August 24th

Hey yall!

   Another week flown by! It has been a better one for sure and the Lord has been blessing us a ton! The weather has been super nice and in the low 80's and 70's, which is unheard of for weather in August! We were blessed with a new investigator named Kierra and she is 18 yrs old. Super sweet girl who is sincerely interested! She is on schedule for baptism on Sept. 26th! So exciting! We were able to get a lot done this week. We visited with lots of people and worked hard! It rained a few days and that's always fun, but nothing new to me! Its been amazing to see how the Lord humbles us. When I got to this area, we had 2 baptisms within my first 6 weeks here. Things were on fire! Then I guess the Lord didn't want us to get too cocky because He let us struggle for ahwile. But now we are being blessed with new investigators and more people to teach!

Anyhow, there's a thought I wanted to share with yall. In D&C 137:9 it talks about how the Lord will judge us according to our works, and according to our desires. Right there He says that our works and our desires are one in the same. What we do is what we desire. Also what we are working towards is our desire too. So take a moment and ponder on what your desires are. Are they righteous? Are they selfish? Most importantly, are they in line with Gods will? Think about that and evaluate if you need to change some of your desires or not. I know I do! Our desires are manifest by the things that we do.

I love yall and hope that yall have an amazing week! Talk to ya next week!

Elder Walker

8-12-15

Hey Y’all!

   This week was a pretty good one! It was hot but still real good. It was the last week of the transfer and I am still staying here! I’m super happy I’m staying! That means that I get to finish Elder Barton's training at least. At the end of this next transfer I will have been here for 6 months so there’s a good chance that I could be getting transferred. But we'll see what happens. Anyhow, He is doing real good! He is adjusting to missionary life well and picking it up! He keeps me in check too. Holy smokes this kid is sharp! We really get along great and I have learned so much from him! One of the biggest things I have learned from him is patience. Not because he drives me crazy but because he is a very patient person and I’m not haha. But it’s good because I've been trying to work on my patience without praying for it because we all know what happens when you do that! But we work well together as a companionship. I have to get myself to shut up sometimes because I find that I talk too much. He is a quiet kid so I got to give him opportunities to teach and testify. He is so much further ahead of me when I was at that point on my mission. They just keep coming out better and better every single transfer! I am so lucky to be training him!  I got super lucky and got the stud of all studs! I feel like most of the time, he is training me. So it’s always fun to work with him.

   Also, I wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes that y’all sent me! On Friday I got 18 letters and 2 packages in the mail! I think that's an all time mission record! So thank you everyone for that! It was a special day for sure. It was another day of missionary work but it was still a special one!

   This week I read a scripture in Mosiah 5:2. It talks about the people believing the words of the prophets and knowing of the surety of the spirit because it has brought a change upon their hearts and because they no longer have any desire to do evil. When we let the spirit influence us in a positive way we will have no desire at all to do any evil and only a desire to do well. I have found that to be true on my mission. There are often times that you receive temptation and you really have to fight it. And when you are receptive and sensitive to the spirit, temptation seems to be super easy to resist! It’s a huge blessing to have access to the spirit! That is actually what I am going to give my training on in district meeting this Friday. So there’s a little sneak peak.

   I hope that y’all have an amazing week and sorry this is late. We had some other stuff going on Monday. Talk to ya next week!

Elder Walker

Sporting the birthday presents

August 3^rd

Hey Y’all!

   How’s the week been? It’s flown here in the oven of OKC. It’s been super hot and also milder too. This week we did a lot of service for both members and non members. We helped 3 different people move this week. I like getting all sweaty working hard! I have never sweat like I have here in Oklahoma. I think because it’s so humid here. But it’s kind of gross.

   Anyways, the work here is going alright. We had a slower week. Not everyone was able to meet this week for whatever reason. But hopefully next week will be better! We are going to be hitting it hard. It’s the last week of the transfer and there is only one of the sisters being transferred this week to Norman. So other than that our district is staying the same!

  Being a DL is proving to be lots of work and it is also very rewarding. I've got some great missionaries here in my district and I am honored to have the opportunity to serve them! 

   This week I have been studying in Enos. I love his story so much! Not only was he a hunter but he was also a man of God. His repentance process that he shares is amazing! I would encourage all y’all to go read Enos and ponder on how he was able to be forgiven. What a blessing it is to be able to be forgiven! I hope y’all have a great week and stay strong! Keep it up! Love y’all!

Elder Walker

July 20^th

Hey yall,

    This week has been a good one. We were able to get a lot done. We also did lots of service which was good! We mowed 3 lawns and did a bunch of other yard work too! I love any opportunity to get out of pros clothes! The heat and pants and a white shirt and a tie don't go well together! But we survive.

So this week we had a miracle! So y’all remember Colby that I talk about all the time right? Well he wants to be baptized but as of last week he couldn't because he worked on Sundays and they wouldn't give him Sundays off. And if you don't come to church you can’t be baptized. So he got sick of it and up and quit his job! So now he can come to church! Total miracle! We were shocked when we heard that! That doesn't happen very often! But now his wife Amy is going back to school to re-qualify for her CNA so she can work while he looks for another job. That was probably the highlight of the week! He's scheduled for baptism on August 22nd! Now the only thing he's got to do it quit his vape thing. Those stupid things are really popular out here. There are vape shops everywhere!

Not much else has been going on this week. We've received a lot of referrals and we've been running around everywhere to contact all of them! So that's good! Oh! And then on Thursday we found something nasty in our apartment! When I got out of the shower I almost stepped on a spider. When I got closer to look at it, I saw it was a fiddle back! (Or brown recluse for those of you who don't know the Oklahoma vocabulary). So we caught it and put it in a jar and fed it to another big nasty spider we caught earlier that week! Exciting stuff! Those things are everywhere out here!

   Anyway, on a more spiritual note, haha I read a scripture this week I really liked in 1 Nephi 17:13. In there the Lord promises us that he will be the light in the wilderness and that He will prepare a way for us as long as we keep his commandments! What a promise! He will prepare a way. And I have a testimony of that!

Love y’all and have a good week!

Elder Walker

July 13th

 What a week it’s been! It’s flown by! It was cool and rainy earlier in the week and got real hot this weekend.

On Tuesday I was on exchanges with one of our zone leaders Elder Quist. We were biking around in the pouring rain and I wrecked because my brakes don't work too well when they're wet haha. Oh well! Then we had a bunch of meetings. A meeting for the new missionaries and they're trainers called veterans meeting. After 2 weeks they're considered "veterans" I think it’s funny but whatever works I guess. Friday and Saturday we were biking like mad too!

  

Saturday morning we went mountain biking in the morning for our exercise. I think we may have found the only mountain biking trail in Oklahoma. And it’s right next to a lake. That was pretty fun! Got all muddy and sweaty! Great way to start off the day! I think we rode a total of like 20 miles Saturday! We were all over the place! That same evening, we were planning on going down to 30th St. (we live on 63rd St.) to do some less active hunting and elder Barton got a flat tire. So we were going to go to the apt. real quick to change out his tube and then head down there. Then my chain got jammed as I was riding behind him! It was jammed so bad that I had to disconnect it to fix it! I think the Lord didn't want us to go down to 30th St! And that's not even the ghetto, but oh well.

Then yesterday it was a million degrees outside! Holy smokes it was hot. And Sundays are hard days anyways because people are either sleeping or in church. Oh well. Hopefully we can continue to work hard and find tons more people to teach! We dropped like 6 or 7 investigators this week so we are down to 2 or 3. So please pray that we will be able to find new people to teach!

This week I have been studying a lot about Lehi's dream. Its talks about his dream in 1 Nephi 8 and also even more in depth when the Lord is allowing Nephi to see it as well in the few following chapters after that. It’s amazing to read those things and realize that they are all happening right now! These are truly the last days and the Savior will be coming quickly! Are y’all ready?? I am! I would highly recommend that y’all study those chapters deeply. There is a lot of cool stuff in there! Have a great week!

Elder Walker 

7-6-15

Hey Y'all!

First of all I want to apologize for not sending a big email last week. I totally spaced it!

Holy smokes it’s been hot this week! There were a couple days where it was up in the 100's, and the humidity doesn’t help either. But we've been drinking plenty of water and taking lots of slushy breaks, so don't worry!

 he work is going fine here. Our area is experiencing some growing pains a little bit. We are working hard but not much is happening. Trying to get the ball rolling again is hard. It’s also been fun trying to juggle being a trainer and a district leader. With that comes some stress, haha. I haven't really experienced much stress until now so I’m still trying to get used to it. But it’s all good and we are hanging in there. 

This week I have been really focusing on what the Lord wants for us to do in this area and it’s proving to be a challenge to figure out. It seems like we just need to find all new people to teach. Other than a few of our investigators, the other ones are starting to get stale... but tracting is super ineffective so we'll see how that goes. I hope that we can get things going again!

This week I have been thinking a lot about how everything that happens to us and everything that happens in general happens for a reason. Whether it’s for our benefit or for someone else or maybe we don't even know why at all! But it all happens for a reason. Also when the Lord commands us to do certain things, whether that takes the shape of a calling or any other responsibility or rule we are asked to follow, He asks us because He knows that we can handle it! He has faith in us. He knows our potential! He knows who we can become and who we need to become! 1 Nephi 17:50 says that He commands us to do things because He knows we can. He might have to help us but He has faith in us! He's definitely has a plan and has it all under control!

Love y’all and hope you all have an amazing week! Stay cool!

Elder Walker

Shane and his new trainee sitting next to him, Elder Barton