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

Week 36

Hola Everyone! Okay, it’s been really busy and being sick is just gross but thanks for the prayers! This is what happened this week:

 On Tuesday, we had our last district meeting and it was super fun because we went a little earlier to have kind of a party. We made these pizzas with tortillas, pasta sauce, and cheese. And our zone leaders... I will forever be happy with this... They found ROOT BEER!!! Root beer here in Mexico! I was so happy, so I savored it and it was good :) it’s my favorite fizzy drink and I haven’t had one of those forever! I also had a "horribly lovely" experience with the comida. So the doctor told me that I am not supposed to eat greasy stuff and dairy for a few weeks. So we go to the comida thinking that the Hermana remembers that I can't eat it.... She made something barbacoa, which had the most grease and irritants I have eaten in the mission. I was sicker than a dog.  I couldn't sit during the lesson or anything! Luckily I had an appointment with the doctor, so we went straight there and we told me that the grease is what makes the illness worse so I need to MAKE SURE that people know I can't eat it. He also gave me a powdered fiber I need to eat every morning, which has been working. The hard part is that it is so bad to not eat what has been given! It is very hard to say no! So most all of us missionaries are sick!

 I was finally able to have progress in our English classes on Wednesday! People came!  We had our investigators Marisol and Yazmin come to get some help with their English homework. They're really sweet girls and I hope they keep coming and invite their friends :)

 Ay! Thursday was the saddest day ever in the transfer.... So we went to the church for Mary's second interview for baptism. But when she got there she was different so we talked to her about what was going on. She told us that she seriously wants to be baptized, but her dad wants her to get baptized in her uncle's church, which we were aware of the situation. But she then told us that a few days before her dad sat down with her and said that he doesn't think she is ready for baptism. He thinks that she needs to analyze the Bible a more and its doctrine so she can be fully prepared. But we told her she doesn't particularly need that for baptism, she can be baptized knowing just the basics because she's going to learn the doctrine in the church throughout the years. But she doesn't want to ruin her relationship more with her dad, so she went in with the interview, but she will have to wait more time for a baptism. It was so sad to see her crying and everything…I appreciate being a member of the church, I think I’ve taken it for granted! But we will get her baptized this transfer! She will hit the water :)

 On Saturday I finally had my first choir practice for the Christmas Program. And I can say I was pretty freaked out when I first got there because I didn't know if anyone could sing, read music, or anything, but some of the music might be a bit hard for some people.  But it turned out pretty good. We have a few who can sing and I think that if we just keep practicing they can get it!  It was a good day too because President and Hermana Madsen were there to help me out and they brought my birthday package with them from Oaxaca!  Thank you for the letters and cards! I loved reading what y'all had to say. I also got a letter from my friend Stephen! Thank you, Stephen! I love getting mail, we are far away from the mission home and don’t have our own address so we have to wait extra-long weeks to get mail and sometimes some of us don’t get mail even then so all mail is precious to us so please write :)  We also went to the baptisms the elders in our branch had for their investigator Samuel and our branch president's son. They have such sweet testimonies and you could see how happy they all were afterward.

 Yesterday Domingo was a pretty good day, full of unexpected things happening. First we had this inactive teenager, Omar, come to church with us. He's one of those people I have no patience with, but I'm trying. Patience is a problem!  But he came to all three hours. We had a really good lesson in Gospel Principles about the faith, and then we were able to have a farewell devotional for Julio, a new missionary who left this morning. We were also able to see Mary, Soledad, and Zoyla in the church. But when we left for the comida Omar followed us…when we left there to go to Mary's(member) house, he came with us…we made tortillas with her.  Then we went to Mary's(investigator) house, and he followed us…we didn’t know what to do with him!  This time we were able to talk with Mary’s dad a little about our life on earth and the things we are supposed to do on the earth, and that includes baptism. That got some of his doubts away about baptism. He's worried about being baptized twice in different ways, so we explained the differences in baptism. He understood more and hopefully he allows Mary to be baptized soon. Then we saw Hermana Lucina and she took Omar!  But before leaving them, we had a really good lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation too. Usually we don't have much order in lessons with them but we had perfect order this time….and Omar gave the closing prayer and he did really well with it! Usually it's a joke to him to pray, but he really took it seriously this time. Maybe it was good for him to walk with us all day. I need to be more patient and kind:)

We didn't get to bed until 2:30 last night because we had to dry all of our clothes. We washed them all until midnight on Saturday and left them to dry.... Then the rain came during church today!

 So for transfers.....

Hermana Valdivia is going to her house in Tijuana... I am going to have a daughter!!  As in I'm training a new missionary!  Her name is Hermana Valverde and I’m guessing she's Latina by her last name. But I am excited and nervous at the same time.

 Anyway that's what's happened this week. For Christmas I am dying for cinnamon candies!  For some reason the Latino’s here don’t believe there’s such thing as candy containing cinnamon!

I know we've had a break from the Book of Mormon, so this is the challenge this week: Chapters 11-20 of Alma.

Love y'all!!  Have a good week!

Hermana Walker

Week 35

Hello Everyone, Feliz Noviembre!

So, I finally went to the Doctor to see what’s wrong with my stomach…again! He tells me I contracted amoebic dysentery :P sometime recently and they say it’s from the water but everything I eat will make it worse. Especially grease, beans and everything they eat here!  The Doctor gave me some meds to kill the amoebas and another med to keep them from coming back but I think I will have this until I go home next year.  He checked my weight and I am back to the same as I was when I left home but I tried on my jeans and they are loose. I feel so full and bloated all the time though and I live in the bathroom.  It’s hard living on water and I am afraid to eat any fruit and vegetable because it isn’t clean, I don’t think! This is gross :P!  I’ve felt better these past couple days but it hits very fast and hard all the time and it’s impossible to go by the Doctor’s orders and not eat anything but fruit and water when the Hermanas want to feed us all the time. We can’t say no--my Dr. said I need to force the issue with the Hermanas but it is hard. Sister Madsen, the MP wife said I am doing well if I say “no” about taking food and if the Hermanas feel offended that we should explain and blame our “sensitive American digestion”!  She is in charge of the health stuff and I trust this Doctor. He is Latino but studied for years in the States. This disease is so common here though, dozens of missionaries have had parasites and bugs, food from the street, flies everywhere, the bad water, washing fruit and veg is nothing here and we have to trust the water being clean when we clean them ourselves. I am happy though :) the life of a Central/South American missionary! I am on a diet of bread and water for the next 3 weeks. Yay me! Below the pictures are of me and Hermana Valdivia. She goes home next week!

She is such a sweetheart. She lives in Tijuana and has served her mission well. I will miss her when we have transfers next Monday.

We don’t have a church building here in Santa Maria because we are a branch. We rent out these 2 rooms in this building for church. It is called our “Prayer House”. It has a kitchen and in these photos we are making mole and tamales for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, “Day of the Dead”.  It was so cool but weird to see how they memorialize the day: a lot of people drinking in the street but all the culture was there—fireworks at noon, Orange Mums flowers EVERYWHERE, “Bread of the Dead” to feed their loved ones, skulls and lots of chocolate and altars and photos of their dead paraded around the streets. (I hope Annekke took photos of this…she never sent any though!). Pan de Muerto looks like an Irish Hot cross bun and tastes sweet. They eat it at the graves of their family. 

 I LOVE how busy it is here in Santa Maria in the Huatulco. It really is beautiful and busy. We walk and walk from city to city all day. It’s awesome! So sad, our investigator, Mary, didn’t have her baptism like we though this week. She drank coffee three days before her interview! :P  But she is getting baptized this Saturday.

Until next week, Have a great one!

Love, Hermana Annekke Walker!

Week 34

I have been asked by Hermana Madsen, the MP’s wife to direst a Christmas choir! I’m so excited! I‘ve asked my family to send me the music of “The First Noel” by Dan Forrest. I love this arrangement! The concert will be in Santa Maria for the branch members there. I love the members here. They have absolutely nothing which makes them the happiest people around. It’s so interesting to watch the food being made here, and to eat it :) We eat a lot of fish!! Mole is eaten a lot too. We eat a lot of eggs and home- made tortillas and beans… lots of beans! I’m finding it quite hard to stay healthy with such starchy foods. My companion, Hermana Valdivia is an amazing cook! She gets offended if I don’t eat with her or the food she cooks so Hermana Valdivia is often ill. Luckily I’ve got a good water bottle and DoTerra oils to help!! DigestZen and Clary Sage to the rescue!! :)

Speaking of health issues, I’ve been sick this past week, first, with a horrid eye infection but it is better now. I couldn’t put makeup on so I walked around “looking like a man that’s been crying for days”… ahha!  I still haven’t been able to get over a bout of nausea and vomiting though, it could be the food but it could also be the weather. It finally started raining and the mosquitoes are out with a vengeance—the bites are bad.  There are swarms of them! My District Leader has contracted denge and is in the hospital.  Prayers all around to these missionaries so they can all get back to doing the work! All of this going on the same week as Divisions… I got to serve with my old companion Hermana Olsen!  It was a blast serve together again! She is serving in the “Istmo”, the very indigenous area of Oaxaca, in the mountains where it seems the people haven’t been touched by modern civilization since the Book of Mormon times… I really hope to be able to serve there sometime during my mission. Oaxaca State is the most diverse, indigenous state in Mexico…19 different dialects spoken in that state alone. They say that each area has its own dialect of Spanish to learn.  I’m so happy I’m a quick learner, though learning Spanish has been one of the hardest things. Knowing German sort of caused the conjugation of the Latin language of Spanish to come on pretty slowly for me, but I’m still holding out hope that I’ll be able to teach someone the Gospel in German!

We may have a baptism at the end of this week! Mary may be baptized! We’re so excited for Mary! She is so smart and very knowledgeable of the basic tenets of the church.  We will find out next week! 

I finally got my hair cut! After 8 months! I got “Mexican layers”. :P

We do our washing outside in a sink near their house. I feel like I’m getting really big arm muscles because of all the scrubbing.

Hermana Valdivia and I get along very well, though Hermana Valdivia only has 3 weeks left in her mission. I get to “kill” her… which means that she is finishing her mission as my companion. The mission phrases are so funny! When you go into the MTC, you are “Born” and you “Die” when you finish. Haha! :)

I am very glad for my mission. I never thought I would go and do something like this. I am very glad I am here right now. 

I love everyone and hope you are happy and enjoying life!

Hermana Walker

Week 33

The weather near the coast is quite different than in Oaxaca City. It’s even more humid, if that’s even possible!! If you look at a map of the State of Oaxaca, Santa Maria Huatulco is on the Pacific Coast directly South of Oaxaca. It is very dry on the coast too but it rains more than in Oaxaca with a lot of thunder and lightning. The climate looks ‘just like Ireland’ but in an extremely hot and humid sort of way haha! I am still looking forward to eating Iguana and is constantly being chased by huge black bees. I live with tarantulas too! The mosquitoes are enormous and they have a horrible bit. Even with all the sorts of repellents I put on, they never leave me alone! The bites on my legs over the past 7 months will scar, but luckily I haven’t gotten “denge”, a disease contracted by mosquitoes—there are 2 types of denge, the one that kills and the one that doesn’t…you get fevers and your bones ache like crazy. The locals drink fresh grape juice and they say that drinking it helps a lot with the symptoms. I heard that one of the Elders contracted it a while back but after a blessing from Presidente Leyva he recovered well.

Spanish is coming very well now, after having 2 native companions who don’t speak much English at all. I actually now start my prayers in English and end in Spanish :P!

The work is going slow but well, there’s potential with “Mary”, the golden investigator!

Hello to everyone and would love a letter from all of you for Christmas! Packages are slow to not getting here at all so I recommend no packages, unless you use “Global Mission Shipping”. They are fantastic, go through DHL and have tracking and confirmation through Customs to the mission home. It takes 4 days to get to the mission home but takes weeks to get to the coast where I’m at as the leaders only go to and from Oaxaca every few weeks!

Please write!

Hermana Annekke Walker

Week 32

Alright y'all. This week was AWESOME!! I'm loving this new area! It's such a humbling experience because these people really don't have anything except for each other. It's gorgeous too with all the palm trees and such. And we get the real beach sunsets:)

Lunes: Today we had a good p-day, although we were running around like crazy! We cleaned the house and then we went to Sorianna to buy. We are about an hour away from any grocery store, so that's a little different. So it took us a bit longer to do our shopping than normal. But after we went to Mary's house and helped her make tortillas. I can say that I can make a real tortilla... Mom, I will be making them when I get back on our fire pit:) Then we went and saw a member named Nicole and taught her about prayer and Soledad about the sacrament. And we had to wash our clothes in the dark because earlier we didn't have room to hang them up... It was kind of scary... And I tripped and fell and cut my foot. It hurts:P

Martes: Today we went out by sorianna to the church to have our district meeting. And it was awesome! Our leader is Elder Vance from Utah and he is really cool, and we share a ward with him and his comp. And our district has all sisters... and them. But it's cool:) We learned about the importance of teaching Family History. Then we went to the comida with the familia Nolasco. The wife is the relief society pres. With them we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then talked about personal revelation because each person applied the chapter differently. Then we went and saw another member named Claudia and talked about the same thing:) Then we did service with a member named Adela and her family. Then she gave us tamales and we shared a message about the Book of Mormon as well. And we went to visit a new family. We met them at the house of Hermana Adelina last week washing their dishes. But when we went it almost turned into a bible bash, with lots of doctrine being thrown out in the air. But they want us to keep coming. So we're going to have scripture study with them in the topics of the lessons. But if it gets out of hand we're going to stop.

Miercoles: Today was a good day. We went out to Mary's (the member) house again to help with tortillas and then we helped teach her how to read by using Moroni 10:5 and taught a lesson using that. We were also able to see Katy, but her husband was sleeping. He works in a hotel on the beach. We taught her about the importance of baptism. She really wants to get baptized, but she wants to with her husband. But he's stuck in the habit of drinking. It's sad...Then we went and saw Abby a member. She was working so we had to hurry and capacitate her on how to teach chastity because she's going to accompany us to teach it. Haha! Her boss came in right when we finished.... Pheh..... We ended our day going to see Lucina and her family. They're menos activos and we taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon, but we learned that she really doesn't know anything about the gospel. So we're going to start from the beginning:)

Jueves: Today was good too. We went and saw Silvia because she sent us a text a little weird and we worry for her a lot. She's doing good, just a little downhearted because her husband doesn't want us to come by. So we read from the Book of Mormon to cheer her up. Then we went to the familia de Hermana Rosario for the comida and I met the President of the branch. And with her we planned a family home evening for her family. Then we saw Higinio the husband of Mary (member) and we taught him about how he can be clean from his sins. We want him to get baptized but he's stuck under the influence of alcohol too.... That night we went to see Katy and Antonio, but he was sleeping. So we taught Katy about tithing and she's going to live it!:)

Viernes: Today was awesome! We went and saw Mary (investigator) and taught her and her mom about family history using the model that Elder Vance gave us. And we ate with Silvia today and it was awesome. Fish:) And read a bit more in the Book of Mormon with her. She really dos love it. I just hope her husband stops being stubborn and starts listening to us again... Then we went and saw Dianna and taught her about repentance. She is so smart! Answered everything:) Then we saw Hermana Perez, a menos activo and we talked about prayer. She's going to start doing family prayers and hopefully they will feel the spirit that we promised her. Then that night we went to see Hermana Adelina. She still doesn't understand the principle of the Great Apostasy, so we went and taught her about prophets. She says that she understands now:)

Sabado: Today was absolutely awesome! We first went and saw Mary (investigator) again with a joven named Julio that will be going on a mission in November. And we talked about baptism and why we are baptized. I really hope that we're helping her in this change because sometimes I worry if she's gaining a testimony. And her baptism date in in a couple of weeks. Later we decided to go and contact a reference from the elders. And we walked a lot to get to this house, but it was so worth it:) We found a family of 10 and they are all interested:) We taught them about the pre-earth life because they had questions related to the plan of salvation. The only thing is that none of them can read except for 2. So hopefully we can get some members to help us out:) Then we also went and contacted one of their relatives who lives close by. She's listened to the missionaries before and when we found her she was reading the Book of Mormon in her hammock. Awesome! And we got to talk to her about the atonement because she was feeling sorry for something that had happened previous in her life. But they are all so ready it's insane:) We were also able to visit the kids of Hermana Dulce and we read the chapter in the Book of Mormon when Nephi is building the boat:) And to finish the night we had a FHE with Hermana Rosario and we talked about the family and showed them a video of the Proclamation to the World. They really liked it and we ate tostadas:)

Domingo: Today was my first time in the church here. Since it's a branch here we don't have a building, but we rent out one. And once we get 70-80 people in the church for a few weeks we can build our own building:) It was really good and we got the chance to teach Gospel Principles, though it was hard... Two Hermanas on the spot teaching about the priesthood. But I think it went fine:) Zoyla and Soledad were there in the church this week and they really enjoyed it:) We were able to eat with the familia Cantera and it was good. Fresh tortillas, beans and eggs:)) And we talked about family history and the importance of temples. They loved it, especially with the fact that the branch is going to the temple next week. Then we saw Abby and she said she could come with us to some lessons:) We were able to see Jose Angel, an investigator who's catholic. He has a few problems with the Book of Mormon, so we are going to work with him step by step so he can understand and accept it:) Then we went and saw Zoyla and Soledad and helped them make tamales for Edwardo's birthday. They were good:) And we shared a message on the law of Chastity. It went really well and we had lots of laughs:)

Well I hope you guys had a really good week:) Love y'all! And keep reading! It's good for you:)

Hermana Walker

Week 31

Hola y'all! I hope everyone had an awesome week, especially with the chance we had to listen to our prophet and leaders. I really hope you felt the spirit. And thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes. It means a lot:).... I really do not feel 21.... I can do more things than buy dry ice now.... But this is what happened this week.

Lunes: Today we woke up and cleaned the house so that Hermana Molina's comp would feel good in the house. Then we went out and tried buying stuff, thinking that since we only have two days before the new month they would put money in for the new transfer.... No.... These girls are living off of tuna and bread because that’s all we had money for... I also cut Hermana Molina's hair again.... I need to get mine done so bad...:P And we got to hang out with another Hermana while she waited for her comp to come from el Istmo. Her name is Hermana Jones from Tennesee... I will live there one day:) We ate pastor again.. Well actually I ate a gringa (if you guys know Spanish, no it doesn't mean a person). It's this huge tortilla with pastor, pineapple, jalapeño, and other stuff. It's super good:) Then we met Hermana Cortes, Hermana Molina's comp. She's a little quiet, so I'm hoping that they get along. We were only able to see Hugo today and we talked about families. It was a great lesson because he has a serious love for his family and he learned a lot of things that he can do to strengthen his relationship with his daughter.

Martes: Today I went on the LONGEST bus ride ever.... Well actually choir tour was longer, but I slept for most of that so it doesn't count. But I rode on that bus for 9 hours:P Gross.... And we had movies playing so that made it even harder... But now I know what I want to see when I get home;) But I came out with a few elders, and Hermanas Coles, Bigelow, and Mamani. Bigelow and Mamani are in my zone right now:) And my comp is super adorable. She ends her mission after this transfer and so she's going through mixed feelings right now. But she loves the work:) We were only able to go see one person due to time, but we found an Hermana named Soledad in her house with a friend named Eduardo. She made me a memela because I hadn't eaten all day and we taught them about Joseph Smith and invited them to baptism and they said yes:) I'm excited for the work here:)

Miercoles: Today I did more work than I have done in a long time. We had tons planned out and I loved it:) First we went to an investigator named Mary and her family. She has a fecha for October 25 and she is progressing really fast. Her family still has questions, especially her dad. He's catholic, but with the beliefs of a Jehovah's witness and a Baptist... A little hard to work with, but okay... Then we went to our comida and it was given by our investigator Silvia. She has been investigating the church for years and has been so ready for baptism for a really long time. I at first thought she was a member because she has tons of pictures from the church all over her walls. The only thing that's stopping her is that she's not married to her husband and he doesn't think marriage is necessary. But the food was awesome and we read with her a chapter in Mosiah to see how she can apply it to her life. Then we met Monika. She is a catholic and she’s  progressing a lot too. She just doesn’t know if she can be baptize because her husband doesn't know that she's interested in listening to our church. But we taught her about the spirit world after this life and invited her to the church for conference. Then we saw Dianna. She is 12 years old and is super smart. And her family loves when we come and read with them. We taught them about faith and read Alma 32 with them and invited them to conference as well.

Jueves: Today I think I showed off my Penelope side because I was sweating like a pig. It's so humid here!!!! First today we saw Adrianna, a less active. She wants to come back to church, but she doesn't want to come alone without her family. But we talked to her about the importance of the sacrament and she really enjoyed the fact that we can have that mini baptism every Sunday. Then we went over to have the comida, but the family completely forgot. They weren't even home... So we went over to the house of Hermana Fransisca and she quickly made us eggs and beans with homemade tortillas. That's what I love about this place. It's so small and tranquilo, but everyone makes tortillas por mano:) Then we saw Hermana Dulce, a less active as well. And we met her sister in law and taught them all about our Heavenly Father and why he loves us. I think they liked it, especially her kids. Then we passed by the house of one of our contacts... I can't remember how to spell his name so I'll call him Tamale Man because he makes tamales. But we went and taught him about our Heavenly Father as well and told him that we will help him stop drinking because he has that addiction. Then we saw Soledad again and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She told us she's going to start reading every day:)

Viernes: Today... It was hot again...:P..... But we went and saw Mary again. We talked to her about prayer and how she can receive answers from the spirit. She's really progressing. Then we went to the comida with a recent convert named Mary with the cutest little boy in the world:) We weren't able to share anything with her though because she was going to get her other son from school. So we went over to another less active named Jose Luis. We're trying to help him get over drinking too. We also saw a couple of other recent converts named Luz and Dalia and helped them understand the importance of Personal Progress because they are trying to do a few experiences. And they're going to teach me how to make piñatas:) We also saw Silvia again with Hermana Fransisca and read a chapter in Mosiah again. After that we had to go home because I wasn't feeling too good. And the heat made it worse :P

Sabado: Conferencia!!! And mi cumpleaños:) Today was so awesome because we got to hear our prophet and other leaders... In English:) And I found out that Hermanas Palominos and Sullivan are in my zone... They're from my generation of missionaries. But I was able to get so many things from the conference that I'm going to apply with our investigators. And I almost killed Palominos... She went to go buy ice cream for me in Sorianna for my birthday and she totally slipped on her knee and couldn't walk. And it was the funniest thing to see her and three other Hermanas trying to carry her across the street back to the church. But it was super sweet because the zone planned a surprise cake after the second session.... And I took the challenge to bite it... I got a lot of frosting on my face:)

Domingo: Today was really great too. Conference was awesome and I was able to receive a new bag that I have desperately needed for a really long time. Thanks family and all who put stuff in it:) Oh ya! And Mary came with us to conference. She was really excited to go. And we were able to see her and her family that night too:) We read from Enos about prayer and tried answering questions from her sister and dad... They have some really wild stories about the gospel and we still don't know where they are getting them... But we will work with them:)

Well that is my first week in Santa Maria. I hope you enjoyed:) Thanks again for the birthday wishes. And don't forget to read this week! This time we will read the first 10 chapters of Alma in a week.

Love y'all! Hermana Walker

Week 30

Alright... I wasn't able to write things out for what happened this week. So I promise I will try to remember most of what happened....

Lunes: We had THE BEST activity ever! We got to have my first zone activity and it the most fun thing ever. We played volleyball, soccer (Which I still am not good at), and basket. But me and Elder Winland killed it in volleyball. We have to do it again. In the coast:) And we also ate hotdogs, chips, cake, and I had my Boing... If you don't know what that is, that's a shame... But if not, it's like the best fruit juice ever. All Nat-ur-al. No added sugar:) By the end of the day we didn't have time to go out to Loma Linda like we planned, so we went and saw Hermano Hugo to see what his doubts were today....

Martes: District meeting!! We learned an awesome model on how to fix our teaching and then we practiced a bit. Then we ate cake!! Hermana Molina and I went and bought a cake for Hermana Martinez, because it's her last week of the mish, and we hid it in the church oven. Then other Hermanas brought cake too, so we had double cake. And we wrote in each other's journals... It felt like yearbook day:) Then we went to Sorianna to buy a new electric stove because ours broke (we've been showering with cold water for two weeks)... Comida was with the familia Corso, and it was good as always:) And we taught them about their testimonies and challenged them to share their testimonies with someone before conference. We were able to go see Velia today and we talked about Joseph Smith and we challenged her to pray just like him. She's really getting interested in the church. Then we went to our meeting with Hermano Pino.... Oh Hermano Pino.... This sounds so sad, but I hope I go to another area this next transfer. In this meeting and the next we talked about the area plan for Mexico about how missionaries have to be in ward council meetings and the things that aren't being completed by the members and it was like they didn't care. And we have the salvation of souls on the line. So that night, after a good cry, I called the bishop and asked if I could give a talk on Sunday and speak about this.

Miercoles: Today we started out with a good mormon.org session... I found some good music to listen to:)... Then we went and found Hermano Hugo with Hermano Pavey because he's worried about him. And when we got there we found books from other religions on the table... He's been comparing these with the scriptures. No wonder he has so many doubts! So we talked about how we shouldn't be reading these books and that we should find books written by the church. He took it well. Then we had comida with Hermana Martinez and I tried my fourth kind of mole...I think it's called estofado. There's 7 different types of mole in Oaxaca:) Then we went to Loma Linda and found Marcos and we taught him about our life on earth and that our agency has a big significance in what is going to happen after this life. Afterwards we went and found Hermana Eveline and we talked about our loving Heavenly Father. I swear she is so ready! She says she's not going to change her religion, but she is so ready. Full of questions and insights. Like we don't have to ask her questions because she participates on her own:)

Jueves: Today was pretty good. We had our weekly planning and then we visited Hermano Hugo and asked him what he did with his books... Still hasn't gotten rid of them, but he's not reading them. We also had comida with the familia Cruz. We couldn't share anything with them though because the ward was going to the temple. In fact that happened all day. None of the members were home or couldn't come with us. We did find Hermana Margarita in her house and we were able to talk with her for a while. And we tried going to visit Julia with her, but she couldn't. So we went to Julia by ourselves and we tried talking to her about baptism to get a date, but she went off on the most random subjects and we ended up having to go home without that lesson.... So frustrating...

Viernes: Today was a bit hard.... We literally walked everywhere and didn't find anyone... So we ended up leaving notes for the women's conference on Saturday. We got to eat with Hermana Sollo and it was the best!! Then we went and walked around Reforma trying to find people, but we couldn't. And I started to get sick, so we went to the house to see what I needed. I've been having some weird stomach issues lately... Then we went to the church so I could get my journal back from other Hermanas, but also so that Hermana Molina could get a blessing. And I ended up getting one too:)

Sabado: Today we went to see Hugo with Hermano Pavey. He ended up teaching him about the atonement and it was so good! And Hermano Hugo was in love with the way he taught. Then we went to the familia Ferra for the comida and it was awesome!! But I started getting sick again and Hermana Molina's back hurt too. So we went to the house and called Our sister training leaders to see what we need to do. We called the doctor for me and I had to buy some medicine and drink tea de laurel. And we were sad because we couldn't go to the conference:(

Domingo: Today, my talk. It went really well. It was firm, but it didn't planch anyone. And everyone listened and told me that they were going to change the way they were working. I was so happy!! And Hermana Molina spoke too about the same thing. We ate with the familia Ramierez, but then we went home so I could drink more tea. I have no idea what is going on with my stomach.... And I don't trust doctors.... But we were able to see Hermana Margarita for a while:) And when I got home I crashed.... But our phone call woke me up ¡Cambios!

Alright y'all! This was my last week in Reforma and I hope you enjoyed it:) And remember your reading for this week. We will be finishing Mosiah:) Enjoy! Love y'all!

Hermana Walker

Week 29

Okay. This week was mas o menos.... But we still had fun:)

Lunes: Today was pretty great. We were going to have an activity as a zone, but decided not to because we had a short p-day. It's Independence Day here, so to be safe we had to start teaching at 4 and be at home by 7. But within that time we were able to go shopping, clean the house, email, sit down for a second, and eat really good tacos. We only visited Hugo today and we talked about the Word of Wisdom... Or tried to... It kind of ended up as Hermana Molina vs. Hermano Hugo. He just has so many doubts and doesn't understand us some of the time. But we came home and I did my 50 bucket loads of laundry while Hermana Molina cleaned the walls in the bathroom because there's this gross salt stuff on them from our water. But she came to me and told me that she keeps feeling something behind her like it's following her and there is a weight in our bedroom and she doesn't like it. And I remembered feeling that in the owner's house too. Luckily our zone leaders called to talk to us and we asked if we could have a priesthood holder come and bless our house and they told us we could do it...Wha?... So when we prayed that night my comp had me say a prayer for the house... It was a little strange because I've never done that and didn't think I could do that... Still don't know... If something happens we’re going to have someone come and do it...

Martes: Today we didn't have district meeting, so we stayed at home and studied. When we went out we were able to find Hugo in his house and we taught him about the law of tithing. But oh my goodness! He has so many doubts! He's worried his material things and if the prophet and apostles can be trusted with our money... He just needs to have faith, like we keep telling him... We were supposed to have comida with the familia Corso, but they forgot... It's so frustrating when that happens... So we went home and ate sandwiches. Then we went and saw Velia and had an awesome lesson with her. We wanted to know her expectations of our visits because she's been visited by the missionaries for years and she still has her confusion. She told us that she wants us to go slow so that she can learn and feel the difference of our church and others because she's studying with other churches too. So we told her we want to answer all of her questions and we answered one that she had about why we have our day of rest on Sunday instead of Saturday, using scriptures from the Bible. We didn't have our meeting with Hermano Pino, so we went to the church to practice piano until ward correlation... I'm teaching my comp:) But no one showed up! Gah! It's so frustrating when no one comes! So we went to see Julia and her daughter and we talked more about the family and why we need to be united as families, especially in times like this. Then she went on talking about how we're close to World War 3 and all the stuff that's on the new and I decided... I'm glad on a mission right now....

Miercoles: Today was a pretty fun day. We started out with a multi-zone conference and I learned so much:) I love the conferences that our new president does because they aren't just what do we need to do to make our lessons better and practice for hours. They're about how to make better missionaries. We learned that we are all good missionaries, no matter what our title is and that we need to be here for the glory of God, not the glory of us. And we learned a 6 minute exercise called Chicken Fat:) We had the comida with Hermano Pavey and his wife who isn't a member. She's from Switzerland so she has an awesome accent! But it was kind of a different comida...We had salad with a vinaigrette and spaghetti with real tomato meat sauce! And it was the first time I've sat down with someone drinking wine... I felt like I was in Europe... After the comida we walked forever trying to find people, but no one was home. We did run into Marcos and his friend Alejandro who was so tall! Like two of me... But we went over to the Ferra's house and had a lesson con miembro. We felt that we needed to teach about Joseph Smith with them. So we shared that with them, and Alejandro was a little weirded out by it. But we each bore our testimonies and gave him a Book of Mormon. And he told us that he would ask for permission from his parents to hear more because they're very Catholic. After this lesson we walked everywhere in Reforma, but no one was home.

Jueves: Today was pretty good. We started out with our weekly planning which went well. We kind of had an argument, but we're good now:) We started teaching in Loma Linda because we had a cita fija with a new investigator... But she wasn't there... Gah! Frustrating... So we moved back towards Reforma and found Guadelupe, a contact from last transfer. But she let us in and told us she's half way done with the Book of Mormon, so we talked about that to clear her doubts. We had comida with familia Pino and it was super good. Tostadas:) Then we went back to Reforma and met with Hermana Margarita to see Velia. We decided to talk about temples and baptisms for the dead because she had questions about that too. So we explained what it is, showed her pictures from the temple preparation booklet, and gave her a My Family pamphlet so she can do her family history and we can start her work. We tried visiting Julia, but she wasn't home, so we went and saw Hugo... Oh Hugo... We decided to ask if he was happy in the church and what we need to do to relieve him of his doubts. He's happy because it's given him something good in his life. And we kept talking and figured out he doesn't want to share his testimony with his family because he's scared of what they will say. We spent a half an hour explaining that if he will just open his mouth he will see miracles. He's just scared, but we're going to work on that:)

Viernes: Today was a bit rough... We decided to go out to Elegido Guadalupe to see if Mimfa was home, a contact from the last transfer. So we climbed up those hill, in the blazing sun... It was so hot today!...And she wasn't home :P And we kept walking for about 3 hours, knocking, talking, everything... No one was home or wanted to listen... And my face is sunburned :P So we went looking for the house that we're going to eat at. It's someone we've never met before. And when we got there it was a house full of college students. The girls that we ate with are two sister converts who moved here a couple of weeks ago from the Istmo to study. Their names are Sharon and Hema. And I tried Mole Rojo for the first time. So good! Then we talked to them about testimonies and gave them the challenge to write their testimony, pray to know who to give it to, and give it to them before conference. They're fun girls:) Then we went out to Reforma and the same thing happened... No one was home... So we went to see Hugo and if he was okay from what happened yesterday. He was good and we talked a little about testimonies and we gave him that same challenge so he can see that he has a testimony. We would have tried seeing other people, but something happened. As we were walking around, lightning started flashing everywhere, but there was no rain... Then black and green clouds came and the wind picked up. Freaking electrical storm! We hurried home because it was right above Reforma and we stayed there without anything plugged in or turned on... Like we needed it. The lightning was everywhere at every second, and our walks are windows. It was crazy fun, but scary.

Sabado: Today was okay... Better than yesterday. I felt pretty sick in the morning... I think it's because I took my horse pill of a vitamin... So we took it easy in the house for most of the morning and then went to see Hugo when I felt a little bit better. Today we talked about the Spirit and how we feel it. Then we challenged him to pray every day to have the spirit. Then we went to the Ferra's for the comida. We had fish! Yes:) And I helped Mayeli with her English homework. But they had to leave so we couldn't share something. So we went out to elegido Guadalupe so we could so we could go see the familia Martel. And while we were there we decided to go find a contact that lives there named Hna Tere... We looked forever!... And when we finally found her street we couldn't find her number...Oh Oaxaca... The house numbers don't go in order... So her number is 22... The street starts with 103... So we climbed and climbed... And found her house at the top of the mountain, and her dog almost ate us, but now she likes us:) But we just got to know her family and talked about our purpose as missionaries. She said that they're Catholic and won't change, but she loves when we visit. And her daughter-in-law was very interested in the Book of Mormon, so we're going to keep working with them. After this we went back home because we were getting lightning again.

Domingo: Today was good. We had lots of talks in Sacrament about the mission work and we hope that the members were listening. And we finally have a teacher in gospel principles and it was a good class on Eternal marriage. And i had the opportunity to sing in Sunday school. That was cool:) And in Relief Society we learned that we always need to follow the law of God. Today we ate in a restaurant. Because no one could take us in for the comida. And it was the most awkward thing ever... everyone was drinking their beer and looking at us weirdly... We went and saw Hugo and asked him if he had any doubts about what we learned in church and helped him understand that Jehovah is Jesus. And the rain poured! So hard! After this we probably went to every house that we could... And no one was home...:P... So we spent our day singing hymns in the rain. We did contact a guy who stayed in Utah for about 14 years, has gone to our church before, and has a part of his heart for our church because we helped him when he first went to Utah. He's so ready! We're going to visit him:)

Well that was my week. I home ya'll had a good one and you're always smiling:) Then next part of the Book of Mormon Challenge is chapters 11-20 of Mosiah. Enjoy!:)

Love Always

Hermana Walker

Week 28

Alright. This week was filled with a bunch of crazy, sad, and awesome things. Here you go:

Lunes: Today was so fun! We hurried and cleaned the house, then went to the doctor for Hermana Molina. Dr. Morales looked at her ultrasounds we took last week and said she has a ball of fat in her back that's going to keep growing if she doesn't get it taken out... EEP!  So going to have to have surgery, we just don't know if she will have it done here or at her house. Then we hurried and bought a new chair for her too because it completely collapsed our first week together. And then... ¡Centro! We totally pumped some tags and went thrift shopping:) I found this really cute shirt shirt for Sept. 11. Then we went around to other shops, and we found this shop with tons of cheap Mexico decorations for Independence Day so we're going to dec-out our house:P But ya... We were in Centro for about 6 hours... Walso had a really good lesson with Hugo today. We talked about following the prophet and we added in that conference is in a few weeks! Best birthday ever! But he loves the idea that he can listen to the prophet and he's going to prepare for it by thinking of questions he needs answered.

Martes: Today we started out with our district meeting and we talked more about working with the members and helping them with their fear of sharing the gospel if they have that. Afterwards we walked a lot trying to find people in their houses, but no one was there, which was kind of sad. We had some good contacts with a couple of construction workers. They were taking a break and we started to talk to them about their work and then into the gospel. They seemed very interested, but they work all day, but they immediately asked where the church is! Ahh! We also ate with the familia Corso. I found out that when they went to Utah last month they tried JCWs and loved it. Yay! Then we had a lesson with member with Hermano Pavey and we saw a new investigator named Vicente. But this lesson was kind of hard because he has tons of energy and loves to talk, so we didn't really get to say anything. And he thinks there are no good people in the world, that the Bible was written by people who wanted money, and when we tried saying differently, he didn't exactly listen. Luckily we had Hermano Pavey with us because he's calm and is such a friend to everyone. We also had a good experience with Hermano Pino today. We got to the church for our meeting, but he wasn't there. So we called him and he told us that the other Hermanas told him that we changed times and that we were going to call him to confirm that... We didn't hear anything about this... But he came and we had an awesome meeting. We put together his goals with numbers and our goals of visits and we now have an awesome plan.  And We talked about how we're going to reactivate a less active family in the ward. Everything is really coming along for us and Hermano Pino.

Miercoles: Haha! Today was fun:) We walked all over today... Again... And no one was home! Why?! We ate with Hermana Sollo in her restaurant and course I had my favorite: torta de tasajo y quesillo. And while we were there we saw the rain come, so we went home, grabbed our umbrella, and went out to Loma Linda. We had a cita with Marcos, but he didn't show up. Then we went to see Bruno because we had a cita with him... He left for Chiapas three days ago!! What?! Gah! So frustrated... And as we walked away, it was like Heavenly Father was crying for us because we hadn't visited anyone all day. It was raining so hard!! Our umbrella weren't doing anything for us, so we headed home. And that walk was like we were on Splash Mountain. We were jumping over puddles, no lakes, crossing the streets, and when cars passed by, waves crashed on us like the sand. It was crazy! And when we got home I geared up like an army man, with my rain jacket and my wellies. I was so prepared:) We tried visiting Hugo, but he had to leave, so we visited Hermana Margarita. It was super sweet. She gave us a little bit of food and this drink with hot water, sugar, and oats. Super good:) Then we shared a message about how she's helping Jesus Knock on the doors of other people when she shares her testimony:)

Jueves: Today was pretty great. We first had our weekly planning and then we went to Hermano Hugo's house and taught him about the 10 commandments. I'm not sure if he understood it all or what because when we asked him questions, he gave us answers that really didn't relate to the lesson... But afterwards we went to the bishop's house for the comida and it was super good. It kind of reminded me of this teriyaki/Asian food my mom makes. Then we shared with them a message about sharing our testimonies. And we tried inviting them to a couple of lessons, but they couldn't. So we went to Julia's house for her cita and we talked about how she feels the love of God in her life. She shared with us her thoughts, but she also confided in us with some things that are going on in her life. Then we went to our ward activity, but none of our investigators or converts were there, so we had to leave. We tried seeing if Hugo was home and could go, but he wasn't home. So we decided to go get a cita with Velia and go home and dry off because it was POURING RAIN. But when we got there she had us get into the house and she gave us a towel and pan dulce with tea. And we just talked with her. It was a really good day:) Oh ya! And I wore red, white, and blue:)

Viernes: Today was a little rough... We left early for a cita fija with Marta, but of course she was there. So we went home until about 12 when we left for Hermano Hugo's. But he wasn't there. Then we tried the familia Martinez. But they weren't there. So we tried contacting. And there wasn't anyone on the streets. There was no one to talk to this morning! We walked everywhere, knocking on doors, everything and nothing came out of it. So we went to the comida with Hermana Margarita. And of course it was amazing! I'm stealing recipes from her:) And we had a good talk with her. She was a bit frustrated with what happened at the activity yesterday. It was a Noche Mexicana and the bishop only told certain people about it, but she's one of the people in charge of activities. But then because everyone hangs out in their social groups. So we talked about how one of our goals is to help fix the social class problem in our ward and help others feel comfortable around each other. And she said she could come with us to see la familia Martel. So we went up to Loma Linda to see if we could find people there, but the same thing happened! Every single house we passed no one was home! Gah! And when we met up with Hermana Margarita and her grandson we walked forever to get to the Martel's house.... And they weren't there wither! In fact they moved! None of their stuff was there, so we walked to their old house and luckily we found some of their kids there, but it was kind of awkward. So we got a cita for when their whole family is there. Then we left for Reforma again and we saw a couple of black 7ft. basketball players near an OXXO. It was pretty great:) We ended our day trying to see Hugo again, but he still wasn't there. But ya... Today was a bit sad...

Sabado: Today I felt something different when we walked out of the house. I prayed the night before asking why we aren't having success in the area, what we need to do, and if we can help make someone's day today. And when we went out we immediately started contacting. We contacted this old Catholic man who really didn't want anything, and then this old lady who was interested in the plan of salvation, so we're going to pass on her address to the Hermanas in her area. Then there was a little boy, younger then Ian, that asked us if we could buy some bread from this basket he had. We didn't have money, so we gave him a pamphlet with our names and number and told him that if his family ever needs anything to call us. He was all smiles with that:) We tried visiting Hugo, but he wasn't home, so we headed out to the Ferra's house for the comida.... And they forgot... But they let us in and we ate Tlayudas and talked about how I look like Katy Perry and how we need to put it in the news to freak her out. We decided that I need to buy a shirt that says "I'm not Katy Perry" in Spanish because people keep staring at me on the street and telling me I look like her. And I got eaten by their dog! I was just playing with it like we normally do, and he snapped with half my hand in his mouth! But I survived:) Then we had a lesson about the Fall with Marcos. He is so intelligent! He knew all the answers to our questions and everything. And when we were walking around today, we got followed by a drunk... We saw him walking towards us, so we turned down the road on the right. And when we tried going back, we saw him waiting at the corner for us... Scary!! We ended the day trying to visit Hugo, but he still wasn't there. But today was really good. But I think my favorite part was the little boy with the bread:)

Domingo: Today was pretty good:) The talks in sacrament were full of inspiration and we talked more about the family in gospel principles. David came today! And Relief Society was good too. We talked about the importance of temples in family history. Then we had comida and it was awesome because we went to the house of Julia:) It was super good! But the best part was her agua. It was agua de avena but with walnuts in it:) I drank a ton. Then we had a lesson with her about families, but it got really off track because she just went on and on about her own thing and by the end we weren't talking about families. Then we went to Hugo's house and talked about the law of chastity. We thought this was going to be a bit awkward, but it wasn't. He understood it all and we had a nice flow within the lesson:) To end the day we found Marta on her porch and we just started talking to her and we were able to turn the focus of the conversion onto families and she loved it. She loves her family a lot:)

Well that was my week... Full of experiences:)) And I hope that you are all still doing the Book of Mormon challenge. Just know that I am doing it with you. I'm just a little behind because I'm doing it in Spanish:) But this week we will be reading the first 10 chapters of Mosiah. Enjoy! Love y'all!

Hermana Walker

Week 27

Wow!! I still can’t believe it’s already been 6 months. I do not want my mission to go by this fast! I only have a year left! Lol :) I’m having so much fun, and am still doing well! I’m healthy, I absolutely love my companion and we work so well with each other. I love all of my fellow missionaries and I am so impressed with my Mission President, President Madsen and his wife. I especially enjoy all those who I come in contact with, teach and visit. Many of the locals are ready to learn and take the true words of the Lord into their life. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be able to teach the gospel to such amazing people here in Mexico.

It’s been fun to be able to have the occasional opportunities to eat and visit at members’ homes and get the sustenance I need. I have always been interested in different foods, but I have ALWAYS hated Mexican food. Since I have been here, I have learned and found that real, authentic Mexican food is the BEST! Spending time with the members has definitely been a blessing. I’m glad I have all these families who always have my back and Hermana Molina while we are serving and sharing the gospel.

Sorry this is so short! The computer I was using crashed just before I was going to send my big Week 27 email and I lost my entire letter!! Grrr! Lol :) so I ran out of time. Needless to say, I am never using that Internet Café again!!

I hope you all are doing well and are up to date with the Book of Mormon Challenge!! You should be finished with Words of Mormon by the end of this week!! :)

Love ya’ll!!

Hermana Walker

Week 26

Alright this week.... Was full of great stuff:)) Sorry I just feel weird because I have exactly a year until I will be in my house.... I don't want that to happen yet!

Lunes: Today was so much fun! We woke up and did our grocery shopping and washed our clothes. Then we got together with Hermana. Salcedo and her comp to do hair. Best day ever! I cut her hair and then I dyed and cut my comp's hair. I absolutely love doing this sort of thing on people:) Then we went out to write y'all. We tried to go out and work today, but it started pouring rain, like super hard! So we stayed in to do our analysis of our numbers to see if the rain would die down, but it didn't. So I introduced my comp to the music of Sons of Provo and the dance to Word of Wizzum.... Let's just say I was on something today....:))

Martes: Today we had a really good district meeting about contacting, because our district is having a hard time finding new people to teach. And our practices went really well. And I got to use my muscles today in carrying this huge box of Book of Mormons home. We have an activity on Thursday about the Book of Mormon and we're going to watch The Testaments:) Today we were able to go visit Hno. Hugo and we taught him about baptism. He was able to understand a lot more about the importance of baptism and was able to appreciate more that he took that step. Today we ate with Hermana. Sollo and we had memelas and tasajo. Tasajo is kind of like a really thin steak and memelas are tortillas with whatever you want to put on it and then you heat it up a little bit more on a stovetop thing.... We tried contacting a lot and we found a new investigator named Norma. We contacted her a few weeks ago and we went to her house to teach. She's very religious and had a lot of questions about the rules of our church, so we helped clarify a lot of things she has heard about the church.

Miercoles: Today was really good. We were able to have mormon.org time and I was able to get some music I want to listen to:) We also ate in the house because we didn't have a member to eat with. We made spaghetti with avocado:) We were able to teach Hermano. Hugo today about the gift of the Holy Ghost. he had a lot of questions this time, so we answered them and he had a better appreciation that he has the spirit with him always. We also met with Hermana. Margarita today. She is just like my Bunka, it's ridiculous... She was making little stuffed bears and rabbits to sell in a shop. We taught her about the importance of the members, because there are a lot who think that this work is for the missionaries and they don't have a part in it. But that's not true. They can share this gospel as much as they want. She really loved it and is willing to come with us to lessons:)

Jueves: Today was super great! We had our weekly planning session that went great! And we also had comida with the Familia Martinez which was amazing as always:) We also taught about the importance of the members with her and she really opened up about this with us and how she feels as a convert to the church how important it is for the members to make the investigators feel comfortable. We also went up to Loma Linda to find a reference and we have a cita with her today! Then it was time for our activity! It went so well! We had tons of members and investigators there and by the end there were tons crying. And they were all willing to take books to give to their friends and everything. And I got to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon, which was a great experience:)... But we were late to get home.... And Elder Wagner was not happy...... I'll just end it with that...

Viernes: Today was quite a day. We went to the offices to get a name of a doctor Hermana. Molina needs to see for her back. And I found out that Mexico is keeping one of my packages because it has my retainers in it.... Bizarre.... Then we went to comida with the bishop and his family. It was super good!! We also taught them about the importance of the members and it was great because we had their son in the lesson who is a returned missionary and he gave a lot of good comments. Then we visited Hermano. Hugo and taught him about enduring to the end. He was a lot of doubts about this because he feels he has a lot of problems and can't. So we helped him feel better and know that he can! Then we spent the day contacting.... It was a long day... But we were able to contact almost 20 people in 4 hours!:)

Sabado: Today was pretty good. We started our day with Hermana. Marta and we talked about Heavenly Father and families. She absolutely loves her family and wants all the love for them. She did talk a lot again though so that was a little hard.... Then we went to Hermano. Hugo and we taught him about obedience. This was a pretty good lesson because it was pretty self-explanatory to him. We ate with the familia Montalvo and we had pizzoli, which was so good! And we had a really good lesson on faith. We had to go home after that because there was rain and Hermana. Molina has a cold. But when the rain died down we went out to contact again. It was hard though because no one was outside.....So we didn't have much success...

Domingo: Today church was great! Julia was there and in the middle of Sacrament meeting Marta showed up! It was so great! We taught the gospel principles class and it was about the law of sacrifice. They understood it and we had a good discussion. The third hour we had an awesome lesson by the bishopric about how everyone has problems, but we can be lifted up by the love of our Savior:) We had comida with the familia Ferra and we were able to teach one of their friends who has been coming to church with them. His name is Marcos and he's 12 years old and loves the church. He's going to get baptized on 11 de octubre:) We also saw Edgar and helped him feell better. He has a problem with his brothers right now and we taught him about the atonement to cheer him up. And we're going to bring him a pizza for not drinking for almost 2 months in our next cita:)

Well I hope y'all had a good week. I know I did:) And I hope that the Book of Mormon challenge is still going. The next section is Enos-Words of Mormon. I know that reading this book will bless your life. Read it and love it!

Love Hermana Walker

Week 25

Alright everyone! I just started a new transfer so hopefully everything goes well with my new, and first, Latin companion Hermana Molina:)

Lunes: Today we started out with cleaning the house for the other Hermana’s and after that we left for the ADO to get our temporary companions for the day. I stayed with Hermana Martinez while Hermana Delgado went with another Hermana that's going home. We were at the ADO for a bit of time, talking with other missionaries and taking pictures... I have a feeling I'm going to be the one leaving from this place in six weeks... After that we went emailing and rested at the house in the other area. Then we all left to go back to the ADO to get our companions. Hermana Molina came here with 7 months in the Istmo and she only has one more transfer than I do. When we got to the house we unpacked (because I had my stuff still packed from the week before) and we bought a pizza because we hadn't eaten all day. It was pretty great:)

Martes: We didn't have a district meeting today. Instead we took our 3 hours of study and then went out to buy food because there wasn't any in the house, like our fridge was literally empty... And I love that Hermana Molina eats so healthy too. All fruits and veggies:) Afterwards we went to la familia Pino for the comida. Super good entomatadas:) Teaching today was a little hard because no one was home.... Weird... It's Martes... We did get to teach Hermano Hugo before our meeting with Hermano Pino. This meeting was really weird... He only wanted to meet with us because of what happened last week. But he made it really secretive with us... And consejo was awesome! We were able to get a lot across for the things our investigators need.

Miercoles: Today we didn't have district meeting either because we found out that we were going to have a zone conference en Viernes. So we did our 3 hours of study. I love doing language study with my comp because she seriously wants to learn English and she really wants to help me with my Spanish. So we work really hard in this study:) Today was just like Martes... No one was home and no one was on the streets to contact... We had comida with la familia Padilla and that was really good as well... Tacos durados:) Afterwards we needed to go see Dr. Morales for Hermana Molina. I guess she has like a cyst or something that's growing and keeps hitting her spine so sometimes it hurts to walk and sit up. He told her it needs to come out, so he's going to talk to President Madsen about it.... Not another comp!!! We were able to go meet with Hermano Hugo and then we were told to go home so Hna Molina could rest.

Jueves: Today we did our studying and after we started on our weekly planning.... Took almost 4 hours in the morning to do and we still didn't finish... But then again I had to introduce our investigators and we're also planning an activity for next week. We're going to watch The Testaments movie:) After we went and tried to contact a reference that went all wrong. They didn't want anything to do with us and they told us this in an English southern accent I want to steal... Then we went to the Pino's house for the comida and after that we went to go teach, but literally no one was home.... We met with the familia Maison and tried to meet with Eufemia, but she seemed to be very standoffish to us and said she was leaving.... Weird.... We finished our weekly planning that night and found a bunch of old investigators that we're going to try finding and teaching.

Viernes: Today we had our zone conference and it WAS AWESOME!! It was all about how we can better our teaching in specific principles, how to drop investigators nicely, and that the line of authority really isn't something to worry about because all missionaries are equal. It was so great, especially with dropping investigators because I feel that the people I've been teaching here for a long time haven't been progressing and I don't know what to do with them. After we went out searching for these old investigators and it was hard. Some only had phone numbers, some only had house numbers, some didn't want anything, some houses didn't exist, or they weren't home. Ooh! And I had my first soft pretzel in a long time! It was so good! Again we tried with Eufemia, but she still seemed standoffish and wouldn't give us a day that we could come and pass by... So weird...

Sabado: Today we stayed inside for the most part. Dr. Morales still hasn't talked to the president so the sister training leaders wanted us to stay home. So we stayed until the comida. We went to the familia Ferra. And it was really good and super healthy:) After this we had no idea who to teach. No one was around, but also we were having a meeting for stake conference, so anyone we could teach would be at that. We tried to see if Eufemia or Martin were down by the bridge, but they weren't. Just the borrachos. We talked to them and one had this big issue that all women have wickedness because his wife left him for someone else. We tried teaching him about the responsibilities of the family, but he still doesn't believe that women are equal to men. We did find a new one who wants help with his drinking problem. He's from Italy! And he introduced us to him mom as well:) And the meeting for stake conference was awesome too.

Domingo: Today we went to stake conference and Julia came this week. This conference was so awesome. We were taught that each person in the church has a responsibility, with a calling or not, especially with the mission work. There was another talk about the temple and that we don't know our Heavenly Father is we are not going to the temple because there we earn the most sacred knowledge. It was so great!! We didn't have comida with anyone, so we went to la familia Limon with the other Hermana’s. But afterwards they told us to go home because they don't want hermana Molina working with her back......

Well, I hope y'all had a good week. And remember the Book of Mormon challenge. Now we are going to read Jacob in a week:) Good luck!

Love ya'll!

Hermana Walker

Week 24

Alright.... This week was a little slow… But here you go...

Lunes: Today we woke up early and cleaned the house and did our laundry. And the other Hermanas helped me in learning how to effectively wash my clothes here:) Then we went to Centro so Hermana Delgado could buy stuff before she goes home. She dies this transfer! *Gasp But it was fun. And we ate tlayudas for lunch with some other Hermanas in our zone:) Then we came home and rested for a bit and then went out to teach some investigators in their area.

Martes: Today we had our normal district meeting and took pictures with everyone. And we got to work in my area today:) We had comida with the familia Matinez andof course it was so good:) Then we went out to Hermano Hugo and taught him about pre-earth life and the creation. He understood it very well. Then we tried seeing if Belia and Julia had time for a lesson, but both of them were leaving the house and the daughter of Julia has denge, so she's taking care of the kids. So we went to our meeting with Hermano Pino... Or our fight with him... Ya we kind of got into an argument with our mission leader today. He doesn't think that we're working right and we're lazy because we aren't with the members as much as he wants. But he just doesn't understand that we have other key indicators that we have to do as well... Oh well...

Miercoles: Today we rested because Hermana Martinez got sick. She had big pain in her stomach and she couldn't work. So I studied a lot and wrote letters while she rested. Then in the night we went and taught one of their investigators about the Book of Mormon. She really felt the spirit in this lesson because she started crying and said it's an answer to her prayers. It was awesome to see that:)

Jueves: Today we started out with going to Betesda for Hermana Martinez and her sickness. Then we went into weekly planning... And I kind of got chewed out about the way I do it. With my past comps we've figured a way to do it with less amount of time, but doing it in the same effect as Preach My Gospel.... Yup.... But it's okay... We spent our day in the area of the Hermanas. We first went to comida and it was super good:) Then we went super far away and talked to a menos activo family and the importance of coming to church. But Hermana Martinez started to not feel good, so we started heading home while handing out invitations to investigators to our ward conference this week.

Viernes: Today we started out by going to a meeting for the leaders But since I'm not one I went to my area with a new missionary and we contacted for 2 hours. For comida we went to the bishop's house and the food was good:) But we were running low on time so we just went around my area and gave out invitations to my investigators. Then we had a couple of lessons in the other area.

Sabado: Today I woke up sick...:P..... To my stomach. So I rested for a while. And it was sad because when I felt better Hermana Delgado felt sick. Really sick.... We didn't leave until our ward pre-conference activity started. But we went and ate really good food and watched some of the activities. There was also a baptism going on, so we invited the investigators that came to the activity to watch it. And experience! After the baptismal ordinance the bishop of the ward holding the baptism called me over and asked if I could sing a musical number. Aah! I got to sing Divina Luz and the bishop played the piano. And it was fun because he added his own accompaniment :) After the baptism we tried to work, but Hermana Delgado was NOT feeling good. So we went home and she slept while we watched the Testaments in Spanish:)

Domingo: Woot! All of us felt healthy:) Ward conference was awesome! Everyone participated and we had David and Julia with her grandkids in church:) And we took a lot of pictures with the other Hermanas. Comida was with Hermana Erica and Humbeto of the other area and it was super good. True comida Oaxaqueña:) Then we tried visiting a few of their investigators, but none of them were home. We did find the same investigator that we taught about the Book of Mormon. We taught he how she can gain her own testimony of the gospel. Then we ended the night with a member who made us hot chocolate with pan dulce.

Alright now for transfers.....

I will be staying here in Reforma 2 and I will have my first Latin comp. Aah! Her name is Hermana Molina and she has maybe one more transfer than me so she's still a little new too. So excited:)

Alright. Now I need to go. But I love y'all and hope you're having fun. And don't forget. You have one more week to read 2nd Nephi. I know you can do it. And please. Send me any insights you get while reading. I'd love to hear:)

Love Always,

Hermana Walker