Life is Good

So the ones that were super solid are now semi solid. That stinks when that happens. But it does happen. 

A little story that is funny: someone in the mission did drive down to Las Vegas without permission, but Mom i would never do that. Also I am glad for the pictures that they take because I am not good at that at all. :( I know I will do better at that.

Also I get to go to General Conference the Sunday morning session! So look for me. I do not think I will be sitting where all the other missionaries will be sitting because we got the tickets from our stake president. I am so excited for that opprotunity that I get. 

I am teaching a non member who was of the FLDS faith but left because of some really bad experiences. She came to church yesterday. Yay! We asked ,"Do you believe in the FLDS church?" "No" she said. "Ok, do you belive in the LDS church?" "Yes" she finished.

That made me happy. It is a lot easier to teach a lesson when they already believe in the church. Also if she wants to get baptized she has to meet with a General Authority because she was from the FLDS church. So I might get to meet another General Authority. I have met 6 members of the 70 so far on my mission incliding the MTC and 1 apostle.

I learned that the book of Ether is a very cool book and we are blessed to have it because the Lord did not have the Nephites have it until after the coming of Christ. So I need to respect it and learn from it.

Elder Kuli is a great missionary. He does not talk as much as i would have expected from a last transfer missionary. It is just not natural to him. So I end up doing too much of the talking in the lessons. I need to give him some room to talk. Also this week I made him breakfast and will do it again this week. It feels good to serve Elder Kuli.

This week has been very exciting just like all the weeks in a mission. We went to temple square yesterday with an investigator. I felt the Holy Ghost so many times there. It is a very special place.

Teaching Lessons

So this week we have 5 people on date for baptism and 3 of them are very solid. One way I have figured out to solidify them from getting off date is to make the program early, mabay the third lesson and also to bring up their date every time you meet with them. Sometimes this is hard to do because we do not want them to say, "Lets not have it then because of . . . " but I learned that if we have faith then we will be able to solidify the date even more. 

I was wondering if Monica used Preach my Gospel for her lesson on the Atonement. It is such a great resource that we can use. The scriptures are great and Mom you can even use the personal study ideas or companionship study ideas in Seminary. That would get them used to Preach My Gospel so that when they enter into the MTC they will be familiar to it. 

I talked to Kevin Pilcher this week. He is doing great. It was really fun to talk to him and to be able to have someone I know for more then 2 months to be around. Although is is hard to call him Elder Pilcher when I know him as Kevin. lol 

So something that was funny that happened this week. We visited a nonmember that has been to church when she was younger but never baptized. Well, we talked a little about the Plan of Salvation and then asked if she would say a prayer. She said no. So after trying for a while to get her to say it, I offered to do it. I was praying for her to understand what we were teaching and then she started to laugh during the prayer at me. She said that she thought is was funny that I was praying for her. My companion never opened his eyes and I then continued to finish the prayer after that interruption  That was the strangest prayer that I have ever had to give.

I am glad Alex got my letter. I have not sent any for a while. Kaitlyn Durham also sent me a letter. The first letter from someone besides my family. Yay! 

Quick questions can you give me a list of where everyone in my family has served or are currently serving. like uncles and ants and cousins? I know Grandpa knows his children by heart.

 
Also dad there are by far a lot more Utah fans here then BYU. I use that when I talk to people at the door. "So are you a Utah fan" (they have red all over there car and house). They say, "Yes." I say, "My dad is a Utah fan too." It is helpful to have something in common with people so they see you as a missionary and a real person and not someone to slam the door on. lol

Elder Joshua Walker

Salt Lake Temple

In my last letter, I asked Dad and Robert to report each week about how the Home teaching is going. I learned that from the temple.

I went to the Salt Lake Temple this week. It was so cool. I got to sit next to President Miller and he told me so much about the symbolism that is there. It is so cool. I love going to the temple.

Also a change in my missionary rules. I get to write for 90 min. Now, and I can email other people so can I get Ben's Email address/others?

This week has gone great. We have gotten 2 really solid investigators with a baptism date and 3 others that have a 50% chance of getting baptized on the date that we gave them. If all goes to plan we will have 4 people baptized on the 30th of March! Yay! I can't wait. Also, did I tell you that I have eaten at a quorum of the 70's house? That was so cool. We are going to get a picture with him before I leave the area.

Elder Kuli is way different then Elder Maddy. He makes me do everything which is probably a good thing for me so I learn, but it makes it harder.

Also Mom, can you tell me what the Adam God theory is. Had a person tell me that that is what they believe, but me and companion don't know what that is.

Elder Joshua Walker

New Companion & Challenge to be Bold

Letter to Mission President:

2 I am still going to be working on diligence this week. I will do this by working on scheduling better. This is what I have the hardest time doing as a missionary
3 I learned that even if we are keeping the commandments we still have to do it with a willing heart and an open ear and not complain about it all the time. I thought this was cool because a lot of people including me do this and I need to work on loving the commandments and not just following them
4 To strengthen my companionship this week I am working on letting him take more part of the lessons. I have been taking over the lessons because he does not know any of the people. But this is not good so I need to help him to be able to take more part in the lesson so he can learn the people better. Elder Kuli is a great missionary. He knows the scriptures super well. That is so cool because that is one thing that I struggle with.
5 This week we were able to put 4 people on date and 2 of them are 90% on board. we have been teaching them for a while now but we finally got them to get a baptism date. Yay! I am so excited that they are following Jesus Christ's example. Also I am getting so much more out of reading the scriptures because of that mission conference.

Elder J. Walker and Elder Maddy

So Elder Maddy is gone :( I loved Elder Maddy but I will move on. The hardest thing about him leaving is that I have to lead the area. I only had 5 weeks to do this and you know how good I am with names.  I have a lot of work to do. I don't want to lose anyone in the change because I did not remember where they lived or what their name was. My companion is from Tonga, his name is Elder Kuli (which means flower) he is 220 pounds and was a rugby player in Tonga. He was really good.

He is going home after this transfer (so I am going to "kill" him). He extended so he has already been out 2 years. Crazy.

Elder Kuli and Elder J. Walker

I saw Kevin Pilcher. He was in my mission conference. He just came in. I did not get to say hi so he never saw me but it was still cool to see someone from home.

In my mission conference we had a former member of the 70 talk to us. His name was Jensen and he really knows how to study. He had some amazing tips that he told us that really changed how I study the scriptures  He said that when you mark something in your scriptures you need to only mark the important words or phrases because when you mark the whole verse it is saying that every word in that verse that you marked has the same power as all the words in the verse.

At the end, he told us about the new scriptures that are coming out. [Article can be read here.] I think that it will be so cool to see a new edition of the scriptures.

Dad/Robert I have a challenge for you. I want you to get all of the people you home teach active in the church. I now know that members are the best way to reactivate people in the church. Me and you could have done better on that, so I want you to visit active members 1 time a month and non active members 2 times or more a month until they become active.

This is for you too Robert. I want you to have that in your mind at all times. We were told, "How great your Joy will be if you bring, but one soul unto me." ( I don't know the scripture reference to this or if I quoted it right, but you get the picture) [The scripture is Doctrine and Covenants 18:10, 15-16]. I also want a report every week on the progress. (Dad I am learning to be bold to members because if you are not then a lot of the time they will brush you off, but I also don't want to come off too strong). I remember visiting the other people we home taught only 3 times. We probably did more but I don't remember ever doing it more then that. I love you Dad and I know that you can do this because your teaching allowed me to do this and now I do it 24/7.

This will also help Robert learn how to teach lessons better. You can use Preach my Gospel, it is very cool and I wished I had used it more. Mom I know very little about visiting teaching but I am sure you can do this too.

Monica look for people to teach and refer to the missionaries all the time. I remember several people that I knew and it never occurred to me to tell the missionaries.