Teach and Preach and Work

Hi!

We had transfers last Tuesday, and as you can see I have a new companion. His name is Elder Yeh. He is from Chiclayo, Peru. His dad is from Taiwan so that’s why he doesn’t look like all of the Peruvians. I might have sent a foto of me and him when I was in Villa Rica because he was in Oxapampa while I was there. I saw him start his mission. He has a year in the mission now. What else? He is 19. He got baptized when he was 17. He is a great missionary, and I would describe him as straight forward and someone who speaks his mind. He is super obedient, which is great, but I want to help him be able to correct other’s behavior in a more loving way. He is a super great guy.

Tomorrow we have consejo, and we will go to Huancayo. Today we are gonna go to a wedding of two less active members and after that just relax. Nothing else.

Looks like America is focus on the up coming president and I have to say I would rather not choose between Clinton and Trump, but looks like that’s the way it is going. I’m excited for Anna to get here cast off, and ANNA KEEP reading the Book of Mormon. I’m proud of you, and yes I also am looking forward to our week on the beach. As for the Rebs we have to get Rick Patino!!! haha. And I guess Dad will hop on the Steph Curry band wagon now. I liked him first! haha. I want to be there to see him at his best. 

All good. Let me know if you want to know anything else. Elder Yeh is the first companion who is younger than I am. Pretty crazy. I am 20 now. I’m pretty old even though I still feel 18. 

I’m studying the BoM and the New Testament. This week I read Matthew 20, and I think I’ve talked about it before to you, but I read the parable of the laborers. As we know the laborers leave at different times during the day, but at the end of the day receive the same reward. The question the Lord makes to those who complain hit me hard as he asks, 

Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

 14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

Sometimes we are angry and displeased with the success of others, and that’s how I felt after emailing the last couple of times. It’s also like the Other Prodigal son as Jeffrey R. Holland said who after his brother got back," was angry, and would not go in." I also read that. I know that it is absolutely essential that we learn to truly be happy for others. Life is not fair, and we need to just love in order to find our own joy.

Any ways that is what I've been studying. I love you all so much. 

Elder Walker

Weekly Letter!

Mother,

     Thanks a ton for your letter mom. It was a great push. I think that is an extremely difficult commandment to "Be of good cheer". I try but fail often to keep it. I love to read DyC 68: 5-6 (the scripture I chose for my mission plaque).

5 Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.
6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

This scripture has taken on a new meaning throughout my mission. I remember reading it before and thinking yeah that’s cool. In Cerro de Pasco it was a scripture to help me to get through one of the hardest moments of my life (I focused a lot on the promise that He will stand by me and help me) and now I see that it is a commandment to be of good cheer and not only a promise from the Lord to me His servant. Thank you, Mom. 

Dad thank you for your email as well. Anna actually wrote me today, and I’m gonna write her back. The Lord truly does have a plan for us. Other than that GO REBS. 

Tell my "fav sis" Anna thanks for her letter in my package. 

Everything is great here. I got news from President Henderson that he forwarded my email to the mission secretary asking to go home with Marc. He said that I should be able to do it, but I might be in a trio for my last week. That will be cool though to be with Marc in Atlanta. So the big day is the 30th of June. Right before 4th of July. Sweet! 

Hey BRAIZE GOT ENGAGED! Did you hear that?! I guess he will get married in May! haha. Go figure right?! But Rachelle said that Tanner could get engaged soon as well. Craziness. 

So Mom, I don’t know if you remember but you wrote my about a year ago a super cool email about Gma Sue and Gpa Bob and their reactivation story and the importance of rescuing. Do you think you could resend me that? Maybe with Gpa Bud and Gma Leslie’s church story as well because I don’t really know very well. 

What happened to the cars? Does chloe still have the Corrola?

What is the worst thing that has happened while I’ve been on my mission that you haven’t told me?

How did Clay’s basketball season go?

How does Marc like being a zone leader? 

Anyways that’s all I got along with an internet selfie I literally just took. Love you Guys!!

Elder Walker

I'm On Top of the World, Hey!

First off, I’m sorry. I don't know what happened last week. I was really was tired and had gotten back from a fun p-day. I guess I was having a good day when it seemed that proportionally things were a lot better at home. It’s not fair though to ask the Lord to bless my family and then be bitter when he does. I’ve felt bad all week. I’ve changed a lot on my mission, but in a lot of ways I have less patience. Before when I was submissive or maybe just passive, and now I feel rebellious sometimes and more aggressive. It’s good with disobedient companions not to just keep quite, which I had to learn, but I don’t know sometimes it’s discouraging to go backwards. I can build magnificently and destroy terribly with my words.  What I’m trying to get at in a round about way is to say I really am so sorry. 

About Marc and I flying home together. I was talking to the mission secretary, and he said it would be impossible to do it if our release dates aren’t the same day. I told him he just needs to call the church travel agency and make it happen. But I don’t know if he is going to do anything. I think maybe it would be better to talk to President Henderson and see what he says. If it is possible or not. What do you think?

Yes there is a missionary in the zone who has depression and at first I had know idea what to do. His family doesn't support his mission, and he is worried about going home and a million other things. He might beat mom in worrying. We gave him a blessing, which was a super spiritual exp. and are encouraging him but not sure what else to do. He has talked to president. and is talking to a therapist on the phone. He has sleeping pills and has to do 30 min of cardio in the morning. But I don’t know what else to do. Do you have any suggestions?

Tell Aunt Kathy thanks for the card she sent and wish her a happy b-day for me. 

The most eventful part of the week was listing to Elder Carlos A Godoy from the 70. He talked in the General Conference in Oct. I copied the URL on the bottom so you can remember who he is. He is an excellent leader, speaks with authority, and is very humble. He talked about his conversion story, which was amazing and full of tender mercies from the Lord. Then he shared Alma 26:32, and talked about what we can to bring "thousand unto repentance" and baptism. The formula is simple and is like the scripture says 4 things: he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing

He explained these things in depth. But he best explain Good Works. In this part he opened Preach my Gospel and taught how to help investigators resolve their doubts. He asked to do a practice and feeling confident I raised my hand, and Elder Allred and I taught Elder Godoy in front of everyone. We had to find out why he (the investigator) didn’t want to get baptized. Like we were taught, we asked direct questions about the commandments, and I asked him at one point, "Es fiel a su esposa?" or "Are you faithful to your wife?” It was a funny and great learning experience. It was awesome to listen to him. 

There is a lot more stuff to write but little time. I love you all. Have a great week. 

Elder Walker

Meet Elder Allred. He is from Salt Lake City and 20 years old. He turns 21 on May 5th. He is extremely intellegent and a funny guy. He makes me feel stupid sometimes, but it's fine because I need to be corrected sometimes. He went to OU for a year and studied chemical engineering. He is the oldest of 3 brothers. He is a great guy and we have a lot of fun together. He will probably leave this transfer though which ends in a week and 2 days! Crazy

A hotel called Las Vegas. I thought it was funny. 

My crown and I 

Hmmmmmmm... I'm on top of the world, Hey! 

We climbed to the top.

This is a foto from my b-day with the familia Villanueva. They threw me a party after just having met me for 2 days and bought me a cake in the noche de hogar that we went to. It meant a lot to me. Hermana Silvia, the wife, added you on facebook and sent you a foto of us and Marco. Marco is a funny and goofy guy who reminds me a lot of dad. He is always making jokes, embarrassing himself talking in English, and he spoils the missionaries with food. He also has kinda the same job as Dad. Cool people. 

A Lot to Handle This Week

Hi,

We are writing late because we went to La Corona del Inca for P Day, and we woke up early to go there with another zone. I have two cool pictures, but still have no way to send them to you. It is a big mountain that looks like a crown. It was fun. I'm tired right now though, and all the news from home is a lot for me to handle this week. Sometimes emailing is so hard. (BRONCOS WINNING THE SUPER BOWL!, CHLOE PREGNANT, GRANDMA'S B-DAY, CLAY DATING) my mind just doesn't process it all, and it seems today like I've really missed a lot. I had a great week, and I'm fine. More than fine, great really. Just emailing makes me feel sad today.

Needless to say I'm not gonna write a letter like last week. I was going write it better, but I ran into a guy named Yersin Puente who apparently served with Marc in Santiago. I guess they are friends. That was cool talking to him about Marc and his mission and and taking a foto. I just ran into him here at the cyber. I guess he recognized me. haha. He's been home for about 5 months. Then I had a difficult and cool experience helping one of the Elders here in the zone who is going through depression right now. I wanted to tell you more about that and ask for help, but my BRAIN IS FAILING and can't explain it right now. Broncos! Really, that is a lot for me to process. After how many years as a fan! They finally win! 

Love you, Mom. I love Chloe. Tell her that for me. I love Clay and Mare. Tell them that as well. Chou. 

Elder Walker 

Missionary Update

Hey Fam,

Lots of exciting news from home. Noah going on a mission, Broncos going to the Super Bowl, Marcus getting transferred, and the YW activity. (Tell Anna I'm liking the brace face. haha. She’s cute. Too old though!) Crazy and I don’t know why, but it seems like more people have written me today and last week than wrote me on my B Day. Weird but true. Everything is great here in my area and ward of Tarapaca (accent on the last a) in the Huallaga Zone in the Huanuco Stake. There is a river in the middle of the city that divides what is known as Huanuco and Armarilis (weird because the whole city is also Huanuco) but there are two zones on this side of the river and two on the other side of the river. Also, one stake here and one over there. One big difference here is that Huanuco is super small. My area is like 4 blocks by 9 blocks, which is a huge change compared to my area in Huancayo. I like the smallness though. It is a refreshing change. 

Answering your questions. Yesterday we just worked normal. Last p day we played soccer. Today we don’t have anything planned, and we are probably just gonna make cookies and play chess. 

Sorry, I don’t know why but my adapter isn’t working to send pictures. 

Life is good. We are teaching a cool new family of 3. A couple and their daughter: Juan Carlos, Mayesi and their daughter Julisa. The dad is less active and the 9 year old daughter isn’t a member... yet. So the goal is to help Juan Carlos so he can baptize his daughter. They are super cool. The mom is an active member she is from Colombia, actually, and super cool. They didn,t go to church though sadly because the Mom like straight up had to take out one of her teeth and is in a lot of pain and sadly the other two didn't come. Other than that we are working with a young woman who has gone to church 4 times already. That’s pretty much it for now. In other news, in Peñaloza, my last area, they baptized Linda who we were teaching and Dennis, another guy, I taught is gonna get baptized next week. So that’s cool. 

We had interviews with President and tomorrow we have consejo so we go to Huancayo.  The interview was funny like always. We basically just talked about how to endure to the end and then at the end President slipped in that in October we will have our mission reunion. Good stuff. 

Sooooo I was listening to a random talk by President Uchtdorf entitled Forget Me Not. I love it! You should reread it Mom. He gave the talk to the sisters so obviously I had never heard it. But he talks about 5 things it would be wise never to forget. 

They are Forget not to: Be patient with yourself, the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish one, be happy now, the why of the gospel, that the lord loves you. My favorite part is when he talks about being happy now. It is something I have thought a lot about on my mission because it is so easy to think that happiness will just come when this happens or that happens or after the mission or after transfer, etc. I also love this part of his talk when he talks about the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 

“In the beloved children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the mysterious candy maker Willy Wonka hides a golden ticket in five of his candy bars and announces that whoever finds one of the tickets wins a tour of his factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Written on each golden ticket is this message: “Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this Golden Ticket … ! Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you! … Mystic and marvelous surprises … will … delight, … astonish, and perplex you.”

In this classic children’s story, people all over the world desperately yearn to find a golden ticket. Some feel that their entire future happiness depends on whether or not a golden ticket falls into their hands. In their anxiousness, people begin to forget the simple joy they used to find in a candy bar. The candy bar itself becomes an utter disappointment if it does not contain a golden ticket.

So many people today are waiting for their own golden ticket—the ticket that they believe holds the key to the happiness they have always dreamed about. For some, the golden ticket may be a perfect marriage; for others, a magazine-cover home or perhaps freedom from stress or worry.

There is nothing wrong with righteous yearnings—we hope and seek after things that are “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.” The problem comes when we put our happiness on hold as we wait for some future event—our golden ticket—to appear.”

So be happy now! I love you. I love the mission. I know that this work is true. 

Elder Walker