Just Call Me the Mighty Rat Hunter!

Hola!

It was a good week. Saturday night and Sunday morning it rained super hard and all night and day. It was a kind of rain you don’t see in Vegas. The rain destroyed part of the main road and it destroyed the road to Oxapampa which is where we were going to go today for Pday and then have our Zone meeting there, but not anymore. There were also mudslides and houses by the river were destroyed and actually one member’s home was destroyed. We went to see if we could help, but all was lost. All of the rain was kind of cool, except for the destruction, but none of our investigators went to church. 

None of our members went to church either. haha.

So last Tuesday we went in for the night planning, and I was undressing and unwinding when I saw a giant rat run into the other part of our room. I freaked out and yelled at my comp. The rat tried to escape then my comp kicked it twice and it ran into the other part of our room and hid. So our vecinos Ronald and Lizbeth (pensionista’s son) heard all the commotion, so they came down and we were all looking for the rat together for about 10 minutes. We couldn’t find it anywhere. Then I was searching in my dresser, and I opened my drawer with my pday clothes and garments and with my hand was searching around when bam the rat was there and jumped out of the drawer. I screamed soo loud. Then, we cornered it, hit it, and killed it. But now everyone makes fun of me for screaming like a girl, but it was a big rat! Not quite as cool as Braize’s story, but add to his testimony that jungle rats are huge!

Love you all,


Elder Walker

PS. My comp. Elder Lopez is from Santiago, 5 de Abril Stake, Los Delfines Ward. Same Stake as Marc!! Neighboring Ward!! 

Young and wild and free! I wasn't going to send this to you Mom, but if you could handle Chloe skydiving then I figure you can handle this. haha.

I baptized a convert, Kelly, of the Hermanas. I keep baptizing Hermana Johnson's converts, and it is getting annoying. haha. We served in the same ward in Cerro and now again in La Merced. I've baptized 4 of her converts now. It was a good baptism. 

God First

Hello!

This week was good .We had a good week even though the our numbers don't really reflect it. It was funny we had no investigators at church until the third hour of church when a member came up to us and told us that she wanted us to visit and baptize her grand daughters, so we ended up having two investigators at church.

Right now we are working with a couple families. The familia Taype (less actives) the familia of Jose Mendosa (less active)  and his wife Gisela (Investigator) they have one son who is 1 named Fabricio. And this week we found a new family of investigators who are Jesus, Gloria and Wendy. Also we’re still teaching Arnold, who is a friend of a member. But yeah only the less actives went to church this week and none of our investigators went except for the two that we found at the end of church. It’s okay though because all of them are super cool and are going to go to church next week! 

So this week I have been thinking a lot about two stories in the Bible. The first about Abraham and Isaac and the story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Abraham willing gives up his will for the will of the Lord and was going to sacrifice his son until the last second when an angel appeared. Abraham because of his obedience was blessed greatly along with his family. The other story is about the young rich man that is talked about in Lucas 18:18. He asks Jesus what he has to do to obtain eternal life. Jesus responds that basically you need to keep the commandments, and the man says that he has since his youth. But then Jesus says that to get eternal life he has to give up all of his treasures. And the Bible describes the man becoming sorrowful because his heart was set upon his treasures and not the will of God. 

Just one thing I have noticed is the importance of putting God first in our lives. The problem for the man in the second story wasn't willing, and he loved his riches more than God. Abraham however loved God, and put God even before his only son. The importance of putting God first is everything it is why I am here and what I am trying to help the people here do. We know that we are truly blessed and we find true happiness in doing so. But sometimes missionary work is hard because we can't make the decisions for the people we teach. 

We went to a native city near here, Pampa Michi, and it was pretty cool.

Have a Great Week,

Elder Walker

Slow Internet Today

Hi,

Uggghh! I had something to write you but now there is no time. The computers are so bad here. I’ve used 45 minutes of my hour just waiting for email to load. But this week was good. We found 7 new investigators, which is a bunch and all of them are really cool. One is Arnold who is a member’s friend and actually works for another member. He is awesome understands well and is super interested. It was funny at the end of our second lesson he said the closing prayer. And he ended en el nombre de jesucristo... Then we were waiting for like 10 seconds and finally he said Amen Pe!!!! haha. So funny you have to know Spanish and Peruvians a little bit to understand what "Pe" means, but in the circumstance it means like Amen bro. Like, hey I ended why are all of you still bowing your heads?

But then he didn't go to church, and no one went. But you just have to work harder. 

I just wasted more time trying to load a picture, but now I really have to go! 

Love, 

Elder Walker

New Companion, Great Week

I can’t believe you are at Disneyland right now! I wish I was at Disneyland :(

My new companion, Elder Lopez, is from Santiago Chile and he actually lives in Marcus’s mission. He is 20 years old and has 20 months in the mission. He is a super cool guy and knows a bunch about the gospel. Because of that I want to learn all I can from him. His personality is a little bit like Trevor Montgomery’s, I imagine. He is super smart, works really hard, and is super organized and in terms of clothes he is very particular and always dresses great. He irons his shirts every day. He is cool. 

We have been working hard. We found an 18 year old named Jean Pierre who is super cool. We meet him last week and he is super interested and asks the perfect questions. Like how do I find Jesus in my life? But he didn’t go to church. Actually most of the ward didn't even go this week because it was raining. Apparently that makes a lot of people not come to church here. 

Have fun. Love you all,

Elder Walker

PS It sounds like Camron needs to go to Salt Lake and kick someone in the butt. I wish I was there to do it.

A little soccer with my zone and some kids

Hello, my fine feathered friend

Cool cat with weird eyes.

New companion, Elder Lopez

Pizza with Elder Lopez

Heart, Might, Mind and Strength

MOM. I suck. I bet my blog is terrible because I've sent you so little to put on lately. But this transfer has been hard, and I haven't had much I wanted to send home. But this week with Elder Molina and with everything was amazing. The prayers and fasting payed off. 

Obviously the work has been hard during this transfer. We haven't had a single investigator come to church this whole time I've been here. We are teaching, but for various reasons a lot of our lessons aren't very effective. 

Things have been so hard with my companion that I've just sort of settled for surviving.

I have learned this week that it really isn't enough to give up two years of your life. You can't just give up your time either. You have to really give all of yourself. I shared DyC 4:2 with Elder Molina and told him this is what I want. (Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.) I want to give everything, my heart, might, mind and strength, to the Lord for this 2 years because anything less is a waste of my time and a waste of the Lord's time.

I remeber at the end of a basketball game my Senior year vs. Faith. We got hammered and lost by about 20 points. After the game, I remember sitting on the bench and Coach Jonas yelling at us and then Coach Ballistere just ripping us and yelling at us for 15 minutes. I remember after everyone changed and left and I was still sitting there. And I realized that my body was full of energy. I felt like I could run a mile. My legs weren't sore at all. And I was mad at myself about it! I realized I didn't give it all in the game. I commited to never do that again and to always play with all my heart, mind and strength and to leave it all on the court. The season improved so much after that.

When I am on my flight home from Peru, I want my legs to hurt. I want my shoes to have holes in the bottoms and to have weathered clothes. I want to be extremely tired from two years of working my absolute hardest--to leave it all in Peru. 

Love you,

Elder Walker

PS I bought a new camera (not as nice as my other one).  I should have pictures for you next time.

Angels Round About Me

Hi,

Your letter is absolutely perfect, Mom. I can't really describe what I'm going through right now exactly, but It's perfect. I don't know how you do it, but you just send me exactly what I need. It's a testimony to me that God really does know what we are going through and knows our struggles and difficulties. It's like how Bednar said, "Why would God send you an Angel when he can bring to your memory the words of your Angel mother." I have felt like that many times on my mission, and yeah thanks Mom. I love you. 

About my area. So yeah we live in La Merced but are area is called Santa Ana. We work primarily in La Merced, but are also in charge of Santa Ana and go there once every week. There are 3 comanionships in the La Merced ward and the 3 companionships work in every part of La Merced. There are no boundries. We are separated by sectors, but if we find an investagator in the Hermanas' area it doesn't matter, we still visit said investagator. 

The ward here and members are awesome. The are hard working and it's like an actually ward here as aposed to my ward in Cerro. The church building is beautiful. There are about 180 or so people that come to church. But yeah the members are super loving. For example the members gave me 3 different parties for my birthday. 

Tell Grandma Sue thanks for the email. I like to think that Grandpa Jack is one of my guardian angels and that he is enjoying helping all of his great-grandsons on missions right now. I also love that scripture from DyC 84:88. I think of it often. I remember that Bishop Stewart quoted that during the opening prayer of my farewell.

So the members and the area are awesome. I need to remember that and count my blessings, even with my other struggles.  Got to go.

Love,

Elder Walker

PS Thanks for putting money in my account. I plan on buying a new camera later today.

Happy Birthday, Marcus!

Hi family,

I've written everyone but you, and now I'm out of time. I had a great birthday, but I thought about Marc all day. The irony is not lost on me that I've always wanted my own birthday party and the first time I get one I spent the whole time wishing I was with him. 

I have the best pensionista! Her name is Hermana Helly (pronounced normal like in English). Her husband is Boris (the Patriarch of the stake here). Their son is Aldo (17 a DJ doesn't do anything because here they finish high school at like 16) and then they another son who is not shown in this pic. His name is Ronald, and he is about 26 and an RM. He lives above us in our apartment. We live around the courner from Helly's house. Ronald is married to Lisbeth also. So yeah we have the best pension in the entire mission! They had a big birthday party for me. I guess it's a tradition here to crack an egg on your head and throw flour on you on your birthday. So yeah that happened. haha. I love the Hellys.

Love you all too,

Elder Walker

Boris, the patriarch and I

Birthday!

Pondering

Cool waterfall pic, but someone dropped my camera in the water taking it. So I need a new camera :(