Elder Adam Walker:

9/04/08
It looks like you are getting two letters this week. The missionary that I am on exchanges with didn't get to email home yesterday because of interviews and everything so that is what we are doing right now. I am in Buckannon West Virginia, it's about 30 miles away from Elkins. Its a nice area, has a small college in it, and the roads are ridiculously crowded. Elkins roads are always way busy and there are always traffic jams but this place is even worse.
I saw a kid almost die on Sunday. It was pretty crazy. We were at an investigators house and we were talking to him about when we could come back and teach him and his family. We were talking to him on his sidewalk. His father-in-law and a bunch of his brother-in-laws were fixing their van that had just broke down like the day before and they had it all jacked up and everything.... well needless to say, it fell on one of his brother-in-laws, and after the paramedics pronounced him dead, we raised him from the dead and he was fine!..... kidding, but the jack really did slip and the handle hit his brother-in-law in the head, and it made him have a seizure (a pretty bad one) and then after about like 30 seconds of just shaking uncontrollably, he just fell limp, almost like he was dead. (I thought he was dead) Everyone was freaking out and going crazy, I didn't know what to do. I think I was in as much shock as the kid that got hit cause I didn't know what was going on, everyone was on their phones calling the ambulance. Then Delmus, the guy we were talking to, yelled 'Snap out of it' and he came back to consciousness and he started smiling. He had no idea what had just happened, and yeah it was crazy. The Ambulance came and took him away and as far as we have heard he is okay so that is good. But it was so weird, I thought the kid was dead, but I guess he just went into shock and he wasn't moving. He had no idea what had just happened. After we left, Elder Smith was like, 'darnit... I was hoping he was dead and then we could raise him...' there is Elder Smith for you, looking for genius ways to convert people haha. I was just glad to see that the kid was okay. Interviews went really well yesterday. My interview went for about 30 minutes, and it looks like I am worthy to stay at least another 6 weeks! Love you guys and hope everything is going awesome there. Everything is great here and I am doing awesome! Elder Walker

9/11/08
This past week was awesome! We have got a lot done here in Elkins West Virginia. We have another baptismal date set for a 9 year old girl and she is awesome. She is way exited to be baptized. The Chandler Family is coming along really well, we finally got our Vietnamese Book of Mormons that we ordered about a month ago so we are going to give them to them tonight so they can start reading and get ready for baptism. Jack Chandler is a ciggaretaholic.. if that's a word.. so something has to click with that but we know that we will be able to work with him and he will be able to quit, its just time right now. Frank, our blind investigator, is coming along okay, he still doesn't think that coffee should be against the Word of Wisdom, but he progresses more and more each time. We have the Book of Mormon on CD ordered and are hoping to get that tomorrow. That will be really good, and once he starts listening to that, he will feel the spirit and he will eventually be baptised. He's awesome. Some new people that we have started teaching over the past week is a couple, Matt and Katie. They are chain smokers and have many many many other drug problems. It is really sad to see some of the things that they put themselves through, but they have started reading the Book of Mormon and we have taught them about the restoration and watched a movie with them also. They are really interested and have a lot of questions. They really want to stop doing all the drugs they are doing. They just don't know how to. Luckily we have answers for them on how they can quit all of that at once. It is as simple as accepting Jesus Christ and having Faith. They are awesome and we are looking forward to progressing with them. They are great to talk and discuss doctrine with. Last Sunday we had a pretty good experience. We were out at Justine Shaffer's home (new convert who has 4 kids, pregnant, divorced) and come to find out she has not had water for 3 days.... couldn't believe it. So Me, Elder Smith, a 92 year old retired plumber, and 2other guys from the Elders Quorum got together and tried to figure out what was going on. The 92 year old guy has a walker and couldn't do anything but tell everyone what to do (which is a mistake in the first place) and the rest of us had no idea what we were doing. We got it back working and everything but not before we were all muddy and messy in our Sunday clothes. It was awesome though, I guess doing service like that on Sunday is not bad but we paid for it by getting our shoes, shirts, pants, and ties all muddied up. Come to find out it stopped working again... so the next day the ward just sent someone that knew what they were doing over to fix it. Haven't heard from her since so I am guessing it got fixed. It is awesome out here and I love doing missionary work. Its tough, fun, hard, and worth it. Hope everything is going great wherever you all are. Elder Walker

9/18/08
There is only one more week in this transfer and boy has this one gone fast! We have a baptism set for this Sunday at 6 o'clock and that is going to be great! Nothing better to see someone accept the truth and move closer to returning to our Heavenly Father. As for all of our other investigators... well word of wisdom problems are haunting us like no other. People just are not to willing to stop drinking coffee and stop smoking. They are still great and we are going to continue to work with them. We talked with a guy named Mike this past week. He is a Jehovah's Witness, he is really interested in our beliefs and he along as I was surprised how close our religions are. Doctrine wise, they don't have much that is different. They just have different names and some different radical ideas. So he invited us back just so we could tell him more about our beliefs but you know as well as I do, he is going to get baptised now! We caught him and now we just have to have faith and reel him in! Last Sunday was stake conference and that went really well, we drove over an hour to get there so that was a little different from Rexburg. At home you drive 5 minutes and you're there. Here things are just a little different. Our stake center is actually pretty close to us, comparing it to some others, some missionaries traveled about 2 and a half hours so I was still pretty lucky to be that close. The church is definitely growing here though. This stake here that I am in has a plan to split by 2010 so that would be really nice if they did. We are going on exchanges again tomorrow. It is the last one for the transfer so that will be nice and then we will see what transfers are going to shape up to be and see who is going to be where and who is going to be with who. Elder Smith is pretty cool, I wouldn't mind staying another transfer with him, but we will just have to see. Maybe I will be down in Virginia next week. Missionary life is Crazy! I love it though. Its a great thing to be out here. I have loved every moment of it. Some days are tough, but you just have to role out of bed and make the best of everyday. You never know who's heart you are going to touch that day. Sometimes you touch them just by saying hi, you just never know. But it truly is awesome!!
Love all'yall, Elder Walker

9/25/08
Yup, I am staying in Elkins for 6 more weeks. I am pretty sure I will leave here after that but I guess you never know for sure till it comes. I am with Smith again also. Potato Harvest is this next week isn't it? That will be a nice week off. They have a thing here called the Forest Festival, the kids get off of school for a whole week. Its huge! 9,000 people live in this town right now and they say by the end of next week there will be at least 100,000 people living here on streets, cars, and even with relatives. It will be insane, and they say missionary work stinks during that time because no one wants to hear about religion. They just want their booze and food. I'm sure we will eat really well, it will be just like the fair I'm sure, good food and good 5 lbs to work off. We'll see though. That will be great to read about the Word of Wisdom, EVERYONE here has a problem with that. Most members do too, let alone non-members. It's really sad and we deal with it everyday. If I die out here on my mission, it will be because of second hand smoke. I hate the smell of the smoke, and it bothers me really bad, so I hope I am getting a lot of blessings for putting up with it haha. I'm still alive and I don't have a smokers cough yet so that is a good thing. But we'll just have to see how it all works out. We have just taught a whole bunch of our investigators and our progress is going really really really really really slow because of cigarettes and stuff that people just don't have the drive to quit. So we have a lot of work to do but they will all come through someday, its just time and patience I guess. We had a baptism on Sunday, that went really well, and there were a ton of non-members there at the baptism so we have some more people that we could teach out of all of those people so that will be good hopefully. The girl we baptised was so exited to be baptised so that was awesome, I wish they were all as exited as she was. Its great though. Love you all. Talk to you next week! Elder Walker