Mom, Te Amo

Dearest Family,

Mom, te amo. First off, I'm like the worst son ever. I realized last month that it was your birthday, but then I forgot to say anything. I've been meaning to wish you a belated birthday forever! So I love you so much! You are the best mom for me. Hope your birthday was great.

We had a great week full of baptismal interviews and hours of carrying water in buckets. First off, Jean Carlos got baptized this week. He is a great 23 year old guy from Cusco. He is the only member in his family who lives here in Huancayo, and he lives alone. We started teaching him about 2 and a half months ago and we could have baptized him a long time ago, but I wanted to make sure he was truly converted. He is the boyfriend of Beatriz, and he wanted to get baptized right away it was kind of funny. It was cool though to see the change in him. He had to stop doing some things and change his life style and traditions. He was able to gain a testimony of the Word of Wisdom and of Joseph Smith. Great guy. I hope the best for him. 

Maycol also went to church yesterday with a white shirt and tie. It was sweet. We preparing him to be able to bless the sacrament. He also came with us to a couple of lesson, and he was able to share his testimony, and he has grown so much. I feel so lucky to have been able to know him and my other converts here in Huancayo. I was thinking about it a little bit, and I really haven’t done anything. I’m not anything special either, but God has just blessed me with the opportunity to know them. 

I am super excited for Conference. 3 new apostles that’s crazy! Can’t wait. Hey, Chloe hasn't written me :( not sure why not. I’m happy for Marcus. He will be a great trainer. If it is another gringo I will die! Did you all go to Disneyland? Don’t lie I know you did. That’s sweet though for Chloe’s friend. Hey will you send me like a BYU Spanish test guide. I don’t do anything now in my language study and it’d be cool to study for that test I’m gonna take when I get back. 

Love you!

Elder Walker

Elders Whitaker and Rodriguez and I

New Apartment

HEY! LUV YOU!

It has been a great week. First, we went to HCVA to do an interview with of the investigators of Elder Hardison and Elder Daza. The investigator was super prepared, and she got baptized on Saturday and everything went well. Elder Hardison is the one on the far left in the picture that I sent.He is a super great funny guy. He will go home this transfer. Elder Rasmussen is also doing well with Elder Moss. They are both super tall, so they stand out in Peru! Don’t worry I’m watching out for Elder Moss. You can tell his mom. 

We got news while we were in HCVA that my old comanion, Elder Molina, would be coming to the zone. Elder Camacho got emergency transferred to Cerro de Pasco, and Elder Molina came here from Cerro.  I don't know if you remember him or what I told you about him, but yeah he is in my zone now. I was thinking about it too, and I would say if I could have one transfer back I would choose the one with Elder Molina. I feel like I could have done better. I am happy for that opportunity.
      
It was hard for Camacho to go because they had 4 people, a family, get baptized yesterday. Watching their baptism however was hard for me as well. You know that one of my goals is to find a family and to help them take that first step and enter into the waters of baptism and later enter the temple. It was hard just to watch Elder Molina get that chance free. Not just that, but because of some things in the past as well. I know it is just my pride, but it was hard. I was studying a little bit about the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, but it has always been one of the hardest for me to understand.

I also sent some fotos of our new crib. It is sweet. We actually just had room inspections and Prsd and Hna Henderson came to see our room. They were shocked. Psd just laughed. We made them take off their shoes before the entered the apartment as a joke because they make us do the same we we go to their house. Prsd asked us how much we pay, and we said 320 soles. He told us we are robbing the owners, but also told us good negotiating. Hna Henderson said that it meets the requirements for senior missionaries. haha so don’t worry about me, Mom, I’m more than fine! Haha. We have a kitchen and oven as well. Still haven't made anything though. It is for sure the nicest place I’ve lived in Peru.

I’m great, mom. Did Marc get transferred? How do I coordinate to go home together with him from Atlanta? Tell Chloe to write me back!

Love you all!

Elder Walker

New Friends and Old

Hey Mom,

Funny story. Yesterday I was doing informes with the district leader in HVCA, and the dl asked me from an Elder Moss if I new a girl named Sammy from Las Vegas. I said Sammy Smith? How random is that? And then yeah we started talking a little bit and come to find out this Elder Moss character dated (or was seeing not really how she would describe it) Sammy. I told him that yeah are families are like great friends. He told me that his family is planning their wedding. And yeah it was super funny. Such a small world. So that is what happened. I will look out for him though. He is with a gringo trainer named Elder Rasmussen, who is a great guy. We are actually going to be in HVCA tomorrow to do an interview. I actually met Elder Moss too when he first got to Huancayo because we dropped off Elder Rasmussen to get his new son. He is a cool guy. Anyways. 

Like Marc, our mission president told us we can't live chat on email anymore, so I will be sending longer emails. We can message back and forth for emergencies, but just not as much as we used to do. 

I’m with a new companion! Another Peruvain. Elder Gonzales from Chiclayo is my new comp. He and Elder Carhuaricra just switched spots, which is kinda funny. Elder Gonzales is a great guy. We get along better. He is a quite hard worker. He is 27 years old, and Elder Carhuaricra was 25 so it is kinda weird to be with comps someone so much older than me. But he is great, and it is going to be a great transfer. 

We had a crazy week, but everything has settled down. We are still working with the Familia Poma and the parents but the progress is slow. We are visiting the boyfriend of Hna Beatriz and we set a date for him, but we want to be sure that he gains a testimony and doesn’t just want to get baptized for her. Maycol got the Aaronic priesthood yesterday, which was sweet to see. He is progressing great. We had a couple other people come to church, but for now we just need to work. 

Marc just told me that he will get home the 27th of June! Haha which mean my dream might come true. I am scheduled to go home the same day but will have to see because sometimes when there is a change of mission president weird things happen to the transfers, and I am also scheduled to go home with Prsd Henderson. But still it would be SOO awesome to meet up in Atlanta with Marc. We will see.

All is well mom. I am glad Gma is doing all right. Tell her I love her. I also like the talk. I knew member? Sweet. Love you!

Elder Walker

Saying goodbye to Elder Larson, a good friend, and Elder Toomer.

Mission Life

Fam,

So I'm in Huancayo now which you know. I guess I haven’t really told you much about it. It is another place here in the mountains of Peru. 11,000 ish feet. Huancayo is a big city though, and it is weird to be in the big city after being in remote places for so long. I like it though. The people here are super humble and nice, forgetting about the slammed doors in my face.  We had a baptism on Saturday, and we did divisions last week with elders 5 hours away  in a town like Huancavelica by train to do divisions this week. So that was fun. 

We are working hard here and having fun at the same time. Transfers are tomorrow and we’ll see if my comp leaves or not. Also we will a zone training here in Huacayo tomorrow. Just the same old. I can say I've honestly forgotten what life is like outside of the mission. It’s weird. Anyways have a great week!

The baptism went great. Maycol got baptized and everything turned out good. HEY SEND ME A PIC OF THE HOOVER DAM. PLEASE! We are going to have are zone meeting tomorrow about pride and I want to make that comparison. umm. We changed rooms. Our room now is super nice I will send you pics next week. I don't know what to write. I’ll just send a bunch of photos. Love you.

Elder Walker