Elder Adam Walker:

October 1, 2009
I'm doing great! Everything is fine. I'm still alive! Sorry I didn't e-mail Tuesday. Its been a crazy week. Tuesday we didn't have enough time cause we had a zone P-Day and it was hectic and yesterday we were in Lynchburg on exchanges and we had no time then. It seems like all we do is drive from one place to another. Our zone is huge geographically as well with numbers. There are 18 missionaries and it sprawls from West Virginia all the way down to North Carolina border. We are right in the middle. Yesterday we were down south for the district meeting and exchanges and now today we have to go do a baptismal interview up north. We are staying really busy but its just not in our area so that's kind of frustrating. It rained all last week here as well, it is a nice day here today and it sounds like it is going to be nice weather this week too. High 60's low 70's for the highs, and there is NO HUMIDITY!!!! so that is the nice part ha ha . Its perfect weather right now. I am all done with the scorching summers here. Kind of a weird thought. We had a great zone P-day on Tuesday, it was pretty fun. We had a BBQ and went on a hike to Crab Tree Falls and had a testimony meeting at the top so it was really good just took more time than I thought it would. Also this past week I got to meet Brandon Mull, he is a famous author that has a series of books called Fable Haven. We were able to have dinner with him and his wife at the Benedict's home. Jeff Benedict is a famous author as well and we live at there home in an apartment that is right off of their home. Its really nice. Sherry Dew is coming to town Halloween weekend and we get to meet her as well. Its pretty fun stuff. We do get to watch conference this weekend. I am looking forward to that I always enjoy it out here. It is something I look forward to each time. We just have to go to the church to watch it. We don't get to sit at home in our PJ's and watch it. We will be watching it in our suits. Ross's Baptism went really well, the spirit was very strong. His dad called Sunday morning before church and tried to anti him that we were a bunch of crazes and tried to send him on a guilt trip. He just let it roll off and that was the end of that. He got confirmed and now he is really thinking about going on a mission. We are going to be going and seeing him here when we are done here today. He will be a strong member. He's a good kid. President told me and Elder Reed that we are going to be staying together another transfer so that will be good. Transfers are next Wednesday so that will be yet another hectic day for us. It seems like we don't have enough time to get everything done right now. We have some really good investigators right now though, we will be having 3 baptism in November so that will be really nice. Time just continues to fly and I don't know where it all has gone. I love you all. Hope you have a great week. Love Elder Walker

October 11, 2009
The weather has really been cooling off here as well. Most missionaries have been wearing their sweaters this past week. I haven't yet because it feels perfect to me , but I'm sure by the end of the week I will probably have one on. We had an awesome experience this week. We tracted into the less active member. His name is Consantine Mkinya, he has an absolutely crazy story. He was a refugee in Zimbabwe about 5 years ago. The government was out to kill him and a secret agency had to sneak him out of the country to South Africa, and he had some connections with the United States, and so he was able to obtain a green card to come here to get out of Africa into safety. When he got here he came across some missionaries (4 years ago) in Dallas Texas and he eventually was baptized. He was active for about a year and was about to get the Melchizedek priesthood when he had a job change and he was then not able to attend church. Eventually he wound up here in the area that I am in, completely out of the habit of going to church and just kind of had a dim lit fire. Before he left Africa, his wife & him separated and divorced because everything that was going on. He had two kids with her, and they were stuck in Africa, but eventually he got them here to America with him and they are now living with him. They are 10 and 12. As we talked to this man, you could just see a new light in him. The Spirit had been gone from him for a long time and he kind of had just forgotten what is was like. When we left he said, you guys have reminded me of what I have been missing out on for 4 years. I was just lost in the world. He came to church on Sunday with his two kids and the kids want to get baptized. Its a humbling situation. I wish you could hear his whole story in his own words, its just heart wrenching. He went from being a well off educated Lawyer in Africa, to a man with nothing in America, the man is a genius, but the United States won't recognize his schooling from Africa so he has had to start from scratch. We talked to the Bishop here and the church is going to help them out despite him really saying he could do with out. But they really do need a little help. We had an appointment set with them to teach them last night but his kids are both really sick so we moved it to Thursday but you could already tell the difference within their own walls of their home. The spirit could be felt as soon as you walked into their small apartment. People like him just give me hope for everything and everyone. Even when we are in the roughest times, there is still hope, we just have to keep going and not give up and that is what he is doing. He just needed his candle relit and we were able to be a part of it. It was wonderful. We are having so much success right now its unbelievable. We have 5 people who are set with baptism all ready to go, and we have a good handful more who will be ready soon. The Lord truly has been blessing us. We have really been trying to work hard despite our limited time we have to work in our own areas, but I'm grateful for the people we have right now, I have grown to love each one of them. Last night I was on exchanges with someone in our area and we just had a few minutes left before we were going to call it a night, so we went tracting just to see if we could find someone new to teach and the first door we knocked on, the lady said come it. We had an awesome lesson with her and we will be seeing her again on Friday, and she wants to come to church. Everything just seems to be going perfect right now. I'm grateful for it. Thanks for everything. Elder Walker