Dec 29th

Hey Y'all!

This week has been good and bad. The weather has been crazy, our numbers were awful, and Christmas was amazing! To start it off, its been cold and warmish this week. On Christmas it was over 60! On Saturday we woke up to about 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down! so the weekend was pretty cold! All of our investigators were either sick or out of town so we didn't get to teach anyone this week which is sad. 

On Friday something really sad happened. We got a call Friday evening from Bishop Bynum. Rocky Drake, one of our investigators, passed away of a massive heart attack. They took him to the hospital and worked on him for an hour but no luck. He has been transferred to new missionaries on the other side. His funeral is tomorrow and we will be going. I was so sad to hear this but I know he is in a better place now. 

Christmas was fantastic though! After a solid workout in the morning we came back and showered and opened presents! Man I am spoiled! I don't think I have ever gotten so many presents in my life! Thank y'all so much for sending me packages and gifts! It truly was fantastic! But after that we went over to Bishops home to skype our families! That was the best part of my Christmas! It made my day! Then we spent the rest of the day at other members homes playing games and eating tons of food! Oh man we ate a lot! We had quite the day and slept very well that night! We have been so spoiled by members! We got tons of ties and t-shirts from them! We got OKC Thunder shirts! Go Thunder! (The only reason I know who they are is because I'm here in Oklahoma so don't laugh). But they are so generous here! Our fridge is full and our pantry is packed! (mostly with junk food) But that's OK (: But thanks to y'all I had an amazing first Christmas away from home! 

One thing that I've really been thinking about a lot this week is studying the scriptures. The scriptures are words, counsel, stories, experiences, commandments, etc. from our Heavenly Father and our Savior. When we pray to our Heavenly Father he often times uses the scriptures to answer our prayers. We have the wonderful blessing of having the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price all at our finger tips. What a blessing! Many people have gone through so much trial and persecution to bring these books into our lives. These people would have not had such a hard time bringing about these books if they were not true. Satan knows that they are true. He didn't want us to have access to the truth but he could not stop the Lords plan from happening! So here we are! Read them! It does no good for us to let them collect dust on the shelf. That's not what they are intended for. I came out here and my perspective changed so much on the scriptures. I can't get enough of them!!! They are such a blessing in our lives and provide so much inspiration and revelation. So take advantage of it! 

Love y'all and Hope y'all have a fantastic week!

Elder Walker

Dec 22nd

Hey y'all!

This week has been so good! Its been cold and rainy so a lot like home! 

We have had the chance to teach one of our new investigators 3 times this week! Eddy is doing so well! Unfortunately he and his fiance are moving back to Utah in a few weeks but we'll teach him until they're gone. We had some other lessons with Pam, an eternal investigator haha. She is getting there but its gonna take a while! 

We got our Christmas plans all finalized this week! We are going to spend the morning with Bishop Bynum where we will skype our families and have breakfast. Then we will go to the Seagraves family for the rest of the day! We are gonna eat tons of food and play games and have a blast! I'm so excited! We cant go out and knock doors or anything so there's not much we can do those days. 

Anyhow, we visited lots of inactive members and families this week. We had a lot of really yummy dinners this week so that was good! 

We also had our Christmas Conference on Tuesday. We talked about working with members to do missionary work. There are 3 phases of missionary work. 1: missionaries doing all the work, 2: members helping missionaries, and 3: missionaries helping members. Yall are the ones who know people and us missionaries need people to teach! We really love working with members so help them as much as you can! Its every ones responsibility in the church to open their mouths and declare the truth! What a wonderful opportunity! 

Not much else happened this week. We put a cricket in the freezer and tried to freeze it to the point where it cant hardly move then tie a string around it. But we forgot about it and left it in there over night haha. Oops... we took it out the next morning and thawed it out to see if it was still alive but I think we froze it to death haha! We thought that was pretty funny! Anyhow I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas and eat lots of food!

Love Y'all!

Elder Walker

12-15-14

Hey Y'all! 

   This week has been crazy! We had nice weather up until this weekend. We had cold, foggy Oregon weather Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday. Sunday evening it started to rain. Hard. Like harder than Oregon sometimes! Then it started to hail. It only hails when there's a tornado. There were 2 tornado's that touched down in El Reno and Midwest City not too far from here. Luckily it didn't effect us but it was kinda freaky! And the worst part is that I didn't get to see either of the tornado's!! What the Heck! 

  Anyhow, this week has been amazing! We were so busy all week! We got 2 new investigators who are solid! So keep Eddy and Rocky in your prayers! Eddy is a 19 yr old kid who is a Welder for an oil rig out here. He is such a humble young man. He moved out here with his fiance ,Carly, who is a member and is only 18! They have really been strugglin these last few weeks because they don't know anyone and they feel so lonely. We took Bishop Bynum with us to visit them and had an amazing experience! We will be spendin part of Christmas with them at the Bynums home! We talked to Eddy about our church and how it can help him come closer to the Savior and to our Heavenly Father. He is so curious and wants to learn more! We gave them Priesthood Blessings and that was such a powerful experience!

  The power of the Priesthood is so amazing. It is literally the authority to act in God's name and call down the Powers of Heaven in behalf of an individual. What a blessing to have that same power that the Prophets of old like Moses and Abraham had. The same Priesthood Authority that Moses used to part the Red Sea. It truly has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith who received it from Peter, James and John. I have seen many miracles and wonderful blessings come from it. We have so many wonderful opportunities to exercise our Priesthood out here and I love it! For those of you who hold it, always be worthy to use it at any time because you never know when you will need to. And for those who do not hold it, It can still be such a significant part of your lives! Ask for Blessings if you need them. Don't be afraid. The Lord has put the Priesthood on the earth for us to use, so take full advantage of it! 

   Also Another thing that Is such a powerful tool and source of knowledge its the Book of Mormon. For those of you who have not read it, Read it! It is so powerful! And for those of you who are reading it, continue to do so! There's a passage that I love In 2 Nephi Chapter 29, verses 8 and 9. Pg. 110.  It talks about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible compliment each other. The testimony of 2 nations is a witness of God. The Book of Mormon is a testimony and Record of God and Jesus Christ's dealings with the people of Ancient America. Where the Bible is the record of God and Jesus Christ's dealings with the people in Jerusalem and that continent. God wouldn't only provide a savior to one group of people. He Loves all his children the same! What a blessing! Anyhow, The Book of Mormon has changed my life and will continue to do so. And I know it can do the same if you read and study it diligently! 

Love y'all and don't forget where all your blessings come from!

Elder Walker  

Typical lawn in Oklahoma


















This one has been painted green, I'm sure it's so much easier than mowing it all the time.

 His first trailer park

Wouldn't it be nice to see these prices again?

12-8-14

Howdy yall!

This week has been good but slow. It rained a lot this week and its been super cold too, but thanks to my Carhartt apparel I have been warm and dry :)

We dropped 5 investigators this week and only taught 1 lesson. But we did have an investigator at church and he loved it! Also another investigator came with us to the Bishops home to watch the First Presidency Devotional. Which was fantastic!! If you have not seen it I highly recommend it! 

On Saturday evening we had our ward Christmas party and it was great! Sister Young and I performed silent night in the musical program. She printed out a beautiful arrangement earlier in the week and I had to learn it on the piano in 2 days! It was so awesome! Ill send the video home so hopefully y'all can see it! 

Other than that there's not much to talk about. We did a lot of knockin doors and nothin came of it. Most of our appointments cancelled on us so that was disappointing but we are going to have a better week this week! 

We had exchanges with the district leader, Elder Buhler, on Friday. He came up here to Yukon and my companion went down to Mustang for a day. We had so much fun! We taught our only lesson this week to Pam then crashed early! It was a long day! But it went well. 

This week our main focus has been on the true meaning of Christmas. We have been sharing this message with everyone who would listen to us haha! But during this season we need to remember that God loves us so much that he gave us his only begotten Son! What a wonderful gift! Although the gifts and everything are fun, that's not what its about. Its about Jesus Christ and family. Because of Him we can be with our families forever! What a blessing!! Just remember where your focus should be this Christmas season! 

Love y'all!

Elder Walker

12-1-14

Hey Y'all!

This week has been pretty good. A little slow but still effective. 

It got real warm this week. Towards the end of the week it was up into the mid 70's. Saturday it hit 75 and it was fantastic! But its weird to think that its 75 degrees at the end of November. Hmmm... well Sunday was more like November! We woke up to 65 outside, and when we got out of church it was 40. 

These cold fronts blow in fast and hard! The wind chill out here is unreal. Riding your bike in the wind regardless of it being super cold is hard enough! On Wednesday there were 30 mph winds that were nearly impossible to ride in. We were in the lowest gear going super slow! 

Anyhow, to the spiritual side of things (: This week was different because of Thanksgiving. A lot of people used it as an excuse to not talk to us. We only were able to teach 2 investigators this week but they were both powerful lessons. 

The first was with a woman named Pam. She has been taught all the lessons we as missionaries can teach. We set a baptismal date for her for July 18th. Yes July! haha. She is super stubborn so we figured its gonna be a while! We talked to her about President Uchtdorf's Talk about gaining our own testimonies. It seemed to hit home to her that she needed to get to work so she can get an answer to her prayers! 

The next lesson was with the nonmember father of a part member home. Him and his wife were recently married about 10 months ago. She had 3 kids already, twin boys age 12 and a daughter who is 14. 6 months ago one of the boys hung himself because kids at school were teasing him so much. That hit their family like a ton of bricks and literally made their whole family nonfunctional. Last night we taught them, but specifically Him, about the Plan of Salvation. When we said that you can live with your family forever, even your son who is no longer with us, there were many tears of joy. The spirit was so strong and our Heavenly Fathers plan is so perfect. As long as we are doing everything in our power to follow the example of our Savior, we will return to live with our Father in Heaven again. And we can live with our families for eternity! Forever!! How amazing! What a wonderful blessing to have this knowledge. I know that as long as we are righteous the Lord will bless us beyond what we can receive! Be strong and diligent! Be steadfast and Immovable! 

Love y'all!

Elder Walker

Bishop Ketcher and his family. 

Made a thankful chain for Thanksgiving.

Can't move after dinner....

and, here's why