April 27th

Hey Ya’ll!

   Man, where did the week go? It feels like I just sent one of these emails yesterday! But this had been quite the week. It’s been off and on good weather. It’s been nice some days and cloudy and wet others. One thing that I do love about Oklahoma is their thunderstorms! I LOVE thunderstorms! We had one earlier this week that literally shook our apartment! Oh man they are so awesome here!

But anyway, this week we taught a lot of lessons. We were really blessed this week with the opportunity to teach a lot of really amazing people. The Lord is so awesome! On Monday it was super nice out. For P-day we went Frisbee Golfing at a park about a mile away from our place. It’s an 18 hole course and its free! One of our investigators Colby Henderson took us. He’s really into it so it was a lot of fun. Afterwards he gave us both a few discs so we could play on our own.

   So every morning we go on a run. We run to the church and back. (About 2 1/2 miles) So now in the mornings (when it’s not raining) we run to the park and play a few holes! It’s so much fun and I think we're addicted! Anyways, we are working on Colby being baptized on May 23rd. He just needs a few more lessons and to stop smoking and he’s golden! It’s ridiculous. Everyone here smokes! Everyone!! They may as well call is smoklahoma! But that's ok. We've been able to help a few people quit.

   This weekend, the 2nd, we have a baptism coming up. Cheyenne is his name. He is super cool and super excited to be baptized!

Crazy miracle this week! On Sunday (yesterday) this guy walked into church, came up to us and asked us how he would go about becoming a member of our church!! SAY WHAT?? Both Elder Van Halder and I were speechless. So he stayed for church and we set up an appointment for later this week! That is amazing! He's another one to add to the list of people who are super solid! But anyways, I just wanted to share that amazing experience with ya’ll. The Lord is blessing us so much it’s not even funny! It’s amazing to see what He has in store for us. But a lot of it has to do with our faith. Ya know the Lord wants to do so much for us but sometimes He can’t because we aren't asking or our faith isn't sufficient. Just like when the savior would ask people if they had faith to be healed. We must be doing all that we can to strengthen our faith because Casual obedience and lukewarm commitment weakens faith. We must be obedient to all of Gods commandments. We must be committed to the Gospel and willing to sacrifice for it. ALL of Gods commandments apply to us and if we think some of them don't, we are wrong.

The Lord is so merciful and loves us perfectly. That's all He asks us to do, keep his commandments and we will have eternal life. That's what we all want right? So why not do it? That's why we have this perfect restored gospel, to keep us on the right path.

Keep on keepin on and have an amazing week! Love yall!

Elder Walker 

Shane and the Zone Leaders

April 20th

Hey Yall!

Man this week has been a crazy one! We were busy all the time! We had lots of success too! The weather was warm and really nice so that made it much easier to work! I'm really sorry this is so short but we got big plans for today! I want ya'll to know that I know that this Church is true. Lots of people say that but I KNOW it. This gospel has blessed my life more than anything in the world. Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He was the tool in the Lords hands that restored the truth to the earth again. The fullness of the Gospel is here for us to take and learn from. That will do more for us than anything else. I want you to know that Jesus Lives. He is my Savior and yours too. The relationship we have with God and Jesus should be priority over anything else in this world. Life is too short to not take advantage of it! I love ya'll and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Walker 

This is a members Camaro we got to ride in this week. 2010 SS with a 426 HP 427 ci engine! So fast!!

April 13th

Hey Ya’ll,

   This week had been something! My new companion, Elder Van Halder had a companion who didn't like to work so we worked this week! We taught tons of lessons, got 4 new investigators and handed out lots of Book of Mormons! It was awesome! Also on Saturday I got to go back to Mustang to see the baptism of Marty. He was someone that I started teaching with elder Staheli when I first got there. 6 months ago he wanted nothing to do with the church and now he is a member! Oh man that was amazing to see! We should have a few more that are coming up here in the next month or so! But other than that we were out and about a lot! It was hot all week which is sort of nice haha. A nice change of weather!

    But one thing that I’ve been thinking lots about this week is happiness. Where does true happiness come from and how to we have that? I was reading in Mosiah 2:41. Here it talks about how happy the people are because they keep the commandments of God and are righteous. When we are doing what the Lord wants us to do, he blesses us so much. He always wants us to be happy and he wants to bless us but he can’t unless we do our part! He's got His blessing cannon loaded with blessings and ready to fire at us, but we have to be the one to light the fuse. It’s crazy to think that some of the blessings that we either did or didn't receive are because of us. There’s only one person to blame. "Ask and ye shall receive. Knock and it shall be opened unto you." (D&C 4:7) Love ya’ll and hope you have a wonderful and happy week!

Elder Walker

This is Marty (in the blue) and his family. His wife is already a member and the kids will be baptized soon!

March 23rd

Hey Y’all

This week has been nuts! It started off at the Zoo in OKC and it was 82 that day so super nice! Then we put in a sidewalk on Tuesday morning/afternoon. Wednesday and Thursday it rained and we worked. In the rain! I went on exchanges in Thursday to Friday with the 2nd ward elders then Friday to Saturday with the ZL's. Saturday we went to the sisters baptism and that was pretty cool. They found this awesome guy and his son who were totally prepared to hear the gospel! The dad David was baptized about a month ago and he was able to baptize his son Michael which was awesome! Later that night we taught one of our investigators bill and found out that he has a sweet camaro! It’s a 2014 SS with the supercharged 6.2L with 580HP!! Wheeeew! Sweet! I might be coveting that a little bit... haha just kidding! Then on our way home Elder Lloyd got bit by a dog on the ankle haha. It was pretty funny. It was a blue heeler pit bull mix. Not a good combo! It wasn’t that bad but it was deep. We just rubbed some dirt in it but he'll survive.

   This week I have been studying about the Nephites and the Lamanites in Helaman. Even though they all knew that they needed to keep the commandments, they chose not to and eventually fell in into wickedness. And then the crazy part is that the Lamanites were more righteous that the Nephites were! We see the pride cycle happen over and over again and prophets come and prophesy of destruction. The only way they remember the Lord is when they are punished by wars or famine among other things. They are constantly reminded and still choose to be wicked! I sometimes look around me and realize that the pride cycle is still in effect today! People start prospering and being successful and are pretty well off, then they begin to forget where it all comes from and start to get wicked! Let us all be aware of this and don’t forget where all y’alls blessings come from! Love y’all and have a good week!

Elder Walker

April 6th

Hey Y'all!

This week has been pretty crazy. The weathers been nice and its been interesting transitioning into a new area and companion. Elder Van Halder is an amazing missionary. He's been out for 7 months. A month longer than me! This is definitely the city and any of you who know me knows that I don't like the city... but this is where the Lord needs me and I have people here I need to teach and lessons I need to learn so I'm excited to be here. I'm sorry this is so short but Ive only got an hour and lots of emails to respond to! I am doing really well and I want to thank y'all for all the prayers and support y'all give. It helps so much!

How bout conference huh?? That was amazing! I hope that y'all got as much out of it as possible! There was a lot of power and amazing advice and rebuking in those men's words! (and women's haha) I hope y'all have an amazing week! Stay strong and don't forget to pray and read daily!

Elder Walker

The new digs

March 30th

Hey Y’all! 

   This week has been crazy! We started out Monday with an amazing p-day! We played some hard ball and got a good sweat going! Then we had a good evening and taught a really spiritual lesson! 

   Tuesday we worked hard and it was super nice outside. We taught another lesson that went real well. It was 85 outside and gorgeous missionary work weather! Wednesday it all hit the fan. We did service at the Library in the morning then had lunch with a member. She told us that there was a big storm coming in later that day and that we shouldn’t be out in it. We looked around and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! We went about the rest of our day and then went to dinner with the Whipple family. During dinner they were talking bout the naters (That’s what people call them here) and we were joking around and stuff. Then when we went out after dinner with Brother Whipple and it was storming pretty good. Thunder, lightning and the works. We pulled up to a sister’s house and all Hell broke loose. We were in the van and it was shaking because of the wind. Trash cans were blowing down the street and a tree blew down a few houses away. Golf ball sized hail started coming down and pelting the car and cracked his windshield. Sister Drake was standing at the door yelling at us to come in. When we ran in a chunk of hail hit me on the shoulder and bruised me pretty good! 

  When we got inside she had the news on and it said that a tornado had just touched down outside of El Reno and was coming towards Yukon. It said that the winds were 100+ MPH. So we all ran to get in her shelter. Then we got a call from the ZL's to go get the sisters and take them to a shelter because they were in their bathtub with mattresses over them!! I was laughing so hard until I realized that we had to go out into the storm/tornado to get them! No thanks! But we did it,we drove back to the apartments and got them. There was about 6 inches of standing water on every road and the wind was blowing super hard! When we got them they were pretty freaked out. The power was flashing on and off and hail was pounding hard on everything. We got back into Brother Whipple’s nater chaser (minivan) and drove back to his shelter. We got back to his house and found out that the tornado had lifted off the ground just before it got to Yukon and went over the top of us. The 2nd ward elders (Down in mustang about 5 miles south of us) said they could see the funnel cloud forming above Yukon and it was pretty big!

   It touched down just outside of the south east corner and then ripped through Moore. It only was an F1 tornado but it still did lots of damage.  Moore gets hit with tornados every single year. 2 years ago one of the biggest naters ever recorded flattened Moore and killed hundreds of people. But they still keep rebuilding it! So after everything calmed down we went home for the night. That was enough for one day! 

   The next morning we went to Moore to help with nater cleanup. All the missionaries in our zone went to help including the Big man P-dog. President Walkenhorst! We helped clean up trees and roofs and siding and everything else! There were radio towers blown over and even the roof of the elementary school got ripped off! So we helped move the school to a huge Baptist church there in Moore. That was pretty much our whole day!

   This week we had 5 investigators come to church and all of them will be baptized within the next 6 weeks! So exciting! 

   Today is a sad day though, I’m getting transferred, after 6 months I’m leaving Mustang 1st ward to go serve in OKC 1st Ward. In the City (which I’m not too thrilled about...) But I know the Lord needs me there. My new companion will be Elder VanHalder

   This week I have been reading about the coming of Christ in the B of M. It talks about all the wicked people who were burned, drowned, buried, or sucked up and tossed in a whirlwind (tornados haha). In Helaman 5:12 it talks about how when we build our foundations on Christ we can withstand any storm or anything the adversary throws at us. Anything! My favorite part of that scripture is the end where is says, “Because of the rock upon which ye are built (The Savior), which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." You absolutely, for sure, said and done, in no way shape or form, bought and paid for CANNOT fall. EVER!

   So let this be a reminder, in times of spiritual whirlwinds and storms that we must always be building and strengthening our foundations on and in Christ. 

   Thanks for the love and support you have shown me! I hope y’all have an amazing week!

Love y’all!

Elder Walker

   

Time for some Easter fun