Listen

We had MLC this week Mission Leadership Training. It was cool. President Chambers talks to all the sister training leaders STL and the zone leaders ZL. He shares some great insights about the scriptures and new things coming out. I love them. Before my mission I did not like meetings very much, now I love them and can't wait until the next one. 

We are teaching Alec. He is one of the coolest investigators ever. We were able to teach him about Christ and he has heard little to none about Him. he told us,"that Guy is a great Man!" We told him back, "Yes it is Jesus Christ." Then he said "O that is why every one likes him." We laughed and said yes part of the reason is that and then went on explaining the atonement. Every time we go over there he opens the Book of Mormon and wants to read it with us. He has a true love for the Book of Mormon. We have to tell him sometimes that we have a lesson about the plan of salvation and we need to teach it to you. He just does not want to do anything with us except read the book of Mormon with us. 

Today is my companion's Birthday. He is now 23 years old. 

This week we have had to fix a lot of issues with our zone. That is one thing as a zone leader that is tricky. Like you said Mom people sometimes don't like you because of the tings you have to say to them. (Like Dad or Nephi talking to his Brothers) I was reading about Nephi and building the boat today. Nephi was chastising his brothers about partying on the boat and told them to stop and then his brothers tie him up for 4 Days! That is a long time and no one could soften their hearts except the Lord. Not even Nephi's Kids.

One thing about being over so many stakes is that we are trying is to visit the ward leaders from the family wards and try to get referrals from them for young signal adults. Just a finding idea. if you have any I would love to hear them about how to find people to teach. 

Have a good week!

Love Elder Walker

Temples

We found a new investigator who is golden. He loves the Book of Mormon. It brings him happiness every time he picks it up and reads it. He is on date to be baptized for Oct 11th. He is excited. His name is Alec. The first time we went over at the end he said, "Is it time to pray?" We said yes and then he proceeded to say I am scared to pray, but I know that I need to pray anyways. It was a very basic prayer but you could tell that it came from the heart.

We taught 22 lessons this week. Crazy right! A normal week we would teach about 12 or something like that. We are teaching a lot of recent convert lessons and a lot of less active lessons. Something we have been instructed to do by a Seventy that visited our mission. 

I love my companion, he is a great Elder and loves the gospel. He has really changed his life to come on his mission. He has done things that I would have never dreamed of anyone doing, but he has repented and now he is wonderful. 

Our zone is a good zone too. All the other zones we had things we have had to "fix", but this zone has had none of those. I appreciate that a lot. 

Going to the temple was wonderful we got to do that on Tuesday. We saw the newest one. Every time I go I learn so many things that help me in missionary work and in my life. Interesting thing that happens all the time in the YSA stake is that about 4 times a week we get a text form a returned missionary that tells us that he wants to go out with us on splits. I have always struggled to find someone who really wants to go out with us and now there are too many that we tell them that if they have an appointment for us that we will take them. haha this is a lot different. 

So I will be going to the Saturday PM session [of General Conference] and then the priesthood session later that night. Yes, I did get to go to the temple dedication. That was really cool! I loved it and I was able to feel the spirit so strong. President Monson said in the dedication to love the temple, to appreciate the temple, and to attend the temple.  He also said that the temple is a light home that leads us to heaven. 

Elder Bednar said that when we are in the temple we are home! I thought that was cool.

Interesting thing that happened because we could not have anyone we are working with go to church that day it posed a problem. No less active members or non members were allowed to go the church that day, so what we did is just watched a sacrament meeting on TV and that counted for them to go to church. 

Rough Times, but Good

I am going to go to the temple today at 3 that is why I did not email yesterday. This past week was crazy. Lots of things happening. So at the beginning of last week we were praying and fasting for our investigators and kinda the opposite things happened that we did not want to happen. First off we have completely lost contact with some of our investigators. They disappeared. Sad. and then we were walking down the street and high school got out and we got 2 people to yell at us and one to throw something at us. It did not hit us but I think it was a rock. He swore at us and then not 2 min. later we got another person to yell ''devil" at us.

Then we got a call from one of our fellow-shippers for one of our investigators and she chastised us for inviting her friend to be baptized and told us that we don't have the Spirit with us and that we were not good teachers and the such. Then through all of this we have about 10 lessons cancel on us.

So we are a little disappointment this week and Sunday comes around and our only lesson with an investigator with a member present. We are working so hard to make it a good lesson during comp study and we get a call and one of our less active lessons canceled. Then we go out to our car to go to church and we start driving off the drive way and it has a completely flat tire. So we put on the spare and then while we are on the ground we got a text from our investigator saying that she is sick and she can't have the lesson and she will not be able to make it to church. :( So we are not able to. We get in our car and then realize that we only have about 40 miles left of gas and it is Sunday. We go to church. and our last investigator texted us about 2 min before church starts and said that he will try to make it to Church. He does not make it. So last week was kinda rough.

This week is going to be really good though we have already taught 4 lessons yesterday. We are going to go though the temple and we have some lessons with new investigators already set up. yay. Good things that happened last week. We had some good less active lessons and we were able to feel the spirit very well in those lessons. We were able to give 3 blessings last week and miracles came from those blessings. One was a healing blessing. He had just had surgery on his bladder. He had stones in his bladder. Little different and there had been lots of swellings and things. A week later his son should be getting married and he wanted to be there so bad. The wife was talking about who they are going to get to give him a blessing to him when she saw us talking to her neighbor. She called us over. We gave him a blessing and we saw him a few days later and he was up and walking and she said to us that 1 hour after the blessing he was fine. A little weak but fine. Really cool to see that.

Then the other blessing we gave were for someone the sisters were teaching. Her car broke down and she had no way of getting her kids to church and her parents left her because she came back to the church. (she was less active) She was very scared because she had no way of getting to work or anything. We gave her a blessing and then next day her car was just fine. God loves his children a lot. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in this restored church. The power to act in Christ's name. crazy right? Sometimes I think we forget what we have.

I don't mean to complain about the work. It has its ups and downs. Yesterday we taught a girl named Falisha. She is a wonderful person and we knocked on her door Sunday night and asked if we could have a lesson with her on Monday. She is a little shy. So the next day we have a lesson and turns out that yesterday she said she was very close to committing suicide because of her depression. She is going to go to a hospital in about a week. But the lesson we had was one of the most powerful I have had in a long time. Totally by the Spirit. We talked about the Atonement and Christ and how he can help you. That is when she told us about committing suicide. (We happened to be at the bishop's house at that time as well)  She was crying and of course Elder Walker was crying. haha

As missionaries we are God's servants and he leads us where he wants us to go so that is why we were lead to that house at that time. 

I know who I am

This week was interesting. Lots of things happened. We had several of our investigators text us and tell us that they don't want to meet anymore and they don't want to learn anymore. Normally when things like this happen I am disappointed, but I was reading in Preach my Gospel and it said that disappointment will decrease my faith and desire. So I decided to look at it in another way. The way I chose to look at it is that God knew that they would stop investigating the church and He knew that his missionaries would not be to happy about it. So a question arises from all of this. Why did we even start teaching them and seeing them progress only to see them leave what we were teaching them or to have trials that they are trying to over come to stop their progression?

I believe that things like this occur, because if they did not then we would not know how to deal with it in the world outside of an "Elders life." So I chose to look at it that God will take care of these people and he will have them remember what we have taught them and eventually they will have another chance to accept it and now they will know exactly what is expected of them in the Church of Jesus Christ.

I fasted for a miracle yesterday so that I would know that I was on the right path and that God would show me in something that happened in that day. At about 2:30 we get a phone call from a Mom who has a less active son in our area and she really wants him to become active. We had been trying to contact this individual for several days and we saw their Dad outside doing yard work and we stopped by and asked if we could help. He lives in Draper and was just down there taking care of the property. We talked to him a little. (He refused to let us do any of the yard work) and he told us about his son and then we gave our phone number to him, and told him to call if we could help with anything. So back to the phone call at 2:30 on Sunday the Mom called and was so grateful that the YSA missionaries were trying to see her son and then she asked for the bishop's phone number and the ward information. That was the answer to my fasting that day. God showed me that even in small things I can bless people all around even if it is not in a baptism, but simply to calm a Mother's heart and know that someone cares for her son.

By the way Mom I have had too many companions that have not been focused at the end of their mission and I have seen what it does to the area and the companion. So I will not be doing that. Talking about home does not distract me.

The Church of Jesus Christ by Janice Kapp Perry

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (That is who I am "true blue though and though")
I know who I am. (Elder Walker)
I know God's plan. (Lesson 2 in Preach My Gospel)
I'll follow him in faith. (This has to do with the next phrase)
I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. (First principle in the Gospel of Jesus Christ)
I'll honor his name. (keep my baptism convents)
I'll do what is right; (Keep the commandments)
I'll follow his light. (it is much easier to follow a light then the dark)
His truth I will proclaim. ( I am a missionary!!!)

(This is the song that came into my head when I started writing that sentence.)

(The things after each phrase is the first thing that came to my mind as I read each phrase)

I do know who I am. I know what I am doing right now and I want you to know this as well. 

I do appreciate your concern. Some missionaries it does effect, so I am not trying to say that I don't appreciate it. Just realize that I am working hard and I now know how to be a better missionary than I ever had on my whole mission. I know how to rely on the Spirit and how to rely on God. That is what I will do as my mission comes closer to the end. I get reminded everyday by members that I only have a few months left so I have had to find someway to deal with it. haha

Being a zone leader is a lot easier (and fun) when missionaries are doing what they are meant to do. Then you are just a guide and friend. When a missionary doesn't follow the white handbook that is when being a zone leader becomes hard. I think about that when it comes to any leadership position in the church. Bishop, Elders Quorum president, Ward mission leader... the blessing is that no matter what is going on the Lord is sustaining you! Plus the whole ward has sustained you as well.

YSA Stake

I cover the young signal adults wards. They just split the stake so I am now over about 15 other stakes. I cover one of the largest areas in the mission. Our last stake got white washed. [White washed: both missionaries are transferred out and two new missionaries to the area are transferred in]. Kinda sad we were having lots of success there and now it is kinda dull. Well the Lord knows what is going on. My companion is great. Elder Small from the Bua Island of Fiji. He is a great elder that made lots of changes to be able to be out here on his mission. I love him. We switched zones. Kinda sad as well, but cool news is that I am now over one of my old areas. So I know one part of my area really well. Jordan Oaks.

The YSA is a different mission. You have people your own age that you are teaching and working with. A lot different then what I am used to. We are having success here though. We have 3 people on date to be baptized on the 20th of September. Yay! One has a crazy story. So 2 weeks ago one of our investigators named Tee did not even believe in God and now he said he was praying one night because he wanted a change and he took a walk and was praying to God. And the heavens opened up and he said he felt it embrace him and at that time he knew there was a God. So he did research online. (Never a good thing especially about the Mormon church) and then he asked one of his coworkers that he did not know very [well] and asked him what religion he was. Well God works in mysterious ways. He was Mormon and told him about the church and just so happened to have a Book of Mormon on him and gave it to him. Then the family elders knock on his door 5 days latter, and then we as YSA get a referral from the family elders telling us to go over there and teach. Great lesson. He already knew all about Joseph Smith and he told us he felt like cheating because he already knew all of what we were telling him. Golden! but we ask him for referrals and he later asks his brother if he wants to meet with us and then he gets this nasty 8 page text from him telling him about how we are not Christians and how those Mormons are liars and the such. It made him really sad to see his brother act that way so we had to have the lesson at his now fellowship's house. Lesson went well and we talked about some of the anti stuff his brother gave him and he told us that he had already done his research on all of it and he knows that this church is true. So this Sunday he was trying to go to church and his brother was waiting for him down stairs and he was scared to go down there so he had is sister distract him while he crawled out the window and got in his car and drove off. Then we meet him at church and he is scared because he thinks he is late (he was about 15 min early), but he wanted to prepare him self. Way cool guy! He is in 2nd Nephi and he has gone to the Ogden Temple open house. He loves the temple and when he was waking around (again with his fellowship) he said he felt like he was in a museum where you were not allowed to touch anything but he wanted to touch everything. Funny he saw a drinking fountain and he asked his fellowship if it was ok to drink out if it because it looked so beautiful. He is a funny guy. Then in gospel principle class they were talking about spiritual gifts and about getting them. Now interesting thing is that he was sitting next to us and sharing all of his insights with us, because he was too shy to raise his hand. He is not a very social person.

The best thing about the YSA is that everyone is the best fellowship ever, half of them are all recently returned missionaries and so they know exactly how to help us.

Funny thing about the YSA is that you have a lot of less actives that want to come because they want to find someone to date. Like I said earlier. A little different environment. 

Live by the SMA (Standard Mormon Answer)

There was a sign on a church here in Utah called the Rock Church. (Can you guess what they do there? Yep you guessed it. They listen to rock music about Christ). It said "Do you want to worship God without Religion?" It does not make sense, but I understand why we need to have a structure of Christ's church. We need to be shown what to do. We need to be kept in unity by being lead by a prophet. 

Funny story that happened this week. So I went on exchanges with another Elder and I went to his area and we knocked this door of this 17 year old who said he is going to be a pastor, but we started talking about how we have a living day prophet today and then he said, "So do we, we have the Pope and others who believe in Christ and are prophets." But the funny part is how he then decided that we were prophets and started calling us prophets instead of missionaries. 

He does not go to any set church, so I don't know how he is going to be a pastor if he does not even go to church. I guess that he has it all figured out though. 

Have you ever heard of SMA (standard Mormon answer) like the Atonement, church, or pray? There are some other ones, but I don't think we realize that if we would just follow what we say is the standard Mormon answer then we would be able to return to God. That is why it is a common answer. God repeats things a lot in the scriptures, but he said it in different ways. 

I had a general authority come up to me once and tell me what his mission president told him once. he said " If you read your Book of Mormon every day you will go to the Celestial Kingdom!" When he said that at first I was confused. It tells us we need to have a lot more in our life then just reading the Book of Mormon, so how can I go to the Celestial Kingdom by just reading the scriptures? Well if I am reading the scriptures I will start to do the other things I need to. Like go to church take the Sacrament, share the gospel and all of the other things it tells us we need to do in the scriptures.

Another thing I learned from a general authority. 

He asked all the stake presidents in our mission some questions. Do you have a planner? They all said yes and raised their phones. Then he asked how many of you set goals every day? 2 stake presidents raised there hands. 

He then goes on to tell us how he chastised them for not setting daily goals to have something to accomplish every day. 

He then proceeds to tell us after this story that we need to always set goals every day and the things in your day should be focused towards those goals. Especially after our missions. 

It talks about how to set goals in chapter 8 of PMG. Elder Clark, the general authority, told us that if we master chapter 8 we will triple our income in our life. It was written by experts that train CEOs and then the general authorities added the spiritual side to it. I thought that was so cool.

We had a baptism this week his name is Lamas, Fabio Alexandre Oliveira. He is a good kid. Age 17 and is actually from London and going back there on the 30th of Aug. He wants to serve a mission. That is so cool to see him change. He was baptized within 2 weeks of us meeting him. People are being prepared.

So this week we have lost several of the investigators we were teaching. 2 of them are moving out of our ward, and 3 others have gone back to Michigan to check on family or something. (Don't know the full reason why.) So we have more time to find new investigators now. If anyone wants to know what missionary life is it is all about ups and downs in the work. You can have 10 investigators in one day and the next only 4, but that is ok because we were able to help them feel the spirit and they will all get baptized, it is just a matter of when and where.

At the beginning of my mission, I used to have "My Baptisms", but I realize that I was just a very little part in their conversion, I brought the Spirit which did the converting and brought the feeling to their heart, I also am not the main reason that they started to investigate the church. That is because of the example that other members of our church gave, so realistically I have such a small part to play in their conversion and my job was easy compared to all the rest of it. we are just the harvesters. I now realized that these people that I help are God's investigators and God's Baptisms. So when I try my hardest and I know that I did and things don't go the way I expect them to that is because this is not my work, it is God's. He understands where they are going and what is happening to all of them. It makes discouragement gone. Plus it also helps in Pride. haha We can remember that for anything. This is God's world so the earthquake that happened in CA is not our fault, but God's and He knew that was going to happen and who was going to die and who was going to lose their home. Everything is God's plan. It is all apart of it, so of what do we have to fear? Jesus said "Fear not, believe only" (Luke 8:50).

We must fear not, that does not help us but belief does beyond what we can imagine, this is how we come close to God. Only believe and miracles will happen.

Transfers are this week on Wednesday. They come once again. haha.

I have learned that transfers is a very God driven thing. You are put with another missionary from revelation from God, or kept where you are. The people that are there in your area where you are assigned need to feel of your spirit and your testimony that are in that area where you serve. 

Working Hard

I like that about the 100% and 100% in a companionship. We have actually talked about that because it is important that you are both working your hardest.

That is actually an issue in missionary life because we have junior and senior companions, but they both need to work side by side to see and equally as hard. The main difference would be because the senior companion is in charge of making decisions when there are two different opinions. 

So we had a baptism this week. Yay! We are going to have 3 more in the next week and should have 3 more in the following week as well. Also all of those baptisms are not solid but they are all working for it.

We had Elder Clark of the Seventy come to our mission this week. That was really cool! Our mission president is very humble and willing to change. Sometimes we as leaders or people think that the way we have done things is the best way. But Elder Clark came in and told us we are doing a lot of things wrong and our mission president at the end just said, "O.K. I know we have done it this way, but we are going to change it once again." Really cool to see him willing to change at the drop of a hat.

Elder Hammond performed the baptism this last weekend. It went really well. Lots of miracles are happening. We went over the baptism interview questions with her and she told us on Monday night that she thought tithing was only for those that could afford it. So she said she could not pay it. We taught the principle of faith, but she was not understanding. She was really scared about not being able to be baptized. She had invited a lot of people to it and the program was already made. We were thinking about it and we thought it was a good thing because she needed to know that she needs to rely on God more. She never really gave up that much and everything was really easy. So we committed her to pray about it and the next night we get a call from her and she said that she prayed about it and she said yes I am willing to pay tithing!!! Miracles every day in the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission! We were really happy for her.

We are also teaching a kid from London that is going to be baptized this Saturday. He is excited and will be the only member in his family.

Another miracle, we were going to this person's house in the apartments and she was not home so we were driving off and we saw this lady that was really struggling carrying up water to her apartment (it was on the third floor) so we pulled over and helped her take up the water and afterwards she asked us who we were. We told her missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She asked if we had headquarters of our church in the Vatican. We told her no and then she proceeds to ask us lots of questions, one of them was, "Do you know anything about these Mormons that live here?" We then told her that we were Mormons. She looked confused so we explained the Book of Mormon and then gave her a copy and taught the restoration in 2 minutes. So not really a lesson, but she was interested. She told us that she was from the Philippines and had moved to Nevada and the people were not very nice, but she had lived here in Utah for about 1 month and she thought this was the nicest place on Earth. We have not been able to go back yet, but she is a person that God has prepared and brought here to Utah so she can become LDS. I believe that happens a lot. Right now we are teaching someone from Japan and London and soon a Philippine.

I have also baptized 2 people from South Korea. The Lord prepares those people and then brings them to Utah to be able to come in contact with the church.

I am doing fantastic.