June 29, 2015 Max Got Baptized! :)

I can´t believe it´s week 6 already!!! So...yeah I can´t believe that next tuesday we are going to have transfers...it went by WAY too fast...I feel like I just got here haha and that I don´t know anything about my area or anything...I am really hoping that my comp stays for one more transfer here with me...but everyone thinks she is leaving, herself included, even though she doesn´t want to leave. This is her first area and she has four months here. But yeah, I guess we will see what happens...

so, something exciting happened this weekend! (no, I did not fall on another speedbump and no, I did not get offered another beer ;) ) MAX GOT BAPTIZED!!! We are so happy :) He is a cute little old man who looks like a cartoon character because he is like a round ball haha :) He is single and he´s 50, even though he doesn´t even look 50.... But he is cute :) He always calls us "hermanitas" and says stuff like "personitas" and "coreanitos" haha (that basically means something like "little Koreans-Korean people") it makes me laugh :) But yeah so he got baptized this Saturday :) 

His story is kind of crazy and kind of long so the whole email this week is going to be about him. But yeah so anyway, when I got here, my comp talked about max a lot and she told me that he is a super great person and all that and that we needed to visit him. so we put an appointment with him and when we went to his house he told us that his parents said that he couldn´t have us over in their house so he told us that we could still put appointments with him, it would just have to be in the house of someone else. So we started visiting him in a member´s house from that point on. Well, he had actually been hanging out for like six years with Jehova´s Witnesses...so he had a lot of their ideas and he always talked about them and all that but he never got baptized in their church. So that was a little difficult....but we explained the doctrine of Christ many times and with a lot of patience. 

The one principle that was really hard for him to grasp was the doctrine of prayer. I have no idea why it was so hard for him but it was. He could not say his personal prayers. He wouldn´t pray to know if what we were teaching him was true or not. He wouldn´t pray. He only would either say the opening or closing prayer in the lessons and the thing that I didn´t get was that he said it perfectly! It was perfect! I didn´t understand what was so hard about saying the prayer by himself to ask if this was the truth. Anyway so long story short, we taught him about prayer like three times...and I was getting a little bit frustrated with him because he didn´t seem to get it and he wasn´t progressing like we knew he could. So I wrote on a sticky note that if he didn´t complete his commitment to pray and listen for an answer for the next visit, that we would have to let him go for a bit because he wasn´t progressing. 

Well, for the next appointment, guess what happened? He told us that he prayed and that he had a dream that was his answer that this was the truth because a man in white gestured to a door and beckoned him to enter and walk up the stairs and he took that as his answer that this angel was telling him that he needed to take this step up the stairs that lead to progression (baptism). So yeah, it was pretty crazy. So we put a baptismal date with him and we were all happy and all that good stuff. But, later that night, when we got to the house, we started feeling bad about his date and we started feeling guilty because we kind of felt empty, like, we weren´t excited for the baptism like missionaries normally are. We both felt that Max wasn´t quite ready and we felt guilty because we didn´t want him to just get baptized and then become inactive for lack of testimony....so yeah, it was a bad feeling.... 

We went with him to the church for our next appointment and we felt impressed to ask him about how he was doing with the word of wisdom and he told us that everything was all good! We then asked him specifically about coffee because that is his weakness, and he told us that he had only dranken (drunk? haha I don´t know what it is anymore) like "20%" coffee with milk haha. Well, as you know, that does not count as living the word of wisdom so....we had to tell him that he could not get baptized that weekend because he needs to live the word of wisdom for at least one week before being baptized so that he can be spiritually clean and prepared. He felt sad and stuff for a little bit but then we explained what he needed to do to complete with this goal and to be baptized and he started getting hopeful again. 

The point of this part of the story is that this was a miracle for my comp and I because we put a different date with him that we felt so much better about and we lost the feeling of guilt and uneasiness. and yeah well sorry but I am out of time but that is basically the story and i will finish it next week haha. (lucky you, you get two parts) ;) I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Walker

Here´s a pic of the baptism and also another pic of my companion and I...finally...haha at the end of the transfer...how nice ;)

Hermana Lopez (My 5th Companion)!:)

Me and Hermana Lopez at Max's Baptism

June 22, 2015 Promptings of the Holy Ghost and Making Changes!

Well, it is crzy to me how the time flies because this change is almost over...i can´t believe it. Sorry this is going to be a little lame because I don´t have a ton of time and so I just copied and pasted some things that I wrote to the mission President and to one of my friends haha so here it goes. I love you guys and hope you have a great week! 

Oh my gosh guess what!? So on saturday we were waiting at a bus stop to go to the stake center for a baptism and a man totally asked me if I wanted a beer...haha what the? yeah how crazy right? So I told him no thank you and he went on like aw come on why not? and all that and I told him that I don´t drink and then he like left me alone after that but I just thought it was pretty funny how I have NEVER been offered beer or drugs or anything like that in my life and then suddenly I am a missionary, set apart to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and some man asks me if I want a beer when I am wearing a name tag that says "Jesucristo" on it.... "isn´t it ironic, don´t you think?" but yeah, that was the only thing really cool slash crazy slash interesting that happened this week.

On Saturday (before we went to the baptism) the bishop called my companion and told her that she was called to speak on Sunday about missionary work. She used the talk that Elder Holland gave in 2012 u}at the general conference. The one where he describes what he thinks that Savior might have said to Peter and the other apostles (when he planches them pretty good...). But so, we both read the talk and thought about it and all that. We love it so much! It´s super awesome. But, yesterday we were walking all afternoon after church and our studies and we went to houses and knocked on doors to contact references and to try to find new investigators and...nothing. We had nothing that day. Just one referral contacted and nothing else. The good thing is is that we made it to our house on time and we passed in the numbers on time as well but...we felt pretty bad because we hadn´t accomplished all that we wanted to. But we planned and we talked and we came to a conclusion. We need to change the way we do things. We need to change a few habits such as....visiting the SAME people all the time! I don´t know a LOT of members or less actives or investigators for that matter, because we always go with the same people. We were looking at the map that we have plastered to the wall and we realized that we have been walking in like the same big circle my whole time here...we never leave San Baltazar. So yeah, we learned what we need to do in order to be more successful and we are excited to start making this change that we should have made a looong time ago. Thank you Elder Holland! Well, really I know that it was the Holy Ghost that prompted us to read that specific talk and that it was listening to the Holy Ghost that made the words stick in my head that as disciples or members or missionaries of the living Savior, Jesus Christ, we are expected to make changes. We can´t be like the apostles that returned to their old ways, to their old way of living-to being fishermen instead of fishers OF men. We have to make changes. We have to progress. We are expected to fulfill our divine destiny and become true disciples of the Savior who are on the move, who act, and who progress. When we said our prayer to close our daily planning session yesterday, these where the thoughts and words that passed in my brain. This was my answer. This was the thing that I needed to read and to hear and to remember so that I can put it into action and so that our area and our ward and the work of our Father in Heaven move forward. We want to see progress. We want to work. We want to be successful. I know that those things come from being faithful and obedient to the commandments of God and to the rules of the mission. I know that it comes through faith and the Spirit. I know that we can accomplish all of this and help bring souls unto Christ, their salvation, by the power of our Heavenly Father but I know that it requires effort-hard work- that it won´t be easy. But that is the way it has to be so that we can try to understand at least a tiny bit of what it feels like to truly walk with Christ. 

I know that this is the true gospel restored here on the earth, that this is the church of Jesus Christ and that He is at the helm, leading us through these stormy waters that we must cross in order to make it back to the Father. I know that with Christ I can do all things and that with Him and with my faith in Him, I can help build the kingdom of God here on earth and preach the gospel of salvation to my brothers and sisters. I am proclaiming His love and meanwhile, I am feeling it. I feel it everyday. I know that it is real, that all of this is real. I am a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father and I know that I have been called here to bring my spirit brothers and sisters to the full, restored and perfect knowledge of their Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Love you all!! 

Love, 

Hermana Walker

P.s. picture with my comp next week. Promise. (I know, my english is surperb....) ;)

           

June 15, 2015 Ahh Once Again Time is Cut Short!

So there ya have it. I have no time! I actually need to leave right now but I wanted to at least send signals of life ;) so yeah, I just wanted to tell you that we actually didn´t have any baptisms this weekend... :( yep. the dates fell through. but it´s ok. We have faith and hope in this week. It´s gonna be a better week :) We are happy! We are excited! :) I "edited" a picture with faces from the liahona haha that i taped onto a photo of mine...it looks pretty funny. My face is the best part. I am going to attach it here so that you can all enjoy something, at least, from this email haha. Beware, it is actually pretty good...not gonna lie... :)

 Mom, you and I gotta be careful because if we aren´t...we could very easily end up looking like the "photo-shopped" me....how scary....

Anyway, I love you all! sorry this email is so lame! Next week I will work hard to make it better haha. Have a great week! I love you all...haha again... stay safe, stay strong and keep sharing the gospel! 

The gospel is true. it is restored. it is the greatest gift that you could ever receive or share so...make sure you live it, treasure it, and share it! :) 

Love, 

Hermana Walker

June 8, 2015 Pray For Us

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I hope you all had a great week :) well...so as the subject line indicates...we would really appreciate your prayers this week since...we are hoping that Marcos and Salvador can be baptized this weekend! They are super awesome! They are not part of the same family but they both have their baptismal date for this saturday...although we are going to try and more it to be on Friday or Sunday since the whole ward is going to the temple this weekend and they leave friday night at 11ish and are gone until late friday night (since...well, the temples here are kind of far away...we are really spoiled in Utah, and in the U.S. in general because everything is super close) but yeah, they have their temple trip this weekend so we are going to try and move their date for Friday or Sunday in the afternoon :) But please pray for them! Salvador needs to get married this week before he can get baptized and Marcos just needs to feel love and guidance. He doesn´t have a family or anything like that and he lives in the streets... But he is really great and nice and he is excited to get baptized and to start changing his life for the better! They both need your prayers and so do my companion and I haha. But yeah, they are super great people. 

The secretaries in the mission had a baptism this week that was actually a reference from the mission president in the north mission so it was really cool because our mission pres was there and the mission pres from the other mission and Pres Christensen, the puebla north mission mission pres, actually baptized the man who got baptized. it was cool :) (haha I sincerely apologize for the hideousness of my vocabulary. I am pressed for time and so I am trying to just jot down a few things to share with you guys haha. Forgive me!) but yeah it was really neat. Then on sunday, the convert bore his testimony and I was crying because it was so sincere and powerful. He is golden! 

Sorry...I feel super lame because I have no more time and this letter was super lame...but I love you all and I hope you have a great week! I will try to write more and to write better as well, the next week. we have to go to the Stake Center and practice a song for the zone conference tomorrow...that´s why I am out of time because our P-day was kind of "cut" an hour short for the practice haha. But it´s all good. Hopefully it sounds good tomorrow.... I love you all! Have a great weeek! 

Love always,

Hermana Walker