hola desde Sucre(manta)

Dear Family,

Gracias por su apoyo y sus cartas (Sì Ryan, recibì tu carta). Parece que la famila Walker siempre esta ocupado y ahora, hay de todo; bodas, viajes a todo el mundo, misiónes, trabajos, etc. ¡Buena!

I had a great week. Transfers came. Turns out that my companion is leaving and I´m staying which is a little weird because I´ve been here longer than him. However, he´s not going that far. They´re opening up Sucre 2 or splitting us up. So he´s going to be the zone leader of that one while I stay. The Lord is hurrying up His work, they´re also opening up 3 new areas in Sucre. My new companion will be Elder Cusiatau (or something like that), he´s from Peru. Don´t really know anything about him.

Wednesday, we felt like we shuold go visit an old investigator that we hadn´t visited in 3 months named Crisolago an old guy. Impressions come like this all the time in the mission and it confirms it when you companion feels the same way (It can´t be revelation until you talk to your companion). He already came to church 2 times before and loves hearing us but we dropped him because the influence from his daughters that are from a different church starting coming into his life and he starting asking weird questions. We always talked about the restoration, the book of mormon, life after death (his wife died), etc. This time we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can be saved. Crisolago told us afterwards, ``why didnt you guys teach me this before!´´ That´s what I also asked myself. That is our objective as missionaries, to call repentance to the world. We can talk about almost anthing, but we are called to declare repentance. So Crisolago accepted to come to church and everything.

That was a cool experience. Another one happend Friday. We decided to walk a different road than what we normally take. We ran into a less-active member. She  talked to us about how poor she was, how they can´t buy blankets and the cold is coming, and how they are always sick (they look like it too) and can´t pay for medical attention. He husband only makes about 1500 bs every month. Or 230$ for a family of 6. She wasn´t asking us for money, but for me to call her God father that lives in New York that used to send money to them to help them. While we were talking, a begger came up to us and she gave freely of the little money she had. She really touched my companion´s heart. He probably doesn´t want me to tell anyone this; but we went home, He packed up a couple bags of his sweatshirts, took off the sheets of his bed, and left to buy bread and milk. That woman and her daughters were really happy when we dropped that stuff off and they were singing praises for a good 5 min in a crowded park. I know that they think it was a miracle of God. We just cannot fully comprehend the atonement of Jesus Christ. It also makes me ask myself if I´ve done something good today!?

I´ve had several other experiences here and I eternally grateful for them. Take care.

-Elder Walker

Boliviarimela

Dear family,

 

That´s some great news that Ryan´s going to Lima norte. I proselyted there one day during the MTC. Let´s just say that it´s not the richest part of the city and he might be robbed a few times. But there are some great people there. One of my companions was from there, Elder Injante. He goes home next May so he might see ryan. Also some of the elders in my district in the MTC went there (Elder Sines, Sagoon, and Murkley). I´ll tell Ryan other stuff he needs to know in a different letter.

 

 So this week was pretty cool. We went to Cochabamba to the leadership counsel and Elder Cabrera, a seventy came and told us that the prophet himself sent him to our mission specifically. He said that we have to double our baptisms! The Lord has prepared for this mission to double. So that is what we´re all working on right now. We came back to our area Thursday because my companion had a cyst by his eye that he got operated on. So that only left a couple days to work. I know that the Lord has prepared people for us in this area and that the prophet´s promise to double the baptisms is real. We found a lady about 65 years old named Alicia that is prepared. Yesterday, we taught her about the restoration and the spirit was really strong in that lesson. Her questions followed what we were going to teach and her comments were definitely influenced by the spirit. She even made herself be committed to praying. She told us that she´s going to pray to see if it was true what we said and we hadn´t even asked her yet! Then, in her prayer, she said ``If it´s thy will that I should to church, I´ll go.´´ We hadn´t invited her yet either. The next visit, I wouldn´t be surprised if she asked us if she could get baptized!

 

We also had a marriage and 2 baptisms this saturday. The girl that got married was baptized right afterwards. Her name is Melony and he husband was already a member. They´re great people and really humble. They came from La Paz with nothing and are trying to start their life here in Sucre. She is expecting a baby in a couple months, so it was hard to baptize a pregnant women. I had to have someone else come in the water with me to make sure that everything was alright.

The other baptism was a guy about cameron´s age named Ismael. One day we were eating with a member for lunch and we asked her if there´s anyone she knows that we can teach. She called a couple of her nephews in that instant. We ate with them, drank mate, and then starting teaching them. Ismael starting coming to the church to play soccer (but dad doesn´t want me to tell any more soccer stories...). There, he made friends with the members and felt very welcome. He decided to get baptized. Now we´re just waiting for his cousin Roberto that also came to  eat with us that day. We taught them both together but only Ismael decided to get baptized.

Then, Sunday night, we got a call fom a missionary and we recieved a reference. The missionaries have already taught him all the lessons and had a baptism date for this Saturday. He´s coming to Sucre to study and still wants to get baptized this saturday. So I know this is a miracle and that God has already prepared the way for us to double the baptism.

 

Take care. Help out the missionaries.

 

-Elder Walker

 

Funny quote I heard while we were walking home yesterday. A girl said this to her boyfriend,

``Why are they walking so fast?´´

``Because they don´t smoke.´´

 

Maybe I´ve been in the mission too long, but it was funny to me in the moment...

Oh happy days

Dear family.

Right now, Boston is playing on the radio here in the internet place. I know that this type of music is not really appropriate for the mission, but I´m happy and there´s really nothing I can do about it....:)

So big news happened to my sister....; Emily sold cookies, congratulations Emily on all your hard work. Also, congratulations on winning soccer, you´d do good down here in Bolivia. I always knew you had it in you. That is a life changing moment and you will always draw from those types of experiences. Oh yea, and Marissa got engaged.... The same goes to you.

I´m just kidding Marissa, don´t take it personally. Walkeen is a great guy.

Maybe Cameron will find the same down in Washington D.C.

My guess for Ryan is Chile, misión Viña del Mar. That´ll help get on the ins with Mom and Dad. But just remeber, the Chileanos stole the mar from Bolivia hace casi 200 años. Por eso se celebra aca El Dia Del mar para recordar que odian a Chile.

My week went fine at the end. You guys already know that I went to Potosi for a conferencia de Zona. We taught an hour class and it went excellent (and you can tell according to the picture that Hna Dyer sent). I thought I´d never go back again to Potosi. But it was awesome, I visited many people that I taught and the members there. Alot of people have changed, a lot haven´t. But it wasn´t that much time to visit people because we left for Potosi at 5 in the morning, got there at 8, had our conference at 10 until 6, then left at 7 for sucre. That was a long day.

I could bore you guys with all the `fun´ stuff we do for zona Sucre like do house contracts and help move people, but I´ll have the rest of my life to tell you guys all the cool mission stories.

-Elder Walker

``If your dreams don´t scare you, they aren´t big enough´´

Mom - so we wanted to make root beer with that extract stuff, but I really don´t know how. Send me advice on how please.

Doing a great job at the Zone Leader Conference