Chelsee's Learning How To Make Decisions

Can't believe it... Chelsee is learning how to make decisions! All her life she has struggled with decision making... She's spent her life saying "I don't care" If I ask her "pink or green" she says, "I don't care." If I ask her what she wants to eat, "I don't care" BUT... now that's she's senior companion she's learning how to do it! In her letter this week she wrote:

I love my new companion. Sister Jernigan is awesome. Yep, like I said before, I am senior companion even though she has been out longer… however, I this is the first companionship where I feel like we are on completely equal ground. Sister Jernigan likes making decisions about as much as I do. However, because of that, I have gotten better this past week!! So I guess the Lord does know what he is doing by making me senior because it has pushed me to step up in my decision making. You’d be proud! Haha!

Chelsee, the germ-a-phobe has a clean freak companion...

Sister Jernigan is a clean freak and I love it! Our apartment is spotless 24/7 and we have become quite fond of bleach. Right now we are working on trying to solve our cockroach problem, we have been told things not to do to cockroaches (like smash them because it spreads their eggs and it makes the other cockroaches mad) but we still haven’t figured out how to get rid of them. Any ideas are welcome!

Next - her hand is healing. It's slow but it is healing.

I went to the doc. this morning and he says it is healing nicely… just a bit slower than it should. I am about 3 weeks behind in the healing process due to my lack of calcium… well hello, I’m lactose intolerant… but I have been taking calcium pills (which is actually a really funny thing, I went to get them and I had no idea what I was looking for… I felt like an old lady looking at all this Osteoporosis medicine and such… while I was looking, Sister LuPeni turned to me with a bottle of Pre-Natal vitamins and said in all seriousness, “Is this what you are looking for?” I laughed so hard… that would be a fun surprise for my new companion to come in and see those sitting on the counter! Haha! Gotta love those foreigners!!!) which have seemed to help because there is SOME bone growth!! Woohoo! I have been in a half cast for the past two weeks and I get to be in it for another two weeks but I only have to wear it when I’m out working… so pretty much all the time… then it is OFF!!! I go back to the doc. in a month to get it x-rayed once again (for the 8th time I think!) and we will see how things are looking then! Lets just say that I am becoming friends with his office staff!

The work is good:

We have two investigators set for baptism and one more will be set next week! Once again, the Lord is Smiling on the Paradise Zone! Luis is set for the 18th of April, he is being taught by the Spanish Elders but he is attending the English ward so he is counted as our investigator. He is from Mexico and is married to a Samoan who speaks very little Spanish and he speaks very little English! Love, true love!!! They are an awesome family! Fo, his wife is a member and we have been working to get her back into activity! Krystal is still set for baptism but we had to move her to April 4th instead of this Saturday because she missed church on Sunday, on accident! She is so incredible and it has been so amazing to she her complete turn around! We just started working with a woman, Treicy, whose mother just got baptized a month ago in another ward. Treicy just went through a divorce and has been looking for some peace and comfort in her life. She says that nothing has helped her as much as learning about the gospel has. She has 2 little boys who are so cute, they want to be missionaries when they grow up. they are buddies with the Elders who taught their grandma!

And in usual Chelsee fashion, she closed her letter with:

Make good choices, don't do drugs, and BE HAPPY!!!

Susan's getting baptized!!!

What a miraculous week we've had! Susan is getting baptized on Saturday! I am so thrilled and so happy for her.

We had Stake Conference this weekend - she personally met the mission president, Pres. Phile as well as our visiting authority, Elder Melchin. It was in a special session just for investigators and newly baptized members. She connected quickly with President Phile and it was while Elder Melchin was speaking that Susan knew that she knew.

Later that evening, we had Susan, the missionaries (love our missionaries!!!) over for dinner. After dinner we watched, "Together Forever" and after that we just visited. We let Susan just talk and as she talked she basically bore her testimony to all of us. At that point, Gyle spoke up and said, "Looks like we have a baptism to plan"

Once she was able to verbally admit that she found her answer, she just seems to beam!

This opportunity is truly an answer to our prayers - not just to share the gospel but answers to prayers concerning our own family. This has been a miraculous journey of prayer and blessings!

Walker Fam Missionary Experience

We've had the marvelous experience of sharing the missionary discussions with one of our neighbors and friends. The following is a segment from a letter that I wrote to Chelsee about our discussion Wednesday evening:

Last night the lesson was on prayer and asking to know the truth. This was our fourth lesson with her. Elder Bagley derived a lot of his lesson from 3 Ne 11 where the Savior speaks to the people in Bountiful and that the first thing He teaches is that He is the Savior that the scriptures speak of. The first lesson the Savior wants us to know is that He is Jesus Christ.

Then we went on to talk about prophets, and the BOM. Susan admitted that she has let anger get in her way... anger about being ill, about having a hard life, etc... She's searching for truth and is trying to find answers. She also has questions about why she should be baptized again since she was already baptized by immersion.

Bro. Richey told Susan that when he first looked at the Church, it was a casual thing - just sorta wanting to know. But it wasn't until the trial of his faith and his desire to really want to know that he received his answer! Elder Bagley bore testimony that he believes that working through Susan's problems is a trial of her faith as well. Then, Elder Bagley promised Susan that if she would just pray and ask Heavenly Father if He did restore his gospel that she would get an answer. He promised that all she had to do was ask, "is it real?" and that the Spirit would bear witness to her. The Spirit in the room was sooooo strong! It was tangible! I was so glad that Tyson was there. It was one of the sweetest feelings, very peaceful and amazing.

Elder Bagley said, "Susan, we'd like to ask you to pray. And you can use this opportunity to simply ask." Susan whispered, "I'm not ready." And that was that!

Elder Bagley told me that usually he would have persuaded her to go ahead, but that the Spirit told him not to push. After she left, I spoke quite a bit with the Elders. Elder Bagley was tearful as he said, "You know, I can handle the discouragement and disappointment of knocking doors all day and getting no where. I can handle the disappointment of doors slamming and rejection. But my heart just breaks with things like this. I can't force her to make the choice, but I feel like I just want to plead with her!"

I told the Elders that we do need to be patient because Susan has a lot on her plate right now. She is a single mom, fighting cancer, trying to deal with enormous finances because of medical bills, trying to be the best mom she can to a 6 year old who doesn't understand, etc... She's doing it all alone.

Then Elder Bagley spoke up and said, "Sis. Walker what you just said is profound! She's not alone! We need to teach her that! She's not alone! If she were to get baptized she'd have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost as well as a whole ward family! She's not alone!"

Wow! What an experience this has been.

Chels is Senior Companion!

Sister Walker's is now the Senior Companion! Here's some highlights from this week's letter:

Hand is good!!! Oh the life of Sister Walker! The work is going great! We set Krystal for baptism for March 28th!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!

I have a new companion now, her name is Sister Jernigan and she is from North Carolina near Charlotte. She has been out 6 weeks longer than me but I am the Senior Companion... How did that happen! Yikes… I don’t know! I was really scared at first but now I’m ok with the whole thing!

Sister LuPeni got off ok and now I hope that she is still doing ok because I have heard that they are having a Tsunami in Tonga right now….hmmm… She cried lots and lots when she left. She was having some super comp separation anxiety problems when I dropped her off at the airport and she had to be by herself! It was sad to see her go (mostly because I am going to miss having a Polynesian Companion who goes to lots of Polynesian things) but I look forward to once again learning from a new companion!

This area is growing up very well! I’m so proud of it! Haha! We went to the temple today and it was glorious as usual!!!

I will let you know… IN DETAIL… how the doctor goes nest week so that you won’t have to call Sister Christensen! Ha!!! I love you all SO much!

Make good choices, don’t do drugs, be happy and continue sharing the gospel!Love, ME!!!

Sister Walker's Letter Update

We received a very touching and powerful letter this week. Here are a few key portions that I think you might enjoy...

In response to Gyle sharing with Sister Walker that Richelle, one of Chelsee's Colorado friends, will be returning home from her mission the end of the month, Chelsee wrote:

Dad, time flies by WAY TOO FAST! A couple of weeks ago I was starting to feel discouraged because I was doing SO much in Kingman and then I came up here and we had 2 investigators and only 8 potentials... we did have Maria's baptism but that was all. I didn't know what to do with myself... I was feeling like I wasn't at my full potential. And on top of that I was put with a trunky companion... Time flies by WAY too fast to be tracting all day every day and have no results. So, I called President one night and asked if I could come in and visit with him so that he could give me some advice. I was able to go in and tell him everything that was on my mind... I want to be the best missionary I can be and I didn't feel like I was able to do that at that time. I felt like I had emptied out my bucket on these people and it wasn't getting re-filled. He was so incredible. He helped me resolve some of my concerns and gave me some excellent advice. He told me that for the next couple of weeks all he wanted me to study was the life of the Savior and write an Easter talk on the atonement. He also gave me a blessing and he blessed me to realize the impact that I am making in others lives. In the blessing he said that I will be having a Huge change next transfer and that I would have a lot more responsibility... that kinda made me nervous because I think I might be training... He said that this time is preparing me for future companionships. And he blessed me to recognize the love that the Savior has for me!! I felt 100 times better after that. He has placed a lot of trust in me by putting me in this area that hasn’t had much, if any, progress in the past year. I am supposed to be one of the ones to turn this zone around… Yikes!!! He told me that if there was anything that I needed to do better, he would tell me and there is nothing that he would change about me. That really lifted me up!!! He has so much love for all of us and of course some extra love for me because I am a fellow Coloradoan!!! Haha! Anyway, the moral to that story is that time needs to slow down. I think that by the time I get a hang of this, I will be boarding an airplane to come home. Everyday is an amazing learning experience and I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world!!!!

The Elders serving in our ward asked Gyle if any of the many baptisms that Sis. Walker had slated in Kingman when she left, ever materialized.

You can tell the Elders that yes, the baptisms are ALL going through. Patricia, the new wife of the ex-communicated bishop/ newly baptized member… was baptized with her husband on Feb. 14th. Jennifer Hepner, Aaron Hepner’s step-mom was baptized on the 21st and her baby was blessed on the 22nd. The Schuelers (Dad and two boys… LA now Active Mom) are getting baptized next weekend. The Farnsworths (Mom and Son are still working towards their baptism. The Schoeneman kids (3) are ready for baptism and are waiting for their dad to be ready… I am going to call Sis. Little this afternoon and find out if there is anything else going on. I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO Happy for them!!!!!!!!! It just makes me want to work even harder in this area! Woohoo!!!

Can't believe that Sister Walker has been serving for over six months - time does fly by WAY TOO FAST!

Oh - and Chelsee will go back to the doctor in one week to find out if the cast is working or if she will end up needing surgery for her broken hand.