Service and a Baptism

Hi,

Nothing about transfers yet. We will know tomorrow night what happens, but I don’t think there will be any transfers here because I need to finish Elder Grandstaff’s training. Talk about crazy though I specifically remember going to Andrew´s farewell and now he is back. It will be the first of many this summer. As of today I have 11 months in the mission! 11! What the heck I just started but at the same time so much it seems like so much has changed at home.

Speaking of the other homecoming talk, Mitchell’s. I was literally thinking about the Carter family this week, specifically the Smith family. As you can probably guess it wasn’t about Mitchell though ;) Mom, I am still mad at you and Grandma (and you can tell her that) because you didn’t introduce me earlier. You robbed me as Pam Honey would say of a perfectly good opportunity to improve my communication and mission skills ;) haha But for reals I can’t I’ve been trying to remember their names they are Sam or Sammy and what is the other one the older one at USC? Gabby? Is she married yet? Have to keep my options open.

I am so proud of you Mom for giving out a BoM keep it up! It is so true that the first time people hear the message of the Restored gospel they will probably reject it. We don’t need to get discouraged though—just keep sharing with everyone because we don’t know who the "prepared" people are until after we invite them to listen. Crazy too that Melissa is getting married. The first of many as well this summer. Cool stuff. 

We had a baptism this week with little Ariana. I don’t like to baptize niños, but when they want to get baptized and the mom wants her to get baptized who are we to get in their way. So we baptized Ariana and "rescued" the mom Madeleyne. Sweet family, who have gone through a lot. Ariana was ready to get baptized though. She knows a lot more than I did when I got baptized. It was a cool little service. I will say it was embarrassing when after a week’s notice and calling everyone on Friday, no one was at the baptism on time at 3. Then, at 3:05 Ariana and her mom showed up. Talk about the most embarrassing thing ever, being at a baptism with just you and your investigator. Then the Bishop failed to come, but luckily the 2nd counselor showed up, and an hour later everyone was there. Prayers where answered. That is one of the small differences between the church in Peru and the USA. It turned out well though.

We did a small service project and helped a member build a bathroom. Good stuff! My scouting skill definitely came in handy,

Love you lots,

Elder Walker

Missionary Life

Hi,

I’m on for a sec! Crazy that you guys are almost done with the house! It sounds like a complete remodel. Send me some pics when you can! I had a great week but thought a little bit about home and was reflecting on graduating a year ago. It is wild that a year has already passed by and that summer has officially begun. It is also super exciting to hear about Jason going through the temple and Sam getting his mission call. Sam to the Philippines, how crazy is that!

My comp got a little sick from something we ate, I think because I felt sick too, but it hit him harder. I am pretty sure it was when we made tacos with Elder Angel the Mexicano for a FME. We did last Monday night. We are fine now though. This week we have been working hard finding new investigators and teaching a lot. We have quite a few investigators now but it’s hard when they commit to do things and then don’t do it. Ahh, the life of a missionary! We are teaching one guy named Mario who is a less active and we have finished all of the lessons with him and to be "rescued" he just has to go to church one more time, but he didn't go. He has been going, but it is just frustrating some times. We have Arianna´s baptism this week and will rescue her mom as well, and next week we have another baptism scheduled but we are gonna have to change it because of the Trujillo temple dedication is that week and we won’t have church here in Villa Rica at all. 

One of the hardest things as a missionary like Marc said is judging your success. Before in school or in sports you have measurements. You have grades and are graded on everything. It is simple and you are right our you are wrong and if you are right more than wrong you get a good grade, and you know that you succeeded. In sports there is a winner and a looser, however, on the mission there is none of that. There is a part in PMG that I love in chapter one that talks about your success as a missionary. It says your success is largely determined by your ability to love the people and be obedient to all of the missionary rules. Actually there is more that I can’t remember but even then it is so hard to judge your personal success. The temptation is to compare yourself to others or other missionaries or to be able to teach the best or to be the next assistant or to get the most baptisms and lessons taught. 

I believe success is found in the lives you come in contact with and in your life personally and how you change and grow. I always remember the quote by J R Holland when he said that you better have at least one convert on your mission and that is yourself. I have learned to expect my best on my mission and to know that that is all I can do. Interesting article in the LV paper. I like it. 

Hey so there is a couple here in Villa Rica, who are having problems. The husband is a recent convert, and in the past he wasn't the best of characters. He drank and went to parties and once was unfaithful even. They stayed together through because of their kids and eventually got married. Then, he had a real change of heart and got baptized. They continue to have problems though and now Rosemary doesn't like how controlling and self righteous he has become. Long story short she moved out of the house and is living with her mom now. We talk with husband a lot and he is a great guy who want to go the temple with his family but now his wife just wants some space. She doesn't want to give up, but she doesn't have the best of friends. AHHHHHH! It is such high school drama, but I have no idea what to tell him. I am just a kid. We have already talk to the bishop, but I would just like some advice. Maybe there is a good conference talk on marriage or something on lds.org. 

I’ve been trying to change the way I teach Elder Grandstaff Spanish. He is a visual and kinesthetic learner, and I am trying to teach according to that. I am an auditory learner, and when I first got to Peru I just listened and talked with everyone and eventually things became clear and I learned Spanish, but he has to see it, then say it, then do it to be able to understand. He is smart, but we just learn differently so I have had to look outside the box for me. We have labeled everything in our apartment with post it notes. We’ve made posters and things. He is learning a lot, but right now I am focusing on pronunciation. Any other suggestiones? 

Time is up. I love you lots.

Elder Walker

PS. Will you please send me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies?

Interesting Week

Como estan todos?

So this week was good. Elder Grandstaff got back on Thursday from his trip to Lima to go to immigrations. I spent Monday in Oxapama, and then went to Villa Rica with Elder Angel and Elder Yeh, and we worked in my area until Wed. They left Wed. morning, and I did a division with a youth here preparing for the mission named Gesmer. I stayed with him until Thursday morning. So it has been kind of an interesting, weird week. It has really just been a weird transfer, and I’m ready for things to get back to normal. 

The division I did with Gesmer was a super humbling and great experience. Gesmer is a convert of about 2 years, and the only member in his family of 12 brothers and sisters. His is the last child. We are super good friends and in confidence he started just telling me about his life. How when he was young he moved schools a lot. In my room he saw my calendar and started with my permission to look at all of the pictures. And he just told me how lucky I am to have my friends and family support me by coming to my activities and graduation and everything because he never had that kind of support. I didn't think to much of it until at night we had a FHE type thing in the church and the Hermana missionaries showed a super cool video about eternal families and during the video Gesmer walked out, and being my comp naturally I followed. But he was just crying his eyes out, and I think in that moment I finally understood how truly blessed I really am. I have so many friends a family who love me I am already accepted in college. Just a very humbling time for me.

This week was good we have a couple investigators progressing right now. We are working with Ariana and her member mom Madelyne, who is coming back to church now. We will baptize Ariana. We are also working with Eufelio who is a super cool investigator. We had great numbers this week despite the craziness, and we found a lot of new investigators. I am glad Elder Grandstaff is back, and little by little his Spanish is improving. 

I just heard about Tom Perry passing away. That makes me very sad. He looked so good this last Conference. I will miss his happy face.

So I already have to go. If you haven’t already sent my USB, I don’t need Meet the Mormons now because my comp bought that in Lima for me, but the other stuff I still want. Thanks for everything. I realized yesterday that this is the last week of school! Crazy, it seems like I was just in BC graduating. LOVE YOU!!

Elder Walker

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