Antofagasta: Covenants made

I'll start off with last Saturday after I wrote you.

Saturday - We finished P-day and went to the baptism. It went pretty normal and the Bishop did the baptism. Junior gave his testimony afterwards and it was pretty powerful. He shared a bit of what his "Journey" to find the truth has been and then said "I guess I can say this now, hi, my name is Junior, and I'm a Mormon." It was a pretty cool moment. He told us after the baptism and confirmation the next day that while the ordinances were happening he didn't feel that special. He did tell us that while he was walking home after the baptism reflecting on the significance of it the spirit hit him very strongly and he just started to cry. The spirit talks to all of us in different ways and in moments when we don't expect as well. It's very cool to see the change that Junior has had and the determination that he has to move forward. He's left to do visits with a couple of different sets of missionaries and is having tons of cool spiritual experiences.

After Saturday the next big event that happened was that Maria José had her baptismal interview and passed. Her husband Johnson (who was inactive a couple of months ago) also passed an interview with the bishop so he was able to baptize her. We held the baptism today in the morning and everything went relatively well. They were going to a wedding reception afterwards so we waited for them to change clothes and went over there together. It was our P-Day so we went to give them support and take advantage of a free lunch. She'll be confirmed a member of the church tomorrow and we're super excited!

This week I'll be driving down to Vallenar with about half of the office. It will be a long trip because only two of us can drive here in the office. I'll let you guys know how it goes though!

Love you guys so much!

Elder Walker

Antofagasta: Busy week; lots of blessings

So this week was a pretty well one! Let me just make a short summary of everything that's been going on.

Monday - We Picked up the finishing missionaries and helped them get to the mission home. In this group of finishing missionaries were three of my former companions - Elder Aleluya, Elder Sepúlveda and Elder Rivera. Because Elder Huffstutler (my companion and the Commissary) and Elder Prada (being trained as the new secretary of visas) don't have licences it meant that I did a lot of driving. I'm nervous for when Elder Morales leaves the office in five weeks and I'm the only one with a valid license. To have an "international license" you have to have a valid license from your own country and no one else does! We worked into the night driving people after their meetings at the mission home as well. Not the best day for mission work because we woke up at 4:30 and didn't have that much time during the day.

Tuesday - We went into the office at a normal time and worked like normal. Elder Morales and Elder Prada went to drop people off at the airport at five o' clock and we started to get things ready for the missionaries that were going to come into the mission. We had a Brazilian coming into the mission and his flight was delayed so President left the assistants and I in charge of the rest of the newbies for a couple of hours at the mission home where we improvised a couple of classes or something for them to do. The North Americans who came in were cool but were drop dead tired. Apparently they had been awake for almost 48 hours. We stuck around in the mission home until the end of the day and then once President and Sister Dalton came back they set us free. I basically just stuck around so I could drive the Assistants back. Sister Dalton did the unspeakable though. We had saved some of the empanadas from lunch and they were in a plastic container on the counter. She got there and asked me how long they had been out. I responded about three hours and then watched in horror as the sabrosas empanadas were thrown into trash. You could have fed many starving missionaries with those empanadas for many moons. I guess she didn't want anyone getting sick but still. It hurt inside to see them trashed.

Wednesday - We got up early to go receive the trainers who were coming in to receive their trainees. Everything went off without a hitch. We also went to work like normal but nothing really interesting happened. 

Thursday - The mission was audited. We had a church representative sent from Santiago and he basically spent all day revising our financial records with me. He was a really nice guy and we only had small things to improve. Our president can still be really intense sometimes though. He has a presence that just kind of stresses everyone out. The cool stuff that happened this day was that Junior, our investigator who went to Peru got back and when he saw his first words were "I want to get baptized, When?" We talked a lot more with him about how his trip was and it was everything you could have hoped for. He also found out that many members of his family are Mormon. We talked with President to get special permission to let his attendances in Peru count and Junior well get baptized this coming week. We also received a call from Johnson and Maria José saying that they got an hour to get married (here it is a ridiculously complex process to get married) and they will be getting married the 21st and she will get baptized on the 28th! We're seeing some miracles happen here in the office!

Friday - We did a lot of walking and then met up with Junior and he had his baptismal interview. He passed! He wants to accompany us to a lesson today and we're super excited!

Saturday - We've just been kind of hanging out.

Sunday - I'll be giving a talk in church about Humility.

I love you guys so much! I know that when we let him the Lord does miracles through us!

-Elder Walker

Antofagasta: New missionaries and an International Drivers License

Here we go, this e-mail might be a long one but I'm going to write it anyways because this week was the dreaded CAMBIO WEEK!!!!!!

Saturday: The cambio calls are made

Sunday: All is calm. I attend church with my companion, Elder Gonzalez, who will soon be leaving home. We teach a little bit after church then head into the office to finalize logistics for what will be the craziest week in history. Late Sunday night President gets back from his trip to Buenos Aires for a Mission President's Seminar.

Monday: We woke up at 7:30 AM like normal only this time I was saying goodbye to my companion who was being picked up and taken to the mission home to do the final day stuff. We are now in a trio. It's weird but exciting and fun at the same time. Monday was calm. We made sure all of the finishing missionaries got in from all ends of the mission safely and then went out to work like normal at 5 o'clock.

Tuesday: The madness begins. We woke up at 4:30 and went to meet the Latinos at the airport so Elder Morales (Secretary of Visas and International Travel) could do their check-in and I (Financial Secretary) could pay for all of their baggage. Elder Spanbauer also accompanied us because we're in a trio. All was going well until President came up to us with one of the Elders and it turns out that his last destination was wrong. It was a very heated moment. We ended up working it out to buy his flight to Santiago and we were then going to have him wait in the airport and get his next flights ready in the office. We ran to the van and drove immediately to the office where Elder Morales started making calls to Santiago to get everything sorted out. In the end everything worked out so that the Elder could make it home. While we were doing this the gringos got dropped at the airport and left.

Afterwards, at eleven I went with Elder Talbot and Sister Talbot to the mission home to start getting things ready for the new missionaries while Elder Spanbauer and Elder Morales went to pick up the food for the newbies. The newbies were picked up by the Assistants in a bus while we were doing this. We got everything ready super fast and Elder Spanbauer and Elder Morales arrived just barely before the newbies with the empanadas. The newbies got of the bus with their suitcases and we put tags on all of them. We then threw all of the sister missionaries' luggage in the truck and went inside. 

Afterwards we ate lunch with President and Sister Dalton, the newbies and the Talbots. The newbies finished their lunches and we took all of their pictures and had them sign documents for their visas. We (The trio) then sneaked out of the mission home and took the sisters luggage to Holiday Inn and did the check-in. We drove back to the mission home to pick up the Talbot's and finish cleaning up (all insanely quietly because the newbies were having a meeting) and left the van with the assistants so that they could drop of the sisters in the hotel. We went back to the mission office and set everything else up for meetings. At 6 we went out to work like normal missionaries and had a bit of success contacting a couple of people.

Wednesday: Trainer meeting. We woke up at 5 to get ready and be at the mission offices at 7 to receive the trainers who were coming in from all over the mission. We set out breakfast for them and all of the newbies arrived. We took their suitcases and ushered them inside. The training meeting started and we ducked out of the auditorium and into the office. The newbies came in and sister Dalton introduced us and what we did. We ran and went to Domino's and picked up lunch and then we had the ceremony where the new missionaries met their trainers. Everything was going well until one kid opened up his letter, read it, and then got to the part where he read his companion, stopped, and said , "uuuuh, I don't think that's allowed." President Dalton walked over and then looked straight back at us. (We were kind of hiding in the back) and we all got super nervous. I don't know how I got nominated but I walked up into the circle and grabbed the call letter. We then ran to the office and printed off a new one but this time one that didn't say that he would be trained by an hermana. After that we (the office) told some more things to the newbies about their visas and mission credit cardsand then left. We cleaned things up while they were finalizing the meeting. We kept cleaning after the meeting and set up for leadership council. We got out to work at about 7. Worked until 10:30 and then went to sleep at 11:30 like normal. I found fleas in my bed though so I was wigging out and actually got to bet at 12.

Thursday: Leadership Council. We woke up at 5 again to be at the office at 7 to receive the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer leaders coming in from all over the mission. As they get in we take their suitcases and they go to eat breakfast that we have prepared. When the meeting starts at 10 we go into the storage room and start to unload their suitcases that are full of pouch from all over the mission. We then organize the pouch and put it in the corresponding suitcase along with proselyting supplies for the different zones. Afterwards we ran and picked up empanadas. All of the food has to get their a little bit late. President Dalton gives us a time and we have to arrive 5-10 minutes after the time he gives us. We get there and throw everything out for lunch so that the meeting can end and they can come out and eat. The leaders then go back in and we go do office stuff while they wait for us to finish. The meeting finishes at 4 and afterwards we are all attacked. I'm not sure why everyone waits to talk with us instead of just calling us with their problems beforehand. 

The only funny part that happened was that a group of about 14 hermanas came up and half surrounded us. They started to complain about where they were sitting on the buses to get to Antofagasta. Elder Spanbauer looked at me even though it's his job and I got stared at by the menacing glances of a herd of wild hermanas. I took a step back and said that I had nothing to do with bus pasages and Elder Morales did exactly the same thing on the other side of Elder Spanbauer.

We got everyone off and when everyone had left President called us into his office. The three of us went in and Elder Spanbauer and I sat down in front of President while Elder Morales hung out on a couch behind us. President then started to review these packets that Elder Spanbauer and I had completed to be able to drive. It was super intense and I felt like I was having a worthiness interview about my driving record. BUT I PASSED. My international license is now here and I have been loosed on the streets of Chile.

We went out and President signed the audit sheets that Elders Gonzalez, Talbot and I had done. We then left to work and had a pretty successful day, got back at 10 and then went to bed at 11:30 after planning the next day.

Friday: The reperation after the storm. We were so busy with meetings the whole week that I had a bunch of work buildup and had to get things done really quick or they were going to cut off the electricity in one of our apartments other problems had arisen as well. I also argued with the Dueña of an old apartment for about 30 minutes on the phone. We're going to have the missionaries go there and meet with her Monday to discuss her demands before she will take the apartment back from us but in reality they are just going to hand her the keys and walk away. She isn't going to be very happy at all and I expect a very angry phone call from her Monday. I ALSO DROVE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE MISSION!!!! It's an interesting experience.

We went out to work and did some splits with members. The one advantage of being in a trio is that it is really easy to split up with members. We found some new investigators and had some spiritual lessons as well.

That's pretty much how my week went. Hopefully there is something interesting in all of my ramblings.

I love you guys tons!

Elder Walker

Antofagasta: Learning new role and finding balance

This week went pretty well for me. I think I'm kind of getting back into the swing of things. Office life is pretty calm. Not a lot happens here. My companion (the old financiero who is training me) has some pretty bad back problems and it looks like he possibly could be heading home early so we really haven't been out to work that much. I've had lots of time to meditate and to study and then meditate some more and I think it's helped me out a little bit. I wish I could say more that's going on but there's really not that much going on so I guess I'll just explain what I do.

My job as Financiero:

1. Reimbursements- Any time any missionary that buys something that can be reimbursed I have to deal with it and/or tell them no.

2. Living Quarters- I am in charge of setting up contracts with landlords, paying landlords, arguing with landlords, arguing with missionaries when they do wierd things (i.g. some sister missionaries stabbed their refrigerator with a knife and let all the frion gases get out. Don't worry, they were trying to get the ice build up out so it's not AS bad as it sounds. Still not the smartest thing to have been done.) Landlords can be some of the most frustrating people in the world. Also all of the missionaries have to send me their pension inspections. 

3. Medical Payments- I help missionaries get money to go to the doctor.

4. I pay people- Literally every payment that the mission does goes through my hands.

5. Zone Conferences/When the newbies come in/When the old ones go out/Leadership Conference- We are in charge of getting all the food ready for all of these meetings and making sure all the stuff runs pretty smoothly. All of the Zone leaders come to Anofagasta once a month and we have to get everyones mail sorted and recieve mail from missionaries going to other missionaries and that kind of stuff. We also travel when we have zone conferences and help set them up in the different parts of the mission. President Dalton and Sister Dalton usually take the assistants and we take THE MISSION VAN. It's this brand new minivan and it's pretty legit. I will be getting my international license here pretty soon. (Thank you mom for making me get a new copy of my license a week before I left). The process is pretty easy and I don't have to take a driving test or anything so I think I'm safe.

6. Anything else in the office- We help each other out alot and are pretty tight here in the office. If something big goes down we've got each others backs. We basically run the mission because President Dalton spends the majority of his time travelling. I'm in here with Elder Gonzalez-gringo (my companion and Financiero Trainer who will be with me the entire transfer), Elder Spanbauer-gringo (The mission Historiador/Comisario), and Elder Morales-Chileno (Secretary of Travel and Visas).

7. Being a normal Missionary- On top of the aforementioned responsibilities and a bunch of other small stuff I do that I didn't really feel like explaining I am also a missionary. At five o' clock every day we shut down the office (returning later sometimes for emergencies) and leave to teach in the streets of Antofagasta. It's really wierd combining the two worlds. I feel like I have a full time job in addition to being a missionary. This part is probably the hardest to focus on because my mind is often times still so involved in the business aspect of things. 

So that's pretty much my life in a nutshell right now. Get up. Study. Go to the office. Go work. Sleep like a rock.

So now here's something I've been thinking a lot about.

Spiritual Thought:

2nd Nephi 2:27- Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.

We have the ability to choose whether we want to be free and happy or in captivity and miserable. There are many things that can captivate our attention in this life and take alot of our precious time. If we don't choose wisely after a bit of time the things that we have chosen won't leave us feeling happy. Many times in my life and in my mission I've had to take a step back and re-orient myself so that the things that I'm doing are things that will edify me and in the end give me more freedom and happiness. I can also testify that studying the scriptures - In particular the Book of Mormon - and sincere prayer are two things that bring happiness and will always be of great worth.

I love you guys and miss you tons!

Elder Walker

Antofagasta: Transfer to Mission Home

Halo, Misión Chile Antofagasta, en que le puedo ayudar?

I am now the mission's newest FINANCIAL SECRETARY!!!

I got a call about two weeks ago from President Dalton asking me if I would be willing to serve in the mission office as the "financiero". My job basically entails anything that has to do with money in the mission. All of the money that the missionaries receive weekly, reimbursements, anything that has to do with the missionary living quarters and all other money spent by the mission runs through my hands. It's really not that hard though. The hardest part (as explained by Elder Gonzales, the Elder training me) is when we have to argue with the landlords about details in the contracts. 

We're going to rewind in time a bit. Last Sunday I had to leave my zone at 2:30 in the afternoon to get to the office before transfers to help out. Church ended at 1 so I had to be there, run to the apartment really fast and pack in about 15 minutes and then go to the bus terminal. It was kind of sad because I didn't get to say goodbye to hardly anyone in the ward. They also didn't let me speak in church because an area seventy showed up. All-in-all I just kind of disappeared. Luckily some of the members came to say goodbye to me at the bus terminal and I lost it and got kind of emotional.

Because of the special assignment I traveled alone and showed up in Antofagasta alone in the bus terminal with three suit cases. The office elders had given me the direction of my new apartment and told me to take a taxi there once I got into Antofagasta. As I got into the Antofa terminal at about 10:30 some random person who was taking lessons from the missionaries took pity on me, helped me with my bags and gave me a ride! Score one for humanity!

I got to the apartment and two of the Elders helped me get my bags up into the apartment. We have probably the nicest apartment in the entire mission and live with the four office elders and the Assistants to the the President. The Office Elders are all super cool and friendly. My companion's name is Elder Gonzales and he is from Colorado. He is my first "gringo" companion and I'm still in shock about speaking so much English.

We for the next couple of days were running around helping missionaries finish the mission and then start the mission with their trainers. We didn't have that much time to work in our sector proselyting but the time that we did have we had some amazing lessons and the people here are amazing! Our ward is named Quito and we share it with the Assistants and two other elders. One of the "other" elders serving in Quito though is my good friend Elder Giadach. We lived together six months in Arica and we both kind of freaked out when we heard we were going to be together again another six months.

Now that I'm all caught up here's a quick:

Spiritual Thought:

Luke 17:32 - Remember Lot's Wife.

Now watch this video - http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/new-years-look-not-behind-thee?cid=HP_MO_12-28-2015_dPFD_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

I recently hit my year mark in my mission and it's been a time of serious reflection for me. There are tons of miracles that I have seen and tons of things I wish I could have done better as well. The beautiful thing is that I can keep moving forward. I've repented of my past mistakes and I have made the resolve not to look back, but to keep moving forward. 

I know that Jesus is the Christ and that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us.

Feliz Año Nuevo

Love,

Elder Walker

Copiapo: Companion trained. New Companion coming.

Hey Everyone!

Sorry, it's been a couple of weeks since I've written something and I'll just do a quick recap of what's been happening:

-BAPTISM!!!! Jesus Daniel finally got baptized! His baptism was awesome even if it started about an hour and a half late. The other people who were going to get baptized with him live a little bit outside of the city. They had some trouble getting here but they got baptized in the end! All in all it was a great week for the Chañarcillo ward with 3

Baptisms! Jesus asked me to baptize 

-Cambios!!!! In a strange twist of events I'll be staying here another transfer and my trainee will be heading up north to Iquique! It's been great to have been able to help Elder Alcántara start out the mission and I know he'll do great things. In other "Cambios News" my papito is going to be one of my new zone leaders so we'll be able to do intercambios and remember old times. 

- Bienvanidos al Sector mas gigante de Chile. The two sister missionaries are being taken out of our ward leaving us with a HUGE sector. We're acutally going to have to take a bus about 30 minutes to teach some recent converts and investigators. It will be a challenge but I think it will help me learn how to better manage my time.

Other than that, not a whole lot has been going on here. I'll have more news next week with regards to the new stuff that's happening in my life (new companion).

This letter is pretty short so I'll leave you guys with a spiritual thought. I'm 95% sure I've shared this scripture before but I'm going to share it again.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

There are many times when we feel fear in our lives and it's not always the typical "scared of the dark" kind of scared. It could be an uncertainty about the future or memories from the past. It could be the fear to take a step forward or make a big change in life. When all is said and done their are many fears and all of them come from the adversary. This scripture embodies perfectly the love that Christ has for us. When we feel his love for us, fear vanishes. If we really understand the power that he has, and that we have through the extension of his Holy Priesthood, The seemingly insurmountable fears that are ever present in our lives suddenly aren't that scary.

I have a strong testimony of the atonement and the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. I invite everyone who might be reading this to take a moment and read the scriptures and then pray to Heavenly Father for a better understanding of the Atonement. I know that peace and comfort are within our grasp.

I love this gospel and know that we have the restored church here on the earth today.

Love you all!

Elder Walker

Copiapo: Life in the Atacama Desert

Hey everyone! This week was another week in the Atacama Desert!

This week started out being a little bit hard. I kind of got a pretty bad head cold but we kept on working! I only had one night where I had trouble sleeping but now I'm almost back up to full working capacity!

This week we worked hard with the members to help a family that we are working with feel more comfortable in the ward. I'm just going to throw down the story of the Ibacache Campos family really quick. We met them through their kid named Joey. We were walking in the street one day and sometimes the kids in the street will just start talking with us, usually to say bad words in English and ask us what it means (Thank you modern video games). Joey was different though. He told us that he wanted to go to church and get baptized!!! He took us to his house and introduced us to his family where we gave the lesson of the restoration and it was super powerful. Turns out the family was about to get baptized in another ward but moved about a year ago and quit going to church. This Sunday the Mom and Joey came to church! The dad had to qork and was going to attend next Sunday but got out early and came to the third hour! When we saw him walk into the church grounds through the window I practically jumped out of my seat in excitement!

We've been working alot with another one of our investigators, Jesus Daniel of 13 years. He's got things pretty hard. He and his mom are from Bolivia and she came here for work a little more than two years ago. She was sending money back to Bolivia for him where supposedly his grandma and aunt were taking care of him. Long story short he ended up living in the streets for two years. His mom found out and went to bring him here. He was about to get baptized a couple of weeks ago but we had a couple of problems and had to postpone his baptism. We're working hard with the Young Mens presidency to get him integrated into the ward.

In other news we hiked "Cerro La Cruz" last P-day and took some nice photos of the Desert city, Copiapó! It was pretty cool to see the whole city and do something outdoorsy for a change.

Spiritual Thought:

If you haven't already started to "ponderize" a scripture weekly, get to it! I'm taking up the challenge that Kevin G. Durrant gave us in General Conference and can already see the blessings in my life! I ponderized 2nd Nephi 32:8-9 and really have worked on making my prayers more meaningful and personal!

Love you guys so much! Keep on Being awesome and hastening the work!

Elder Walker