Week 40

Hola!  So this week was strange big stressful.... We spent a lot of days sick, but we did a really good job with the Christmas program in Puerto Escondido (below), a town about 2 hours down the coast from Santa Maria but more on that in a minute. Photos attached of the town while I'm driving down the road really fast!

 We didn't have the baptism for Mary. This is so sad. She sent us a text last week and said that she made the decision not to be baptized. So we went and talked to her about it. Apparently she now has the fear of just dropping her first baptism for this one. Afraid it doesn't mean anything to her, her first baptism.  So she just wants us to come to her house to teach her new things and that's it... It's so sad because she was progressing so well! I am sure something happened between her dad or something because when she was talking to us it was almost like she was hiding something.... Hopefully we can do something before the time I leave so she can have that desire again...

 We were able to put on our Christmas program again but this time in Puerto Escondido! It is another coast town but we are considered the real Huatulco!! The performance turned out so good! Everyone loved it and the choir sounded great. I also got the great opportunity to sing “Oh Holy Night”! Also, Hermana Madsen asked me at last minute if I could sing a song with her called “Once on a Silent Night”. It was really pretty. And she translated it by herself! She's doing really well with her Spanish now :) But it was a fun opportunity to direct the choir again. I love being able to share my musical talents with the other missionaries, but also the people who came to see us. I'm really hoping that Pres. gives me another chance to do it again. Maybe for Easter :)

 And of course, what would one of my emails be without a health problem update?! I guess that's the highlight of the mish right now for me... me and Valverde started having stomach aches on Wednesday and Thursday… We thought it was just from the beans because we always feel that way when we eat them. But on Friday I had a constant nausea feeling... It was weird. And I couldn't stay in one spot for a long time. I had to be moving or I had to run to the bathroom!  It was still there on Saturday, but worse. That was really bad because we had to travel 3 hours to Puerto Escondido! It went away, but my comp started feeling that way... In fact, the entire day it was almost like when I felt bad she felt good, and when I felt good she felt bad. We were always running to the bathroom and stuff! It was weird. We ended up asking our district leader to give us blessings and that was very meaningful. And we had a sleepover with the Hermana’s in Huatulco because we would have gotten home at 11 pm…that was really fun:) But on Sunday after we got home we had to stay at home because my comp couldn't leave her bed. She had huge pains in her stomach, and we ended up going to the doctor… that is a story in of itself. He kept checking her stomach, but whenever he touched it she freaked out because it hurt so bad. So we made the conclusion that something happened to her appendix, so he walked us to the hospital and I had to spend time by myself because they wouldn't allow me with her.... I felt like I was in an insane asylum there with all the security and locked glass doors..... Freak!... But it turns out that she has a huge infection in her stomach and has to get injections for the next five days and we can't leave the house because it hurts her to walk... For me, I just have nausea a veces this time....

Okay, funny story of the week! So, I have this joke with my first companion, Hermana Olsen that I am always “picking up” a "boyfriend" in every area. Well, I found my “Santa Maria Boyfriend” this week in the form of a state trooper!  Me and Valverde had to go to the ATM to get money for the rent and there was this police officer there guarding the door of this government building. He came up to us and asked who we were and of course we said, “We are the Missionaries!” Then we started talking about safety in the area, like, “be careful of stalker investigators”, and “don’t go to those areas, or those, or well, don’t go anywhere at night…” But then he stopped us suddenly and asked if we know and have seen the movie “Titanic”.... Ummm, ya. I have....and of course, the standard comment comes out: “Did you know how much you look like Rose in Titanic?” see, I get this comment ALL THE TIME!! “you look and act like Rose in the Titanic movie!”.... “Oh thank you”.... We went on with the conversation and he just kept stopping us to tell me that.... so now, whenever we pass he always forgets that it's Hermana Walker… To him my name is “Hermana Rose”!!  I hope that gave you a laugh:)

 We are getting very excited for Christmas here, we have learned that we will be having Christmas dinner here on Christmas Eve with the MP and wife. I am excited to get some stuff from my mom so I’m excited when it all gets here! The weather is warm and sunny so that will be weird not having snow and cold but I hear that it is warm and sunny at home too!  At this point we are able to Skype family on Christmas Day but we are all learning that a bunch of missions are doing away with Skype altogether…! I see why, it makes us “trunky” when we see our families during the holidays! Thank you Stephen Alexander for your letter! I am planning on writing back to you this week! Everybody, I DO get snail mail occasionally so please write!

 Anyway, that’s what's happened this week. I hope y'all are doing well and happy. And I hope you're still reading the Book of Mormon. I hope it's now become a habit to read it :)

 Love you!!

Hermana Walker!

Week 38-39

Week 38: I was violently ill this particular week. Very scary. Luckily, the MP wife was actually in the town where I’m at so she was able to talk to me and find out what I needed. I’m doing better now and the baptism fell through.  

Week 39: Happy Thanksgiving to all in USA!

This is how we celebrate it here in Santa Maria, Huatulco…fry bread! This is me and my new companion Hermana Valverde. I am glad I wrote Ian a letter this week, he has missed me a lot this holiday season. He really enjoyed getting a letter and it was good to hear from him and to write him back. I will be writing my broham every week from now on! I’m excited to see my family on Christmas Day when I can Skype! Hoping the computers don’t have issues like usual, they are so slow. Last week, it died during talking with family…don’t want that happening again. lol! Mom would kill me!

Everything is going better with my companion this week. She is now listening to me a lot more and we’ve become friends. We had divisions this week too so that helped to get a second opinion from another Hermana.  Last week’s illnesses are gone thankfully so I am feeling better.

Our Christmas Choir performed this weekend! YES!! It turned out so good, you guys need to also go find the video of “He is the Gift” and watch it. It is beautiful:)  I am hoping Hermana Madsen puts up some pictures of it on Facebook sometime soon. I got to direct it all and I also sang “Oh Holy Night” for the Talent part of the night. We will be performing it in Puerto Escondido this coming Friday too! I don’t have Christmas packages yet and Mom says I have the best present that got through Customs that I will really like! Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch :)

The sad case of Mary, our Golden Investigator is so sad. We were prepping for her to be baptized on Saturday but she woke up one morning and didn’t want to get baptized. She feels sad but she needs to pray as we all do…I am still so upset and sad about the whole situation I can barely talk about it. I pray that she will listen to the Spirit and hopefully she will seek us out again soon.

I love my mission and I am so happy to be here even though the sicknesses are everywhere with us missionaries. I love serving the Lord and serving the people of Huatulco! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Walker :)

Week 37

Please pray that I live during these next 3 months... This week has been THE hardest week on the mission so far... Y'all have no idea....

On Monday and Tuesday, I had the awesome chance to have a "sleepover" with some of the other Hermana’s from my generation and it was awesome!:) We talked, ate dobladas, maybe went to the beach, hit the water, met a surfer.... Nah just kidding :) We had a good time meeting some of the people investigating the church there:) On Tuesday I met my "daughter", Hermana Valverde. She's the youngest in her family and the only one to serve. She's 19 and is from Chihuahua. And it's was fun because she tried her first tlayuda on this day :)

On Wednesday, we had our first district meeting with Elder Poole, our new leader. He's from Utah and seems pretty cool... But we did some pretty nice practices specifically for our investigators and we're going to put them to the test. We also saw Silvia and we thought that doing a fast would help with the situation with her husband. He's basically locking her up, she has no friends and has no way to make them, and he doesn't think marriage in necessary so he won't get married, so she can't get baptized. So we're going to do it with her. We also finally found Soledad in her house! She got sick so her boss let her have a break this day. But we were able to talk to her about how she needs to pray to know if the church is true. Because she feels that it is, she just hasn't done anything about it. But today I realized that I might have some issues with my comp. She is very blunt, and usually doesn't listen to a word I say. But she's been going through with the fact that no one has written to her. Her parents don't have emails, and her bishop went around telling everyone that they can't write to her. So she kind of had a breakdown tonight too. But we talked and she talked to the sister training leaders and felt fine... Me... Not all the way....

Thursday, I think was the hardest day for me. We went around to all of our investigators houses and I had my comp starting lessons, ending lessons, getting annoyed with my advice, and I have the sister training leaders doing what they can to help her get a hold of her parents because it's affecting her a lot, and she's frustrated with that, and she's expecting me to do what she says. But I'm all caught up on the fact I'm in charge of everything and I still have no idea what I'm doing, and I can't have anything on top of that. And she doesn't believe that the lessons should be doctrine, so we go and it ends up being a beautiful conversation about God with her and the investigator. I ended up breaking down on the phone with Elder Poole and he helped me out. I explained my problems and he gave me experiences that he's had with his "kids". It helped and I ended up talking to her because she wanted to know what all of our English was about. She told me it was just because she has so frustrated with her parent issue that she's not thinking straight. And I talked to the sister training leaders or my "mom" and that was nice. They gave me advice and they're going to keep talking to me during these next few days.

Friday, was a lot better. We laughed a little bit and we found a new investigator named Sebastian and he is the son of a menos activo. But he is so interested in the Book of Mormon, so we're going to keep talking to him.

On Saturday, we had another awesome rehearsal for the choir. We have some really good singers and I really hope we will be able to pull off all the songs that we have planned. We found another new investigator named Socorro. She's heard from the missionaries before, but they never came back. So we will :) Hermana Valverde had another breakdown today. The Hermana’s have been trying to get  hold of her bishop and he hasn't answered and she came to the point that she questioned why President hasn't just let her call them. So we talked with the Hermana’s and they gave her permission to talk to him. So she did and she has permission to talk with her parents. It's just been a really hard situation for both her and for me.

Sunday, was pretty good. We were able to visit Higinio and talked about the atonement with him. But I think my most favorite part about the day was our lesson with Pedro. He is 15 and his family is super Catholic, but he absolutely loves to hear from us. But they took his Book of Mormon so we read 1 Ne 17 and we applied it to his situation that he should never back down from his beliefs He absolutely loved it and is going to try even harder to get his parents’ permission to listen more:)

Well that is my week. I hope it wasn't pitiful, but I hope that they get better as time goes and I really learn how to get along with my comp. Anyway. I love y'all! And don't forget to read Alma 31-40 this week!

 Love, Hermana Walker