12-28-15

Hey yall!

   This week was an alright one for us. We seem to be at the bottom of peoples priority list right now. But hopefully this next week will be awesome!

   Christmas was great! Skyping with family was the best part! They are all doin good and still crazy as ever! I miss them! Anyhow, we spent Christmas day with the Harmon family, the Murphy's, and the Faheys. They are all awesome and spoiled us rotten! We got hooked up!

   The members here are so awesome I am so blessed to be in such an amazing ward! I am so thankful to all of you for your love and support this holiday season! I am so blessed!

   Things are goin good around here. It seems to be that winter finally decided to show up so Im excited about that! I love the cold weather! It rained. Then the rain froze. Then it was freezing rain, Then it was hail, then it was snow and now its just ice! Lots of ice! The roads aren't too bad but they were when we woke up this morning! I am so thankful for a 4 wheel drive truck to drive (: That pretty much means that we can drive anywhere through anything haha. Just kidding :P (that was a partially serious statement). But I love this time of year when everyone is happy and full of gratitude. Im thankful for the love and service of others. I am just so thankful for everything!!!  

   I love this gospel and all the blessings that it brings! There is a scripture that I believe applies very well at the start of this new year.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says:

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

As we all make new year resolutions, we need to know that God wont tempt us more than we can handle and that he provides a way for us to overcome those temptations. We can be strong and become better! Fulfilling our divine potential isn't easy but its so worth it! I wish yall and Happy New Year and a safe week! Love yall!

Elder Walker

There was a shooting right across from our apartment complex on Christmas Eve day.  There were cops everywhere!

12-21-15

Hey yall! 

   This week has been an interesting one for us! We had our Christmas Conference on Thursday and that was really amazing! We focused on planning and how to prepare people for baptism. I know that sounds kinda boring but was really good for us as missionaries! President Walkenhorst talked about what white symbolizes. It represents purity, peace, joy, holiness, a fresh start, and love. 

Isaiah 1:18 Says:

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

Through Him we can become white and clean. 

Right now there is so much potential to be sharing the gospel but it seems like we cant visit enough people! I love sharing the gospel and especially talking about Jesus Christ and His birth this time of year! He changed the world on that wonderful day in those humble circumstances that were provided. The world would never be the same after that! I am so thankful for Him and His love for us and the sacrifice He performed in our behalf. 

John 3:16 - 17 Says:

 

   16 ¶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

   17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Isaiah 9:6 Says: 

   6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

During this wonderful time of year, let us remember why we celebrate. Let us remember what He has done for us and what we can become because of Him. As we feel the Love and the joy in the air this Christmas Season, Let our hearts be turned towards him in remembrance and gratitude. 

I pray that this finds everyone well and that Yall have a Merry Christmas! Love yall! 

Elder Shane Walker 

Here are the Muzingos! They are an awesome couple that serves in the mission office! Also Here is Elder Riley Jeffs from the Springfield Stake!  

12-14-15
Hey yall! 

   This week was an interesting one for us. Its been really warm all week. We were walkin round in short sleeves the whole time. On Tuesday it was 71 degrees outside. Ridiculous! Last year round this time I was freezin my tie off! But not this year! Its probably gonna hit real soon and get nasty but oh well (: I love the cold so I cant wait! Nothin much happened this week. We had almost all of our appointments fall through which is a little frustrating but oh well. We were able to meet some really cool people though! 

   We knocked on this one ladies door and she opened it up and said that she didnt have time for us. Then we asked if we could say a quick prayer with her. She said yes and came on out to the front porch! We prayed with her and then she opened up and started talking to us about Christmas! We talked to her about the #ASaviorIsBorn video that the church put out and it was really cool. Right before we were about to leave she said that we needed to be careful because satan was out among us. Him and his demons are people we see walking in the stores and down the street and we dont even know it. Now whether or not thats true I dont know but I wouldnt doubt it! We tried to set up a return appt. and she said if you can catch me! I hate it when people say that! Anyhow, we walked off her driveway and there was this guy walking down the street with a puppy. We stopped and talked to him and he was pretty cool! He was native american and was looking for this puppy's owner. We gave him a #ASaviorIsBorn card and he said thanks and went to leave. I said what was your name? And he turned around and shook my hand looked me in the eye and said, "Lucifer". Then he walked away! I was so freaked out after that! I dont know what that was all about but it was really strange that we met him right after we just barely got done talking about satan being among us with that lady! 

   There are some interesting people out there and they all need the Gospel! So dont be afraid to open your mouths to those that you come in contact with. Carry a few pass along cards with you, and keep a Book of Mormon in yer car. You never know when yer gonna need it! 

   Love yall and hope that you have a wonderful week!

Elder Walker 

12-7-15

Hey y’all!

   This week has been amazing for us! We have seen so many miracles! But first of all I will start out by saying that it is December now and I think that Oklahoma hasn't quite figured that out yet. It has been over 60 degrees every day this week. I haven't even had to wear gloves or a beanie or anything since the ice storm! It’s crazy! Right now it’s sunny and 58 outside! Anyhow, I’m waiting for the cold weather to hit like a ton of bricks pretty soon. We're due for it!

   On a more spiritual note, we had some amazing things happen this week! We have an investigator (or eternigator) Janetta Seagraves, who we have been teaching since I got here. She has been meeting with the missionaries for over 3 years now! She has a smoking problem and thinks that God doesn't care if she smokes a cigarette here or there. She is a super sweet lady but has a hard time understanding the commandments. So we took it to the next level. We call up the big man. All 7 feet of him. P-dog. The Main man, President Walkenhorst. We scheduled an interview for them for this last Thursday. She called us on Thursday morning and told us that she couldn't do it. She was going to start going to another Church with her husband Seth (Who is inactive) and son Gabe who is 2. But Elder Taggart testified hard core and convinced her to go through with it!  So she did and it was amazing! The Janetta that walked out of that interview was a different Janetta that walked in. I don't know what President said to her but it worked. She committed to stop smoking by the end of the year and she committed to come to church every Sunday from now on! We have tried so hard to get her to come and she wouldn't do it! We don't know what He said in there but it worked! We went over the next night to get the rest of the family on board. They all agreed and they all came to church on Sunday! They haven't been to church as a family in years! And Sister Seagraves even bore her testimony! It was so powerful!

   I am so thankful for this Gospel and I know it to be true! I hope that everyone is well and that y’all are pondering on how you can be better every day! Love y’all!

Elder Walker

11-30-15

Howdy y’all!

   This week has been an interesting one for us. We started off this week by helping a guy in our ward move some stuff around. Turns out that this guy is a hoarder. He hoards lawn mowers and cars. His house is full of lawn mowers and his yard is full of mowers and cars. He is losing his house so we went over there to help him gather a few things up before he gets kicked out. He had us take some boards in his back yard and load them onto his friends trailer so that he could have them put into storage. So it turns out that we were helping a hoarder hoard some more! He has a 1950s jaguar in his shed that is all dusty and hasn’t been driven in 40+ years. Some guy offered him $22,000 for it if he could clear a path in his yard and get it out onto the street. But nope he didn’t want to, so now he’s losing it. It’s a super nice old car too! His loss... 

   Then on Thanksgiving we had a blast! We had our ward turkey bowl that morning and it was interesting. There were 8 missionaries that showed up and like 6 other people. There were some cheap hits, some swearing, some tantrums thrown, some screaming and yelling, some cheap calls, some sweet touchdowns, some people that got hurt and some toddler behavior all thrown into the mix! (None of that came from the missionaries by the way. Honest) I was thinking, hmm we are all adults here. Let’s act like it! It’s just a flippin pickup game of football! Get over it! But it was fun none the less!   

  After that we had a meeting with some other zone leaders the Sister Training leaders too. That was to plan for our stake missionary correlation meeting with the Stake Presidency and the Mission President for that coming Sunday. It went really well and we got lots done! Then we went to eat some thanksgiving meal! OH MAN did I stuff my face! We had dinner with the Farrars and with the Murphy Families. It was so much fun!     

  It was raining and pretty warm that morning. I think that it was like 65 that morning and throughout the day it got colder. Friday it was in the low 30s and raining. Freezing rain! It was cold enough to snow but too humid so it just rains and freezes when it hits the ground. It got colder and colder until Friday night when things were getting pretty icy. We were on exchanges and I was with an elder from Arizona so he was freaking out! When we woke up on Saturday it was like a war zone outside! There were trees down everywhere and branches down on power lines and all sorts of crazy stuff! There was half of this big tree that fell on this car in our complex. The car belonged to a lady who wasn’t very nice so we thought that was funny! The roads weren’t too bad but they were still a little scary! Anyhow, we drove back to Edmond to exchange back and made it safe and sound. Then we spent the afternoon helping brother Murphy clean up his trees and stuff. He couldn’t get his chainsaw running so I fixed it for him. It was a fun day! 

   To sum it all up we had a pretty crazy week! It’s a time to be thankful and remember what this season is all about! It’s a time to remember that Our Savior was born to save us. Not that Walmart is having a huge sale. The Church put out a new Video called A Savior is Born. It’s at christmas.mormon.org so go check it out! It is very inspirational and we should take the challenge it extends. Discover why we need a Savior and discover what He saves us from! Love y’all and have a great week! 

Elder Walker

The turkey bowl

After the stuffing

I hope they had good insurance

11-23-15

Hey Y’all!

            This week has been a real good one for us! We were able to get lots done and meet some really awesome people! It’s finally cold outside! It’s been in the 30s and 40s all week so I've been loving it!

We me this Buddhist guy by the name of Patrick Morris who is super cool! He is a culinary arts professor and is the nicest guy you've ever met! We were talking to him about being confident and optimistic. He is the most optimistic man I have ever met! He was so happy and didn’t have a worry in the world! After we talked with him we felt so happy and motivated to go! It was a really awesome experience! I hope that I can be as optimistic as him some day! We might have him come and give us some training on how to be optimistic and confident at our next Specialized Training Meeting in December. I know that there are tons of really amazing people out there that are not members of our church that make a huge difference in the world and I am so thankful for the chance I have to meet them and work with them! 

            Other than that we had our STM for November last Monday and it went really well. We talked about baptism and why it’s so important! We talked about the Priesthood authority that it requires and the Gift of the Holy Ghost as well. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is the most important and amazing Gift that we can receive! The promise that we will have the Holy Ghost to be with us as long as we are living worthy of it! What a blessing! He is there to guide us and direct us in our lives and lead us in the way that the Lord Himself would if He were here. That gift can only be conferred by the Laying on of Hands by someone who holds the proper authority from God as it talks about in Acts 8. It is amazing to know that we are being blessed every day by our loving Heavenly Father and that He is always aware of everything that we do and everything that we go through. I am so thankful for all that He does for me and all the Blessings and miracles that I am able to be a part of! I hope that y’all have an amazing week and remember to look for and enjoy the little things because that is where we find the most joy! Love y’all! 

Elder Walker 

So we took this picture last night and decided that this sums up our companionship! He’s a hipster and I’m a redneck and we get along great! 

11-16-15

Hey Y’all,

   This week has been a real good one for us! We are doing really good! The weather has finally started to turn and its cold now! About time! I love the Cold! This week it was almost 80 degrees in the beginning of the week and down into the 40s and 50s by the end! The work here is finally picking up. We have found several new people to teach and the ones we are teaching now are getting more solid! We have proved a point this week to an atheist who we have been teaching named Paul. He a super cool guy and I’m happy that we are finally getting across to him! We were reading the story of Enos with him about prayer and forgiveness. Then I asked him from his perspective how he would go about receiving forgiveness! He said he didn't know! So we are getting him to start thinking finally! Also we are teaching a Protestant Pastor named Rod and we got him thinking this week too talking bout exercising our faith! Things are improving and progressing here in the Crick! We had the opportunity to go on 2 exchanges this week. We did one with the APs and one with the Edmond 4th Elders. I went with AP Elder Debenham to Moore on Tuesday and then I stayed in Quail Creek with Elder Anderson on Friday! They are both so awesome! I’m so thankful that I can serve with all these amazing missionaries!

   So today we are having our zone P day and we are all getting together at the stake center to play some sports! Then after that we are having an STM (specialized training meeting) as a zone and me and Elder Taggart are teaching that! We are talking about baptism and Beware of Pride! It’s going to be really good! We received a lot of inspiration as we prepared this training over the last few weeks so I’m really excited!

   This week I have been reading in The Book of Mormon in the book of Mosiah about the People of Limhi. Ammon is teaching them and Share something with them that I love! In verse 33 he says,

" But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in Him, and serve Him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, He will, according to His own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

So here he says very plainly that if we turn to the Lord and trust Him, He will deliver us out of our own bondage. Whatever that may be! I love that the Lord is willing to help us as long as we are willing to serve Him and do what He asks of us. He has given us everything and all He asks in return, is that we keep His commandments!

   I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who loves us all individually and hears our prayers! I love y’all and hope that y’all have a wonderful week!

Elder Walker