The Push for Missionary Work

So this week is transfers again. They come up so fast. I will be in a trio. That will be interesting. Elder Mansfield will be leaving for Brazil really soon. His visa is in the mail. Crazy right? I have also noticed all the push for missionary work. It is all over the world. Something that I have been told. It is not the First Presidency that is pushing it or hastening the work. They told us that is is the Lord. This is the Lord's time frame not ours. It just shows that the world is coming close and closer to the Second Coming and we need to prepare as many people as possible. We are doing really well in our stake. We have 3 people on date for baptism. It is really cool. We are also trying to teach a Muslim. We have to get permission for us to be able to teach him, but we first need him to meet with our mission president to interview him. He will basically tell him that if he joins the church then he could be killed! Easy enough. Also we are teaching a Wiccan named Emily. Basically, she is a witch. It is strange. She said that she would be ok to be baptized, because she wants her son to grow up in a good church. She has no idea what this church could do for her. It is our job to teach and testify to her of the things that could come with her following Jesus Christ and being baptized into His church. 

Finding

I think that is a great idea to pray for people's needs in a prayer as we visit their home.

So finding is strange here. We do knock doors a lot but is is not just tracking it is by referrals or people that say that we can come back. I actually taught a district meeting on this the other day. Our mission president called it varied finding. I went throughout all of my baptisms and tried to figure out how we found them. Most of them were from active member referrals. Sometimes we get these amazing people that call us and tell us that they want to be baptized. That has happened 1 time on my mission so far. That was a cool day.

So this week we found 2 new investigators. One was from tracking and the other was from a member invite. The member invite we have been trying to contact this kid for 2 months and his mom has not answered the door to us. Then a member comes along and asked for us and they say yes! That is why members are better at finding then we are. They have the connections we are striving for. The kid was really funny yesterday at church, after sacrament meeting he came up to us and said, "Will you baptize me?" We smiled really big at that moment. Sundays are good days. His Mom recently lost her husband about 2 years ago and so she went inactive. Now she is living with a boy friend so she did not feel comfortable at church. The boy (he is 9 years old) has his dad's scriptures and he shows a lot of love for them. He is a great kid. He will be baptized on the 1st of Feb. He is so excited. I love baptisms. we have another kid we found though our area book of someone previous missionaries dropped. He will be baptized on the 15th of Feb. He is 15 years old.  

We also have this other family that is going to our ward. She has 2 kids that are unbaptized that go to church. A member that we invited to invite them to meet with us got back to us yesterday and said that she just so happened to sit next to her in church so she said that it was a sign that she better invite her to meet with the missionaries. When the member invited her she told her that she really wanted to get baptized and she felt ready for it. Miracles all over Utah. I love my mission. We are finding new people every week that are basically just waiting to get baptized. It is a land of wonder and a land that is filled with the spirit. That is why I believe that we are the highest baptizing valley in the world English speaking.

We also meet some really sad circumstances like a guy who has 6 kids all under 9 and the guy has now removed his name from the records of the church because he now does not believe in God. His wife is still really active but he is not at all. He is willing to talk about it. He was talking to us for a long time, but he just does not believe in the church at all. He wanted to find out the truth as well. He was fasting and praying and reading the scriptures when he came to the conclusion that God does not exist or if he does he does not deal with us directly. How does that happen?  It is really sad to see this Mom go to church with their children and to know that the husband is just at home. He thinks that the church will limit your view. So he actually discourages the kids from going to church. It was a tough circumstance and I am feeling so bad for the wife who when they got married was fully active and now he is in the opposite direction and trying to take the kids in that direction as well. He is such a nice guy. He is very kind to us and is still very helpful. I just wish there was something that we could do for that family. 

Over all, this week as been wonderful. I have loved it all. I am learning every day and wish I could learn so much faster. I love my companion I could not do this with out him. 

To go back to finding. I have gotten 1 baptism out of a media referral. 1 baptism out of cold door knocking (tracking). One out of a prepared investigator (he called us and said he wanted to be baptized.) Most of the others are out of member referrals and member invites.

We have transfers next week. Elder Mansfield has been out in Utah for almost 7 months waiting for his visa to Brazil. I think that he will be in a trio next transfer. I feel a little bad for him, but I don't really want him to leave. I think he is too good a missionary. We are going to be baptizing like crazy in this upcoming transfer. 

P.S. we call it exchanges when we switch with another missionary. When we go out with non missionaries we call it a split. 

This is at least in my mission. 

One of the Most Baptizing Missions in the World

So this week has been exciting. We have had another baptism. Ben has been baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The Stake President was in the ward with us when he was baptized and he leaned over to the Bishop and told him to sustain him [Ben] to the Aaronic Priesthood. He really did not know what that was. He was confused and looked at us. We smiled after he asked me to give him the priesthood. So the very first person that I ever gave the priesthood is Ben. My companion baptized him. That was cool. He had to do it two times. He was a little scared. Ben told me later that Elder Mansfield was shaking. He did a good job of it. That was the first baptism that he preformed.

We also picked up a new investigator. His name is Cameron. He is about 15 but acts like a 8 year old because of a learning disability he has. He wants to be baptized as soon as possible so he will probably get baptized on Feb 7. We are doing so well here in Draper, Utah. Did I ever tell you that this is one of the most baptizing missions in the world? Because of that our mission has been split 2 times in the past 2 years. We are also going to find a lot this week. I believe that it becomes so much easier for us to do missionary work when we know the area and know the leadership and they trust us. That is a huge part of missionary work. (trust) We always try to get more and more of this. It is so easy for members to lose trust in missionaries and it happens, so when missionaries are

not trustworthy they [the members] are shy and take a long time to build up that trust again.

Temple Visit

So P-day was on Tuesday this week because we were able to go to the temple. That was lots of fun, but it makes it hard to do all the things you need to do on a P-day like shopping. I have not done that yet and it is almost that time where I have to go out and work again. Oh well. Also I got permission to watch the videos if it is during my 90 min of email time. So it is limited. I did get to go up to were Dad showed me my whole mission before I actually left for it near the Draper Temple. It is strange to be in places that we have been as a family and be there as a missionary as well. Such a different thought process that missionaries have then regular people.

This week has been fun we had another baptism here in Draper. It was Breanna. She is 14 years old and has been going to church for about 6 months straight. We were just blessed to be here at the right time. I have heard that Draper is in the top 100 richest cities in the world. Crazy, right? And I am serving here.

What does Dad think of me eating at the prison? I like it there. I am getting to know some of the people that work there by name. lol.

We found out this week that one of our Relief Society Presidents is becoming a mission president. [Editor's note: I assume it is her husband that will be the Mission President, but of course she is called to serve also.] I thought that was cool they really like us because we keep them in the loop of what we are doing.

Christmas is Coming

I love that chapter [Alma 14] I use it a lot when people want to know whey there is suffering in the world. When ever I teach that I cry. I feel there pain and I want to do the same for people here just take away all there pains. Then think about all the people that God has to let them feel the pain. How much he loves all of us and all the pain that he has went though because of other peoples choices. 

This week was cool we baptized a kid form Korea his name is Dohyung Kim (AKA Jade). It was really cool. His friend baptized him. Very spiritual moment. We also confirmed him the next day and a Korean said the confirmation. The confirmation was in Korean so no one understood it.  I could still feel the spirit. We then taught a class of 12 and 13 year old in church about how to be more efficient in missionary work. I keep thinking of Robert. Jade the kid that was baptized was also 13 years old so he was Robert's age when he was baptized. I think that is cool. Happy birthday Robert you are now 14 years old and have more responsibility. Do you know what all of it includes? Ask Ben to show you in the Doctrine and Covenants. He is very knowledgeable in the scriptures. 

Christmas has been changed a little. I will get about 1 hour to Skype home. and I will not be able to visit people in our mission anymore. :( Our mission president said not to visit people outside of our area. 

Elder Kolpakov will be going home in 2 days. That is crazy to me. Also this week is transfers so me and Elder Mansfield might not be together. That would be bad. He is such a good companion and we are really getting the work moving in this stake. I don't want things to be switched up, but that is how missionary work goes sometimes. I already have a family that we are going to Skype at soon we have to figure out a time that we can do that.

Well this week has been great. 

Love, 

Elder Walker

Facing the Lord

It is really cold here. About 9 degrees in the morning and in the day it gets up to about 15 degrees. Very warm. Haha. I love it anyways. It helps people feel compassion for us so it is more likely that we will be able to go into people's homes and teach a message. It also causes people to be home more so we are not knocking on so many empty doors. That is nice.

This past week has been an interesting week. We had talked to lots of return missionaries that are less active and it makes me sad to see that. There was one person who was an AP on his mission and he went less active and has a difficult time believing in God. He still reads the Book of Mormon and watches conference and lets his wife and kids go to church, but he is struggling so much. It is sad to see that backwards progression. There have been lots of those people here. We have apartments in our area. It is different than most of my other areas. We get to see families that have strange relationships (gays lesbians). We try to get in and teach them and most of them used to be active members and they just went astray. It is different. They now want nothing to do with the Church.

We have an investigator from Korea and he is an exchange student and wants to be baptized. He will be baptized this week. I am really excited for that to happen. He is having another foster kid who is 16 do the baptism. That will be a neat experience. I am excited. We are doing well in this area. I learned a lot from our mission president this past week. We had a mission leadership training meeting and it was very inspirational. I loved it.  There are huge changes happening in our mission. He is changing a lot of the things of our last mission president. Our mission was a little unique because we were so close together we could do workouts together in the morning. Now that is gone. We also used to have district lunch about 2 times a week and that is gone as well. He just went through the whole mission and changed everything. Lots of missionaries are mad at him for the changes. I think it was necessary to make those changes. He told us a principle:

Are you facing the lord?

Now I am going to try to explain this, but it will be hard.

If I were to line people up each facing one direction (so you were looking at the back of a person's head) the first person is Christ. The next is the prophet then the mission president then zone leader then district leader and finally the missionary. (The missionary is not facing anyone). Do you see the picture? 

So now if I were to turn the zone leader and face the mission president. That would symbolize him back talking the mission president or not taking his advice. 

Now a huge problem arose. We have a leader who does not like what the mission president said. It causes so much contention in the rest of the line. Do you now see who we have to face? Not the Lord, but those we have stewardship over and the ones that the Lord is facing. We need to go in his direction and not the opposite way. 

I hope this all made sense. I wish I could draw a picture. 

Now what we all need to do is to follow our leaders, even if we do not understand. Our mission president said that he even does not understand why he is doing this. He said it was Revelation from the Lord! That is cool to be able to see inspiration happen in our mission. Now my job is to support him the best I can and I need to support the Lord's decision on everything.

Rumor in our mission is that we will all get iPads at the beginning of the new year! I hope it is true. 

Cool thing that also happened. So Dad, you said that I might cover the prison in my mission. It is in my district and I ate lunch at the Serving Time Cafe (a restaurant on the prison ground and run by inmates). A doctor that works there payed for us and said that anytime we go in we say his name and they will put it on his tab. He said to do it as much as possible to show the inmates that work there an example. That was cool. He was a very nice guy and the food there is about $8 for both our our costs combined. I love that place. No we will not abuse it Mom we will be respectful of him and his kindness. It was still really cool. 

I love my mission. It is a wonderful time to be a missionary. We have so many resources that we get to use. I love my mission. I could do this the rest of my life. The joys are so great and the spirit is so strong. This is the most righteous I have ever been in my whole life and I love it! I still have lots to work on, but I know that will the Lords help I can over come all! and I mean all!

I love you family. Have a happy Christmas! 

Robert keep being the kind kid I know you as even as you grow up 

Monica keep these great times in your life a memory.

Ben keep doing a great job at inspiring many people.

Alex and Bj I love your example for us. I remember when I was studying in your house. Alex and you were reading the scriptures and how much you loved them. Keep it up

Mom I love your letters and the example of a great Mom and the willingness to follow Christ in the responsibility he places on your shoulders. (example when your shoulder was frozen and did not move that did not stop you from going to the temple and from cooking us dinner and every day things [Ed. note: or directing the choir]. I was thinking about that in the temple a little bit ago and I felt your pain) you are a great Mom even when you need help to get dishes off the top of the shelf.

Dad I think of you often. Last night me and Elder Mansfield were talking about scouting and the love that both of us had in going on trips with our fathers. I see so many people that do not have fathers or fathers that don't do any thing with them. I am so lucky to have you as my father.

Thanks family for being so strong in the faith. It helps me a lot. I see many families that have one person that does not go to church or does not believe in Christ or many other things. I am grateful that I was born in this world with this family and this life. I can't thank you guys enough. 

Beginning of the Christmas Season

I am doing really good. This week we were tracking and knocked on this door and a guy answered it. He was from Alabama. He had lived in Utah for 5 years and had never talked to missionaries. We went in and taught a lesson. It went really well. He loved the Book of Mormon. He said  "I have always wanted one!" He told us to give him time to read it. We are going back tomorrow. That was cool. I do not get very many teaching opportunities to teach from cold door tracking. We had been working so hard this week and we were blessed. The total amount of doors we probably knocked on to find that one guy is 200+ doors! We are teaching many people and doing great work. Things are looking up here. I love it!

My companion is legit. He is a powerful teacher and really diligent in the work. It makes things so good when your companion works hard with you. I see some missionaries really wanting to work, but have a hard time because their companion doesn't want to do anything. I have been blessed in all my companions that I have had. They are wonderful. 

I remember when Russell came back and I did companion study with him and Ryan. [Editor's Note: Russell Fischer left for his mission the same time as Ben. He came home for about a month so he could have surgery. During that time, he took Joshua and Ryan Burnham and helped them further prepare for their missions.  It was a great experience for all of them.]  That feels like so long ago. Time is strange on a mission. Things out side it seem so far away, but everything on it seems to go so fast . 

We have a nativity in our Stake. it is kinda like the one in California. About 15000 people come to it. It is a great opportunity to have people invite their neighbors to something that will help them come closer to Christ, especially near Christmas. It is cool. I will be there a lot this next few days just talking to people.

Elder Walker