January 13, 2020

The past week has been pretty good. On Tuesday did exchanges with the Zone Leaders. The Elder I was with is super cool. He loves cars and guns so we got along great. It was a lot of fun. On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was pretty fun. They did a Mission Impossible themed skit to kick it off. This weekend we had another exchange, which was pretty good too. We had some good lessons and found a few new people then too. Saturday night was when we commemorated my 18th month mark. In this mission the tradition is that you burn some pants and wear a dress too. It's pretty funny. I guess the Idea is that all the sister missionaries who came out with me would be going home at 18 months, so the Elders wear a dress. Its crazy that I've been out for 18 months.

    How have things been going back home? How has school been going now that you're back in session? How did Jamie's play go? 

Hope Y'all are doing good.
Love,
Elder Walker

January 20, 2020

This week has been pretty good. We recently set a goal as a Zone to find 100 people this month so we've been grinding to find people. A bunch of potentials we were trying to work with dropped us this week. one night we had 4 people drop us in a row. but we did find 4 new people this week. Yesterday we weren't finding anybody to talk to. It was a super slow day and we were getting a little discouraged. But we decided to go by this one lady who we haven't been able to talk to but she said she wanted to talk to us. We knocked on her door and she invited us in. We taught her the first lesson and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She said she would read it and wanted us to come back. It was super cool to be reminded that there are people out there who are searching for the truth. and we sometimes need to go the distance to find those people.  

   Hope y'all are doing good,

Love,

Elder Walker

January 27, 2020

Things have been going good. We got a pretty bomb referral from a member who lives here. His name is Clayton, and he's currently living in a halfway house because he just got out of prison.  He's pretty cool and has some solid potential to get baptized sometime soon. Otherwise the work has been pretty normal. Transfer calls came this Saturday and my companion Elder Allen is getting transferred up to Oroville, way up by Omak and the Canadian border. I also got news that I am going to be training a new missionary, straight out of the MTC. I'm pretty stoked for it. Also Elder Ison is going to be coming back to Yakima and we're probably going to be living together. I'm so pumped for that. He's my District

Leader too, so I'll be going on some bomb exchanges.  

     Thats good that the house is still progressing good.  Abby told me a little about her sickness. it sounds pretty trash. Hopefully she gets feeling better soon. School sounds like its been busy. 

     Thanks for the email, good luck with school.

Love,

Elder Walker

February 3, 2020

This week has been super fun. We had our transfers on Wednesday, so Tuesday was spent saying goodbye to people, and a few lessons and Elder Allen packing his stuff for the long trip to Oroville. He was super excited about going to banishment. I thought it was funny because my last companion also went to the same district in banishment right after he was with me. On Wednesday we got last minute things taken care of. I bought some sick Cole Haan Shoes that are super fly. And went to a meeting for all the trainers. We finally got to the Transfer site and got Elder Allen all squared away with his luggage. I really like transfer sites because a lot of the Homies are always there, so we just hang out until people figure out all the logistics. This transfer site was no different and probably one of the funnest ones I've had. 
     Because all the ward boundaries changed last week there has been a lot of confusion, but we're working out most of the kinks. But we found out that we are sharing one of the new wards with 3 fun Elders. We've already been having a ton of fun. All we do is just roast each other and it's so hilarious. At the transfer site I finally met my trainee. He's a pretty cool dude from Murray, Utah. He came  fresh out of high school. He's a huge swimmer and played water polo and swam on the high school team. We get along pretty great. It's been pretty fun to be able to train a new missionary. It brings back a lot of memories from my days of being trained back in Moses Lake and Naches. I don't miss being a young missionary. 

February 10, 2020

This Week has been so crazy. We had a good couple of days. We found 2 new people to teach and taught a fair amount. We got back in contact with a family we were teaching and they invited us to dinner this Friday. This family is super cool. The dad is a judge here in Yakima, and we always have very deep conversations about the gospel and different doctrines, It's a lot of fun. We had Trainer Trainee on Thursday. It was a great time. We met with all of the trainers and the new missionaries and all learned about how we can all do better. I really enjoyed it because it really taught me how I can be a good trainer. I also reflected on my own training as a missionary. This week was going great until we got out of trainer trainee and we looked at our area book. We were very dismayed to find that all of our people we were training and our potentials and all of the people who were dropped were all gone. The only people we had were the members. I guess with all the boundary changes to the wards the mission has been trying to figure out all of the new areas and who all goes into them.  They are still trying to figure it out, but we're trying to make the best of it. The highlight of the week was this Sunday when we had a ward meet and greet at the church. We were there with another companionship who is also training. One of the trainers and I are super tight. 

.    I'll call later on today and we'll talk about everything. Dad sent me a big long email about everything and I've definitely been thinking about it. 

    Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker

February 24, 2020

Things here in Yakima have been pretty good. We had a few really fun service projects. One of them was at an old folks home where we sang hymns to them and then played cards with them. It was pretty sick. Another service project we did was we went over to a part member family and cleaned up their backyard. The funnest part of it was when we gathered up all the brush that was around from trimming and then burned it all. It was pretty fun. I had flashbacks to home when we would have big ol' bonfires. It was fun to reminisce for a sec though. We also had exchanges with the Zone Leaders this past week since I'm training a new missionary. It was a lot of fun. I was with an Elder Keller who is super cool. We talked dirt bikes and motorcycles for most of the exchange. We had some really good lessons in and got a lot done. 

Love,

Elder Walker

December 16, 2019

     

     This week has been pretty good. We did an activity with the zone where we set up a big booth in the mall and wrapped gifts, handed out hot chocolate and talked to people about Light the World. It was pretty fun. We also had a Book of Mormon class where we played some board games before and it was a lot of fun. I played Sorry with a bunch of people, and I won. We had a great turn out. 
     Our ward had a Christmas breakfast and we cooked some pancakes for it. It was a lot of fun too. The ward is starting to like us a little bit more, so that's nice. We also went caroling as a district at 2 o'clock which was a bad idea because nobody was home but it was still pretty fun. The work here is going good. Nothing too crazy happened, but we're working hard and things are slowly moving along. 

     I'm pretty stoked for Christmas this year. We're having a zone Christmas party at a member in Naches with a member there who I really liked. Things are going better.

Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker

December 23, 2019

     This week has been good. We had a Christmas party on Friday.

On Thursday we had exchanges with the other Elders in our apartment. It was really fun. 

     We had one of our people we're working with call us and tell us that one of their roommates wants to take the lessons and possibly get baptized. We went by and had a pretty bomb lesson and put her on date to be baptized on the 4th of January. It was pretty cool. 

     The Christmas party was really fun. There were a bunch of homies there and we just hung out. There was a pretty good dinner and we watched the live action Aladdin. It was pretty good. I'm a big fan of Will Smith, so it was very enjoyable. 

     On Sunday we had 5 people at church which was really good. Things are still just trucking along. I'm getting really tight with the other Elders we're living with, so that's nice. 

     Thanks for the email, merry Christmas. Hope y'all are doing good. 

Love 

Elder Walker

December 30, 2019

This week has been interesting. Lots of fun with Christmas and all of that.

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We went to sister Shakespeare's house as a zone for Christmas. It was so much fun. I missed them a ton. We had our on-date who went to the hospital a few days ago, so we're not too sure what's all going on. We had one of the people we're working with come to church and tell us she wanted to be baptized, so we are super stoked for that.  Transfers came and went and I'm still with the same comp. 

Hope y'all are doing good. 

Love, Elder Walker

 

November 18, 2019

    Well this past week has been full of great things happening and lots of craziness. Probably the craziest thing that happened was when we were walking past a major intersection in Yakima and this lady in traffic yells at us and asks us if we could talk to her. We motioned for her to pull off into a nearby parking lot. We ended up talking to her for over an hour about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was a really cool experience. She has a genuine desire to learn, so hopefully we can keep her on a roll. We have also been able to get some more people on track and meeting with us again. I am currently comps with an Elder Allen. I'm serving in Yakima 3rd ward. 

     That's awesome that the house is coming along good. Hopefully the weather holds for a little longer. 

     

Love, 

Elder Walker 

November 25, 2019

    This week has been pretty good. We had an activity where we drew the Salt Lake Temple, I'll attach my drawing so you can tell me what you think. Not too much craziness has happened. We had zone conference and that was fun. I just hung out with the boys all day. We have had some good things happening with our people. But my comp is kinda being hard. It's still good though. The other 2 Elders we are living with make it a lot of fun. 

     It sounds like y'all have had a pretty crazy week. Abby sent me the video of the gender reveal. I wish I could've been there for that.  The house also sounds like it is coming along nicely.  

Thanks for the email, 

Love  

Elder Walker

December 2, 2019

     The past week has been all over the place. Thanksgiving was pretty sweet. We had 2 dinners that day. Both of them were awesome. One of the families we ate with deep fried their turkey, it was soo good. We'll have to try doing that when i'm home next year.

   

    Things are going well here. We started teaching a lady named Kelly this week who told us she wants to join our church. We have a lesson with her tomorrow and we are planning on putting her on date. We're pretty stoked for it. most of our people that we're working with are slow burners and not too much is happening with them. 

   How was Thanksgiving for yall? We had a good time. How is school and the house going? Dad emailed me pictures of him sweeping the roof off. I wish I was around to help out more. 

Love,

Elder Walker

 December 9, 2019

     This week has been all over the place. We went caroling as a district which was pretty fun. We also found a new guy named Carlos who is super cool. He used to live on a super ghetto street here in Yakima, but he moved before we found him when I was in that area. So now we get to teach him. Sister Stapley came back to visit the mission on Sunday. She was at the same church building I was on Sunday, so we got to talk for a bit. 

     Things have been a bit rocky with the comp, but I'm making it work. 

Sorry for the short email,

Love 

Elder Walker 

October 7, 2019

     Things here have been pretty good. General Conference was awesome. We got to watch the Sunday morning session at the home of some members from the Randall Park Ward ( Van De Venters). So that was fun. We watched the afternoon session at the Mission Home, and that was super awesome. Elder Bednar's talk was probably my favorite talk. They were all really good though. I had a big meeting with all of the zone leadership on Thursday. That went pretty good.  Yesterday I conducted my first baptismal interview. It went pretty smooth. It was really quick, but the guy was all ready to go. Otherwise not a whole lot has been happening. We are going through our area book and really cleaning it out. It's kinda depressing that we're having to get rid of a bunch of people, but it's gotta happen. 

     That's good that things are going good back home. How has the weather been over there? it has been much more pleasant here this past week. Its actually been feeling like fall.

     Sorry this email has been so short. not much has really happened this week: just meetings and the missionary grind. 

     Hope Y'All are doing good. 

Love,
Elder Walker

October 28, 2019

     Things have been going good. We have had a semi crazy week. It started off pretty chill, not a whole lot out of the ordinary was happening. On Saturday we had our ward Halloween party. That was pretty fun they had a bunch of different soups and had a bunch of games for the kids and then had a trunk or treat. That was pretty fun. On Sunday we got a call from some Hermanas that live next door to us. Their toilet had burst a pipe and their apartment had flooded. We ended up moving out that afternoon and they are moving into our apartment since it was next door. We are in a bit of a limbo right now because we moved into an apartment that I have lived in before and the two Elders who are there are super cool and we are all just a bunch of homies but we might have to move across town into the Zone Leaders apartment. We don't want to and It wouldn't make much sense, but we might have to. 

     Other than that things have been good. We had some really good lessons this week and got some more really good ones set up for the coming week. This is the last week before transfers, so next Saturday we'll find out what is happening and if anyone is moving. I kinda hope I get to stay. I did get my packages. Thanks for that. 

     Thats good that James got a deer and Abby is starting to feel a bit better. Maybe when I get back I'll get into hunting a bit more. We were talking with some members last night about shooting, and I realized how much I miss shooting. iI was fun though.

     Thanks for the email, I'll try and Call today, but I'm not sure if it'll happen.

Love,

Elder Walker

November 4, 2019

     This week has been crazy, We have been jumping apartments again. We ended up moving in with the Zone Leaders and I was pretty bummed about that. We also got transfer calls this past weekend and as it turns out we are being doubled out. I was very surprised and a little salty about it because two transfers ago we were doubled in and now they're taking us both out. On the Bright side, I am still going to be in Yakima -- just in a different ward and stake. I'll be in a walking area, which isn't great, but it should be fine. The next few days we'll be scrambling to get everything in order for the two new Elders coming in. We've also started the missionary goodbye shuffle --going around and saying goodbye to all the members and people we've been teaching. I'm sad to be leaving this area. We were just getting things to where they were up and running semi-smooth. 

     Elder Williamson (my comp) is going up to Okangagon where I came from before I was here in Yakima. He's a little stressed about it, but it should be fine. 

     Things are going good. I'm glad I'm not leaving the Yakima Valley, but I'm sad that I'll be leaving this area.

Love,

Elder Walker

September 2, 2019

     This week has been good. We have been teaching one lady who sent us a text the other day and had a big issue with the 'curse of dark skin' from the Book of Mormon. She also wants to stop taking the lessons. We did our best to resolve her concerns, but we haven't heard from her in a few days, so we are pretty stressed with that. Otherwise things have been good. We are finally starting to get to know more of the members in the ward. We had dinner on Sunday with the Garents, from the naches ward. (They moved into this ward). It was a ton of fun. They have a super nice dog too. 

    

      We had zone conference this week which was super awesome. We had a bunch of different classes. It was really fun to see all of my mission homies. There are 4 people from my home stake in this mission. So we had to get a picture. The other Elder is from my home ward too.

We've got our temple trip on Wednesday that we are stoked for. Because of that though, we didn't get a full p day today. Which kind of sucks.

September 9, 2019

     This week has been good. We had a much better day on Tuesday. The lady who kinda dropped us we were able to set up another appointment with her and resolve some of her concerns. Wednesday was sweet. We had the temple trip and got to drive down with the new bishop and his wife. (Bishop Ridd). The temple was awesome. I always get something new from that temple. There is some stained glass in the Celestial Room that is very fascinating to me. 

     On Thursday we had interviews with President. They were pretty good, but I was a little disappointed. They were way too fast, and I didn't really get much out of it. It was still a good experience though. 

The rest of the week was fairly good--not much happened, but we were still riding the temple high. 

     This transfer is flying by. This week I'll hit 14 months out. It is pretty crazy, we are getting a bunch of new missionaries this next transfer and the transfer after. 

     I'm doing good. I'm getting low on the collagen protein but, otherwise, I've got every thing. 

     I'll try and call today. Sorry for the late email. 

Thanks for everything. 

Love

Elder Walker

September 16, 2019

     This week has been good. We had exchanges this past week with the Zone Leaders and that went really well. We found 2 new people to teach and a few more who said we could come back. We have been having a pretty full schedule this week--which has been nice. We have a huge week ahead of us this coming week. It is the last full week of the transfer which is crazy to think about. We have a big lesson tomorrow night where we will be teaching one of our people we've been trying to work with in the mission home with the mission president and his wife there too. We are super stressed about it, but it will be awesome--I think. We have been ironing out the lesson plan for awhile now and we feel pretty good about it. We are teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ Lesson to her (Dawn) and we will be spending a lot of time on the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are planning on showing her the Patterns of Light videos so that will be sweet.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we have pretty packed with lessons and service which is really nice. And on Saturday we have Stake Conference here and transfer calls that night so we are really getting ready for this week. It'll be crazy.

I'll try and call this evening again, That seems like it is a good time.

Thanks for everything, I hope the house and stuff is all going well.

Love,
Elder Walker

 September 23, 2019

     This week has been a roller coaster of emotions and events.  On Tuesday we had a bit of a bomb dropped on us: Dawn texted us the afternoon, before our big lesson, to cancel due to her having Shingles pretty bad. We were bummed about that, but it was really out of our control. We found out a few days later that she ended up having to get hospitalized with gallstones, and she'll have to get her gallbladder removed. She's really having a rough time, but we're still hoping and praying for her. On Tuesday we had a pretty sweet lesson with someone we just recently found named Kelly. He had read a few chapters of the Book of Mormon and had some pretty good questions. We taught a pretty bomb Restoration lesson. On Thursday we had another lesson with him and brought a member of the ward with us. That went super good. They really connected, and he had read a total of 13 chapters from the Book of Mormon. We invited him to sacrament meeting this coming week and he said he would probably come. 

     This Saturday we had Stake Conference. Since I am a District Leader I got to go to the Leadership session for the first time--so that was cool. Transfer calls came in Saturday too, and both me and Elder Williamson are staying in Meadow Brook. I'm doing better. Talking with Dad last week was really good for me. 

     Hope things are going well, especially with school and the house.

Love,
Elder Walker

September 30, 2019

     Things are going well. It was sweet to call on Thursday. It has suddenly got very cold here. It feels like November. It was a good call to send out some of my winter stuff a bit early. Luckily it was still pretty nice for transfers. This transfer is going to be very interesting. We have two new Elders in the zone who are both really cool. They also are not taking any guff from Elder Perry (the not-cool Zone leader) All of this is compounded by the fact that Elder Perry's previous companion, who I think tempered him a lot, is now gone, so his "reign-of-terror-rule-with-an-iron-fistness" has increased and there has already been some pushback from everyone. I kinda feel bad for him, but, at the same time, he is the one infringing on us and really trying to restrict how we can work based on what he thinks--not what the rules or the Spirit say. It's really irritating, so hopefully that gets resolved in a non-explosive manner. 

     Other than that, things have been going good. We have been plugging along, a lot of our teaching pool is about to get cleaned out because we have not been able to get in contact with several of them for a whole transfer, so that's kinda depressing but a little freeing too.

     I've been really good about working out for the past few weeks and I'm starting to see some pretty good results. I've put myself on a bit of a regiment and starting this week I'll be bumping up to 350 pushups and going into the 3rd phase of a leg workout I've been doing. I'm pretty happy with all that. I'll attach a copy of the leg workout if Y'all are interested. Abby may want to give it a shot when she gets feeling better. 

     How's stuff going with school and work? Dad said the house is moving along--slowly but moving. 

Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker

August 5, 2019

This past week has been good. I'm pretty much over the cold that I had. We've got some smoke that's starting to move in, so that is probably not helping--but it's not too bad yet. We've been going by a lot of our people and trying to get back in contact with some of them. We did have a really good lesson with someone who was having a hangup with the fact that we build so many temples (weird I know). But we weren't really getting anywhere with it, so we sat down with him and re-focused him on the Book of Mormon and whether or not it was true. He seemed to accept that a lot better: we read Moroni 10 with him, and he seemed a lot more at peace with it. Otherwise, this week was pretty much a business-as-usual type week. We did get to do some service--so that was nice. On Saturday one of the people from Naches that we were working with got baptized, so I got to skype into that--that was pretty great. Elder Barlow and Elder Perry were both there and I got to talk to them for a little bit. 

     That's good that my bike finally sold. I was just talking with the other Elders about when it might sell when I got your email. We were talking with a guy that day who had a pretty sweet bike that I would love to work on when I get home. It was kinda funny how it all happened. We've got transfer calls next Saturday, so I'll know if I'm getting put in a leadership position, or if I'll be training--both of which are pretty likely. I'm pretty stoked to see what all will happen this coming transfer.

That's good that things are doing well at home. 

Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker

Rattler from a snake

Putting together creative District Meetings

Omak

August 12, 2019

Soooo, big things are happening this transfer. I'm getting sent back to Yakima, which I'm super stoked about. I'm getting sent to a neighboring ward to Randall park, where I was before. I'm also getting put in as a district leader. I don't really know much about who my new companion is; his name is Elder Williamson. He is a fairly new missionary, I'm pretty sure. I'm really excited to be back in Yakima. I'll be able to hopefully visit some of the people I taught last time I was there. Elder Raymer is also going down to Yakima as a Spanish missionary, so that'll be awesome. There is one new missionary who will be trained in Yakima, so there is a slight chance that I'll be serving around Elder Ison, but we won't know until transfer day. I hope he'll be there with all of us. 

     One of my old zone leaders, who was serving up in Oroville which is a neighboring area, is going home this transfer. He is going to the mission home today, so he left in the morning traveling down there. It was kinda weird seeing a missionary go home. It was the first time I had witnessed that. Elder Cook was his companion and we were together in Yakima. He is staying with us until transfers happen, so it has been so sweet.
     We had a big magic tournament this morning with a bunch of the Priests from the ward. I did fairly well and took second. I would have taken 1st but it was all very unlucky how it happened.  It was a lot of fun though. We had the Omak Stampede that has been going on this past week. It is a huge thing around here. Basically 3-4 days of rodeo, carnival,  and lots of people. For the most part, we tried to steer clear of all of that. We did go down there and get some fry bread. We were told that we had to get it. It was pretty good. There were so many people there though it was super crazy. 

     That's good that Stake Conference was last week, I have really grown to love Stake Conferences--I always get a lot out of them.
     That's exciting that Abby is pregnant. I talked to her last week, and she was almost in tears telling me; then she hung up really quick because Jamie walked in. It was kinda funny. I'm glad that dad got his car finally. It looks pretty nice. I'm glad that Jamie has been doing so good. Hopefully, this next school year treats her good. 

     Hope everything is going good. I'll keep praying for Y'all and especially Abby. 

Love,

Elder Walker

August 19, 2019

     Things have been going great this past week. Transfers happened on Wednesday. We drove down to a little town called Quincy to meet up with everyone else and then drove to Yakima. All in it was about 6 hours of driving--which wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad. 

     It is really weird serving around so many missionaries again after being in 'Banishment' up in Omak. I'm really enjoying Yakima though. We have church in the same building as the Randell Park ward, so I got to see a bunch of people from that ward on Sunday, so that was sweet. Elder Ison isn't in our zone, but he is In Naches being trained by Elder Barlow. It's really funny how that happened. I hope he's doing good. The area is kinda struggling from what I've heard, but Elder Barlow should be good for him. 

     These past few days have been crazy. We've just been running around trying to figure out what's going on and who is being taught. Me and my companion are both brand new to the area, so we don't really know anything about it. I kinda know the area geographically but not the people. I was really happy because some of the members who were super awesome in Naches have moved into this ward, so that was awesome.

     That's good that things are going well. Kinda sucks that Abby isn't feeling great. It's good that James is so awesome though. Sounds like an exciting week. I'm sure Jamie's excited to be back at school. Lots of feelings spinning around there. Glad BYU is going good. Lots of thing are happening it sounds like. 

     Elder Bird was in this ward right before he went home, and I thought the reign of terror was over but guess who was visiting in the ward yesterday...Yep, but that should be the last time I have to deal with that, and it wasn't too bad. I was doing a lot of thinking about all of that recently, and I thought it was kinda interesting how that all happened. I was with him for 3 transfers and he really tore me down, but after that, I was with Elder Chidester for 3 weeks and he really re-built me after that. 

   I did get my supplements. I've got a big stash of all that stuff on my dresser. 

Thanks for the email, 

Love,

Elder Walker 

August 26, 2019

     This week has been a roller coaster of stuff. On Tuesday we had our Mission Leadership Council meeting. That was pretty good. It was very insightful. We learned a ton about how we can help people have spiritual experiences. We're doing something called a 'transfer focus' which is basically a specific focus that we do with role plays and memorization. This transfer is all about how we can help people have those spiritual experiences that will really assist with their conversion. 

     The next few days were really slow and kinda discouraging. Not a lot was happening and nobody was home or answering their doors. We were really having a hard time getting things done. Things got better throughout the week. We finally had a lesson with one of the people who was being taught before we got here. It was an older lady named Dawn. Her son and his family we recently baptized and are super solid. They had a really rocky time figuring out if they wanted to join the church. They were being taught in Selah while I was in Naches, so I heard a lot about them before. They are super awesome. They really helped Dawn get on track and keep meeting with us. 

     Life as a District Leader + missionary is stressful but good. All the people in my district are super dope, so I don't have to deal with a lot of drama. We've got our temple trip coming up in a few weeks so we're all pretty stoked about that. We've also got Zone Conference next week which will be awesome. 

     That's good that things are going good back home. I'm glad that Abby is figuring out all her stuff now. That's good that Jamie is doing good: staying busy and out of trouble. Good luck with BYU and all that jazz. 

Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker 

Transfers and a New Companion: Elder Jensen

July 1, 2019

     Transfers were this past week...and we got wrecked. Half of our district is getting moved. My companion and one of the Spanish Elders in our apartment are leaving. I'm staying up here in Omak though, and I'll be getting a new companion. It's kinda sad that they're leaving. We were all pretty good friends, and had a lot of fun. We are pretty apprehensive about the new Elders coming in. I haven't served around either of them, so hopefully things go alright. We've just been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off saying goodbye to everyone before Elder Barlow leaves. (he's been here for 4 1/2 months) Everyone moves out/in on Wednesday, so we've got a little bit longer. 

Hand-made BoM cover

     This past week has been good. We've all been dreading transfers and going on more exchanges. I went up with the district leader to another small town called Oroville for that. The zone leaders also came up for an exchange as well, so that was fun. Last p-day we had all the zone come up for an activity. We played volleyball, spikeball, pickleball, etc. We also had a BBQ, which was good. It was one of my favorite p-days to date. This week we'll be going to a couple of stores and probably going bowling. 

     Not a whole lot has happened with all of the exchanges and transfer craziness that has been going on, but this next week we'll be getting down to business a little more. I got some leather this past week and made a leather Book of Mormon, it turned out pretty well, I'm pretty happy with it. (see pic)

Last good-byes with Elder Barlow

Good luck with all the graduate school stuff. Glad it's all over?
     We haven't been able to teach in Sunday school as of yet. We had our 5th Sunday lesson on an area broadcast from the area 70. It was all about missionary work. So it was nice to get us and the ward all on the same page. 

     I'll be sure to keep Dad in my prayers. When is that all going to go down? Is groundbreaking going to happen sometime soon?

     Thanks for the email, We've got a dinner at 5. I'll try and call sometime today. Hopefully I don't get too caught up with this last P-day.

Love,

Elder Walker

June 8, 2019

We have been doing alright. Transfers happened this week. We rearranged the apartment while we were waiting for the new missionaries to get up here. I like the new setup a lot more. It feels much more spacious and clean.    The new companion is named Elder Jensen. He's pretty alright. Super quiet and a little awkward, but we get along. We've been struggling to find people to teach still. I'm still fairly new to the area and the ward, and Elder Jensen is brand new, so we're struggling to learn the area, but we're making progress. Elder Barlow is in Naches right now--I'm super jealous, but I guess I've got stuff I need to do up here.
     We talked with a boatload of people this week. We did talk to some pretty cool people: one of them was an old lady who has lived in Omak for almost 40 years. One of her sons got Crohn's disease while overseas in Korea. She was really nice but not interested in our message. 

     We've been talking with the Spanish missionaries about activities we can do to help us all find new people to teach. One of the ideas was doing a missionary panel where we get up and just answer questions people have about missionary work. That activity is really aimed at the youth and getting them excited about going on missions. We've got several youth in our ward who are planning on serving missions, so I think this would be a great thing for the ward. We've also talked about doing a movie night here at the church and showing the Joseph Smith movie. We don't have any plans set in stone, but those are some things we want to try. 

     In other news, I'm doing pretty good about working out. I've put on all the weight I lost coming home and then put some more on (all lean muscle of course). We got a pretty nice weight set a few weeks ago, so I've been starting to add that into my workouts. I've been watching and my 3 year mark is coming up for when I got off prednisone for the first time. I think I'm going to take another physique check in photo just so I can see some of my progress. Also, I'm coming up on my year mark here in a few days. It's crazy to think I've been at this for that long. 

     Hope Y'all have been doing good. 

Love,

Elder Walker

July 15, 2019

This week has been pretty good. We had some pretty cool things happen where we were able to find several new people to teach that show some great promise. One of them we talked to as we were walking by her house while she was doing some yard work. She had been talking with missionaries before and even though she wasn't meeting for awhile she was still reading out of the Book of Mormon. We are all super stoked about it. We also had one of our young men bring one of his friends to church. We ended up having a lesson with him that went really well. 

     We were also able to make contact with several people that we had been trying to meet for quite some time. So that was great. This past Sunday me and my companion both spoke in church on the Two Great Commandments. It went pretty good. I was a little stressed about it, but it went well. 

     Glad you are enjoying Michigan. Hopefully the kids will be good. How was your flight? 

Thanks for the email. 

Love, 

Elder Walker 

July 22, 2019

     I'm Glad your trip to Michigan went well. Hopefully, your ankle is starting to feel better now. Good luck starting back up with work and school. 

     Things have been going good here. We've been getting around a lot and talking to a lot of people. We've been talking to this one lady who absolutely loves the Bible but is skittish around the Book of Mormon. It's super weird, but we're working with her to try and get her more comfortable with it. 

   

Elder Walker at Coulee Dam

 Wednesday evening me and Elder Raymer (one of the Spanish Elders in our apartment) went on exchanges down to Coulee Dam. That was a lot of fun and quite the adventure. We drove down there at about 8pm and got in right around 9 only to find out that the key to the apartment wasn't the one we thought it was. We ended up having to call some people and crash at the church for the night. It was pretty fun though. We had a pretty good lesson while we were there with some people who were previously taught. They were super nice and engaged throughout the whole lesson. Hopefully, they'll put missionaries down in Coulee Dam soon. 

Sleeping quarters at the church house

     On Saturday the Spanish Missionaries had a baptism for one of their people they had found last transfer. The Baptism went really well. We had about 30 of the ward members show up to support, so that was sweet. We also helped a couple move this past week. They were one of the really great Spanish members, so the Spanish Elders will be missing them.      This coming week we've got Zone Conference on Wednesday, so we're all looking forward to that. 

Thanks for the email,

Love,

Elder Walker

July 29, 2019

     This week has flown by. Probably because for almost 3 days I was layed up with a sinus cold. Luckily before that whole mess set in we had zone conference. We talked a lot about gathering Israel and why we are here on a mission. Towards the end we did a bunch of role plays with the zone which was some good practice for us all. On Thursday we had exchanges with the zone leaders. It was a good change of pace. 

     On Friday we started doing some weekly planning and got through it, but I was fried at

that point, so I went back and crashed. Luckily we had a member drop off a roast chicken that night so I threw it in the crockpot and made some pretty alright broth out of it. The past few days have just been me trying to recover. I'm doing better now. Hopefully, it'll finally leave.

     Sorry for the short email: pretty uneventful week. 

Just FYI I'm running short on BCAAs, whey protein, and broth protein. Just a heads up. 

     Hope things at home are going well, When do you start school? How's the house stuff going? 

     Hope you have a good week,

Thanks, 

love,

Elder Walker