Chelsee Mission Update January 2009

It seems that Sister Walker has been extremely busy - so much so that her letters home on Thursdays have been very short. (and always with an apology that she just doesn't have much time) I think that is AWESOME!!! I'm happy that she is so enjoying the work and so busy teaching and serving that that is where her focus lies.

Here are some highlights from her last two most recent letters:

• I have started praying in Spanish… I still can’t speak it well but I am beginning to understand it more and more.
• Yesterday we went on companionship exchanges (aka Splits) and Sister Ditto spent the day in my area with me! We did a ton of great work. We set 3 people for baptism and had some great lessons, including an incredibly powerful lesson with an ex-communicated bishop and his girlfriend. We set the girlfriend for the 14th of February and he decided that he would like to be baptized on the same day. Of course, he has to go through the bishop but I think that he is ready! Oh and they have to get married… just a minor detail!
• We also set a 15 year old who we started teaching last week. Her dad is the Elders Quorum president and KD, who had been living with her mom, just moved in with him and decided that she wanted to take the lessons. She is just worried about hurting her mom’s feelings because her mom doesn’t want anything to do with religion. We reassured her that it was her decision and that she would probably be setting a great example for her mom anyway.
• Have I mentioned how much I love being a missionary…? Life couldn’t be better!
• We had zone conference yesterday and it was 100% fabulous! I just soak in everything that President Christensen teaches. He teaches with such great love that you can’t help but become captivated in his teachings!
• We have a lot of great work going on and we are super busy!

In her letter home this week she shares this great understanding:

Also, today as I was reading my scriptures I was reading in Alma 26 and these
scriptures stood out to me…

• 27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.
• 28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.
• 29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.
• 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

Ok, so I haven’t been spit upon nor have I been smote upon my cheeks but I tell you what, at the end of the day I sometimes feel like I have. However, just as it says in verse 30, “that perhaps we might be the means of saving SOME soul…” That is all that matters, as long as I can be the means of saving just one soul then all of this hard work is worth it! I love being a missionary!