September 21st

Hey Yall!

   This week has been a crazy one! Monday and Tuesday were spent saying goodbye to members/investigators in the OKC 1st Ward. Wednesday was transfer day! That was an adventure to say the least! At 9:30 on transfer day they hold a zone leader meeting. So I got to go to that for the first time and that was interesting! Being in a room with 20 zone leaders, the leaders of the whole mission, and I felt like I was back in high school again haha. Those guys are all crazy! I walked in and there were 2 elders wrestling around on the ground and there was stuff being thrown through the air and lots of laughing and making jokes and all sorts of stuff! I was like, um... this is what zone leaders are like? It was pretty funny I thought! 

   Anyhow, I was able to meet Elder Riley Jeffs at transfers! He is such an awesome guy! He is being trained in Cushing. It’s a little one light town in the furthest north eastern corner of our mission. It’s a great area and I’m so excited for him! I know that he will do amazing there! 

   This week we did lots of missionary work! So now that I have a truck, yes I said truck, we are able to get around easier. Now unfortunately, it is a Nissan. It’s a Nissan frontier. It’s a nice little truck and its brand spankin new! We get to switch off driving every other day so that’s nice. Now that I haven’t driven in almost a year! Plus it has a terrible turning radius so that made for a rough first day of driving. It was rough but I survived it all. I’m doing well and loving life.

  Elder Barton is doing good with his new companion Elder Hurd. I am so glad that he got a good companion for his breaker!

  It decided to finally rain here on Saturday night and into Sunday. When it rains in Oklahoma, it POURS!! It doesn’t mess around here! It straight up gets after it! We had a river running through our complex! But thankfully we have a truck now so we don’t have to worry about getting soaked (: 

   On a more spiritual note, we had the opportunity this week to help this brother give his grandson a name and a blessing. We are the "blessing elders" because we have tons of hospitals in our area. So we went to this hospital to help this brother out. His daughter had just had a baby and it probably wasn’t going to survive the night. They wanted the baby to have a name and blessing before he passed. As we reached into the little enclosed case the baby was in I couldn’t help but think about what was going on on the other side. This baby was brand new to this world and was going to be leaving it very shortly. We all placed our hands on the baby and the grandfather gave him a name and a blessing. The spirit was so strong there I knew that there were other people in the room other than us. I know it was a very hard time for all of them because they were about to lose the baby. I could picture Heavenly Father standing there with his arms out stretched waiting to welcome this precious child into his arms. It was a very tender moment and as he finished, a feeling of comfort flooded over the whole room. As the mother and father sat there crying I heard him whisper into her ear, “it’s ok, we'll see him again.” The Plan of salvation is so amazing and it is such a blessing to have knowledge of it! I am so thankful for this gospel and the peace that it brings. What a blessing to be part of that moment.

   This week I have been studying a lot about the Sabbath day. I know that the brethren of the church are pushing that really hard lately. There is a quote in Preach My Gospel that talks about the Sabbath. It says, "Our Sabbath Day observance is a reflection on our commitment to follow our Savior Jesus Christ." It’s very true and made me reflect on how well I do. As a missionary Sunday is just another day but we get to go to church. There isn’t really much that sets it apart other than that so I was thinking about how I try and make it special. The Sabbath is a day of rest but when we are not doing anything, that is not keeping the Sabbath day holy. We must always be doing something productive on the Sabbath. And Spencer W. Kimball (Prophet) Said that yes, even sleeping is a good thing to do on the Sabbath haha so no worries there! On the Sabbath we should refrain from spending money in any way, participating in recreational activities, watching TV, using electronic devices that distract us, and doing anything that takes our mind off of the true meaning of the Sabbath day. This day has been set apart from the beginning of this time as a day to rest and focus on the Savior and the things that He has done for us. It is a day to spend time with family and develop those important relationships. I hope and pray that all of you will evaluate yourselves and your Sabbath Day Observance and decide now how you will better show your commitment to follow our Savior.

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

Elder Walker 

      

Here is my posterity picture! This is me, my trainer elder Stahlei (who went home that day), my son elder Barton and my brother Elder Kerr. (My trainer trained again after me) 

And then this is who I am replacing as ZL. Elder Fronk! He was one of my disc golf buddies (: 

August 31st

Hey Y’all!

   This week has been a really good one for us! Summer is coming to an end and the weather is cooling down, but also the work is picking up! We were able to do a lot of service for both members and non-members this week. We did 3 moves and a few lawns haha. We just need to start a business!

We were also able to teach a few good lessons to Colby and Amy and also to Kiera. Kiera came to church this week and that was awesome! She loved it and said that she wanted to come back next week! She is very curious and willing to learn. It’s so exciting when people are like that and progress so quickly in the Gospel! 

On Wednesday we were able to go to the temple as a zone! That was really awesome! We have the best zone leaders in the whole mission! Elder Bues and Elder Quist are amazing!! They are so inspired and led by the spirit in all they do! 

Anyhow, all is well here! We are getting along great! The rest of the district is doing good too.

This week I was studying in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 10) about Jacob talking about the coming of Christ. He talked about how Christ had to go to the Jews specifically in order to complete His ministry and the Atonement. Jacob talks about how the Jews were the only ones who were wicked enough to kill their Savior. Any other nation would have repented and accepted Him as their Savior. That really surprised me when I read that! Something interesting that I never really thought about before! I hope and pray that we all would repent and accept Jesus as our Savior if He came to us!

I hope that y’all have an amazing week and stay strong and don't be afraid to share the gospel and open your mouth! Love y’all!

Elder Walker

Here is our Zone at the Temple

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