Questions

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. It has always been one of my favorite holidays behind Christmas and the 4th of July. I guess Christmas is the only holiday left in my mission. I am fine on planning our Skype call, but if we dont do it on Christmas day I'd rather do it on the 26th not on Christmas Eve when you are all at... Wait where is everyone going to be on Christmas Eve in Gmas house? Our house? Where Mare is living? Hhhhmmmm weird, but skyping would better on the 26th. The picture of me here was on Thanksgiving day when I was in Huancavelica in the morning for a baptismal interview.

I'm sending and have already given an Elder a package to give to you guys. I sent it with Elder Bradford. He is from Provo. You can probably facebook stalk him or something and get connected to his family. His first name is Gabriel. I put on the package Camron's name and phone number. If that info has changed and isn't correct you need to try to contact Elder Bradford. I told him joking that he will be paid upon pick up. But really please thank him for me because I sent a pretty big package with him and it was super nice of him to do it. If everything goes as planned then you could have the package on Saturday when Camron comes down for his eye surgery. 

So I don't know if you know, but I just finished my 12th transfer in the mission. Transfers are tomorrow and it is like 60 to 40 that I'm leaving and going somewhere else. I love Huancayo. I love the people and unique culture. Even in Peru the culture changes a LOT and the mountains of Peru have become my home. 

This week I learned about the 12 tribes of Israel. It is super interesting and confusing. Like why does John in Revelations 7 mention Manasseh and not the tribe of Dan? The 12 tribes are the children of Jacob, or Israel, but are Ephraim and Manasseh tribes as well? It was interesting reading about the blessings of the tribes though. 

Other than that we visited Beatriz she said she was gonna go to church but didn't. We had our ward conference and about 170 people came which was cool How many people go to our ward? 

Transfers are tomorrow! Exciting. 

Love you, 

Elder Walker

Thanksgiving day when I was in Huancavelica in the morning for a baptismal interview.

Thanks

Thanks for the great letters. That's super sad news about Ms. Ringen. She was a flaming Liberal, but I always liked her so much and especially admired the love she had for her students. Actually, she is the only teacher who has written me on my mission. She said this in response to my email,  "thanks for understanding.  you are, as always, right, walkman:  life, including a mission, is tough.  reality bites, sir.  think of you often and fondly.  thanks for getting back to me, and i promise to crush jason lyon for you.  with respect and affection (and no, i don’t use caps in email), your friend." Great lady. I will miss her. 

I love the talk from Elder Wirthlin as well and thanks for reminding me about Thanksgiving because I completely forgot. I'm going to print out your letter and read it later. 

Hey, so I spent a lot of time preparing and organizing a small memory chip I'm about to send home so sorry. I would like to know two things about politics because it's annoying and distracting to hear Peruvians talk about it. First, is Donald Trump going to be president? Do we want that? Is world war three about to break out because of a terrorist attack on France? That is the stuff I have heard and would like clarifiction. 

Anyways, quickly this week we went to Pampas to do divisions there. It went okay. Pampas is struggling as a family group, but the missionaries are great there and we have a lot of hope. We will have a zone activity together with the stake for Christmas. We were able to find and teach a few new people this week and will see what happens. More than anything we continue to work with less actives and recent converts. All good though. Tomorrow we will do divisions with Chilca and then have to go back to Huancavalica to do a baptismal interview. All good. Everyone here skips Thanksgiving (guess it is just an US thing) and is thinking about Christmas. Gratitude is so important. Love you!

Elder Walker

Photos

Hey,

I have a couple of questions and then I can move on. How did Joe ask Chloe to marry him? Where are they doing their reception? Where did Chloe get her dress and what's it like? 

Also small note, I found out that two people I found in Villa Rica got baptized. It was super funny. I was in the mission office looking at the baptism records and saw two from Villa Rica. Looked at the named and was like hmm I know them. crazy stuff. Two random people we started to talk toon the street got baptized. It reminds me to talk to everyone, especially here in Peru, because you never know. 

The work is going slow here in our area for now. We have an older lady named Guillermina, who is the only real investigator we have. She has gone to church 3 times now but it is hard for her to undertand. We have to teach very slowly with her. She is cool though and will get baptised at the end of this month or at the beginning of Dec. Other than that we are working with a lot of recent converts because the Sister missionaries left some and we already had some as well. We keep working at it though. The zone is great. Pampas is struggling because it was demoted from a branch to a family group. All of the missionaries are great though. 

I'm sorry I don't have much to say today. I'll just send more photos. Happy birthday to my sister, Chloe. Love you all,

Elder Walker

Working in the rain like a real missionary

My pensionista's granddaughter, the cutest little girl in the world. 

Here I Raise my Ebenezer

For the first time in a while, I am writing you, and I have a lot of time to do it. Ironically, now I can't think of very much to say. 

This last week went by fast with consejo de lideres, a multi zone pday, the multi zone training, then our zone meeting. In reality this whole change (half way down) has gone by fast and even this year as I realize we are already in November. My companion and I both get to our room at night exhausted. One doesn't realize what the hermana missionaries do until they're gone. We are great though and have plans to keep working hard and to help the ward. More than anything we need to find more investigators because we don't have anyone that goes to church. We are working with some less actives as well. Jean Carlos and Beatriz continue to be MIA but we were able to talk to them both once. Needless to say that whole situation is so frustrating.

Of all of the trainings and out of everyone that talked my favorite was the Hermana Henderson when she talked to us in consejo de lideres. She has such a strong testimony and without fail I can feel the spirit when she talks. I'm gonna paraphrase a little bit of what she said. 

We first got the lyrics then listened to the song "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" all of the verses and it is an amazing song. I invite you all to listen to it when you have time and to really focus on the words. Afterwards, she asked us what Ebenezer means when is in the song says,

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come 
And I hope by thy good pleasure 
Safetly to arrive at home

In Samuel 7 it explains the story. Israel was battling with the Philistenes and the Philistenes were subdued. In verse 10 it reads,

10 And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.

Then later in verse 12 Samuel comes and takes a stone.

 12Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

So Ebenezer means stone of help. The Israelites afterwards touched the stone whenever they need help in their lives. Now we maybe can't walk around with a stone all of the time, but our Ebenezer can be the moments in our lives when we were certain that the church is true or when without a doubt we knew that God help us when times were hard. Hermana Henderson explained that her Ebenezer was when her sister died. She said that in that moment she was sure. I think for me that moment was at Braize's and Kaleb's farewell and at my own farewell as well. I've had moments when I really felt the Spirit strongly. The earliest I can remember was when Grandpa Bob passed away. It also has happened on my mission. My first week in the field in Cerro. These are moments when I knew for sure that the church is true. To many people forget about these moments and lose grasp of their personal Ebenezers. Hermana Henderson said that one of those people who has forgotten is her son who served a mission but who continues to live outside the gospel. We have to hold on to these our Ebenezers like we hold on to the iron rod!

Anyways that is what I wanted to share today. I would love it if you and Dad could listen to this song and then share you Ebenezers with me. I love you. 

Elder Walker

All the missionaries from my CCM group at the consejo. 

For the first time in more than a year I was able to see and talk to my companion, Elder Shreiner, from the CCM. True love.

Poor, Poor Joseph, What You Gonna Do?

Mom,

First off, I have little time due to doing so many informes and writing president. I also having gotten my package yet but I have been to the office in a while. Soo thanks so much! Do I open my "Christmas Package" right now or do I wait? I also sent a letter to Chloe, and she didn't write me back. Nor did Joe. But tell Chloe I'm sorry. Maybe she's not even reading my letters.

The last couple of weeks have been super crazy. There are 16 people in our zone still, but what happened is that the area of Hermanas here in Peñaloza closed and one area in Pampas opened. There are 4 Hermanas in the zone. But here in Peñaloza, we are the only missionaries. It is like double the work load with all of the other stuff we have to do as zone leaders. It has been hard, but we are managing. We had a baptism of an investigator of the Hnas named Jimena who is 13 last week. And we are teaching a lot of other people. We are struggling right now though finding investigators who come to church and progress. The work has been hard but we are still working hard. 

Get this tomorrow we have consejo de lideres on Thursday, we have a multi zone pday on Friday, we have the multi zone training, and on Saturday we will do our zone meeting. Then we have pday and next Tuesday we are in Huancavelica. We will be super busy! Such little time to work our giant area too. It's kind of stressful. 

If there is one thing I have learned over the last couple of weeks, it is forgiveness. I made a list, and I have to forgive. And I need to forgive myself. Anyways lots of stuff. It is sooo hard to forgive and sometimes it seems impossible to forget. I know I have to do it because like it says in True to the Faith, "You will find that forgiveness can heal terrible wounds, replacing the poison of contention and hatred with peace and love that only God can give." In other words peace and love is impossible without forgiveness. If we choose not to forgive, it is like refusing to take the antidote to a toxic poison. We will not be able to progress spiritually temporally and we will certainly not be able to be happy. 

I was studying a lot the story of Joseph (ironic the name, I know) when his brothers sold him into Egypt for 20 pieces of silver. Come to find out it is not just a cool Tuachan play, but it is also a sweet story in the Bible that teaches the principal of forgiveness. Because their father, Jacob or Israel, loved Joseph more and gave him a cloak of many colors the brothers of Joseph got mad and wanted to kill him, but decided to sell him the the Egyptians. We all know how Joseph with the help of the Lord prospered greatly. We also know that Joseph received revelation about the 7 prosperous years and the 7 years of famine in the land. 2 years into the famine the sons of Jacob come to Egypt searching for food and they meet up with their long lost brother Joseph. Now I cannot imagine how Joseph must have felt, and I have no idea how he was able to forgive his brothers. After making them get his brother Benjamin and revealing himself he says, 

Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. He forgave them and consoled them. Later it says in chapter 50 

16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

 18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

 19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?

 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

 21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

I strive to be more like Joseph. More humble and accepting looking for the good in a bad situation. He could have condemned his brethren, but he didn't. I have to do the same. 

Christ is the perfect example when he was dying and said forgive them for they know not what they do. 

Out of time. I could go on but can't. I love you all! I miss all of you. Hey Mom I want to ask you for more money knowing that you already sent me some and a package. I want to buy things here in Huancayo before I go home. Thanks. Love you all!

Elder Walker