Week 8

Wow.... I'm already going onto my third week in the change.... Crazy! This week has been so awesome! We've had tons of adventures:)

Tuesday: So that house we wanted... It went to the other guy, but the lady who owns it said that the couple in one of the other apartments is moving out in a couple of weeks so we're going to keep our eye on it. We also had district meeting today and our focus was on the Book of Mormon and on how to effectively teach it. We had to end early though because one of the girls there has a very bad back (She might have a tumor, so pray for her) and she was in so much pain, so we gave her a blessing. And he did really good in finding people. We now have a group of kids we're teaching and a group of borachos(drunks).

Wednesday: Divisions! I got to do divisions with the girl with the bad back, Hermana Espinosa. It was such a great experience. She is a native, so that got me to practice my Spanish all day. It was cool to see how much I actually know. But we went to the offices so I could practice singing for a meeting and then we went to the therapist for her. It was a really good day:)

Thursday: Multi zone meeting! I got to sing with another elder and people loved it. And there was an elder there that I graduated with! Small world:) But a member of the seventy spoke to us on the importance of Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon. It was so long.... 5 hours.... but we got a lot out of it. And later that day we went and taught Martin, a boracho, about the Book of Mormon and I got to give it to him:) It's hard with him though because he is so addicted to alcohol... We can fix that:)

Friday: We taught our investigator Hermano Hugo about the Word of Wisdom. He's seriously so ready for baptism. He has a date May 10:) And he is so willing to follow everything. We also spoke to Martin again.... He'd been drinking... So we taught him the Word of Wisdom as well. He said he's going to try little by little... We also had a zone conference and it was on the importance of keeping in touch with your ward mission leader... And it was crazy because right at the end Hermana Espinosa had to be taken to the hospital. We're so worried about her... She has to go home on Wednesday....

Saturday: We had so much fun today. We taught our little group of kids and brought them a bunch of Hermana Olsen's easter candy. We also spent a little bit of time teaching them English. Pretty soon we're going to contact their older brothers. We also went and taught our borachos, and guess what.... Martin was showered, shaved, with new shoes, shirt, and pants... And he'd only drank a tiny bit... He was completely different! It was so great! But we taught them the first part of the Plan of Salvation. We also visited the crazy Familia Mason. They were better today, but very sad. Someone on a motor taxi ran over their dog and died...So we gave them a thought on faith and the Plan of Salvation to help them feel better.

Sunday: ¡Iglesia! This Sunday was really great. Hermana Espinosa spoke in Sacrament and we had two investigators there. We ate with the Familia Limon.... I have no idea how these people eat this much in one sitting. Oh my goodness! I was so full!! Luckily the husband said that I did not need to finish it if I was full, because he was too:) We also taught Hermano Hugo about the Law of Chastity. He understood it... But he lives with his “wife” and they're not married! But he wants to be baptized so bad so he's going to do everything he can to get that figured out. He's so cute:)

Well I hope that you all had a good week. And please write! Mail is so golden out here:) Love ya'll!

Love Always, Hermana Walker

Week 7

I'm in Oaxaca!! .... Here´s just a few things that happened in my first week in México:)

Monday: Lots of flying... and layovers... And I´ve learned to love Houston. We stopped there for one of our layovers and it is gorgeous! We didn´t get to Oaxaca until like 10:30 at night and we had hamburgers and slept at the mission home:)

Tuesday: Breakfast at the mission home: strawberry yogurt with banana and papaya:) Met my companion: Hermana Olsen de San Francisco. She´s a convert, 21, and goes to USU. And I am serving in an area called Reforma 2. It consists of places called Colonia Reforma, Reforma Issste, and Loma Linda. I learned how awesome the peso is:) And we live in San Francisco. There are so many hills! My muscles will so be ready for ballroom after my mission:)

Wednesday: Best Two Years day!! First person I talked to, he started speaking English:) His name is Noah and he is golden! And when talking to someone on the street instead of saying I didn't have any money on me, I said I didn't have any tithing on me... What?! We also had an awesome lightning storm!

Thursday: Yup. It´s happened... Let´s be prepared to be sick for the next 16 months... I don't know what happened, but when I woke up I didn't feel good already. But then throughout the day it got really bad. We had to interrupt lessons for the bathroom and everything. It was nuts :P Hermana Leyva (Mission Pres. wife) told us to go get a check up with a doctor so we did. All it was was a stomach problem because I wasn't used to the food. So she gave me some prescription options. We also taught a guy from New Zealand who's staying with the Bishop's family. We also helped a lady who had tripped holding her baby and we taught Noah again, starting with the Restoration. And I was the one to ask him to be baptized:) He says he wants to, but he's going to pray about it first so he knows it's something he's going to commit to.

Friday: What an experience.... We went out into a Catholic country to teach the Gospel on Good Friday.... NO ONE was on the streets or home at all.... So we walked around trying to find anyone to talk to... We got a couple of referrals, one was a less active and we went to with the members that gave them to us. The referrals were called La Familia Mason.... These people were crazy! Ducks, chickens, geese, dogs, you name it, roam around the property and the house. Dog fur and grossness everywhere. There's no light in the house and it's just dirty. And the family... The grandma was a little loco and spaztic. She has one daughter who had serious exhaustion, a couple of grandchildren who seem fine. But she had another daughter who was seriously sick... I had no idea what was going on, but when she walked in, it was like a leper came into the house and everyone was freaking out. She was more than twig thin, super pale, and she couldn't walk. So we immediately had the members take her to the hospital. But we think we're going to go back to do service for them. Maybe get a couple of other missionaries in our district to help clean it up and bit and help the family come back to church.

Saturday: We didn't do much today because we were supposed to help Hna. Leyva with a play?... So we didn't plan very much. And one of the Hermana's in the house was really sick so I stayed with her while Hna. Olsen taught with her companion. And that was okay because I needed time to write my talk for Sunday... Yup... The bishop asked me to... But around three we went to the offices for the "play rehearsals"... We watched Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty!! So great! It was supposed to help with the play because we're taking those stories and twisting them so that the happy endings happen because of missionary lessons... I'm the Blue Fairy and Fauna:) And I got to watch our District leader proselyte...??.... on the bus. So cool!!

Sunday: Sunday was very great. My talk went well... With the help of a Latin missionary:)... And we had three investigators in church! Great! And weird thing for a Sunday and being a missionary... The family we were supposed to eat with forgot... And couldn't have us come over.... So they gave us money and we ate out... On a Sunday... But I realized how hungry missionaries can get. We bought a Little Caesars size pizza and it came with nuggets and little potato log fries.... And it was gone when we were done. And it was so good! And we got a lot of contacts with the people who work there... And their friend... Apparently now I have two boyfriends in Oaxaca, according to my comp. This guy and some guy who's always in Domino's when we go in to use the bathroom... So creepy... Let's convert them!:D We also went house searching. We’ve been living with other Hermanas when we're not really supposed to. But through prayer we found one that should work!:)

Hoy: We spent our p-day going to the new house. First, with our zone leaders so they could take pictures for Pres. Leyva. It was perfect!! But we had to go a second time with Pres. Leyva and the assistants. They loved it!... But guess what.... Some guy who lives upstairs came right after the first time we went and paid the money because he wants a very slightly bigger house. So this all falls on if he still goes with it because we could pay the money now and move in ASAP, but..... He went first... Pray that we get this house!! We also had another rehearsal for the plays. So it's been a very looong p-day......

Anyway I hope you enjoyed my adventures this week. Stay tuned next week:) And please write!!

Love Always,

Hermana Walker

Week 6

Alright ya'll. I know it was my p-day on Tuesday, but our branch president said that we can write to people today before we leave:) Oh my goodness! I'm so excited! This is so crazy! I'm going to Mexico in two days! I'm at that point where I'm thinking, "What am I getting myself into?" But it's going to be so great:) I feel like Rapunzel. I can't believe I did this! I can’t believe I'm doing this..... This is so fun!!:))

Basically this week we've been reviewing everything and just having fun with each other. We didn't hear from Elder Holland, sadly, but our Tuesday devotional was amazing anyway:)

On Wednesday, we got elders in our zone! Finally! It was getting kind of lonely being an all girl 6-person zone... But it's sad because we've barely seen them at all because they've been doing first week stuff and we've been doing last week stuff... But they seem cool:) One is from Orem and is going to Canada. The others are from Idaho and Cali and are all going to Argentina. And none of them have taken Spanish, so it will be fun for them:)

On Thursday, I had to go to Main Campus with Hermana Young. She had to get a shot:) But it was cool because while I was waiting for her, I met a couple of elders that were super cool. One was from Hawaii serving in Anaheim, another was from Australia serving in the Marshall Islands, and the other was from Japan serving in Japan. It was cool to hear their accents and stuff:)

Friday was a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day.... In-field orientation.... We had to spend all day at Main Campus learning about stuff. We learned about exercising our faith like the young men who helped the pioneers cross the Sweetwater. Then we learned about setting goals, how to involve with members in your teaching, how to help members share their testimony with nonmember or inactive friends, and stuff like that. And we saw a play:) It was about what might happen on our first day... So it was a good day. It was just long.... And the food was so good! I think they get the good stuff and give what's left to West Campus... I had a wrap. Both meals:)

Today I've been packing and stuff like that. We had class with Toledo this morning and he just went over things that he thought were the most important for him to leave with us. Then we had a fiesta with a piñata that Hermana Young's mom sent. It was so fun and I'm going to miss this guy. He was just a big ball of energy and absolutely loved the Gospel. I almost have everything packed up. It's just hard because I'm still using some of the big stuff. I've weighed what I can already and I'm doing really well with what I have. I'm just trying to save as much weight as possible because I don't want to have to pay a bunch of money for a couple of pounds when I already have to pay for my second bag. 75$! Ugh! Tonight we are having class with Hermano Lounsberry for the last time. I had such great teachers here. It's sad to leave them all... Maybe I can come back and teach with them:)

Tomorrow we're going to have Music and the Spoken Word, Relief Society, Sacrament meeting where we are supposed to sing a musical number (I'm not sure how that is going to turn out... No one's really taken it seriously except me and Hermana Young...), lot's of devotionals, and just being with each other for the last little bit. It's going to be so sad, but this is going to be such a great experience for everyone.

I'm probably not going to get any sleep tomorrow night. Everyone in my apartment leaves at 2:30 am and then I leave at 4:30 am. But everyone is FREAKING OUT about packing and everything that is going on. I'm just thinking, "Don't stress. You'll get everything done if you don't:)"

Well, I don't know when I'll write next, most likely once I get to Oaxaca, but I don't know... But Family: I hope you are having fun in London. I'm jealous and Amelia, you'd better win for me;) And all you missionaries: I am so excited to experience what you've been experiencing. It's going to be so much fun and I hope that you are just having a blast giving free happiness to others who don't have it. I love all ya'll! You're all examples to me and don't forget Dios nos ama:) Have a good week! Be safe and make good choices!:)

Love Always, Hermana Walker

Week 5

Alright ya'll. So I was talking with one of mi maestros and he said that while on his mission his emails got really boring because he wrote the same things every week because out here, basically do the same things every day. So you're getting highlights. Besides being in class for 10 hours a day, this is what happened...

Miércoles: We taught Victor again. It's been really hard with him because he doesn't open up very much, even when we ask him questions and give him scripture stories and stuff that can be applied to him. But he's a sweet guy. We didn't get any new missionaries in our zone, so we're still a six hermana zone/district…

Jueves: Funny story in volleyball. We play with this awesome district, so our games are pretty legit. But we were in the middle of a play and someone hit the ball over to our side of the court and our setter ran over to bump it, but ran into another elder in the process. But the ball went back over and we continued to play. But even before those other two missionaries got off the ground, someone spiked the ball to our side and it landed right into Hermana Packer's stomach. We were all on the floor laughing our heads off! Out of all that chaos, it was the funniest thing I have seen since I got here :)

Viernes: We got out travel plans! Standing around the mailbox for those is like waiting for another mission call :) I'm the only one in my district leaving when I do and there are three other hermanas going to Oaxaca. Luckily I've met them all :) We leave at 4:30 in the morning and our flight is at 8:40am and we go from Salt Lake, to Denver, to Houston, then straight down to Oaxaca. I'm so excited :) And we found out we get a district of elders! Finally!! :)

Sábado: ¡Conferencia General! Oh my goodness! It was so good :) Watching it here at the CMM is so great because you actually listen. I got so much out of it :) My first session favorite was Elder Anderson's talk. It was the perfect talk for the youth, missionaries, and adults because it talked about standing in holy places now when the world is slipping away from truth and righteousness. Look up Helaman 5:12... My favorite :) My second session favorite was Russell M. Nelson's talk which talked a lot about faith and where we are going to put our faith. One thing that I loved that he said went like "Where is your faith? In a team? In a celebrity? Teams can fail and celebrities can fade, but one person will never go away and that is Christ." So beautiful :) That night I was also able to see the General Women's meeting. It was such a great meeting and said so many true things about being together as sisters and standing as one.

Domingo: ¡Más conferencia general! Again, such a great day :) I loved hearing from President Uchtdorf during the first session because I can directly use it as a message for a missionary. He talked about that no one is immune to feeling alone and that we can lose all hope, faith, and happiness. But as disciples of Christ, we must cry to God and thank him for everything we have. And he said something that went like this that I absolutely loved, "Why is it that we have a hard time with endings? It's because we are made from the stuff of eternity. Our trials though are not endings, merely interruptions of our long way to eternity.” I love that :) And I loved listening to L. Tom Perry's talk during the second session. Here is something I wrote from his talk: We are all children of God, each with a different pre-mortal and mortal story. Some are simpler and others are more complex. All are different personalities, but we can all serve the same God with the same purpose. It was such a great talk :) That night we had our Sunday devotional and had Vocal Point come and speak and sing for us. They were so good and had such a great message! :)

Lunes: So one of my teachers is called Hermano Toledo, or Edwin. And he is the biggest ball of crazy in the world! Last night... Oh my goodness! I haven't laughed that hard in class ever! He was humming music from movies and we had to guess... One of them we could not get and he was getting so frustrated. And then he showed us some pictures someone photo shopped for him. They took pictures of Mack Wilburg and Richard Elliot and put his head in to make it look like it was him. It was hilarious!! He's just a teacher that we can seriously joke with and it's so great. But our experiences are indescribable. If I could videotape class and send it to everyone, you would see why we love this guy :)

Hoy: We went to the temple today and as always I learned something new and it was a bonita morning :) We're spending this p-day getting ready for the hectic weekend awaiting for us and making sure everything is ready for us to go home. We should be going to dinner at Brigham's Landing tonight and hopefully Elder Holland is at the devotional TONIGHT! We have yet to hear from him. Hopefully today :)

Anyway, I'd love to hear from ya'll. I would probably start sending stuff to Mexico if you do. My address should be on facebook :)

Love always,

Hermana Walker

Week 4

Sorry everyone! I posted this a week late. :P

ịHola todos! It's been a week, but... I wrote everyday in my journal! I'm so happy:) So here are some highlights of everyday...

Wednesday: We are now teaching progressive investigators in TRC and our investigator is Victor and he's really nice and loves his family. He's heard from the missionaries before, but all of their lessons were scattered. So we started at the beginning with the first lesson and he loved it :) Classes were the same as always, and we taught Jorge today. We were going to teach him the part of the Plan of Salvation that we didn't get to in our last lesson and we ended up talking about the priesthood and that or church is the only one with the true authority. He's just frustrated because he doesn't think that he needs to be baptized in our church if he already is in another. It was good, but not a perfect lesson because we were so unprepared...

Thursday: We had to make investigator profiles so that we would have a character to play if we ever had to act as an investigator. Mine is Amalia Vasquez :) Hermano Toledo got sick today so we had a sub during our last block of class. It wasn't the same, but it was still fun :) And we made a candy poster for Hermana Johnson. It's her birthday tomorrow :)

Friday: Hermana Johnson loved her birthday poster :) We took it to the classroom before breakfast so she would see it when we went to class. We taught Victor again about the Plan of Salvation. I swear I am going to be a pro at volleyball after the MTC. I love playing and we do everyday. And I'm getting better at it :) We have started on past tense in Spanish... So much harder than German! There's like 50 kabillion ways to conjugate everything! And rules!

Saturday: We had some really good classes today. We learned how to relate the things in an investigator's life to the lesson to help them relate to the things they are learning, but also how to effectively invite someone to baptism. It was great :) And I had a really good experience that helped me get to know my companion a little bit better :)

 Sunday: Fast Sunday! And best day of the week! We got to listen to Music and the Spoken Word and Relief Society was really good :) I loved hearing everyone's testimonies and having the chance to share my own. There was an amazing spirit there :) District meeting was good too. I had to help lead a discussion on the Book of Mormon with my companion and some of the insights from my district were amazing :) And the devotional! So good! Richard Elliot spoke to us. He is the lead organist for Mo-Tab. He spoke of experiences in his conversion and his mission. But he also played the organ for us... ¡Hijole! Can that brother play! I can't see how people can play the organ. They need like 15 other senses... :)... Oh ya! And I sang with David Archuleta!! Literally :) He came home from his mission in Chile two weeks ago and he came to speak and sing for us. And in the closing song we joined in with him in the last verse of Hark All Ye Nations. It was cool :) Our film for today was Legacy. I forgot how cheesy that movie is, but it's still so good :) And I met some Tongan missionaries too! They were super nice :)

Monday: Classes classes classes..... They're really starting to crack down on us so that we will be prepared when we get to Mexico. More volleyball and just having fun as a district :)

Today we went to the temple and hopefully THIS week we will hear from Elder Holland. We didn't last.... Anyways love you all and please write!

Love Always,

Hermana Walker