Elder Adam Walker:

January 13, 2009
There are a lot of people who are really, really struggling, especially out here, it might be bad at home, but I guess the area that I am in right now has like a 17% unemployment rate, it is the highest in Virginia, and one of the highest in the country. It's pretty sad, everything is just shutting up. The mall alone is pretty much just going out of business, there are like 5 stores closing in the next couple weeks, I'm sure more will follow. It's sad to see. We can tell that more people are just sitting at home watching TV because we are getting large amounts of media referrals now. I guess they just see something for free and they call for it. It's nice for us though because it is a free ticket into some one's home. It has been nice because we have not had to do any tracting for over a month now. We just stay busy with them and with referrals that they give us. So maybe with everything that is happening, maybe people are being humbled and this is what is supposed to happen. We will just have to see how this next year goes, I don't think it will be a good one for the country, but for missionary work, I think it will be one of the best. I'm excited to see how it goes. Yeah, we did indeed get spoiled for Christmas. There were quite a few people who sent me little packages cards, etc. Thanks to everyone. I guess people haven't forgotten about me! I will try to take some more pictures of us golfing today. We are going to be going here in a couple hours so I will get some then and send them home on the next card.

One of the people we are teaching right now had a good wake up call these past couple days, he has a huge problem with the word of wisdom and he smokes and chews like it is candy. It was something that he never wanted to give up and we pretty much were not getting anywhere with him, but we get a call from the hospital on Sunday and guess who is in there? Yep, that man who pretty much said that he would never quit, he had a mini-stroke. We went in and saw him at the hospital Monday morning to see how he was doing, and he told us that the doctors have told him that he either has to quit smoking and chewing or else it is going to kill him within the next year or so. So, he is going to quit smoking and chewing now, I guess God works in mysterious ways, we kind of laughed when we walked out because we just thought, you don't tell God that you won't do something because if you do, he will prove you wrong. Hopefully, we will be able to baptize him here really soon now, we will just have to see.
We had an awesome week this past week, we got 7 new investigators, that is the best I have ever had on my mission so far, so it has been a good week and the members have really been working with us nicely, they are giving us referrals and also people are ordering free Bibles left and right so we are teaching quite a few people, it is really nice. I hope you have a great week, I am doing well. Thanks to all. Elder Walker