New Investigator

So this week was a little slower then last week. We found this new investigator who is really cool. His name is Nagga. He has lived in the USA for 6 months and he already knows all about the church. We went in to his house and he basically taught us the first lesson. One of the strangest experiences of my mission. He is still learning, but he has a Book of Mormon and has read just a few pages because he said that is it hard to understand. It is his second language. He also can't read very well in Indian so we can't get him one of those either, but he did go to Deseret Book and buy a Gospel Principles Manual. He is about half way done with that book. He is getting converted though the Gospel Principles Book and not really the Book of Mormon which is strange. He told us he would try the Book of Mormon again, because we told him that that is how he will gain a conviction of the Gospel. Read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. He has his idols which will be something difficult to have him stop doing.

The weather here in Utah is so strange. It was really warm this past week, but for about 2 days we had crazy rain. It was lots of fun and a little harder to do missionary work. You just go out and expect to get wet and wet we got. It was like I had stepped into a shower and got out after 10 sec. I felt bad for the members who would let us in because we would leave a puddle in their house when we left.

Also, do you think that you could send me those pictures of our family. I would greatly appreciate that. I don't know if I ever thanked you for the scarf and socks, but thanks.

Question for the family

Why in Ether 3 does Jesus Christ refer to himself as Jesus Christ. He never does that before his birth. Look in the Old Testament. I don't think it said Jesus Christ once in there. (I have not read the whole thing so I might be wrong on that point). He is always referred to as Lord or something. 

Spiritual Stake Meeting

So this week has been very interesting. First, Elder Van Tress got transferred right before the baptism. Another missionary had to go home for hip surgery, so my companion got transferred. Also, Elder Mansfield GOT HIS VISA after 8 long months of waiting.  He is so excited and very nervous. I am not excited. I want him to stay. Trios are hard. There are things that just don't work as smoothly in trios then just a regular companionship. 

So, really cool news. We got to hear Elder Tate of the Seventy. He is one of the most powerful people I have ever met. I love him and I barely know him at all. He invited the missionaries to sit on the stand in all 3 meetings. I love that so much. He invited us to stand like 6 times to show the stake that we were willing to work and to show off my smile. That was funny. I smiled and he commented "Look at the smile on that missionary! He is so happy to be here!" or something along these lines. He also went up to Elder Mansfield and told the priesthood leadership exactly what to do [say?] to their grandchildren and children. He testified right to his face. It was so powerful.

He told us of a training of all of the general authorities and what Elder Bednar told all of them. He [Elder Bednar] said that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I can't tell you how I know, but know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, and that I can't tell you how I know, but I know it. And he went on and on. It was crazy! I have never heard that from a general authority before. The spirit was there so strong. I love those meetings so much.

So the person that was baptized was K. H. We got a text from her that night at 11. It said, "I know you guys are most likely asleep!! But I just wanted to thank you guys for everything !!(: You guys are the most amazing missionaries I have ever met !(: I'm so glad I got to have you guys teach me. Thank you for being there today it ment a lot !(: "  I wrote it exactly how she sent it spelling and all. That made me happy. 

Also I heard from our 1st councilor in the mission presidency. He went to the Saturday Stake Session in my last stake, and one my my recent converts gave a talk. He kept saying "My Great missionaries" and how we would teach him as we would do service. That was cool. I also heard that from sister Mecham. Here is here letter:

Hi Elder Walker,
How are things? We had a really nice visit with Marques and Andrea last night. They really miss you. They wondered if it would be possible to see you again. Could we even work that out on a p-day? I get home around 3:30 on Mondays and I would be happy to bring them to you, if you need me to.
We just had a wonderful stake conference. In the evening session, a convert from the 4th ward shared his experience with joining the church. He talked about you and Elder Kolpakov a lot. Called you “my great missionaries”.  I just thought you might like to know that your influence is still felt here.
Take care,
Sis. Mecham

I love going back and seeing the people I have baptized and helped come unto Christ. We are now really working on finding new people to teach. We have picked up 2 new investigators here. They are a couple and Hindi. We have the strangest investigators that I have ever seen. We just need to meet with them more often. They have busy schedules and it is really hard to meet with all of our investigators. The only way that we can stay in contact with a lot of them is through the phone. (I don't know how you did it Mom and Dad without phones).

I also met Ben's old Assistant to the President [from] about 1 year ago. Parker Williams. He is a good guy and he is in the YSA stake. I met him when I was on exchanges with the zone leaders. That is cool. He said that he really liked Ben and said that he was funny and fun to be around. 

The last picture is the fellowship and they made it possible and is the reason she was baptized. I did not get a good picture of them but I just want you to see them and the members that help us the most. It is cool to see the fruit of the labors.

My District

The other one is my district. Did I ever tell you that I had a senior missionaries in my district? They live here but are called to our mission. It is cool they are really nice.

This week has been exciting. We got a new missionary that I and Elder Mansfield are training together. It is lots of fun. It is amazing to see the progress that I have made and the potential of this new missionary his name is Elder Van Tress. He is a good guy. He is from Ogden, Utah so really close to home. He is on what is called a trial mission. He did not go thought the MTC or the temple. He is so willing to learn and grow. I like him. I also like the improvement on myself that I see because I am that example to him. Once he is done with these 2 transfers he will actually receive his mission call to where he will be serving full time. Then he will go through the MTC and the temple. It is a great blessing that we have. Elder Mansfield is with us as well. We are in a trio right now. Elder Mansfield's visa is in the mail and on its way here. He is excited and really nervous  because he still does not know the language very well. 

This week was good. We have a kid baptized. He is a good kid. We also have 2 more people on date. We are doing really well here in Draper. I love my mission. I have learned so much and am learning more every day. 

The very first door that Elder Van Tress tried on was a guy that was not very happy to see us. He let us talk for about 15 sec and then shut the door on us. Elder Van Tress looks over at us and said "Is that what every person is like?" We laughed. We don't get very many like that. 

The Bald eagle is in my backyard I took this picture. I think it is a great picture. I love it.

I enjoy my mission. It is a time in my life when I don't have to worry about any of the outside world just the little part of Zion right here in Draper Utah.

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.