Tyson's Senior Prom

Well, since my 'baby' just went to his senior prom I guess that means that I'm officially old! Here's a few photos of Tyson and his date Ashante...

Chelsee Update

Sister Walker's letter home this week was full of newsy tidbits:

HeLlo heLLo HEllO!!!!!

I have had such a great week!!! Where to begin… Krystal was baptized on Saturday and it was awesome! The spirit was out of control! The change that took place in Krystal’s countenance was amazing! She looks and sounds like a whole new person now! Her dad came to her baptism and I think that it really touched him to see the support that his daughter had and the love that everyone there had for her.

On Sunday we got a whole new Bishopric in the Villa Bonita ward… get this, the new Bishop is only 34. I was shocked, I had no idea they were even thinking about hanging the Bishopric, but it is SO GOOD! Bishop Theriot will be so good for the ward. He is supper gung hoe for missionary work!

We had Easter dinner with a family in the Greenbriar ward. It was sooooo yummy!! Bro. Cooper is a chef and he made ham, mustard greens, sweet potatoes, home-made root beer, cornbread… oh my ever livin, I was in heaven!!!

On Monday we got a new car… I think ours was about to die or at least the breaks were about to die. So now we are driving a Mazda 3!

We started teaching a new family from Haiti, they are awesome, super religious and freaking amazing!

On Tuesday we set Vanessa for baptism for May 2nd. It’s about time!!

We finished up everything that we needed to do for Luis baptism this weekend (interview, program… etc.). He is still super excited for his baptism!

Yesterday we went to a funeral for a sister in the Villa Bonita ward. We helped prep the food and such. Remember how much I HATE funerals??? Well, I decided that I just needed to get over myself, especially since this was our second funeral this transfer, and be there for support and to answer questions! It was actually a very nice funeral service!

We talked to our investigator John about being baptized and he said that he would think about it. He is super busy right now and just needs to have the time to sit down and finish the lessons. Hopefully we can get that all worked out. He is basically already a member, he goes to church every Sunday and to all of the ward activities. He just needs to be baptized!

We had an awesome lesson with Treicy and she is still super excited about her baptism on May 9th!!!

Our lesson with Kelly last night was the bomb! She had questions about going to the highest glory of the Celestial Kingdom because she isn’t married. We did a lot of research before her lesson so that we would be able to answer her questions and I think we were able to. We shared with her D&C 76 51-70 something where it talks about the qualifications for getting into the Celestial Kingdom and we shared with her D&C 131 and parts of 32. We were able to help her realize that not everyone will get a chance to be married for time and all eternity in this life but we will have the Millennium and if she has the desire to be married and has the desire to enter into the highest glory of the Celestial Kingdom then she will have the opportunity to be married during the Millennium. We are so excited for her baptism on the 25th!!!

The Lord has truly blessed us the past couple of weeks. We have a baptism every weekend for the next 3 weeks and we had Krystal’s last week. That is the fuel that keeps us going!!!

Well folks, that is about all that is going on in the life of Sister Walker!! It is pretty much an AMAZING life!!! Keep sending the letters and the updates! I love to hear how everyone is doing! I love you SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!

Make good choices, don’t do drugs, be happy and remember that Jesus Loves YOU!

Happy Anniversary April 18

Can you believe it? Gyle and I have been married for 29 years!!! When did I grow up and when did I get so old???

Love you Sweetheart! Thanks for being mine and for 29 years of sharing our lives together!

Life / Easter / Wind

Just a few thoughts -

So - it's windy today (darn) that puts such a damper on outdoor Easter plans. It's not so much fun to hide Easter eggs outside when it's only 30 degrees! Makes me want to bundle up with a blanket and go take a nap!

Easter is tomorrow. I love it! That means new, fresh, clean, bright, happy, SPRING to me! The sun shines longer each day and I just feel like I have more energy!

But that's not what Easter is really all about - my testimony is made stronger as I understand more and more about the atonement and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for continued knowledge that I gain as I study the scriptures, attend my meetings, and find opportunities to learn.

And then... LIFE... Life is good! Experiences in life are amazing! I am ever so grateful for my family that makes my life complete!

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.