July 11th

Hey Y’all!

   This week was something else. It seemed like we spent all our time in meetings! We met the new mission president on Tuesday, had MLC on Thursday, Friday went to Ardmore. twice... (missionary probs) then Saturday went to OKC for a baptism!! Jay Hardy, a guy who we baptized up in the city baptized his girlfriend! (Lilah) That was so cool! 

   It was busy busy, busy! It was fun though. We did lots of service as well. 

   The focus of our new mission president (Who is amazing btw) seems to be strengthening the members before baptizing new ones. He doesn’t care about numbers. He cares about conversion! So that’s’ what we are gonna be focusing on! And the Pauls Valley Ward could really use some strengthening in that sense. So look out, here we come! 

   My companion Elder Riffenburg is getting transferred! To Enid! My new comp will be Elder Whetten coming from Vernon. I’m so excited to work with him! It seems like change happens often and keeps us from getting too comfortable! Remember that. Sometimes, the Lord needs us to change something around! So be willing to do it when it is presented!

Love y’all and have a great week!!

Elder Walker  

Jay and Lilah at her baptism

And our nerf gun fight with Ronan Weingartner! SO FUN!!

July 5th

Hey Y’all!

   This week has been amazing! I don't think that I have ever sweat so much in my life. It seems like it’s getting hotter and hotter every day. The heat is only amplified by the humidity. But that comes with summer time here in Oklahoma. And it’s only the beginning of it all. It’s been consistently in the high 90's with a day or 2 of 100+ degrees. I prefer the cold but I guess I don't mind it too much. 

   As always, we have had so many chances to serve this week. Mowing lawns, helping others move, serving at a food bank, clearing brush on a ranch... the list goes on and on! I love it! And through that service, we found 3 new investigators as well. Which never hurts :P That was definitely a miracle! At the food bank we do service at there is a guy Rodney who runs the organization. We have wanted to teach him but he is a tough nut to crack. Last week he asked us if we would help him move his sister in from Ohio. She got here on Tuesday and we showed up and moved em in quick like the Mormon moving crew always does! Then afterwards we taught him, his sister and her daughter! So neat! They were so receptive! But sometimes that what it takes is a little service! 

   Our 4th was awesome! We couldn't email because the library was closed and the stores were all closed. We drove through downtown Pauls Valley (Which consists of about 2 blocks of stores and buildings) and the streets were lined with American flags. Both sides all just waving in the wind. There were probably 50 of them! It was so cool to see! The people here love their country for sure! So we went out to the Carnegie Ranch to go fishing! We caught tons of fish there! We caught bass, bluegill, yellow bellied sunfish, and some sticks. It was really cool! They had also killed a timber rattle snake that I skinned and am curing to make something cool with! It’s been an awesome week! 

   Time is short and we gotta go meet our new mission president! I love y’all and hope that y’all have a wonderful week! 

Elder Shane Walker

June 27th

Hey Y’all! 

   This week was crazy! It was so much fun! It’s been full of service and lots of lessons! We started the week off on a good note. We were able to do tons of service! We have the chance to mow several lawns for members in the ward each week. We may as well start The Elders Lawn Services! Seriously! I think that they need to issue the elders here a mower and trailer and also a tractor! It would come in handy!

   It seems like do almost as much service as we do teaching! But we have been asked to do that by our awesome ward mission leader! So we are doing all of it! So we mowed lawns Tuesday in Pauls Valley, we cut split and stacked wood on Thursday in Sulphur, and then cleared forest on a ranch in Pauls Valley again on Saturday. Then today we mowed some more! That’s why I’m sending this off so late cuz we were busy all day! Anyhow, all between that we taught a bunch of lessons and met some awesome people! It may sound like we just do service all the time but we really do work! I promise! There are plenty of service opportunities to be had here! It’s the first place that I've been where we can ask if someone needs something done and they say yes!! I love it!! 

   But it’s been busy and I’m glad that it’s over. Now onto this week! This week we get a new mission president! That will be exciting! Onto new things! It’s gonna be different adjusting to the new president but I’m sure that he will have nothing but good things to contribute to the mission and the people here in Oklahoma. 

   Stay strong and endure! I love y’all and have a great week! 

Elder Walker 

June 20th

Hey Y’all!

   This week has been crazy! I say that every week I know but this week really was crazy! We started off the week with a good pday. We just chilled. It was really nice! 

   Then Tuesday, we drove all the way to Lawton to do car inspections at a zone conference there! That’s a solid 90-mile drive from us. When we got into Lawton, we drove straight into a WILD thunderstorm. We could see the front of the storm from probably 20 miles away! It was huge! On the way back we ended up driving super far east to give a blessing in Sulphur. It made for a long day and lots of miles. But it was all approved so it’s all good. 

   Wednesday we drove up to Norman for OUR Zone Conference. That was awesome! President Walkenhorst talked about Obedience and its blessings. So good! That was the last time being able to see him before he goes home in a week! Also that evening we drove out to a little town of Antioch to pick up a member to go teaching and found a washed out road that made us take a super long detour. It sucked but it was bad! Its gonna take a while to fix that one! 

   Thursday was a normalish day. We found like crazy and got 3 new investigators! That was a miracle! 

   Friday we went to Seminole for district meeting and exchanges. That went really well! 

   On Saturday we went out to a little town called Stratford to install an amp and stereo system in a 79 blazer for a member of our bishopric! That was fun! 

   Then Sunday was wild too. Meetings in Pauls Valley, then a mini sacrament meeting in a little town south of here called Sulphur. There are lots of people that live there that can’t afford to drive all the way up here to PV so we take it to them! Then we had a really good visit with some pig farmers in a town called Paoli. They are the Kidd family and are members that are struggling a bit but they are awesome!  

   Anyhow, this week was long and busy and I’m glad that its over! This coming week should be a good one! We have lots of service planned and y’all know how much I love service! Good stuff! 

   One thing that I have learned this week is that obedience brings so many blessings. When we have a desire to be obedient, Heavenly Father blesses us with the strength to do so. It can be and usually is really hard. But through Him we can be obedient. It requires constant reflection and much repentance. The commandments provide a way for us to live higher than the world. To have an improved quality of life. To TRULY be happy! Its so awesome! 

   Anyhow, I love y’all and hope that you have an amazing week! 

Elder Walker 

June 13th

Hey Y’all!

   It’s been in interesting week for sure! We have done so much service this week! Everything from falling trees, mowing lawns, moving people, to raking leaves. We also have had quite the wild ride. On Wednesday we went to do some service for some ward members and in the process Elder Riffenburg drove over a small stump and messed up the front bumper of the truck. Well we have that to get fixed now. My first time ever having a truck that was messed up! Then later in the week he did something else too. I'll talk about that one in a bit. 

   This weekend we had stake conference! We drove up to Norman with our ward mission leader on Saturday evening then we rode with the sisters up there on Sunday morning. The stake president is so cool! His name is President Satterthwaite. The focus of this conference was about the family unit and how to strengthen it. It was so good! They talked all about how much Satan is making such an attack on the family. Which he is! We see it every single day! So it was really good to hear them focus on that! 

   On Sunday after stake conference, we came home and had quite the adventure! Since we had woken up that morning, it had been pouring rain and storming pretty hard. It rained so much that the streets flooded, Washed out roads and bridges, flooded stores and homes, ruined cars and the works! While we were coming back on the highway, (we were on HWY 77) there were parts where the road had washed out completely, then another back road we tried to take had a bridge that washed out, then the Interstate 35 was ridiculously backed up and so we took another back road that took us east of Pauls Valley and that road had a part that was about ready to wash out! We drove across really quick and we later heard that it did wash out haha. Crazy stuff. The whole town of Pauls Valley was flooded at one point in about 4 ft. of water and many parts still are. The drainage systems here suck! It made for an adventure. The rivers were about 20 ft. higher than usual and everything was a mess! I hope that they can get everything cleaned up quick!    So for the second time that Riffenburg broke the truck. We were driving on the road in about 2 ft of water. (I promise it was the only way to where we needed to go) Well Riffenburg thought that it was cool to drive through the water really fast so he did and in the process, ripped off one of our mud flaps. Our poor truck! So I've been givin him a hard time about it all day! haha. But the rest of this week should be a fun one for sure. We get to drive to Lawton tomorrow to help with car inspections at a zone conference, then we have our zone conference on Wednesday! It should be fun!

   I love y’all so much and hope that y’all have a wonderful week! 

Elder Walker

June 6

Hey Yall!! 

   This week has been crazy! We probably did more service than anything else! Which is good because that's what our ward mission leader wants us to focus on. Sometimes I feel like I'm part time ranch hand and full time missionary trying to balance 2 jobs! Its nice because I love doing work like that. Plus, getting to be around cattle, horses and other farm animals never hurts! 

    It finally decided to rain this week. And it rained all week long... which makes for lots of mud. (: Pauls Valley is a very muddy place to begin with so we had lots of fun this week if you know what I mean :D haha. You should see our truck. Its the natural color of the earth! 

   Wednesday we had transfers. I'm staying in Pauls Valley and so is my companion! We get to go up the city for every transfer because we have a Zone Leader meeting beforehand. So it was an hour and a half up to the city, we had our meeting, transfers happened, we said hey to some other missionaries, then we loaded up their stuff. So here in the Pauls Valley Ward we have 2 sets of missionaries. Elders and Sisters. Sister Rees and Sister Fuller were here this last transfer. Sister Rees got transferred up to Ponca City! The far north part of the mission! So Sister Trotter came in to replace her! Both me and Elder Riffenburg served with her up in the city so we already knew her. So we loaded up her stuff and also a new missionaries stuff who is being trained in Ardmore. We drove the hour and a half back down to Pauls Valley, dropped off the sisters at their car, then drove another hour down to Ardmore to drop off the Elder's stuff! Then all the way back again! 

   Then for dinner, we ate with the Carnagie family who lives out in a little town waaaaaaaaaaaaay west of here called Antioch. If you've never heard of it, you wouldn't know it exists because its literally not on the map. So we drove out there in the pouring rain to find out that the road to their house was so muddy and flooded that they didn't want us to drive on it! (I was over here thinking, please Sister Carnagie you don’t even know who is behind the wheel of this truck right now... Me :P ) So the road to their place is about a half mile off the main road. (all dirt and by this point, mud) So we walked all the way up to their house (: The food was amazing! But I was thinking the whole time that the new Sister in the ward, Sister Trotter was gonna be pretty freaked out about everything. But she wasn't! Welcome to Pauls Valley Oklahoma! Where everyone lives too far apart and none of the roads are paved! Makes for some fun stories! By the end of Wednesday, we had driven just shy of 300 miles. That made for a long day! And of course, I was driving (: 

   Anyhow, that was a crazy day for sure! We also have done TONS of service this week! We mowed lawns, raked yards, trimmed trees, fed a HUGE burn pile and caught a few fish in the process (: (Don't worry dad, it was early in the morning for our "exercise" haha)

   It was a good week and we were able to get lots done! 

Today we are having a big STM and Zone Pday. We are going out to the Hancock's Property to go fishing and play some other games and activities. Then we're gonna have a big zone picnic/BBQ thing. Out there is where that big burn pile was so we will cook stuff on that bad boy. It’s gonna be so much fun! I hope that it all works out well and that people are able to catch lots of fish!! 

   The work here in Pauls Valley is Moving forward rapidly. We teach so many lessons every week! Before you know it, it’s gonna be the Pauls Valley Stake!! OH YEAH!!!

   Things are going really good here and life couldn’t be better! Love yall and hope that yall have a wonderful week!

Elder Walker 

I caught a turtle, killed this nasty fiddle back and drove by lazy ranch down in Ardmore! 

May 23

Hey Yall!

   I don’t have too much time this week but I want yall to know that things are great here! I love it as always and the work is movin forward!! This week we went and did service on the Nunn Ranch. Twice! It’s awesome! Brother Nunn is a cowboy. A real cowboy! I love that place! We helped put up a big fence and cleared a ton of brush and trees to make more room for his horses. But that’s also where we're goin fishin today (: Anyhow, it’s been a great week and we have been super busy. It’s been nice and sunny and also gross and rainy. 

   This week its supposed to be all sorts of nasty and stormy so we'll see what happens. Anyhow yall are in my prayers and I am so thankful for all that yall do for me! Have a good week! 

Elder Walker