant even remember all of it because there was so much cool stuff.  Like those exploding balloon hearts jaja!  I appreciated eery bit of the package.  Thank you mom.  Where would I be without you?  No where.  Thats where.

Treasure!!

Querido familia,

Elder Walker here.  Hows the fam?  You guys still care about me right?  No one wrote this week jaja.  Its alright...

I dont think Ive told you guys about my new bffs.  Ever since the transfers we got some new gringos, another Elder Walker and Elder Perez.  It was basically love at first sight.  We just have so much in common, its like we were destined to fall in love here in Peru.  Plus apparently we both met at a party a year ago.  hm.  crazy party.

Another thing I realized this week is that Ive had dreams about Peru my whole life.  In these dreams Im in a run down town that looks eactly like Peru.  Theres also a giant T-Rex thats chasing me.  Im not sure why... so Ill just say thats Satan.  And in my dreams id always find little caches of hidden treasures in houses.  Id like to compare those to investigators, because really they are my treasure out here. :)

Speaking of Treasures, we had a wedding this week!!  Peru weddings are honestly pretty lame haha, but it was still beautiful to see the Spirit in there lives.  Naquiche and I also sang a special remix of Nearer My God to Thee.  Every Latinos favorite hymn.  Anyways, Yet only the wife and daughter got baptized, because the husband still doesnt want to repent.  So one night he was outside alone wondering what he should do, and I read to him this scripture(not quoted) - Where your treasure is, there will your heart be too.  I then proposed to him this question- hermano Javier, who are you?  And what is your treasure?  .....He thought for abit.  I could tell he was debating inside.  So he instead dodged it and tried to talk about something else that didnt even make sense.  This scripture is very true.  The things we treasure and protect in our lives, are the things that our hearts most desire and rejoice in.  The things we truly want, and give our time and work for.  So my question for all of you is- Who are you?  And what is your treasure?  Money? Food? Technology? or Family? Friends? Music? Virtues? God?  Id love to hear from all of you.

I love you all, hope you have a fandiddlytastic week.  Always remember where your treasure lies.

Con Amor,

Elder Walker

Ps.  I finally learned how to mail letters!!!  Thank you Jennifer and John for your letters and everyone else too!  Its really expensive to write back though haha.  But ill try ;)

Oh happy days

Querido familia,

Oh tis happy days indeed.  Happy birday to Marissa.  Happy groundhog day.  Happy wife hunting to Cameron.  Happy wedding day to my investigators this week.  Happy Happy Happy.

For me, Ive found that im only happy when Im working or doing good stuffs.  For example, I made a goal this last week to not complain a single time on Wednesday.  It was probably the easiest, funnest, and fastest day of the week.  Turns out when youre not looking for the negative, you can only talk about the positive.  And what Craig said is exactly true.  The people we make fun of, we usually end up helping jaja.  The members in the ward that I make fun of with my comp, we somehow end up doing service for or teaching them.

A funny but sad story that happened this week.  We were teaching a family about the spirit world this week.  Latinos absoluetly LOVE ghost stories.  Theyll stop whatever theyre doing to listen and watch.  And I brought up I had a real ghost video on my youtube page so they begged me to watch it.  It was just that dumb one in the park where I animated in a screaming ghost, but they loved it.  But when the ghost popped up, it scared the nuts out of their son Jonotan (the kid I baptized) and he fell and the ground hahaha.  It was hilarious untill he started crying.  Then I felt terrible.  

With investigators- Dina still wont get baptized.  She promises she´ll go to church every week because she loves God more than anything, but then something always comes up- this week she decided to go play at the city pool with her son.  What.

Gloria and her family are getting married this Saturday!!  Yay!!!  The sad part is only half of her family will get baptized with her.  And suggestions Craig?  We´ve  tried everything but her husband and son dont want to repent.

Something that happened alot this week was being turned down.  People in the street would laugh at us or turn us down for no reason.  We even lost a few investigators for reasons I dont even know.  Some people mock us or turn us down just because theyre scared of religion or they dont understand ordinances such as baptism.  Or especially because theyre more interested in themselves and things of this world.  Therefore, they get scared or turn away.  But really what do they have?  They can gain the whole world, but will lose their own soul.  Theyll die and thats the end.  Or maybe they think theyre body will turn into a tree in the next life.  I dont know.  But I dont want to be a tree.  But why would anyone want to believe in nothing?  The wonderful thing about faith is that you have nothing to lose- only so much more to gain!  If not, the greatest gift in the universe- eternal life!  Better question, what reason is there not to believe?  My heart bleeds for those whos only faith is doubt.  If I were given the opportunity, Id give my life just to show them how much I love them and desire them to know the truth of these things.  But such is life.  Everything comes to a point where you need to let go and let God.  I pray that God has a plan, that just maybe the things Ive done will little by little add up in their life, and theyll be brought to a knowledge of the truth.  And this is the truth of my testimony, that God exists and loves all of his children.  That Jesus Christ is our Savior and this is his church.  That by following his example and Gospel, we can live again with our friends and families after this life.  These are such profound things, but also very simple.  And by small and simple things such as faith are great things brought to pass.

Con Amor,

Elder Walker

PS Dad the empanadas arent that great here.  But I did learn how to make some peruvian doughnuts called picarones that will make you cry.