Arica: The Gospel Blesses Families

Hey Everyone!

This week was another week in the life of a missionary!

Some fun things that happened this week:

We found bags of goldfish SUUUPER cheap in Líder, the Wal-Martish store where we do all of our shopping. Let's just say if we have a zombie apocalypse, we're good for a couple of weeks.

We've been practicing all sorts of magic with some members. Not the black arts stuff, more slight of hand and cool card tricks!

We went to part of the Birthday Party of one of the members here. It's a tradition that the birthdayee has to take a bite of the cake without using their hands. Something that happens alot is that the birthdayee goes in for a bite and will have their head shoved in the cake! Fun Stuff!

Now on to some progress that we've been having:

We've been working alot with different families. I have a strong testimony that the gospel brings happiness into families! If we live the gospel in our homes, I know that we will have more love and happiness in our homes! We're working with a mother and her son who has aspergers. They've been coming to church for a while now, and the difference is amazing! The son has been calmer and more social; he even is getting along great with one of the young men in our ward!

We've also been working alot with the less active members in our ward. We have a ward of about 400 members, but only about 80 regularly attend church. A lot of the less active members, even the ones who haven't come to church in 15 years, still have a strong testimony of The Book of Mormon and of the church. They've just fallen a little bit of the path. We're working hard right now to get the members excited about befriending and helping them come back to church!

And now for a spiritual thought:

In the mission field, something that I'm learning alot, is how to be humble. I've been called to serve the Lord but I have to remember that I've been called to teach by the spirit. Sometimes I lose my focus and teach from myself. I have to focus on letting the spirit do the teaching. There is nothing I can teach without the spirit. To steal a scripture from an e-mail from my cousin, Elder Kenison "yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times."  (Alma 38:14)

I know that the church is true, and if we search diligently, we can find and strengthen our testimonies of Jesus and his Gospel.

Love you all!Elder Walker

Arica: Birthday in the Field - What better place to be?

Hey Everyone!

This e-mail is being sent to you by the new, the improved, the one year older, ELDER WALKER!!!!

I had my official birthday party in the mission! Which involved waking up like normal, getting handed a slice of cake, then proceeding to study. WOOT!!!! SO EXCITING!!!

I did end up getting a really good birthday present though! One of our recent converts, Andrew from Maryland, recieved the Aaronic priesthood! He's really motivated to follow firm in the faith and I've been learning tons from him. He is dilligently attending church even though it's in a language that he doesn't understand (albeit he has me whispering a somewhat butchered translation) and wants to keep progressing forward! We were teaching a lesson with him and we talked about prayer. I, just asking one of the regular questions asked, "How are your prayers? Are you praying every morning and every night?" He just gave me a wierd look and said, "We shouldn't only pray when we get up and when we go to bed, we should be praying in every moment! I'm praying when I'm out in the field working. Many times I'll just take a quick moment and say a prayer during the day." It's amazing to be able to see the progress of recent converts and be able to take part in such a marvelous work!

Quick Scripture-- Mosiah 26: 29-30

29 Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgresseth against me, him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed; and if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him also.

 30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.

It doesn't matter what we've done, who we are, or who we have been; The Lord is here with us. I have gained a stronger testimony here in the mission that if we will accept the help of the Lord, we can recieve true happiness. The mission isn't always easy. There are many times when I feel more than a little frustrated, but when I kneel down and offer a sincere, heartfelt prayer, I always can recieve peace.

I love all of you guys! The best birthday present anyone could give me is to further the work back at home! Invite a friend to church and look for opportunities to give the missionaries back there some work!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker

Arica: Staying Put in Arica

Saludas del Ciudad del Eterna Primavera!

This week was crazy but was an awesome week at the same time! We just had transfers, and I'll be staying in Arica with Elder Sepúlveda for another six weeks!

Highlights

The sister missionaries were taken out of our ward this week. They've been having some problems with some guys that have been harassing them, so President Dalton took them out. This means that we're going to have to take over their sector while maintaining ours. This means A LOT more walking. We're also going to have to manage our time really well as we take over the investigators of the sisters. This cambio is going to be one that involves a lot of humility and faith in the Lord!

We've been seeing a lot of progress with some of the families that we're working with. This cambio we're expecting to see many baptisms, and we're super optimistic! 

This p-day we played a little bit of guitar at the house of one of the members! He has a sick Gibson and was playing tons of cool riffs for us! Turns out, I can still pick out one or two things, haha!

Spiritual Thought

In all of our lives we're going to have the opportunity to teach. One of the greatest examples of teaching is the missionary Ammon in the Book of Mormon. One of my favorite passages of scripture is when he is teaching to King Limhi. One of the things that Ammon does to start teaching is that he starts to question King Limhi. In Alma 18:24 he starts to ask Lamoni questions. Specifically he asks if Limhi Believes in God. Limhi responds that he doesn't know who God is. 

What many people would do here is proceed to explain about Heavenly Father. Ammon though, being a good teacher, and led by the spirit, asks another question! The key to good teaching, I'm finding out, is asking inspired questions. 

I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is a true book and that through it we can recieve TONS of wisdom and be blessed in many ways!

Love you guys!

Elder Walker

Arica: Short message & Random Pictures

Arica District

Hey guys! Not a lot of time this week but things are going great! We're working really hard right now on getting the members energized and getting people to come to church more consistently! We've been having powerful lessons and are going to see some more baptisms real soon!

Love you all!

Elder Walker

Andrew baptized last week

Arica: Life is Good

Cuanto tiempo no vemos!

Sorry for the Lack of an e-mail last week, but I'm back again this week stronger than ever!

Highlights:

Baptism!

This past Saturday we had the baptism of Andrew! He's from Maryland, and it's amazing that he came to Chile and found the gospel here! He honestly has so much faith that the Lord will provide for him it often leaves me awestruck! We taught him the lessons in English, which was an amazing learning experience for both me and my companion!

I've been translating for him at church and have also gained a renewed testimony of the Gift of Tongues! After the baptism the Bishop was giving a welcoming speech to Andrew, and I was translating. The words were just flowing through me, and it was amazing! I was honestly just a mouthpiece for the Holy Spirit, who was translating and speaking through me! It was honestly miraculous and I can't even explain how cool it was!

This week a Deacon from our ward has been helping us out a lot! His name is Nefi (Like Nephi, but in Spanish) and he's been playing with Aaron, who is part of an investigator family. While he was playing with Aaron, he suggested that they take break from playing Call of Duty and read some verses from the Book of Mormon! Aaron accepted and they read the Book of Mormon together! Even more awesome, Aaron and his mom came to church and are super motivated right now!

Some other stuff:

My companion is learning English and I'm having alot of fun teaching him English phrases that include, but are not limited to: Are you pickin' up what I'm throwin' down? (his favorite), pimpin' , and yo dawg, wassup?

It's finally cooled off in Arica! It's now only warm and humid, no longer hot and humid.

We ate at a Subway today!

Spiritual Thought-- Alma 7: 17

 17  Sí, en verdad, en verdad os digo que si todos los hombres hubieran sido, y fueran y pudieran siempre ser como Moroni, he aquí, los poderes mismos del infierno se habrían sacudido para siempre; sí, el diablo jamás tendría poder sobre el corazón de los hijos de los hombres.

Basically Just be Like Moroni and you're all good!

Love you all! Keep going hard in whatever it is you're doing!

Elder Walker

p.s. Special Shoutout to Maria Luz, who is dilligently reading these posts!

Arica: Teaching an American

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty miraculous! I'm not sure if I told about one of our investigators, so sorry if I repeat anything, but here is the story, we'll take it way back to when I was in the MTC!

When I was in the MTC something pretty sad happened, I lost my English Book of Mormon! I was devestated! It was a gift from my Grandma and had my name etched in it and everything! I prayed to find it, looked everywhere, checked the lost and found every day for a couple weeks, but to no avail. I was more than a little frustrated and wondered why this would happen. Grudgingly, I went to the MTC store and bought the only English Book of Mormon they had, one with the blue cover, like the kind that the missionaries normally give out.

A couple of months passed. I didn't really think much more of this. I started to read the Book of M
ormon a lot more in Spanish, which I now do exclusively. A couple of weeks ago we got a reference from some other Elders in our city. We went to contact this reference and were surprised to find out that it was a gringo named Andrew, who spoke little Spanish. We started to talk with him and he was eager to listen. So we set an appointment for the following day.

When we were in our apartment preparing for the day, I remembered that Book of Mormon. Here in Chile, it's a little bit difficult to get ahold of English Book of Mormon's. We gave this Book of Mormon, which I had by miracle and by the Hand of the Lord, to Andrew. Andrew has been reading it daily and told us that he has gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church! His baptism is scheduled for the 16th of this month!

The Lord works in mysterious ways. But he has a plan for all of us! We just need to be patient and he will reveal it!

Stay strong in prayer and read the Scriptures daily!

Love you all!

Elder Walker

Arica: New Comp & Teaching in English

Hey Everyone!

This week was a week full of changes! The biggest change was that my first companion, Elder Aleluya, left for Calama and was replaced by Elder Sepulveda! Elder Sepulveda is awesome and I am continuing to learn tons in the mission! Elder Sepulveda is from Chile from a city called Temuco. He's super energetic and we're working alot right now on motivating the members to do missionary work!

Another change that we had is that they started to do a renovation of our chapel. It's fomé (Bogus) because we now have to walk almost a half hour to church and it starts at 3 in the afternoon. The walk isn't that bad but we lose some proselyting time during some of the key hours of the afternoon.

One of the most interesting things that happened this week is that we started to teach a man from Maryland! He only speaks a little bit of Spanish so we're teaching him in English! It's a little bit wierd but He's accepting everything, reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to be baptized!

Some Chilean Stuff: We've been eating alot of fresh bread here. It's super cheap and we can buy it fresh from literally so many places.We can buy a round for about 25 american cents. Super Cheap.

Spiritual Thought: 1 John 4:18

I'm pretty sure I've shared this scripture before but it's one of my favorites. With this scripture I leave a challenge. I challenge anyone who reads this to have perfect love for  your friends and family and share the gospel! You can change a life and have an eternal impact!

Love you all tons!

Elder Walker

Arica: PICTURES & New Companion

Hey Everybody!

This week was crazy! I'm officially done with training (not done learning though!) and I said goodbye to my papito! He got on a bus this morning to Calama and we said our goodbyes; Somewhat sad, but also super exciting. The baptism this week unfortunately fell through. It was hard for my comp because the next day we got a call saying that he was going to Calama. My new companion is named Elder Sepulvera and is from Chile! I haven't met him yet but I'm super excited! Another Eldder from our pension, Elder Swett, also left this week for Vallenar. It's super sad t see two elders that have had such a big impact in my life go, but to quote my ninth grade English teacher, Mr. Reeves "Variety is the spice of life!"

It's hard to believe that I already have 4 and a half months out in the mission. In the mission you blink and it's already gone! I'm working hard to change who I am to become the best missionary possible out here! One of the greatest things about the atonement is the power that we have to fall on our knees, repent, then stand right back up again and have more strength than before.

--Spiritual Thought--

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk in Santiago to the missionaries of Chile. We watched it by broadcast. One of the things he talked about was the meaning of "asking with a sincere heart and real intent". Our main purpose as missionaries is to invite people to come to Christ. We invite them to read the Book of Mormon, to come to church, and to ask God if these things are true. They need to have this real intent though. Elder Oaks talked in great detail about this and many other things. The thing that stood out to me though, is the word COMMITMENT. When we have real intent, if we recieve an answer to our prayers, we will act on that answer. For our investigators, that action is often baptism. If we don't have this commitment to act though, why would we recieve an answer? What good would it do us? When Lehi recieved a DREAM in the Book of Mormon, he had the commitment to act on that prompting. He had the commitment to recieve grand answers. It's that kind of commitment to the Lord that I am trying to develop on my mission and that we all should strive to develop in our lives.

--Some Chilean Stuff--

I'm like super addicted to empanadas. I think I have a problem. No, but seriously, the empanadas here are super delicious. Every empanada comes with half a hard boiled egg inside, lots of delicious meat and sauce inside, and an aceituna (It's an olive, but with the pit still inside and WAAAAAAY more potent). We can buy them fairly cheap here, and I can't describe how much better they are than a dollar burger at some fast food joint in the U.S. THEY ARE SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!

Love you all!

Stay Frosty,

Elder Walker