Following the Light

Family :) 

No, I do not know whats going to happen in transfers yet. Tomorrow I will know in the afternoon, and so we will all just have to wait. 

We did division with Elder Ayala and Elder Walker this week. Yes, there is another Elder Walker here who is a cool guy from Utah, but I was with Elder Ayala in the divisions. It was fun working with him, but sad because shortly later we found out the the area that they are in is going to close in these transfers. 4 area close in the mission because of lack of missionaries. 

Yesterday, was Easter Sunday, and it was fun to have my easter tie and socks! Also, my pensionista loved the kitchen towels and says thanks. Hna lily is the best pension of my mission, so it was nice to be able to give her something. Easter was great with people who came to church as well. The don’t really celebrate Easter here. They have what is called "La Semana Santa" where the people do reenactments of the crucifixion of Christ, and other than that the people just throw parties and drink. If i say Pascua, they don’t really know what that is. They don’t celebrate anything more on Sunday; it is all the same. 

This morning we woke up at 3:50, and left at 4 to hike the to the top of the mountain overlooking the city to the huge cross that is there. It was interesting because none of us knew the path or had gone before so we started up the mountain blindly, searching for the path with our small flashlights. We couldn't find the path, but we continued climbing. The other missionaries were complaining and said that if we couldn't find the path we’d never make it. We eventually saw a lights up ahead and followed them, hoping those holding the lights up ahead were on the right path. We found out that they were other missionaries! It was a relief to find them, and with them we had a guide a missionary who has hiked that mountain 4 times. We got up the mountain quickly afterwards at about 5:30. It was super fun. 

All of the while climbing I couldn't help but thinking about 1 Nefi 8 and Lehi’s dream and something I had read in the Liahona. We knew more or less where to go, but we didn't know how to get there exactly so we aimlessly were walking until we found a guide. A lot of people are lost and need that guide. Maybe sometimes we do as well. Larry R Lawrence in the Liahona said, "The gift of the Holy Ghost—in addition to the light we were born with—gives us a great advantage. It is one of the greatest gifts we can receive in mortality because it brings more opportunities for obtaining light and truth. Without the Holy Ghost, we are like a person walking slowly home in the dark with only a flashlight as a guide. When we accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and are baptized, we are offered a floodlight and a guide who knows the way. Now we can walk faster and see our way during our homeward journey." 

What a bless to have a guide and a floodlight in our lives! 

I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Walker

Easter Ties. Thanks, Mom!

Those socks though!

Oscuridad! Starting the hike in the dark.

'Merica!

Selfie from the top :)

The mountain from my area.

I Love My Family

Dear Family,

I LOVE YOU! That’s all I basically want to say today. 

 

Yes, I got the package you sent me, and thanks to Mom, Chloe, and Grandma for helping with that! My companion was also super grateful. I remember when I got my first package in Cerro de Pasco I didn't share hardly anything with my trainer. I’m kind of embarrassed about that. Now, half of it is for my comp and thanks because I would have done that anyways especially with Elder Yeh, and I’ve given away more of it to members and friends here. It is always nice to get something from home, but now I like the reading and sharing what you send more. Interesting how that has changed. 

 

Well, if I learned one thing from what you sent its that it would be about humility and submissiveness. I’ve always thought that those attributes have been some of my strengths before the mission, but now I think they are some of my weaknesses. I liked Elder Maxwell’s talk, which was more like reading a scripture manual with all of the scriptures. Holy cow! But it was such a good talk. Talking of the story of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, He said that the heart of submissiveness lies in three words, "But if not.” In Daniel we read, 

 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us,from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the  golden image which thou hast set up.

Submissiveness isn’t passive, it’s active. It’s doing everything in our power, but accepting the higher power of the Almighty God. Its saying, "Remove this cup from me if possible but if not I will drink". It’s recognizing that God will make more of us than we can make of ourselves. I thought it was funny when Maxwell said that Peter could have been the president of the local Galilean fishermen’s association, but he was humble enough to drop his nets and follow Christ immediately.  Submitting ourselves to God’s will is real emancipation. That is a difficult concept to understand. 

So I’m gonna keep working on that. Thanks for the message about the Atonement. I will study that this week. We are already in week 5! Last week of this transfer.  

Love you have a great week! Dad, I want you to have a great week, and I hope all goes well with work this week. Love you!

Elder Walker

PS. My shoes ran out faster than my time on the mission. :( Still have one more pair though. 

Just Working

Dear Family,

Chevere! So this week was Dayan Julisa's baptism. We have been working with this family since I got here. The mom is Mayesi, and she is from Colombia. Juan, the dad, is from here in Huanuco. Mayesi got baptized about 2 years ago, and Juan has been a member since he was little. They met about 3 or 4 years ago and got married right before Mayesi got baptized here. Anyways Juan is less active and we are working really hard with him. I wanted super bad for him to baptize Dayan, but it didn't work out and like PMG says we shouldn't wait to baptize someone just so the dad can do it. We should rescue the dad soon though. The baptism turned out great. A lot of people came and the primary did a presentation and it was good experience. For Juan as well. 

That was the biggest event of the week. We had a zone conference on Thursday and Pday after. It was a change of pace having the zone leaders doing everything at zone meeting, but it was fun. After we played soccer for about 4 hours for Pday. Other than that, everything is normal. 

Just gonna keep doing the work over here. Love ya!

Elder Walker

Living the Life

Dear Fam,

So I guess Braize, Kaleb, and Tanner are all getting married! What?! Congrats to my friends, but crazy! Craziness. I got to stay focused though.

Well, my week was pretty uneventful like yours maybe even a little less exciting. On Wednesday we went to Huancayo, which was fun. The big news there is that now we don't do telephone informes on Wednesday or Friday and the informe on Sunday is a LOT shorter. We have 15 indicators in stead of 30. So it is a lot easier now and takes a lot less time. The change comes because of a recommendation from Elder Godoy and help us become our propia agentes. Cool. 

Last Monday we went to a wedding of two less active we are teaching. Gabriel and Linda. Linda is actually from Venezuela. It is super interesting to hear her talk about the crisis that country is going through, and it straight up sounds like the after math of WWII Germany. Cool thought to be at their wedding. Picture as well. 

On Saturday we had our zone meeting and I sent a photo from that. It was two missionaries birthdays, and we ate cake afterwards. We talked about how to start teaching and leaving commitments. 

Today we don't have Pday since we have a multi-zone and Pday on Thursday. It should be fun. The zone leader are actually doing everything now in the conferences and the assistants won’t even come to Huanuco. So it should be a fun time as well. 

That’s all. Ohh yeah, and we are teaching a family and the little girl will get baptized on Saturday. So pray for Dayan Julisa this week and her family. Her Mom is an active member and Dad less active. I want them to go to the temple and everything, but yeah next week I will send you a picture and tell you more. 

Other than that all normal. Still just working hard trying to not think about my time. Thats where I'm at right now. 

MOM, where am I living at BYU again? What’s it called?

Anyways love you and have a great week!

Elder Walker