Here is a before and after picture, its pretty neat.
The one picture is at Jessica's baptism, Aaron wasn't reading or praying at that point and wasn't going to get baptized. The second picture is the day before I left, both of them had been baptized and are now solid members. The light of Christ definately is real, you can see it in their eyes.
Me and Elder Schatt. He goes back to Rexburg in 3 weeks, our time is dwindling down!
This is what it is like to be an old missionary haha, you have 5 of your companions at a zone conference with you. It was pretty neat.
Our week here has been pretty good. We have found some pretty good investigators. We set one man with a baptismal date, his name is Wayne Willis. He is in his 50's and he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he said he didn't need to pray about it, that he would be okay. I stressed to him that he had to pray to gain a testimony in his heart. We got that through to him and he prayed. He knows its true. He is getting baptized May 15th. We also have a part member family that we are working with, one of the daughters is really interested. Her mom is a member and she has been surprised at how receptive she has been to us. Usually she just shrugs off the missionaries and that is that, but we have had some great lessons with her.
On Sunday there was a kid who came to church, he is 19 and is a member but hasn't been too active over the last while and hasn't been living the greatest life style. But he has had some pretty neat experiences lately and he knows that going on a mission is the best thing to do in his life right now so he is preparing now. Well, he has a girl friend that is not a member, I talked to him about her and said lets get her ready so you can baptize her before you go on your mission. He liked the idea, I guess he has already talked to her a little bit about it. He said she really liked the part to where she could be sealed to her husband and children for eternity. Her parents are fine with her coming and everything so I guess the hardest part is behind us. Now we just have to start working with her. Great things are happening here. haha! All I have heard about this area is negative things but I don't know why, I think its great, you just have to be patient and do things a little different. There is so much more to missionary work than tracting. Sure that is a good chunk of your time and people are defiantly found in that manner, Wayne was found tracting, but there are more effective AND efficient ways. I think that's one of the things that most missionaries struggle with most, including me sometimes. You have to work hard and work smart. This is the Lords work but he expects you to do everything on your end as well.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot again! I was going to tell Dad last week but I was at conference and there was a Philippine woman there. Kind of a neat story, she came to the Saturday session and she made us a Philippine dish, they were like these clear noodle sort of things with chicken in them, it was really good I thought, it had a different texture to it but I thought they were good. But while I was eating I asked her what part of the Philippines that she was from, I said my dad went on his mission to the Philippines, I think he was in the Davau mission. She got a huge smile come over her face and said REALLY! what year!? I said I think around 80 she said that was about the same time she was there. She said her mission president's name was President Sperry. This lady's name was Sister Tolentino (that was her maiden name) she married a guy from Salt Lake City and now they live here in West Virginia. She said she remembers an Elder Walker but doesn't remember exactly who he was she would have to look at some pictures. So there were no guarantees but does that name sound familiar to you? Its a small world out here, I have made all kinds of weird connections. When you're a member of the church the world becomes very small. There is a member here in the branch that I am in who has a daughter who dated Zach Lindstrom, I played baseball with him. haha small small world. Its been a great week though. Time just cruises right on by. I'm loving it all though. Everything is great! Love you, Elder Walker
April 10, 2010
So this has been a pretty neat week. Our best investigator Wayne Willis, we have him set for Baptism May 15th. He came to church on Sunday. He enjoyed it a lot and so that was great. He wants to keep coming and he hasn't had any coffee since last Friday so we are making good headway with him. We tried to go and teach a lady that had been taught in the past by some other missionaries in this area, and when we were there she told us if we didn't get off her porch she was going to shoot us, haha, it was pretty funny. I'm pretty sure that is a threat. There was a cop right across the road, we were just laughing cause we could turn her in for a hate crime, that seems to be what people are all about now, its ridiculous. We just laughed though.
Yesterday was kind of different, We were in our apartment and all the sudden someone comes and pounds on our door. We answer it and they tell us to get out, there is smoke coming from out of the building! So I loaded my journals in my backpack and we got out, (that's about the only thing that I have that is important to me at this point, everything else can be replaced). The fire department came and everything, the whole building was filled with smoke, it was a mess. When someone opened the door of the building, smoke would come billowing out! The whole building was evacuated and the "experienced" volunteer fire departments from the 3 surrounding towns came to fight the fire! Come to find out a dryer, that is used to dry towels at the physical therapists office which is below our apartment, burned up and caused a little fire or something that caused a ton of smoke. It didn't damage our apartment at all but the building that we live in reeks like a burned up snow machine belt! haha its great. So that was pretty exiting. That's something that doesn't happen everyday so it was fun. Its been a great week though. I love it out here, I hope things are going well there.
Love you all, Elder Walker
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