Week 21

¡Hola ya'll! How has everyone been doing? And how is your Book of Mormon challenge going? I hope ya'll are loving it and learning  a lot about yourselves and the Gospel:)

This week... was a little weird in certain ways, but also good. Here's what happened:

Lunes: Today we woke up and cleaned the house, did some studying, and took our clothes to the lavanderia. Then we spent the day in Centro again! there were some really cool things there this time, but it was super expensive, so I didn't get anything. But I did see Hermana Adelman barter her heart out. She's so good at it! I need to learn:) And we were able to contact our taxi driver on the way home and he seemed pretty interested. The only thing is that he works constantly and we don't know when we can teach him. We also got to teach Hermano Hugo a little more about family history. And then we contacted one of the old investigators that is in our area and her mom. They are still reading the Book of Mormon and everything. We taught them about faith and how Heavenly Father helps us in our trials.

Martes: Instead of having a district meeting today, we had a surprise zone conference and it went so well. And with our new president, so many rules have been changed! I'm glad though because it will give us more responsibility as missionaries:) And we also got some tips on how to better contact, receive references, and making sure that your investigators really do understand the principle being taught. Then we went over to Hermana Rita's for comida. But before we had a lesson with her neighbor Sandra and taught her about Heavenly Father. It was a little difficult because we don't know if she really understood because she wouldn't talk or answer her questions. Comida was good as always and we taught Rita about the parable of the 99 sheep and asked if she can help find the 1 by visiting a menos activo family. Then we had our meeting with Hermano Pino, but we didn't have ward correlation because no one showed up... Again.... That's like 3 weeks of that.... But we ended up our night with Belia and taught her more about the Spirit and what she's going to feel when she prays about the church.

Miercoles: Today we went and picked up our laundry and started divisions. I went with Hermana Martinez in the area of Reforma 1 and that was seriously fun:) We first went to visit a couple of her investigators who are kids. But they were locked in the house so we taught them through their gate about the story of Nephi and the boat. They love the scripture stories and hymns:) Then we went to comida and I saw something I haven't seen yet in my mission. The mom of this family works morning into the night and her 11 year old daughter made us lunch. And it was good! I hope my kids learn how to cook like that when they're young:) Then we visited the daughter-in-law of this same family, and did service for about an hour and then taught her about prophets. Then we went to another member's house and taught a lesson about the Tree of Life. And this same member accompanied us to another lesson with an investigator named Pepe. He's an alcoholic who’s trying to stop and he's the dad of the kids we taught. But we found him sitting outside the gate reading with his kids. So we spent an hour reading Alma 32 with him and his kids and he was so into it! It was great! Then we bought pan dulce:)

Jueves: Today we finished divisions and went back to our areas to do weekly planning. Then we went out to comida with Hermana Margarita and she made us Tlayudas:) I was so full afterward. We taught her a little bit about prayer and the Spirit. Then we went out to Loma Linda to teach Ufemia, but instead we taught her daughter Delphina! She's been trying to ignore us for weeks! But she listened and accepted a fecha de bautismal! So great:) And she invited to us to a little gathering for her daughter's birthday en Sabado. Then we went to the Ferra's house to ask if they could accompany us to a visit with Bruno. They couldn't so we just sang a hymn with them. Then we went to visit Bruno and we also had Roberto and their friend Miguel with them. But this lesson was really hard because we were on the street, they were distracted, and we just couldn't feel the Spirit... Then we went to the bishop's house. We were going to go to a part of our area en Viernes tha we've never been before and wanted references.... Good thing we asked. We found out that this part isn't even in our area. It's part of the area of our district leader...

Viernes: Today we went and visited another old investigator named Marta. That lesson was so hard!! We spent an hour trying to explain the Atonement and she just didn't get it. Maybe we just need to keep teaching her to figure out how she learns. Then we went and taught Hugo the beginning of lesson 1. We feel he needs to learn from the beginning because he's still confused about a lot of the basics. Then we found Belia again and challenged her and her grand-daughter to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon every day. We had comida with the bishop today and it was SO good! Then we checked up on how they were doing with their Book of Mormon challenge and read a little and had a good discussion about it. Then we went out to Loma Linda, but couldn't find anyone! But we did find Edgar! And he's doing good. He's clean, living at home with his family, and has gone 10 days without drinking. We started from the beginning of lesson one and explained a bit about the Book of Mormon because he had questions. But I have to say that that was one of the most spiritually filled lessons I've had with him. It was great!

Sabado: Today... Was just strange.... We went out to go teach a bunch of people and no one could listen. We did go and visit the mom of our old investigator form Lunes. Her name is Julia and she had a ton of questions about the Book of Mormon. We tried answering them for her, but she just did not understand after 5 times of explaining. And it didn’t help that her grandkids were screaming like crazy and they weren't satisfied when she tried helping. Hopefully next time we can answer her questions with the Spirit present. Then we went out to Loma Linda to try to teach people before comida, but everyone, very bluntly, said that they had other things to do. So we went to comida with the Ferra's and it was really good. Tasajo and veggies with a salad:) Then we went down to the party for Delphina's daughter... We ended up leaving right when we got there. All of the borracho friends were there and it just was not a good feeling whatsoever. So we gave her our present, they gave us homemade pesoli, and we left. We felt bad about it, but you either go with the Spirit or you don't. Then we went out to Isste and things didn't go as planned either. We had Annelise, a member, come with us and this is what happened: No one was home, doors slammed in our faces, and we got bible bashed! So great! But Annelise was really good with it. But through it all We were able to contact someone who is so ready! Just keep going on the bad days. It's worth it:)

Domingo: Today was okay too. We went to pass for Ufemia and her grandkids for church and we got to have the experience of teaching Gospel Principles because none of the teachers showed up. And they had an awesome lesson in Relief Society about accompanying us. We've had a problem with that. Then we went to Familia Ramierez's house for comida. But we had mole and that was NOT good for the stomach of Hermana Adelman. We ended up having to go home for the rest of the day for her to rest...

Don’t forget to finish 1 Nephi before next Monday! Love ya'll!

Hermana Walker

Week 20

Alright everyone! This week went so much better! I hope yours were great too!

Lunes: Today was such a good p-day. We were able to get so much done, like actually deep cleaning the house, shopping, and doing laundry.... Well, with the laundry.... I'm just going to say that you don't want to leave your clothes in a bucket of water and detergent for more than two days... You might just make a nice little science project that smells really bad.... Those clothes are going to the lavanderia...:P But other than that we had a good day. And we found two new investigators within the time we taught. One is named Belia and we've tried going over to teach her before, but she's never wanted anything. But today she let us in! And the other is named Maxelena and she is the wife of Hno. Hugo. And it was awesome because in both of these lessons we had Hermana. Limon accompany us:)

Martes: Today we started out with our weekly district meeting which went really well. And I finally got a packet from my parents that’s I've been waiting for at least 2 months. It was like Christmas:) Afterward we went and taught Eufemia and she now has a baptismal date! And then we taught la Familia Maison and taught about the Book of Mormon. We had comida with Hna. Rita again, which was really good, and taught her about tithing. We were also able to find Angelica and Daisy today too. Then we visited Hermano Hugo and taught him a little about Family History and why we need to do temple work. He said that he had an interview with the bishop for his recommend:) Then we had our meeting with Hermano Pino to finish the day.

Miercoles: Today was slightly hard. We spent about two hours trying to contact a reference we had, but it was like her house didn't even exist. But we were able to meet a lot of new people, experienced doors and windows slammed in our faces, and got some visits planned. It was great:) Then we went to la Familia Martinez for comida, and as always the food was great:) And we challenged them to read 1 Nephi in 2 weeks. Then we went up to la Familia Martel and shared the same lesson. That's one of our focuses right now is getting the members to read all of the Book of Mormon. For the rest of the day we spent contacting and knocking on doors because all of our citas fell. But it's good because I need to work on contacting. But we also had some other Hermana’s come stay in our house because they had a meeting with the president. Their names are Hermana Rodriquez and Hermana Rosero. They are super cute and to them I'm now Hermana Katy Perry:)

Jueves: This morning we said goodbye to the other Hermana’s because they needed to go back to Juchitan. Then we did our weekly planning. But today was kind of like Miercoles. We went and taught Hermano Hugo more about the importance of the Priesthood. Then we went to la Familia Pino for comida and it was super good. And we taught them about personal revelation and used it to find a reference. Then we went out to Loma Linda and found two more new investigators. One is named Inda and we have contacted her before. She works at a tienda near la Familia Ferra and she's really great. We also taught someone named Isabel and she is Hermana Rita's neighbor and she is so ready for the Gospel! The rest of the day was spent with contacting door knocking.

Viernes: Today we went out and taught Ufemia again. She's getting really excited for her baptism and coming to church this Sunday. We also met with la Familia Maison again and taught them a little about the Atonement. We ate with the Bishop today and we challenged him and his family to go visit la Familia Maison sometime within this next week. That's another this we want to work with, is getting the members involved with the menos activos. Then we had a really great experience. When we were going over to the Bishop's house, we saw this lady that I've seen before. Her name is Margarita and she can barely walk. But everyday she walks to find a taxi with this huge bag on her back and walking on two walking sticks. So we helped her and got her a taxi. But when we were back in Loma Linda we found her again, walking up this HUGE hill all by herself. So we found a moto taxi for her and took her home. It's just crazy that she does that all by herself and no one comes out to help her. We ended the night trying to visit Maxelena again, but she says she doesn't want to listen because she doesn't want to study. But we had the Bishop's wife with us and she started talking to Hno Hugo's mom and we ended up having a lesson with her:)

Sabado: Today we started out teaching one of the contacts we had this week. Her name is Mimfa and she is very religious, but her family doesn't really study with her so she feels alone. But she was so happy when we came to teach her. I think she will enjoy our lessons with her:) Then we went to comida with la Familia Ferra and gave them the same challenge to visit a menos activo. Their family is la Familia Martel. Then we ran into la Familia Trujillo and gave them the Book of Mormon challenge. Then we taught Ufemia about families. And it was great because her son in law was there and her grandchildren. They loved that lesson:)

Domingo: Oh my today.... So hard, but so good:) We tried passing for Maxalena and Belia to come to church, but they couldn't or didn't want to. So we waited at the church for Ufemia. And she didn't show up. We were so devastated during Sacrament meeting. But Heavenly Father answers prayers and they were in the back. and Bruno came too! Relief! So we went to all of our classes and they loved it. And Ufemia's grandkids loved Primary:) Later we went and had comida with the Bishop and helped celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his son and daughter-in-law:) And we gave them the Book of Mormon challenge. For the rest of the day we literally had no lessons! All of them fell. And no one wanted to listen when we contacted them. So we decided to go back to Reforma and contact there. And we got a few people! And we were able to get a hold of a lot of old investigators there. I think this transfer is going to go really well. We just have to do a lot of seed planting.

Alright, so before I go, I'm going to give you guys a challenge. I want to give you this Book of Mormon challenge. Your goal right now is to finish from the Intro to the end of 1 Nephi in two weeks. It's not that hard. It's like 2 chapters a day and I'm doing it too. And get a marker and mark anything that catches your eye and I promise you that you will feel so much better about your day and everything will go smoother because you have the Spirit of the Lord. Good luck and please write me any of your feelings or insights:) Love ya'll!

Hermana Walker

Week 19

Well, this week was a bit... slow and hard. But that's what happens when a companionship is sick.

Lunes: Today was transfers, so we went out a little early so Hermana Olsen could say goodbye to some investigators and members. It was so sad! But it makes you think that you could be making this much of a difference in someone's life, so you should work harder. Then we went to the ADO so she could get on her bus. There were so many missionaries that were going to different areas! But we're going to get some great new ones :) And I played senios companion today with Hermana Salcedo for Guatemala. So I had a chance to speak Spanish all day. But we got all of our P-day things done and went out to teach some members. But we had to back to the ADO to pick up another Hermana that was meeting her companion tomorrow like us. So she spent the night with us.

Martes: After the other Hermana met up with her companion, we had to be in a trio with Hermana Delgado, another Hermana in my ward. But we went out and taught some investigators and some of the members in my area. And I learned a lot from Hermana Delgado. She's a great teacher. Around 5 our companions finally came. In the pouring rain! But that's cool :) But I took Hermana Adelman back to the house so she could unpack and get settled. To finish the night we had our meeting with Hermano Pino.

Miercoles: Today I was not feeling good. And neither was my comp. She got a parasite in her last area and she is trying to recuperate. But we went to our district meeting and comida with Familia Corso and went straight to a doctor so she could have someone to help her out. I decided to get myself checked too and he said my intestines were inflamed... Great.... But I can't eat anything which is going to be really hard with comidas. And we have to have 3 days of rest.... So we went home....

Jueves: Today was a sick day. We spent it studying and getting to know each other a little bit more. It worked out a lot and my body felt a little bit better. But not much work was done at all. We did teach a lesson in the ward FHE about how we can all be lights to the world.

Viernes: Today we had our weekly planning and had a little rest until about 5 when we started working. I kind of showed Hermana Adelman around our area and we visited a few of our members and got a bunch of references! It's going to be a great transfer!

Sabado: This was our first actual day of work and it was great! We visited Hugo and ate with Familia Ferra. Then we visited Eufemia, Martin's wife, and found a new golden family, which Hermana Ferra accompanied us to. And Hermana Adelman met Edgar too. He's doing so well!

Domingo: Everything was great today... until comida.... Church was awesome and we learned a lot of stuff... Hermana Adelman spoke:)... And we went to comida with Hermana Rita... But she didn't get the memo that we can't eat anything besides fruit, veggies, and bread.... We ate everything besides that.... And it was not good after that. We had to run home and we were dead to the world for the rest of the night.

Well I hope ya'll had a good week. Keep sharing the gospel! Love ya'll!

Love Always,

Hermana Walker

Week 18

This week not very much happened.... We actually kind of had a really pitiful week... And I forgot my planner so I don't remember much of the details...

Lunes: Our first actual P-day!! We woke up and just laid there in bed, excited that we didn't have to do ANYTHING special. We hurried and cleaned the house and did our laundry... And it was only noon:) So we ate lunch with a couple of other hermanas and went grocery shopping. Then we spent the rest of the day resting because we could. Afterwards, we tried meeting with some investigators, but no one was home. So we visited Hugo and Familia Martinez.

Martes: So instead of meeting with our districts, we had another zone conference. But we got to meet our new mission president, President Madsen, and he did interviews with each of us too. He is so chill!! I love it! He is super excited to be the new president and I feel some big, really good changes coming:) And his wife is super adorable! She served a mission in the same place as her husband, but she hasn't practiced since then, and she's forgotten everything! So it will be a real reason for the latinos to practice their English and us Americans to practice our Spanish:)

We also met with our mission leader and told him what happened within the past week.

Miercoles: Today me and Olsen both felt a little sick so it was a little hard to get around and doing things. But once we got started we felt a little better. And again we had a really hard time finding people who were home, so that was slightly depressing... We did find a new investigator today. Her name is Adrianna and she is the mother of Hermano Corso and she is super Catholic. Her son is the only member of the church in the family and his mom still doesn't know why he changed and went on a mission. But she said we can come in and teach her is we'd like, but she's not getting baptized. But we found out that her oldest son died in an accident so we decided to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She totally felt the spirit in that lesson!! And she wants us to come back:)

Jueves: Today, again, we had a hard time finding people. We ate with the ward mission leader and his family and it was super good... Super picante.... And we taught them a really good lesson about the Liahona. After that we tried finding people, but no one was home or they were preoccupied with the World Cup. And we couldn't find Edgar again... He's been gone for a week now...

Viernes: Today again, was hard. We felt sick and we couldn't find anyone. And it didn't help with the fact that we knew transfers were coming up on Sunday.... EEEP.....We did eat with the bishop and his family, and, as always, it was super good:) And we had a really good lesson with them about coming with us to lessons and shared the story of Alma and Amulek. They really enjoyed it and are excited to come.

Sabado: Today Olsen woke up feeling sick and her ear was killing her. It was really strange. But today we ate with la Familia Ferra and we ate Tlayudas which is really only known in Oaxaca. It's this HUGE tostada with frijoles, carne, salsa, queso or quesillo, and shredded cabbage. The tostada is folded up and you toast it a little more... It's super good! But so hard to eat it all... But I think either I was super hungry or my stomach is getting bigger because I ate 1 1/2..... Ya.... But it was good.... And the World Cup was on.... Dang! Holland is good! 5 goals within the first 45 minutes. And they were beautiful goals too:) We also visited la Familia Martel and used the story of Enos to teach them about prayer. I absolutely love that family:)

Domingo: Today church was really good. During Relief Society we made a presentation on how to give a Book of Mormon to a friend who isn't a member and why it's important. We ate with the bishop's wife and her daughter-in-law whose my age. And it was super fun because she showed us her photobook from her wedding.... One day soon:)... But the food was really good:) We ended up going to Loma Linda and we contacted a reference and tried to visit Hermana Rita, but she wasn't home. But we did find a few menos activos to visit. And guess who we found.... Edgar!! After 2 weeks we finally found him! And oh my goodness! He looked so different. He cut his hair and is slicking it back, he shaved, his eyes aren't as red anymore, and he had new clothes. He's doing so much better at saying no to drinking! But it was so sad because we had to tell him that one of us might be leaving the area... But whoever stays will continually teach him...

Alright. Here are the transfers......

I am staying here in Reforma 2 and my new companion will be Hermana Adelman. Hermana Olsen is leaving to the area Ixtapec, Ixtapec in the Istmo and her companion will be Hermana Mitchell.

Well I hope you guys had a good week. I love ya'll and keep sharing the Gospel with others:)

Saying goodbye to Hermana Olsen

Happy Independence Day! 

Love Always,

Hermana Walker

Week 17

This week went pretty well. It was our first week actually working in a very long time and we got so much done:)

Lunes: We went to Monte Alban! If you've seen Nacho Libre, it's those ruins at the end of the movie. It was so cool!! And it's huge! We didn't even get to go everywhere, but we got to take pictures and just have so much fun. And it's crazy to think that Lamanites or Nephites could have lived here! And there were a ton of people selling a bunch of handmade stuff on the side of the road, so I bought some really pretty bracelets for like 15 pesos:) Then I finally did laundry for the first time in forever and we got to finish up the night with teaching Hugo.

Martes: We started out our day with our weekly district meeting and we met Elder Allred's new companion... I can't remember how to spell his name.... Elder Sulat is now working in the offices, so they needed a special change. He will be missed:( We had comida with Hermana Margarita today, but in the middle of eating I felt so sick. Hermana Olsen had already been feeling sick that day. It was so sad too because Margarita's food was so good.... But we went home and slept for a couple of hours and that really helped my stomach. We went back out and taught Hermano Hugo and la Familia Martinez. And we did a bit of shopping. We needed to change the type of milk we've been drinking. Here they don't have milk from the cow. You just buy these liter things of milk that don't even need to be refrigerated. But the kind that I've been drinking has 7 FAT GRAMS in a serving with 4 servings in a liter.... We drink like two liters a day...... Yup! We're going to light milk from now on:)

Miercoles: Today was pretty good. We tried going out a little earlier than normal today to teach, but no one was home!! As we started walking to our comida, we decided to see if Carmen was home and she was! And so was Rocio, her daughter. So we went in and taught them a little bit and we got on the subject of baptism and they had tons of questions, kind of got a little defensive, and when we asked if they would be baptized, it was a blunt no for both of them. But they want us to come back and teach them more... maybe if we keep doing that they will change:) We were finally able to find a menos activo family today: La Familia Trujillo. We're going to try to get them to come back to church. We also had our meeting with Hermano Pino and things were a little different with him. He was more calm and accepting of everything we did this past week... He told us that he was touched by what I said in ward council last week and felt he needed to chill. Woot! Making a difference:)

Jueves: Today was pretty good. We had our weekly planning and headed out. We taught Hermano Hugo and we tried going to Hermana Margarita and Familia Martinez, but they weren't home. So we heading in the direction of comida and tried door contacting for about a half an hour. We also talked with Hermana Rita too. She bought us oranges and mangos:) And we finally found another nuevo! Her name is Ester and we found her in her new shoe store, reading the bible. But we taught her about prophets and gave her a Book of Mormon:)

Viernes: Today was a little weird.... Hermana Olsen was a little sick and super exhausted that she couldn't get up until about 10. So I did everything by myself this morning. And our mission president and his wife went home. We're now working with President and Hermana Matsen. We also ate really early too, but the food was really good: veggies and chicken:) And we had some fun and got self ‘serve frozen yogurt at a place near our house:) So good! Later we went up to Loma Linda and taught Familia Trujillo and Martin. We also taught Ester again. She had a lot of concerns about the Book of Mormon and how we know that the people were real. So we compared it to John 10:16 and read the intro and Moroni 10:3-5. She has a better understanding and now she's asking questions that we can answer with the Plan of Salvation:)

Sabado: Today we started out with teaching Hermano Hugo. We taught him about temples and encouraged him to have an interview for his temple recommend. Then we went over to Familia Ferra for comida. We had so much fun with them and we did a little bit of service for them too. Oh ya. And today we found 27 menos activos! All from one family!! Familia Martel and they are so amazing! They started coming back to church a couple of weeks ago and we finally found their house, so we went and shared something and got to know them. They are such a sweet family:)

Domingo: We first went out to go visit a menos activo family, but they were leaving. So we decided to go searching for our investigators to go to church. We could not find any of them because it was a Mexico game in the World Cup. That even affected the attendance in church with them members. There were about 40 people there today. And maybe if there were more members there, Mexico would have won.... They lost to Holland... Way to go Dad... Your mission country won...;) And Hermana Olsen gave a talk on being examples. We ended up eating at our house because the member we were supposed to eat with left for a family member's house. Then we walked all over Loma Linda to find people to teach, but there weren't any people on the streets... They took the loss pretty sadly... So we went back to Reforma and taught Familia Martinez and pan dulce and te do manzanilla.

Anyway, that's my week. I hope yours was good too. Love ya'll!

Love Always,

Hermana Walker