Week 63

Well, this week was quite interesting. I think from all the work we've been doing these past couple of weeks have really paid off. This week we were able to find five new investigators: Moises, Barbara, Fidelina, Lulu, and Julia. Moises is Ana's husband and has a lot of doubts that God even exists, Barbara and Lulu are friends with an Hermana, Hermana Leon, and we actually visited them for the first time with her and they seem like they will become really interested in time, especially Barbara. Fidelina is Hermna Leon's sister in law. She's catholic and she's actually never wanted to listen to the missionaries, but we saw her this week and shared a message with the whole family and she liked it and participated and said we can teach her if we catch her at the family's house. And she actually asked for us one day so we think it's her time. Julia was an awesome find. We went looking for a reference and ended up at a creamery where she was working. And we asked for this Hermano, but he wasn't there and when we said we were from a church she lit up. So we contacted her and taught her right then and there. And she was very receptive and wants to follow Christ. She just didn't want to accept a baptismal date just yet, which is normal. So we gave her a Book of Mormon and it was awesome because we walked past about three hours later and she was reading the Book! :)) It was an awesome week finding people.

We also might have some new admirers. Janiery has A LOT of little cousins and here there are a ton of flowers. And whenever we come over and her little boy cousins are home, they always run over to this tree with really pretty pink flowers and jump, climb, whatever, to get flowers down for us. I've filled the pages in my Book of Mormon with flowers to press and I've used a lot of them to decorate my books and stuff. I even made a hardcover for my hymnbook because it's coming apart and I put a lot of these flowers on it..:)

So cool story! We were over at the Leon family's house and it was actually the day we taught Fidelina. But we were talking about service and we were having a really good conversation.  We've been having lightning storms every day for a week and today was no exception. But in the middle of this lesson one hit! This house is a restaurant too, so there's a part that goes outside and there are windows everywhere, and the house across the street has a lightning rod where it hit. Now with the outside and all the windows we saw a blue light enter the house and a HUUUUUUUUGE crack! I thought we almost died! And Hermana Leon almost went outside at the same time.... It was crazy........ The rod was BLACK afterwards!

I also realized that I don't know how to teach the big subjects to children. Yesterday we had to teach Janiery about the law of Chastity and I had no idea what I was doing. We even did a practice with an ex-primary teacher..... Luckily I had my comp with me because she saved the lesson a lot. I guess I need more practice in this sort of thing because we still have to teach Amerika about this sort of stuff..... and teaching my own children....

We also had divisions again. I went out with Hermana Mitchell again and it was pretty fun. We did really well with our time and we actually got 6 lessons within the day when our normal lately has been 3-4. She told me that I've become a better teacher and my Spanish has improved. That's nice to hear!:)

Alright short stories:

1. We went to correlation meeting with our ward mission leader and his nephew were listening to music really loud and guess what it was..... PARAMORE!!! The first time I hear music I listened to at home and it had to be my favorite band!.... For an hour.....Ahhh!

2. On Monday it started raining really hard so we had to change our plans. We started heading over to the familia Golpe Rubiera's house, with our new umbrellas :), and a guy in a mototaxi stopped and told us that we could jump in without charge. So we did and had an awesome contact with him:)

3. I saw drag racers on the freeway!!! It was so cool! With police everywhere:)

4. I can now play “If You Could Hie To Kolob” on the guitar:)

Well I hope you all enjoyed this email, filled with stories:) I like them like that, so let's hope a lot of cool things happen this week:)) I love you all and keep the faith! Ya you!

Hermana Walker

Week 62

Well this week was AWESOME, but also very looooooooooooooong. Hermana Gonzalez and I are now in the process of looking for new investigators and that has been quite the search. This week we decided that we were going to go find 6 new investigators and I just have to say that I have definitely gotten out of my comfort zone to do this. Here is what we did: We went looking in the area books and found a BUNCH of old investigators that were basically abandoned because they only had one or two lessons done and they seemed like awesome people. But the missionaries didn't write down why they dropped them. So we did a bunch of walking searching for them. We found a few houses, but no one was home. So we did a bunch of contacting. I don't think I have talked to this many people or bought this many little snacks on the street just to talk to someone. And we knocked on doors. That's never been my biggest thing to do because I never know what door to knock on. One day were walking for so long I got desperate enough to knock on a door. So we went down a random street and we found a metal door and I went up and knocked on it and said to the guy "We are missionaries and we are here to sing a hymn with you." He tried to give us the excuse that his family wasn't there and we just ended up contacting him and singing the hymn anyway. And he told us we can come back!:) We didn't find any investigators this week and yes we did get slightly sad that no one wants to listen, but maybe it's because Heavenly Father has something bigger in mind for us in the next couple of weeks.:)

We also went to the doctor. Last week we started getting sick from the rain and we got sore throats. But mine changed to a cold and my comp got a huge sore throat and a temperature. It stayed for about 4-5 days, so I took her to the doctor. She had a throat infection and a little bit of bacteria which was causing the temperature. So she took some of the medicine that he gave her and slept for the day. He told me I might have parasites, as if I didn’t know! and my stomach is backed up. So good thing I am doing the diet I'm doing. Here's to drinking lots of Jamaica! :)

Oh ya! I bought a guitar! I am so happy! :) It only cost me like 650 pesos which is like about 60 bucks! So worth it... But I have no idea what I'm doing. I figured out how to play a Christmas song that I don't remember the title of just by playing. It's not tuned right so I have no idea if it's the right note for this song anyway. So please send me the sound from that vid of tuning a guitar. Por favor!:)

I also taught the Hermanas in the ward how to make chocolate chip cookies! The Relief Society wants to learn things so that they can be more self-sufficient. And it went really well. They were all willing to help make them and they turned out awesome. The kids kept coming back for seconds:) They tasted differently though because the butter, Crisco, and chocolate taste differently here. But I was happy to have REAL chocolate chip cookies! They eat theirs hard and toasted.....mom would love them… Not sure if I'm going to stick with that idea when I get back...

And Mother's Day! It was so Awesome:) In the Relief Society the Primary and Young Women sang to all the moms and passed around a cute little note and a sucker rose. And at the end the priesthood gave us cupcakes. It was adorable:) Talking to our families was awesome. Even though we had a ton of technical difficulties we were able to get Skype working and the talk was fantastic!  It is just weird to think this was the last call home, but even more weird when I told you guys, "See you in September!" It was weird and time is going really fast, but the time here is so worth it! :)

Well I hope this week was good for you and keep smiling. Keep reading and stay close to the Lord. He loves you! Ya you!

Hermana Walker

Week 61

Hi! I hope everyone is doing okay and we are all happy! :) This week was pretty good. We didn't have as much success as we've had in the past, but we had a lot of fun experiences. 

On Monday I was able to meet my new comp Hermana Gonzalez. She is from Quintana Roo, which is a State of Mexico along the border of Belize. She's Mayan! It's so cool!:) She's 23 years old and is so ready for the work. In fact, she teaches like none other. She can think of an example or idea in the moment. It's awesome! :) We get to work a lot conquering the hills here because she's not used to them. Her house is all flat. But she's super adorable and we already get a long really well so I think training her will be a little different than the first time I was training.

We've also had a TON of rain this week. On Tuesday we left not only our windows open again, but the door to our balcony... And we were on the other side of our area..... So we had to run all the way back to the house to close up everything and we got home more soaking wet than I've been in my life... Oh ya! While running home I saw Hermano Hugo driving by on the freeway! I think he saw me too and he looked super surprised as he drove away... Anyway. We were super wet and by the time we got done cleaning up the house it was like 7:30 and our neighbors were freaking out that we were going to get fevers if we didn't jump into the shower right away. So we couldn't leave for the rest of the day.... And yesterday there was a HUGE lightning storm. Like lightning that strikes like 5 times before it goes away. And it wasn't very close at all, but the brightness was like none other. It was cool:) I love the rainy season here:) 

Well, we didn't have that much success in finding people around because with it being Dia del Niño, or Work Day, and Cinco de Mayo they had basically a week of vacations. So we spent our time contacting on the street and I realized my confidence in talking to random people on the street has gotten stronger. But we also found a ton of people we haven't been able to find in a really long time, like Neri and Amerika. Also a lot of members that don't exactly like the missionaries for some reason allowed us in their homes for a message. And they opened up a lot and shared some very personal stories. There were some awesome lessons and I really think that in time they will have a lot more confidence in the missionaries. :)

Also just a funny story.... We've been having Janiery read the Book of Mormon from the beginning and we're still in 1Nephi. But one day this week she went looking on Youtube for videos about Nephi and she found the Living Scriptures in Spanish! She got so excited and wanted to watch them with us but we couldn't. But isn't that funny?? I love those videos! :)

Well I hope everyone is doing awesome. I know some words in the Mixtepec and Zapoteco dialects!  I've been doing better from the stomach infection, but I've had a random sore throat this week, my comp too. I might also be having a weird allergic reaction on my hands. When I wake up there's random bites on my fingers and stuff, but there aren't bite marks. And they keep coming up and they itch! We'll see what happens..... Have a good week!

Love ya’ll!

Hermana Walker

Week 60

Well this week was quite eventful... We were able to start it out with divisions with Hermana Madsen on Monday. They were so much fun! We were able to go visit a few of our really progressing investigators and a family of recent converts that just moved into our ward. She's doing so much better with her Spanish now. When she first got here she didn't remember a thing because she hasn't used it since her mission. It's been crazy hard for her but she's doing a whole lot better and loves sharing her testimony with everyone. And it's a lot more impacting because she uses such small words.

We also got sick this week, the both of us. I started getting sick Monday night with body aches and the next morning I got nauseas and diarrhea and it was super hard to stay okay enough in district meeting. And it didn't help that they gave us cake, soda, and cookies.... And the stinking elders made me eat it anyway.... And later that day we had to both go home because Hermana Ray didn't feel good either. In fact she's the one who threw up. And we were like that for three days. Turns out we got a stomach infection from something we ate. And we didn't eat from the street so it might have been the food with a member. And because of the heat the food goes bad really fast. So we had nauseas, diarrhea, body aches, TONS of sleep, headaches, the whole shebang.... And we're slightly suffering still. But it helped because I put myself on a diet for the rest of my mission where I can't ANY kind of bread or tortilla and I didn't this week. And my stomach feels pretty free:) And the temple is awesome! We went, sick as dogs, on Wednesday, and all the time we were there we didn't feel sick. And when we walked out it came back. The temple has power!:))

We also got to do the baptism for Guadalupe. It was so awesome! We had a crazy week having to teach her EVERYTHING before her interview and it didn't help that we were sick, but she passed her interview and was ready for her baptism. 

Next day: There was no water in our church building! How are you supposed to do a baptism without water?! And the elders had another baptism too. So we had to change everything up. We had to go to another building to do it. But also we had to call everyone to tell them the change. The elders couldn't do it together with us, so we had to worry about timing. And we had to assign who was doing what because our ward mission leader hadn't been home all day. Then we get to the church. No one is there, the elders had just finished there baptism. But another ward had just started their baptism... 5 minutes before ours!! What communication! Luckily Guadalupe didn't show up until a half an hour later. So we were able to get pictures done, we had to steal some elders to be witnesses because no one else showed up, and it was an awesome baptism. She went right under the water and looked so different afterwards. Funny story though: Her mom was supposed to do the closing prayer, but for some reason ran out of the room right when she needed to do it. So her dad, who's not a member got up and started talking and I thought he was going to give some closing thoughts.... No he goes into "Father thou art in heaven"..... It was the most different thing I have ever seen in a baptism.....like it was a sweet prayer, but I've never had that kind of experience before.

We also got transfers!!!

Hermana Ray is going home to Texas! And I'm going to be a mom again!! I'm training!!  I am so excited. Right now I still don't know who she is, but we are going to pick her up tonight. But I am freaking out! I should be training at least these next two transfers. Then I just have one more transfer left! But I'm just going to be a good trainer and think about how I can help this missionary be the best she can be. I love you all and hope everything is okay. Go to the temple, remember Heavenly Father loves you! And me too:)

Love Hermana Walker

Week 59

So this week was really fun. We didn't have very much luck with the teaching, but I guess that's fine because we had our plate filled with other important things. 

On Monday we got to have a multi-zone activity and we all played soccer. It was super fun! And I have no idea how to play! And it was super funny because Hermana Ray hurt her leg again so she couldn't play, so I was the only Hermana on the team of super good elders. But it was cool because they cheered me on and everything and I actually played okay, as far as only kicking the ball when it comes near to me to a REALLY far away place:) And we all played six 12 min games straight. I hurt really bad afterward. But then again I felt a lot more energized too! :)

Our house got flooded! Well, not super flooded but filled with quite a bit of water none the less. The rainy season really did start this week and we had lightning and rain and even hail! One night we had a super crazy storm and we were super far away from the house. So we had to just onto the bus and run to the house, already sopping, and then we jumped into the bishop's car to go to a lesson. And we get going up the hill and the rain gets heavier and there's lightning everywhere. And we almost get to the house we're going to, realize she's not even there, when this huge lightning strike comes down really close by and we're like Nope! So we turned right around and went back to the house. But when we got there it started hailing!  It was so awesome! And there were pretty nice quarter sized hail and there were so much that it covered the entire ground like snow. But the bishop's wife ruined our fun when she asked if our windows were closed. No!! So we go up and there is hail on my comp's bed and it's on the other side of the room! And even when we shut the windows the water kept coming in from under our balcony door, so we had to spend a half an hour drying the floor and sweeping the water out and we had to put a huge board of wood in from on the door. It was pretty fantastic. But I can't wait for the huge rivers that are supposed to come to these hills! :))

But because of the rain our church got flooded too... But only in the room where the baptismal font is...What’s worse is our ward has this huge habit of not draining the font because the drain is broken. So you scoop the water out with buckets. But during Enrique's baptismal interview we that when people came to clean this room they cleaned the room. But just didn't empty the font..... Not the first time we've done this, but with our district leader's comp we emptied the font. I was so wet! And my arms hurt! :P But it was worth it and it was white when we were done. And he passed the interview too:)

We had the baptism on Saturday! It was awesome! Enrique is so awesome that I feel like we didn't do anything. He did everything for himself. It's awesome!:) It was fun because we were able to share it with our district leader and his comp because they had a dad and daughter get baptized so we had a huge turnout with both wards too. The talks were great, given by a recent convert in our ward and an elder who found the investigators in the other ward. Then they did the ordinance and he went right under the water! It was awesome!:) He was so ready for this. And we were able to sing a song as missionaries for the two wards. Enrique likes, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”, so we all sang that, and put a bit of English into it:) It was a super spiritual experience and he is already planning on the mission, wants a calling.... He's amazing and so chosen!! So worth teaching him only in three weeks!:) Now we have to do that with Guadalupe, but it one week so she's ready for her baptism on Saturday. But she seems pretty legit and ready:) Let's just hope they dumped the water out of the pila this time.....

Well I hope all is well and that you are all having fun. Everyone is getting done with school and summer's coming. Just don't get too busy to not put some time in for the Lord. He always comes first:) Hope you have a good week! Love y'all! 

Hermana Walker

Week 58

This week a lot of things happened. There were a lot of little things that had huge effects on us.... 

First off: We went to Centro! And I should never be given money again when little old Mexican people try selling you their cute little trinkets they make... #hnaraysaystruestory... But it was fun. I found a really cute Oaxacan shirt and a bunch of stuff to send to people! :) But still,we just pumped a lot of tags.... AND these darn Oaxacaños just love their blockades! They had one during our Centro trip(and we actually saw it was going to happen on the way there) and there was a bus blocking off EVERY SINGLE STREET from Centro to Santa Rosa because the government wanted to raise the price of the bus by one peso.... So we walked like 11/2 hours home….and walked all over the hills to teach right after....and just a few days ago they had a march for some democratic party and blocked off the roads…and one with the mototaxis.... If you don't know what those are I will send a pic next week. They're awesome! :)

We also have some awesome news! We'll have a baptism this week! Our investigator Enrique is just awesome! He's been super interested in the Gospel and he's had the baptismal date for April 18 for a while. But he's been out on vacation for two weeks so we haven't seen him for a while... BUT! We found out that for the two weeks he was gone he went to church those two Sundays AND three sessions of Conference. AND says he's going to read the Book of Mormon all the way through. AND is very determined to get baptized this Saturday. We are so excited!! And actual chosen one!! And we might also have one the next Saturday too! We also met a girl that has gone to church 3 times already and wants to get baptized. So hopefully we can teach her all the lessons in these next two weeks so we can do it! :)

We also made apple pie...like in the oven! Everyone has an oven but no one ever uses them! They're like cabinets... but the bishop's wife let us use her oven to make the pie for our district meeting and we ate it happily:) But our house was a mess!

We also had divisions this week. I got to go to the area Gualeguetza for the day with Hermana Mateson. It was super fun! I got to teach a lesson in English, which was the hardest thing I have done in the mish, I swear! I'm so used to teaching the Gospel in Spanish that it sounds weird to teach in English. But the Hermana wants to practice her English so we did it :) We also met this really cute Hermana selling candy from her house for a peso. She's 86 years old and loves to sing so she sang us a song :) And funny story: At the food we drank this drink called Jamaica. It's super good :) So we both drank like four or five cups of it...Then the Hermana told us that it makes you go to the bathroom like crazy.... Yup….. we went running around for about an hour looking for someone that was home so that we could use their bathroom #missionprobs.... but divisions were fun and Hermana Mateson really helped me think about the goals I'm wanting to accomplish for the rest of my mission. 

Other Stories:

I got a package from my family knowing that they would be sending me my face medicine. But when I didn't see anything like that in there I put the new keychain on my bag and put all the chocolate in the freezer.... So Sunday I open up the other pack of BRITISH! Cadbury Eggs and saw a Press Here sign..... I'd frozen my face med....Oopsy...!! 
We found a baby kitten in the street! Like it was only a day old! We were walking away from a lesson with Janiery and we see a rat moving in the street like something had run over it. No, it was a baby kitten that still couldn't even move itself. But we found the owner and said he will take care of it. :) 

We took an investigator to the temple for a lesson. Her name is Ana and she is doing okay but no progressing very much. So we thought this would help. And we got there and her crazy son was super calm and we had someone from the temple presidency talk with her. It was super cool and you could seriously feel the spirit there. :)) AND I saw Hermana Limon and Hermano and Hermana Corzo from Reforma there! It was super fun to see them again! :) 

We also had an AWESOME contact on Monday after the big blockade. We were walking home and it had already gotten dark and there was this girl that passed by, but we didn't pay any attention. We started laughing and joking around like always, but then we heard hard crying from the girl in front of us. So we thought we should check if she's okay. So we went up and I started contacting her, asking if she was okay. At first she didn't want to talk, but then we started explaining that the Gospel brings us happiness. Then she stopped crying hard and actually stopped so we could talk to her. Then we asked if she was going home and for her information so we could keep in contact. She just said she felt very alone. So we left her with a hug and hopefully we can keep in contact. But something could have happened during her walk and she only looked about 17 years old... Hopefully she's okay. 

Last story: So I re-dyed my hair last transfer and I forgot to wash the hair bands I held it up with. So Hermana Ray comes asking me for a hair tie yesterday and I tell her where she can find them…so she gets one. Now we're in church and she keeps getting these red marks all over her hands and arms and we had no idea what it was from. Then during a class she takes the elastic out of her hair to fix her braid.... It was coming from the elastic!...and because her hair was wet…it got the elastic wet too.....so…she's got a little red spot in her hair....!!:)

Well I hope you liked all of these funny stories. The work is awesome out here in Linda Vista and I hope it stays that way as this transfer comes to an end. BTW Mom!!! I found a guitar!!! You know I've been searching for one my entire mission and I've found some handmade ones for only 650 pesos, and that includes the pick and case.... That's like $50 bucks! :) But also I have stuff to mail out to you guys and other people.... But I don't have spending money to do it so I would love some help... Thanks for the package! I love you so much!! Bye!

Hermana Walker

Week 57

So this week went by a little odd. First off, it was Easter Week. And NO ONE WAS HOME!!! It was a super hard week to find people anywhere. No one was in the streets or in the house. I think we had a total of 5 hours in people's houses and the rest was walking. But it was cool. We got to see a lot of their traditions, like tons of fireworks at all times during the day and there are bands playing in the street all during the day. The only thing that I thought was really weird was that on Friday there was this "parade" with women singing this very sad song and a few men carrying this statue of Jesus, covered in blood, carrying the cross. And then they went over to another group with a statue of Virgin Mary and started praising the both of them... And on Sunday they stayed in their houses watching TV..... Strange things are happening to me!! (Hermana Ray and I quote that all the time! :)) But they have purple and white everywhere and the flowers are out, so it feels like Easter! :)

So. Guess what we do when we are ready for bed at night? We play pick-up-sticks! It's so much fun!  We get so into it!:) Like we are on the floor, in weird positions just so we could see which sticks we can move. So beware when I come home because I will beat you all :))

Another funny story... We live at the bishop's house, but there is another guy who lives there who is a lawyer and he travels all the time to Puebla and brings us sweets. Well, this time he brought us home something called Borrachitas.... Weird name for an innocent kind of candy.....? We tried them with him there. But when he left we hurried and checked the ingredients before we swallowed. There was wine in them!! Hence the name! So we had to give them back.... They were sweet candies... But let's not lose ourselves! :)

Also CONFERENCE!!! It was a very weird Conference. We got to watch it in English at the stake center and it was really fun. We got to watch a session with Pres Madsen too :) But still it was very weird how they did it. They didn't do a welcome or a farewell at the end. And we didn't get to see the cute exit of Pres Monson after each session. And everyone seemed sad on Sunday too. And what happened during the sustaining!?!  My heart sunk as I heard that “no”.  Who could deny that they are prophets!? But other than that I learned a lot. They had a lot of power in their words and I loved that they focused a lot of marriage and family this time. My comp says that they have a conspiracy against us missionaries ;) they want us to get married! But it was really cool. I'll have to write out my notes and send them next week. It was a good last conference in the mission and I won't forget the lessons I learned. 

I love you all and I hope you learned a lot and were able to feel the love of Heavenly Father yesterday. Easter is a day of remembrance of our older brother who gave his life for ours. I love Him and know that

He is with us :) Love y'all! Bye!