Priesthood Power

I am really confused at what time we are Skyping I have lots of church all day. I also have ward council meetings a lot. So I don't know when I am able to do it. I can Skype by the way. I don't know much yet because my mission president has not told us anything about it.

For example, yesterday I went to 6 different wards and bore my testimony in 5 of them. Sundays are crazy for me. I am over 7 wards for now. I will not have another transfer until after Mother's day.

My new companion is Elder Ray. He is a really hard worker. He also became a district leader for the first time so I get to help him a lot with that. 

So I got to do my first confirmation the other day. I love using the priesthood. His name is B. He is 10 years old and is a great kid. I can't wait to see him in a few years when I come over when I get off of my mission and visit him. We are now working on his older sister to get her to be baptized also. That family has changed so much as the month has gone past. They are now coming to church and they are changing their lives for the better. Yay. I love missionary work we get to see so many people change there lives. I also get to see how the Church at the Stake level works. Our stake president is a great guy. The stake we are in is struggling on less actives. Lots of people are falling away from the church these last few years and he is having a really hard time. (We have a ward that has 60 people show up to church). I am learning that it is our job as missionaries to help him in his calling and that is the same with the bishop. We go up to them and ask is there anything we can do to help you in your calling? That is a great way to get the wards to trust you and let you help them in any way possible.

We are teaching a less active member named Bro S. He is a great guy. He was almost an AP on his mission and baptized many into the church. He was a bishop and is now less active. We met him on the street and now he is going to come to church and shave his beard. He said that he could feel the Spirit as we entered into his house. I felt the Spirit so strong in his house when we were telling him to go back to church. He is way cool. Mom why did I have to get your tears? I cry way too much on my mission. My companions think I am strange. I wish that I could feel the Spirit without crying. lol.

I also am worried that the new boy that we baptized last week will go inactive later in

This is where his letter ends.

Conference Weekend

So I learned a lot this conference. I forgot my notes so I will write it by hand. I wrote a lot for Robert in Priesthood meeting. It was talking directly to you Robert. I will share what I learned with you in a letter I send. So I did see Bradley at conference. He was holding a paper with the words, "A hug for a ticket" or something like that. I was very surprised that I met one of my relatives up there. With 20,000 people, what are the odds that I would see a relative? I think it was a tender mercy of the Lord. Blessing all over for missionaries. One thing I think is neat is that the people who we ask to pray at the end of the lessons almost always don't want to say it. We get most of them to say it and when they do say a prayer is a really thoughtful prayer. They do not just spit it out like some of us who have been saying it our whole lives, but they always have a special spirit to it. Also, so many of them bless us for coming and taking the time to teach them, when it is us that are really grateful that they let us in to teach at all.

We had a baptism this last week. It was wonderful. I felt the Holy Ghost bear testimony to me that this work is what I am supposed to be doing at this time of my life. I am sad Elder Kuli is going home. He is a great missionary and knows the scriptures so well. I don't like transfers very much. I make such a good friend and then I have to see him leave with out knowing when I will see him again. :(

I have also never heard of Slamwich before.

Well Dad and Robert how is your home teaching going?

Dad and Mom I an so glad that I have grown up in a home with the Gospel. Being out here really shows me the evils of the world and I am grateful that I was raised in such a "Special Home" (from my Patriarchal Blessing and from my heart). I am glad I was able to go on the camping trips and the 50 miler hike I went on with you Dad. You showed me that I could do hard things when someone is beside me helping me along the way I will cherish those always. Even though you can't be there beside me now on my mission, I now realise that I can always have the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, and my Heavenly Father always helping me as you did. Mom, I am glad you taught me how to be caring for people. I saw your example in church when you would go up to the people that needed some help in church or who were new and you would introduce yourself to them. I now see what a blessing it is on peoples lives as you talk with them. I am now away from home and I realize how much I still need support from both of my parents, I still need your prayers, your wisdom and testimony. I am so glad that you raised me in the Church. I can't imagine what life would be without it. Thank you for your example in everything I will strive to follow it the best I can. You have made me a great missionary. So every blessing I receive from God I should also be thanking you. I will wear my name tag with pride knowing that I am an Elder Walker just like you were dad and even though your name tag Mom did not say Elder Walker I still feel your spirit as I look at my name tag every day.

Thank you Mom and Dad

Love Joshua Walker

P.S. I hope I do not make you miss me to much I just wanted to show you the love I had for both of you.

Missing Fish

So my report the first number is the people who were baptized; the second is confirmed; the third is investigators with a baptism date; the forth number is investigators that attend sacrament meeting; the fifth is other lessons; the sixth is progressing investigators (keeping their commitments); the seventh is referrals received; and the 8th is the referrals contacted; the 9th is new investigators. Here is the numbers we have to report every week to the mission president. 0 0 3 5 7 2 5 1 5 3 9

So Easter was fun. I got to go to all of Church for the first time on my mission. We normally go to 3 or 4 sacrament meetings. I learned that I miss Priesthood and Sunday School. I contribute a lot more in those classes then I ever did at home. Scriptures just come to my mind as I am prompted by the Holy Ghost to share specific scriptures in church. I get a lot more from the scriptures as I really ponder and search the scriptures rather then read them. The only reason I was able to go to all of Church was because we went on splits with ward members yesterday.

I received 6 letters last week! that was cool. I received 2 from Monica lol and I know I don't have what Monica thinks is in my suitcase. I have packed and unpacked my suitcase about 20 times while being on my mission to go on exchanges with other missionaries.

I will have on a really red tie in conference so look for me in it. lol My companion goes home in 11 days. He is excited and scared. Him and his brother are the only members of his family who are Mormon. His dad was not happy that he went on a mission and gave up a great scholarship for school. He plans on going back and converting his family to the gospel. Tonga sounds so fun to go to. Always perfect temperature and perfect everything. They have avocados and Mangos and coconuts everywhere and you can go fishing any time of the day and eat lots of fish. I want to go there some day.

One thin I crave as a missionary is fish. No one feeds us fish. We always eat beef or chicken every night. lol I am not following the word of wisdom very well. I am learning cool things I never knew were in the scriptures. That is fun.

I might be able to email again today so you can write me again today and I will try to get back to you.

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.