Elder Walker Week 13

Hello there,

So it seems to me that the weeks are just speeding by. I can't even believe that this transfer is now more than half way through and that I've been out nearly 3 months. Every week seems to go faster and faster.

I loved seeing the pictures of the baby! Elder Call didn't think it was appropriate to have a picture of Estee on the table naked but I just laughed. It's just who she is. So has the name finally been decided? Briggan Samuel Harrop? You better make your mind up soon or this kid is going to be confused! I'm already confused as to what to tell people my new nephew's name is.

On Feb. 6th we are having a mission conference with an Apostle and a member of the presidency of the Seventy down in Pocatello. We wont know who they are going to be yet but President Colton told us that he will know by next week. How cool is that though? Apparently Elder Bednar came in May so probably not him but if it is I will make a connection with him through Adam. I'll tell him, "hey you know my brother-in-law." That way we can talk more than just saying hello. Oh p.s. a lot of people know Adam here. Just the other day I was talking with a lady whose husband works at BYU. She said that she lived in Decatur so I asked her if she knew Adam's parents she did and then went on to say, "I think their son was student body pres when he was 17." I was like yeah he's a pretty cool guy. She then asked how I knew him. I said well he married my sister. She was so excited to hear about Adam again and says congrats on the baby.

I had a very spiritual lesson this last week. I've told you about our investigator Aaron and how missionaries have been teaching him for 3 years now. Well we were on exchanges this week with the Spanish Elders which was the same day that we were going to teach Aaron. Elder Hernandez and I went with the ward mission leader and taught from Luke 15:1-7 about the "ninety and nine" and "the one". Aaron is definitely "the one". We told him that the Savior is still trying to bring him back to the fold and that he is only continuing to loose himself. The scripture says that Heavenly Father's joy is greater for the one that repents and joins the fold then it is for the ones that are doing the right thing. Finally, speaking from the Spirit, I said, "Aaron, look at your daughter, do you love her?" He said through tears, "yes". Then I said, "If you truly love her you will do anything in your power to keep her for ever." The Spirit was so strong in that lesson. Aaron knows the church is true, he knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Aaron then proceeded to ask, "what do I need to do to get baptized?" I was about to stand up and shout the Hallelujah Chorus! Aaron Boots wants to get baptized! This investigator who has met with missionaries for 3 years has now developed the desire to be baptized! Aaron is definitely one of the people I was sent to St. Anthony to find. It's cool to see experiences like that and how the Spirit is the one that converts, not missionaries.

Last night at our dinner appointment there was a boy in the family named Tyson. I was so confused last night! When ever they would talk to him or tell him something I would think they were talking to me. One time they got upset with him and I got offended inside because I thought I was getting in trouble! I haven't been out long enough for that name not to register with me yet so there were several times when I would start to respond to this family but then realize that they weren't talking to me. Weird!

Well I love this work. I love the Gospel. I love my family. I love my friends. I hope you all have a great week and will continue to be awesome.

Peace and Love

Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

MORE RAIN - January 21

My most dearest family in the whole entire world!!!! Hello!

It is SO WET here! Oh my goodness, I have NEVER seen this much rain in Nevada! Lets just say that there is a dry lake bed in Boulder City that isn't so dry anymore!!!! The streets are completely flooded! Needless to say, my feet have been prunes for the past 3 days. Literally non-stop rain for 3 days now. I can't believe my eyes! I have quite enjoyed splashing in the puddles, the only problem is that I am constantly WET! I love it!

We are still truggin' along with Cami reading the Book of Mormon every night. We are now on 2 Nephi 28. LOTS of reading! It has been a blast! Slowly yet surely the more and more members of the family are sitting in as we read! We've just got to get her dad in on it! As we were reading the other day we came across the word fatigue and Coty the 9-year-old was reading. He said the word correctly, of course, because he is a genius... it reminded me of Tys though when he was about that same age and we were reading as a family and he came across the word fatigue and read it as fat-i-goo! I had to giggle inside! I love our Rigs!

So, other than being really wet and reading the Book of Mormon like crazy people... nothing too new is going on since last week! We are hoping to set Phil (Jaimee's husband) for baptism tomorrow. I am SO excited for him. Oh get this, they had to go out to Michigan for a funeral this past week and they drove out there and then decided to take the southern route home so of course they just had to stop in Nauvoo!!! They said that there was an ice storm so Nauvoo was all shut down. However, they ran into a Senior couple who took them around and showed them some sights. Can you say GOLDEN!!! Oh yeah and he went to church on Sunday in Michigan! I love them!

We seem to meet a lot of drunk people lately! They are so stinkin fun to talk to! We can get all sorts of info out of them and they aren't afraid to give out their phone numbers! Then when we call back they have no clue who we are! Hahaha! Oh yeah, and of course I have Sis. Burgess talk to them! I get some great giggles in!

I LOVE MY LIFE! Oh, I am sitting next to one of the other Sisters, Sister Done and I asked her what else I should tell you and she said to say, "I love Sister Done!!!" It's true! I have wanted to serve with Sis. Done my whole mission but seeing as how this is her last transfer and we haven't served together yet... well, I suppose that just isn't going to happen! Sad day. However, she just got transfered into my zone so at least I get to see her a couple of times a week now! We have come to realize why we have never served together... we are just too good of friends and we would probably drive people crazy because we just have too much fun around each other! I am trying to convert her to BYU-I so that we can live together but she just isn't buying it! Ha! I'll keep trying! She is going to go to LDSBC though so at least we can play on the weekends!!!!

Ok, I really don't know what else to talk about so I am going to sign off now! I love you all more that the desert loves rain!

Remember who you are, remember that I love you!

Make good choices, don't do drugs and be the best missionaries you can be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, ME!!!

Oh P.S. my new baby is SO CUTE!!!!! OK, maybe a little squished out of shape but still cute!!! I need more pictures!

Rain - Letter from Sis Walker Jan 14

This week has been a great week! Not anything too exciting but it has surely been good! It rained yesterday and that made me smile!!! I of course had to pull over the car and jump out and dance in it!!! Luckily we were in the middle of nowhere so I could get away with it!!!

I love Sister Burgess! She is SO Green!!!!! I love it! She keeps me on my toes! She is very shy but she is totally coming out of her shell!!!! I just have to remember to shut my yapper so that I can allow her to shine!

We have done about 2 hours of tracting this past week… which I HATE, because tracting is the biggest waste of time in the world… but, I have had to humble myself because it has been SO GOOD for Sister Burgess to come out of her shell. In fact, yesterday while tracting, we knocked on a door of a woman who wasn’t interested, she said she was Born Again (which in my opinion is just another way of saying we only go to church on Easter and Christmas because we have been saved and don’t need a church) and that she didn’t want us to waste our literature on her. As we were leaving her doorstep, before she closed the door, Sister Burgess said, “Wait I really feel like I need to leave this with you…” and handed her a Proclamation pamphlet. Then we went on to the next house. As we were going back down the street that same woman was sitting in her garage smoking and we said “Hi” then kept walking. THEN all of the sudden Sister Burgess then turned around a b-lined over to this woman and said (actually more like blurted out), “So what if I told you that the same church that Jesus Christ set up while on the earth has been restored and that we have a Prophet who leads that church today?” The woman was a bit dumbfounded and said, “Well what do you mean by restored…” Then Sister Burgess explained. The whole time I was just standing there with my jaw hanging down to my knees because I was NOT EXPECTING THAT! I wish I had a picture of my face. I didn’t even know what to say to the woman… so I just let Sis. Burgess talk… then I shared my testimony with her. We gave her a restoration pamphlet and told her she didn’t need to even look at it but that at least she had it! She said, “thank you” and we headed off on our way. It is amazing how when shy people decide they are going to talk… they just talk!!! Anyway, that is one of the MANY reasons I love Sister Burgess!

I have come to realize this transfer that having a companion that is COMPLETELY opposite from you is an amazing thing because we both have our strengths but just in totally different ways and we are able to use those strengths together to do amazing things! It’s like Batman and Robin! Haha! I love it! I have learned so many new things in the past week with Sister Burgess. It is fun having an Asian Studies Major for a companion. I have learned all about the Asian culture, cinema, ANIME, and many other things that I could have cared less about a week ago but I have learned to appreciate them because that is Sister Burgess’ passion! Totally different experience than training Sister Johnson. This is a great prep for when I have kids and they all come out completely different. You just learn to enjoy what they enjoy!

We re-set Cami for baptism last night. She is now set for Feb. 13th. She told us that she is okay with that date but that she wanted to read at least half the Book of Mormon before getting baptized and she was only on page 22. So told her that we would come over to her house everyday and read for 30 minutes with her. We have to read 8.1 pages day to meet her goal!!! Exciting!!! How many 10 year-olds do you know that want to read the Book of Mormon for that long every day????? Haha!

Well, that is just about it! Everything else is going so great! I love you all! Make good choices, don’t do drugs, be happy and go out there and spread the gospel!

Love, ME!

Missionary Work in Idaho Jan 18

Well hello there family and friends,

Due to the success in December we are now a little slow in January. We have not had much interest from people and it seems like the possible baptisms keep falling through. It's sad because I was so used to the baptisms we were having in Dec. that not having a baptism every Saturday is really a tough thing. I continue loving to work here in St. Anthony and hope I don't get transferred.

We have a family that has to wait until March to get baptized, due to approval from the First Presidency, so I told President Colton that means I'm staying in St. Anthony at least two more transfers to see that happen... don't think that's going to happen. President Walker, the stake president in St. Anthony, called President Colton for something the other day and mentioned to him that the English Elders are to finish out their mission in this stake... I don't think he succeeded either.

I got a phone call from the mission office around 1:00 PM on Friday telling me that I have a new Nephew! Sister Parkins said she would sing me a lullaby but I probably wouldn't like it. I'm so glad that Britnee and the Baby (Samuel or Briggin) are doing well. I need some help from everyone to make sure some of his first words are "uncle tys", that means that Devin is not allowed to be around that baby until I can be there to help him understand who his real favorite uncle is. I'm not to worried about Estee because she already knows that I'm favorite, but the new baby wont see the light for 21 more months.

This week of missionary work... The coolest story for this week... the missionaries have been working with this guy named Aaron for a long time. In fact his three year anniversary with missionaries was yesterday. We taught him on Friday and showed him "Between Heaven and Earth", a video about temples and family. During the video Elder Holland says "I can't imagine not being sealed to my wife in heaven because it wouldn't be heaven if I didn't have her forever." That sentence really struck Aaron and now we think he is going to be making some serious changes. We had a powerful lesson after that about eternal families. Aaron loves his family but has something that is holding him up. His wife gets emotional every time we go over to teach because she wants more than anything for their family to be sealed together in the temple. When we bore testimony of eternal families and the power of the temple Aaron was in tears. He understands what he needs to do and how to get there, he just has something that is holding him back. I love being able to testify of family and the temple because then my own testimony strengthens and I realize everyday the importance of keeping your family close to your heart.

Well all is well here in Idaho. We are now back on our cycle of meat and potatoes for dinner appointments though. It seems to be a month of meat and potatoes and then a few days of pizza, a month of meat and potatoes and then a few days of pizza, etc. I'm pretty sure I have gravy in my blood stream all the time. I am working out a lot though because there is no way I am going to gain 40lbs like the average missionary in this mission does.

I've learned something the last few months of being here and that is that I really don't like sending e-mails; it's not very personal on my part. If you send me an e-mail, I will most likely write you back through snail mail. If you have the time or the desire I would highly encourage you to write to me through snail mail too because then I will be able to keep your letter forever. I know that's a lot to ask for in this day and age because of how easy it is to shoot off a quick e-mail, but that way I will have letters forever.

I hope all is well for everyone and life is great.

Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

p.s. Happy anniversary to Devin and Lianne a long time ago!

Email from Elder Walker 1-11-2010

Some notes to family:

• I havn't heard anything about the baby yet. It makes me nervous because nobody sent me an e-mail this week either. I hope everything is all good. I thought Britnee was going to deliver on the 10th but now it is the 11th please don't forget to call the mission office. If you need the number it is 208-233-0130. My vote is Briggin if it's a boy and... well I don't know for a girl. I'm convinced the baby is going to be a boy though so there is no need for a girls name.
• Mom, thank you so much for the stationary and the letter you sent me. I really appreciate the advice and the concern you have for me. You are the greatest mother in the world. We teach about families in the first lesson because then I get to testify of my family. One of my greatest testimony is that my family is ordained of God. He has blessed me with such a solid family with great standards

From his weekly letter home:

• I just completed the 7th baptism so far on Saturday. Her name is Jenna Miller and she was the "golden" contact. She just moved here to St. Anthony from Washington. She was contacted by ward members and they set up the lessons for us. When we met her the first time we committed her to baptism and just taught her 4 times then she was baptized. I love it when that happens. Well come to think of it, most of the people we baptized we haven't had to "fight" them to the font. Long story short, St. Anthony Idaho is the best.
• I received a package from my best friends! When missionaries receive a package its like we loose all control and rip it open! It's quite funny actually. I got the package from Ashante, Hedy Lu, and Garrett. They sent me all sorts of stuff like sun flower seeds, spider-man crayons, bubble gum, and a puzzle. There was much more than that but that gives you an idea of what was in there. They included pictures of themselves and a sweet spider-man inner tube. Receiving packages makes the day so much better.
• As missionaries we have a teaching pool, or people that we are teaching. The problem that we are running into right now is that we are baptizing everyone in our teaching pool! The members saw how successful we were and how much work we were doing that I think they just gave up on trying to find people for us to teach. After baptizing 7 we now have a teaching pool of 6. Kinda crazy that we don't have that many to teach when we cover 10 wards. The referrals that we do get though are great and then get baptized so I guess I can't complain.
• I get really frustrated with people when they say they don't know anyone or there isn't anyone to teach but there are! Then I think about Colorado where there are more than plenty of people to teach! I didn't do the work that I should have done when I lived in a town with plenty of people to teach and now I'm getting upset with people that really don't know of people that aren't already members of the church. I hope you all back home will try to do your part for the Elders serving you. We cannot fulfill our purpose without the help of the members.
• I hope you all are having a great New Year! I know 2010 is going to be a great year. I look forward to the work that we get to do. By the way our mission had 750 baptisms this last year. We had 80 in December. The IPM rocks. I love you all.
  
  Peace and Love,
  
  Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

Sister Walker Highlights January 2010

SISTER WALKER

• Happy New Year… I can’t believe 2009 has come to an end. Where did the time go? Well, I for one would LOVE for 2010 to be Much slower than 2009 but I don’t think that is going to happen! Maybe if we combined our efforts and prayed really, really, really hard than the next 3 months will go really SLOW! I would rather enjoy that thank you!
• So, this has been quite the eventful past couple of weeks! We had 2 baptisms last week, one of which I never thought I would see the day that he got baptized. I have been teaching Jimmy since the second week I was in Boulder City and he was off and on for all of that time. Finally he decided back in September that he was going to get baptized on Dec. 26th and even though it was still a rocky road he finally made it to his baptism! He is going to be a great member! The other one was a 9 year old genius! Coty was/is the smartest investigator I have ever taught and he has grasped the gospel more that anyone I have ever taught! They were 2 fantastic baptisms!
• Coty’s family has been less active for quite some time but now they are back into activity! Coty’s 10-year-old sister Cami is currently taking the lessons and wants to get baptized in March… we hope to move that up some! Cami has made a huge 180 since we first met her a month ago… she was trying to go down the “gothic” route and now she has turned into a little sweetheart! Their family has been very active the past month or so and I believe they will remain active! They are such a great family and I am excited for the adventures in the gospel that lay ahead! Oh man, I love this work!!!
• Oh, P.S. I have shingles on my leg! Ouch! I guess they are caused by stress or something like that! The doc says they are clearing up though and should be gone in 3-4 weeks! I might miss them when they go. They are rather interesting looking and you all know how I love my battle wounds! Haha! However, I don’t suggest getting them they are extremely painful!
• Guess what, guess what, guess what, I survived another transfer and I am still in Boulder City! I am training again this transfer. Sister Burgess is straight from the MTC!!! Sister Burgess is from Maryland! I LOVE Sister Burgess! What a great missionary! She reminds me a LOT of Melanie Hunter! I am excited be serving with her. She has a solid testimony and isn’t afraid to open up and share it in appointments. Yesterday we had quite a few appointments with investigators that have very interesting questions and she just opened right up and answered their questions without any hesitation! We went to check on a new investigator who ended up not being home and as we were walking back to the car, Sister Burgess noticed an open door to an apartment a few doors down (that I hadn’t noticed because I was focused on who we were going to see next) and she said, “Hey, shouldn’t we go talk to those people.” So, we did! She shared a simple testimony with them, then we gave them a card for Finding Faith in Christ and a Restoration pamphlet. They weren’t interested in us coming back but, heck, I was so proud of Sister Burgess! I have a lot to learn form her!!!! She is going to be a great asset to our mission!
• I am so excited for this transfer! This means that at the end of this transfer I will have done 7 ½ months in Boulder AND I could possibly finish my mission here which means I would spend 9 months here!!! That is half my mission!!
• Oh goodness, we had the best baptisms last week. We had Jammie’s baptism on Thursday and it went so well! Then her daughter Abby was baptized on Saturday and again it went very well. AND… we are starting to teach Jammie’s husband Phil who wasn’t really interested before and then he came to the baptisms and Church on Sunday and now he is totally interested. He has had the first lesson and we are going back tonight to teach the second one! Yay!!! I love when a whole family embraces the gospel! I can’t wait to be in the temple when they are sealed!!!

Elder Walker Letter January 4, 2010

ELDER WALKER:

• So I am very excited to be staying in St. Anthony. I love the people here and the work that we are doing. I am creating this bond with this area that when the time comes to leave I really wont want to. When President Colton was talking about splitting this area I had a hard time with even thinking about other missionaries "poaching" my area.
  We are still seeing a bunch of success. We set another baptism date on Saturday which brings our total to 5. Our goal is to beat Decembers baptisms with 7 instead of the mere 6 we had last month. haha
• While tracting we ran into this boy named Shawn. He was visiting a member family for Christmas. We asked if we could share a message with him and shared a brief restoration. He had wide eyes the whole time and his response was that he thinks it is so great that God would call a prophet once again to lead and guide us today. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he already read the chapter we gave him (Moroni 10) and prayed. He said that his Mom is Christian and his Dad Catholic; his whole life he has been confused. When we went back today we taught a more detailed 1st and asked a few more questions. His answers were so profound and so genuine. He's 14 and had more interest in the gospel than most adults we teach. The only problem is that he lives in L.A. and was flying back home today. He said that he would really like to continue learning from us and that he wished we could keep teaching him. We said, "that's alright we have missionaries in California too." He had no idea the church was around the world. We described the L.A. temple and said that was a temple of our church. He was so excited. Too bad he isn't our investigator anymore. We just set up a golden investigator for the L.A. mission.
• Yesterday I experienced my most spiritual low of the mission. We have been teaching a boy named Carson H___ for a while and yesterday when we went back to teach him his Dad came to the door and told us that Carson wasn't interested anymore and that we shouldn't come back. I get sad thinking about it because Carson is such a great kid and knew so much about the church. We don't think that Carson actually said that and that his parents are still bitter towards the church. It's terrible because Carson's dad served as an Assistant when he served his mission but now is less active and doesn't like the church. I was asked just the other day by our Zone leaders what the hardest part about serving a mission is. My response was that It's hard to see somebody's potential and then watch them not reach for it. That's how it is for Carson only worse; he has great potential but his parents are restricting him from achieving it.
• Here in Idaho we teach so many over aged youth and part member families. Most of our converts are teenagers or pre teen kids. It really makes me appreciate the way I was raised in the gospel and the structure I have. Some families are so closed minded and restrict their children from growing. As a missionary you really want to sit the parents down and tell them how to raise their children but we don't necessarily have the authority to do that.
• Yesterday Sarah Ferwerda, one of our investigators with a baptism date, bore her testimony in church! It was her first Sunday in her new ward and the first time we heard her say that she knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true! Elder Call and I sat there with our jaws hanging down in our laps. We were about to fall of the bench out of shock! The Lord works in mysterious ways...