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

Good Week. The Same.

Hello all,

Late I know but there wasn’t internet here in Villa Rica in the morning and now there is. Kind of cool to be somewhere so remote that sometimes there isn’t internet in the whole city. 

I remember coming home from school everyday for 12 years and you asking me, "How was school, honey?" I would respond everyday, "Good. The same." haha. So, ya, now I feel like you’re asking, “How was the mission this week, honey.” And I’m like, “Good. The same.” But yeah this week was actually was good and the same and a little bit interesting as well. Interesting because the two hermanas that we have here both got emergency transferred out of Villa Rica. If you know anything about emergency transfers you’ll know that they happen generally because something bad happened and yeah that’s what happened. I won’t say everything, but I will say that it was P day all day every day for them and they yeah had problems. So this week our zone leaders called us and actually came to Villa Rica last Monday, and actually we had a sweet P day with them and our district leader. Then the assistants called us then president and yeah its over now and there are two new hermanas here, both of them I already knew. They’re awesome. Hna Quispe was in La Merced with me and Hna Chire was in Cerro. Funny how I really don't know very many people in the mission because I keep serving with the same people. 

We went to a waterfall for P day today with Clide (our lider missional), with Ronald and Julio (members), and with the Hermanas. It was fun. 

This week we worked super hard. We have some impressive numbers, but it’s not about the numbers, but rather the people. We are working with like 5 families that all have to get married. It stinks that everyone lives together here, and it makes it super hard on the missionaries because marrying someone is a lot harder than baptizing them. Marrage requiere effort on the part of the couple. But we are going to marry 2 of them for sure, not this month or the next, but we will marry them and baptize them. It’s funny because in the most of families the kids are members but the parents aren’t. But yeah Edilberto y Silvia are gonna get married and Mijael y Rosio. 

Elder Moraga is awesome. He is a super nice happy guy and someone good to work with. We get along great, and we talk openly with each other and more than anything are just great friends. Did I mention that its WEEK 6 of the transfer!!!! Wow time is weird. So Elder Moraga will probably leave this transfer, but yeah veremos. 

Time is up. Love you all lots! Chloe, I love you! That stupid Dean character is not worth a moment of sorrow. I would like to slap him upside the head. Camron, maybe you could take care of that for me? Or send me his email, I’ll slap him with my words. What kind of idiot is he? You are the most incredible girl I know, and he’s not worthy of you if he doesn’t recognize that. In fact, go out and eat some Cold Stone ice cream for me! I’ve been studying grace this week I think Ill go in depth next week but remember that God’s grace is an enabling power to makes our weakness strengths and more than anything God’s grace is a reason to be happy. Les amo muchismo. Chou

Elder Walker

Pachamanca

Familia,

What the heck, everyone is getting married!!! Lexi and Preston! Crazy! And Ashlyn marrying a Peruvian? If that’s what she’s looking for, why doesn’t she just wait for me cuz according to the elders in my zone, I’m latino now! Haha. My zone leader said the other day that our zone is the best because we are all latinos. Everyone looked at me. Hahahahaha. But they decided I’m latino now! And Anna 12 and out of Primary! Mom, you have no more children in Primary! Haha. Crazy.

For our P day that we had in our zone last week we made Pachamanca with my old pension in La Merced. In this pic I’m with Boris just after we finished making it. It is super good and not that hard to make. There are just a couple of steps:

Step one: Go outstide and dig a good sized hole
Step two: find about 20 good hand sized rocks
Step three: Start a fire in the hole and heat the rocks in hole for about 2 hours
Step four: Remove rocks, place chicken, potato, etc in hole, replace rocks cover hole
Step five: Wait for about 1 hour and a half remove and enjoy.

It is really good; I am not even kidding. The meat and chicken gets super cooked all the way through to the bone, and it’s delicious. And actually you put huge leaves on bottom and in between rocks and meat, but still you will get an occasional rock in the food. You just have to remember it is completely normal. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Right Kelly? Well thats what I keep telling myself and my stomach. 

This week has been painfully normal. Nothing has really changed. We had three people come to church, but all of them left after the first hour so that was kind of depressing. It’s hard to persuade investigators to stay for all the meetings when half of the members leave after the first hour. In our mission if you don’t stay for all three hours it doesn’t count as an attendance towards baptism. The work is going good though here. 

This week I have been studying a lot about faith and repentance. More about repentance though. We know that if we have faith we will repent or in other words faith brings us to repentance (Alma 34). But what is repentance? A lot of times we think it is a list of things we have to do to be forgive of or sins. We know we have to feel sorry, confess and forsake our sins, also make amends and keep following the commandments. But repentance is more than a to do list, it is a change of heart, becoming more like Christ. I read that sin stops our spiritual progression and repentance is the only way to progress spiritually. Therefore we should repent everyday to become more like Christ and develop His attributes. 

If you were a fly following me around, you would see me walking a lot and you would see a lot of mud. It rains a lot here and because there are practically only dirt roads here there is a lot of mud. I have to clean and shine my shoes every day.

Have a great week everyone. 

Elder Walker

Straight Latinos!

Good News and Bad News

The good news is the Church is true, and that I’m in La Merced again for p-day. The bad news is we got robbed (we weren’t in the apartment, so don’t worry.) 

So the took my 500 soles of pasaje (money to travel) and my comps money, our DVD player, my comp’s camera, and all of his USBs. It is bizarre because they left my camera (thank goodness) and my wallet. We think it most have been someone who knows us, but we aren’t certain. But yeah there is a first for everything and that was the first time getting robbed, and it was cool but I don’t need to do it again. It sucked too because we had a perfect day until we got to our apartment and the door was wide open and our things were scattered everywhere. Mom, really don’t worry, because  like president told me, this is one of the safest missions and that is why that are so many hermanas. 

Ohh yeah, we had interviews with president this week on Friday. Thursday night we got robbed and after the interviews in La Merced we did divisions with the Zone Leaders until Saturday morning. Talking with president is always great. He asked me what I was working on and the normal missionary stuff but near the end of the interview I had to ask about Duke, and if they won because President Henderson went to Duke Univ. and I knew he is a Duke fan. Long story short we started talking about college basketball, and he told me Duke won. He also started telling a bunch of videos of b ball I need to watch when I get home, and I was like yeah okay in a year and a half Ill watch them. But it was good. 

Divisions in La Merced were good. It felt so great to see loved ones and friends after 2 weeks of not seeing them. I can’t imagine how it will be after two years. Haha.  But I was with Elder Cayo my ZL, and he is a good friend. He was with me in Cerro as well. 

And now I’m in La Merced again for P Day. All is well. How is Marcus? What happened with transfers? 

Short story. On Thursday before the robbery, we had a service project with some less active members, and we were going to clean up their jungle of a front yard. However, when we got there in the morning with about 6 other members, it started to rain super hard. When it rains here a lot of the times it will rain hard for about 10 min. then it stops. So we went inside to wait for the rain to stop, and naturally as missionaries we started to teach Simon and his family. We talked about faith and how it is a belief in something not seen but true and how it is a principle of action. We focused and how faith is action because they have stopped going to church. We also focused on the things that you can do with faith and with God, which is everything.

We finished the lesson and we talked and everyone wanted to move the service project to another day because there wasn’t blue in the sky, but my comp and I said no we have faith that the rain will pass. We waited for about 10 more minutes then decided if we really had faith we wouldn’t just wait for the rain to stop, but we’d start working. So we got to work in the rain and within 10 min. the rain stopped. It was awesome you could call it a luck, but for me it was a testimony builder. Prayer is powerful. Also, I learned that machetes are super useful in yard work! Haha. 

We had a baptism this week. His name is Carlos. He is a great guy. His sister is on the mission and we are also working with his family, but his parents need to get married, and we are in that process. But he was ready and he gave a sweet testimony about wanting to follow his sister’s example and serve a mission. 

Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Walker