Busy Sunday

Hello!

I’m good. Or am I well? Which is it, Mom? Okay I’m trying to to be good and I’m feeling well! Thanks for the quick English lesson. Tell Dad, "What's up brother from another mother!?" Nothing much with me. I am just chillin' in Oxapama right now. My comp left yesterday to go to La Merced, and today he leaves to go to Lima for immigrations. He doesn’t get back until Thursday, which stinks. So I am here for P day, and tomorrow I will go to Villa Rica with the Elderes from Oxapama and have to try to find a division to stay with me until Thursday. All of this just gives me a headache though and is super annoying: stupid immigrations and bad planning and organization in the CCM.

Yesterday was a crazy day. I literally did everything in sacrament meeting. Missionaries often have a lot of responsibility in the wards in Peru, but this week was crazy. I brought three investigators and two less actives. I helped pass the sacrament, and then I gave a talk. I gave the Sunday School lesson. But that isn’t all. At the end of the meeting the second counselor told me that the bishop wanted me to give a baby blessing. And I was worried and thought I don’t even know how because I have never done it. But I was like sure I'll do it, if the Bishop really wants me to. So I pulled out my manual misional and read how to, and then I gave my first ever baby blessing in Spanish yesterday at the end of the meeting.

In my talk, I spoke about the life of Jesus Christ and how He didn't just teach us how to live but also He invited us to come unto Him and to live how He lived. I used a lot from Monson’s talk, “Ponder thy Footsteps” (I think). I used a lot of scriptures too and talked about how the teachings of Jesus Christ don't mean anything if we don’t apply them in our lives. In Mateo 4:19-20, Jesus calls His disciples ,and he says, “Come and I will make you fishers of men. “ And they straightway followed him. I love that how the followed immediately. In contrast we have the story of two followers of Christ in Lucas 57:59-62 when Jesus invites them to come follow me and they respond yes lord I will follow you BUT let me bury the dead first and let me say goodbye to my family. I talked about how in our lives we pretty much do the same thing. For example, we might say, “I will follow thee Lord, but just let me work on Sundays or enjoy life a little bit or give me some time to figure things out.” I love verse 62 as well when He says that we cant enter into the kingdom of heaven looking back. We have to actively follow Christ in our lives. He lived a perfect life. He is our perfect example of obedience love and service and his life is an active invitation to follow him and to leave or worries and problems behind because truly his yoke is easy.

Dad asked me to give him a topic for his talk next Sunday. Tell dad he can talk on that if he wants to. However, I shared my message like that because the ward here is growing and a lot of people are willing to follow Christ and magnify their calls they just have a bunch of things holding them back like work, family problems, and fear. 

But hey, my usb broke and I have no music!!! My time is up, but please give Camron this message for me. Camron, I need your help. HELP ME PLEASE! I want all of the church music you have, all of the EFYs of the last 10 I also want a bunch of Mormon Messages in Spanish on a USB and other useful church videos, please! I also want David Archuleta, and his Spanish church music as well, and MoTab. Ohhhh and I want MEET THE MORMONS. It is one of the only movies we can actually watch: in English and in Spanish, as well!!!!! PLEASE!!!! Our dvd players have usb, por eso. Thanks! Make a USB for Marc, too. He would like that.

I lOVE YOU ALL so MUCH! Have fun with dad and his list! Haha. I loved those things! Wish I was there to help you! Better yet call the missionaries and make them work and serve. Then, you just give them some food! Haha! 

Love you,

Elder Walker

Remember

Hey!

I’m on for a little bit before we go to La Merced for a Zone Conference. Our week was good, but we had had a disappointing Sunday because no one went to church. We had one investigator go, but she left after the first hour because her RM cousin always leaves. Annoying! Things are good with Elder Grandstaff. It is almost more frustrating watching him struggle with the language than it was for me to learn it. Patience is required I know. I wish I could just give the language to him, because I don’t like him to be frustrated. I guess that’s what it’s kinda like for a dad to watch his son struggle. Somethings we just have to learn the hard way: with patience and effort. 

We taught a lot of lessons this week though, and we are working hard so that is good. It is hard though to teach Elder Grandstaff Spanish. I’m trying to be a good teacher. I’m trying to talk all Spanish, but it is hard to talk in all Spanish because he doesn’t understand a lot yet. It’s so easy for me to just be his walking translator. What did Marcus do with a gringo trainer? How did he learn Spanish? Things are good though. 

Give the sick Brody my love. My sweet puppy.

It was good to talk to Marc for a minute last week. Marcus really does speak well, and he’s had all gringo companions. I was talking with him and I was kind of surprised how well he speaks. He speaks as well or better than me. I didn’t understand some of the words he was saying because they were weird Chilean slang, but he spoke super well. I think we will have to start doing that though, Spanish in our room and grammar along with the lessons endlessly. My comp studied German in high school, and I have to admit my 2 years of Spanish did help, even though I thought it was pointless at the time. But is it is little by little. That is my biggest worry though right now. Actually I’m not really sure why president put me with Elder Grandstaff because he was the only gringo in his group and it made more sense to put him with one of the Latino trainers. I just worry that I’m not the best companion for him, but hay que tener fe y confiar en el señor. And I do love the guy!

Things are going good though. We will go to La Merced then come back tomorrow. I like going to La Merced, so it should be fun. Hey mom have you sent my package yet? Or called the courier about my bag? One thing I would like too is the Meet the Mormons DVD in English and Spanish, too, because it is a movie that we can actually have. Also, I would like a small low key easily shipped jump rope. I think I have one in the basement, just send me that one. And anything else easy to help me work out, but I cant thing of anything.

I read Helaman this week up to Helaman 10. It is a pretty cool book. It is crazy how many time the Nephites fall into the pride cycle in the first few chapters. I think it is in chapter 4 alone where it happens like 5 times. I read as well the famous chapter 5 with the famous words of Helaman to his sons Lehi and Nephi. It makes sense that Helaman talks about putting Christ first in our lives to a people who obviously hadn't and because of this they were so easily shaken and fell into wickedness. But I like how it talks about remembering. In chapter 5 verses 5 through 14, it says remember more than 10 times. The Nephites didn't remember the things that were taught to them and forgot their god. Nephi and Lehi remember the words of their fathers and kept the commandments and left to preach the gospel. President Kimball has a quote that says if you had to choose the most important word in the dictionary you could, choose remember because it is so important to remember our covenants and God in everything we do. Here there are a lot of people who have forgotten God and a lot of people who have forgotten the covenants they have made. Literally some who don’t even remember that they got baptized. We have to remember.

Love you all,

Elder Walker

Day After Mother's Day Call

Hello,

Hey I’m on for a sec before we go over to a member’s house to talk to you! I can’t even believe we couldn’t get a clear connection yesterday! So frustrating! I’m sorry Mom. Marc too? You couldn’t talk to him either. Not a great Mother's Day! So this will be an awesome day after Mother’s Day.

A little about my new companion. Elder Grandstaff is a super awesome guy. He is from Walla Walla, Washington. He is a legit farmer guy. He is super hard working and humble and doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. ;) Actually. he speaks okay for someone who just got out of the CCM, but he has a lot to learn. He is 20 years old and looks like a straight up man's man. He was the only gringo from his group of about 7 elders so I thought for sure I was gonna train a latino, but no. We get along great.

Just to clarify. I will call at 11. When will Marc call? Since we are talking in a few minutes. I’ll just send you a few pictures. This is my favorite waterfall I've been to so far, called Catarata Bayoz.

I love you,

Elder Walker

Looking Forward to Mother's Day!

Hello,

So I know nothing about transfers, which is kind of cool because this Mother’s Day Sunday it will be a surprise who I am with and where I am. I’m pretty sure though that I’ll stay here in Villa Rica though.

So what’s up with Marc? We need to pick our call time. Why can’t he pick a time? Why is it so hard to talk to him? Isn’t he in the middle of Santiago the biggest, most advanced city in Chile?

Because of Stake Conference, I have to talk after 4 PM my time. Just pick a time, and tell Marc to schedule around that. 

This week was good. We found an awesome new family of four. Jose and Ninfa, the parents and Marisol and Angel. The were a reference from members the familia Vega who is one of the best strongest families in the ward. The Hna Vegas sister is ninfa. This week Angel and Marisol went to church but the parents couldn’t for some problems that came up. But later that day we were talking with Jose, and he asked us what he has to do to get baptized. haha. Talk about the best question you can hear as a missionary!But he told us that he really wants to change his life, and he want to put God first. So that was sweet. We told him that he has to get married too. So yeah marriage is a proccess and it will take time, but they have great support in the fam. Vega.

One of my goals on the mission is to find an entire family and teach them and help them come closer to Christ in form of faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and ultimately going to the temple, and persevering to the end. It is my my main goal as a missionary—to find a family. So I am constantly looking for that and finding this family is an answer to prayers. 

I am doing great. I love you all,

Elder Walker