September 17, 2012

Hello Everyone!! It's been a crazy week! Busy busy. Right now sister sorensen and I have about 15 investigators we're actively working with. I say about because that number changes from day to day. Thats more than I've ever had. Its really awesome but really stressful at the same time. There are some evenings where we have 5 appointments in a matter of 2 or 3 hours. The Lord is blessing us more than we deserve! We had 3 investigators at church on sunday, which, in this area, is a miracle. Good things are happening! Our investigator nathan is doing good. He quit smoking as of saturday, we will see how that goes this week. Our lesson in sunday school was on the word of wisdom and it was perfect! He sees the importance of it. The members have been a really good support to him. He is fitting in better and better every week he comes to church! Our other investigators arent quite as solid as of right now, so I dont want to say anything too soon. I might jinx it. Plus it would be way to hard for anyone to keep up with them. I can barely keep up with them! Ill tell you more about them as they start progressing. What else... we did team ups with the zone leaders this week. That was a disaster. Ok, maybe it wasnt a total disaster but they're insane! Sometimes I forget that these are 19 and 20 year old boys. They take the idea of talking with everyone a little overboard. They were practically jumping into peoples cars trying to talk with them. Elder Mace chased down a guy riding down the road on a tractor. It works for them I guess, they're some of the most successful missionaries in the mission. I didnt really see anything come out of it other than people being totally terrified of them. Never want to do that again. Exchanges with sister park were good though! It was interesting to see how much we've changed in the past 9 months since we were companions. My progress has been so slow that sometimes its hard to even realize that ive improved. I'm a much better teacher than I was 9 months ago and im a million times better at talking with people. I was so terrified at the beginning of my mission of knocking on doors and talking with people on the street. Now I love it and its become like second nature. Im really grateful for everything that my mission has helped me to become. Well my time is up! I hope you all have a great week! Take care! Love Sister Walker

September 10, 2012

Hello Everyone!! It has been a GREAT week!! Sister Sorensen and I worked hard and were blessed more than we deserved. Our investigator Nathaniel is preparing to be baptized on september 29th!! He's so awesome! Ive never met someone so sincere about making changes in their life. He's got a few things to overcome before he gets baptized... he's smoked for a long time... but he really really wants to quit, so I have faith the the lord will bless him with the ability to do so. I still cant believe that meeting him in a really akward exchange at a gas station has resulted in all of this. I have the biggest testimony that Lord is constantly putting people in our path who we need meet. Not just as a missionary, but as normal people too! Think about all the friends and aquaintances you've had over the years. Most of the time we have a sense that God had a hand in helping us meet each other. I think we can have an increasing amount of friendships like that as we seek to reach out to those around us. We also started teaching a pentecostal pastor this week. We felt like we should knock doors on a certain street, and 3 houses in we met Eugene. Most of the time when we talk to clergy from other faiths, they immediately try to tear us down. He was really receptive and really fascinated by the book of mormon. We're meeting with him on tuesday again. Not sure where it will go, but im hopeful! People who are strongly rooted in their current church will be some of the strongest members in our church when they're converted. The petersburg ward is definitely struggling, it could use some strong converts. The same night we out walking some streets. It was about 8:45, almost time to head in. I felt like we should walk down a street that we had walked 100 times before. At the very end of the street we saw a couple women sitting on their porch. We went over to talk with them and one of the women was overly excited to see us! Turns out she is a member of the church but has been less active for about 10 years. She's moved around a lot and isnt on our records, so we had no idea she lived there. She was talking with her mother about how she felt like she needed to go back to church again, and then we showed up!! I couldnt believe all the miracles that happened that day. Amazing things happen when we follow the spirit. We found a few other really great new investigators this week, too many amazing experiences to even write about ... like I said before, we've really been blessed more than we deserve. Im super excited for this next week. We're teaming up with our zone leaders tomorrow... something new that president richards has started. Specialized training on Thursday and then I'll be doing exhanges with sister park for two days this week!! She has been one of my favorite companions, so it'll be great to work with her again. It'll be a busy week! Have a great week everyone!! Love Sister Walker

September 3, 2012

Hello everyone! Well Im absolutely exhausted. This week has been hard! Then today we were up at 3, went on a 5 mile hike... im totally worn out. Sometimes i dont see how im going to do this for another day! We had so many good things set up for this week, and nothing worked out. Almost all of our appointments fell through. Training is keeping me sufficiently stressed out on its own. Im trying my best not to get discouraged, but its difficult at times. It makes me feel like im doing something wrong. I keep evaluating over and over what I can do better, and the work isnt changing. I guess its my turn to develop some patience. Good things are bound to happen soon, im sure. Well despite our less than spectacular week, I passed a milestone this week, so atleast I accomplished that. 1 year since I started my mission. Its hard to believe its been that long... it feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the mtc. Its been a little sad as well to realize that the majority of my mission is behind me. I've got six months left to do and become everything that the lord sent me out here to do. Over the past year ive learned more than I think I have my whole life combined. Ive learned to appreciate all that ive been blessed with in my life ... and that sometimes our challenges are our greatest blessings -- Hard is good! Ive learned that serving the lord with all of our heart means to give our whole selves to him, to do our very best, and expect nothing in return. Ive learned that if we are to ever be successful in this life, we must listen to the spirit. Ive learned to be a little more christlike - to be more faithful, more hopeful, more patient, more charitable. I've learned how perfectly our heavenly father knows and loves us, and that the savior has the same love for each of us. Mostly Ive learned how much having the gospel in my life means to me, because ive seen how it has changed others. I could never fully appreciate what it would be like to not have the gospel until I met others who didnt, and saw how much happiness it brought them when they accepted it. Im so so grateful for my mission. Its been the best year of my life. Have a great week Love Sister Walker

August 27, 2012

Hello everyone!!! Im in winchester today.... probably wont be a very long email. Maybe someday after my mission you'll actually get to hear about what i did for a year and a half. Good to hear that Emma is doing well for now. Betty the pictures you sent me didnt show up. You may have to attach them and send them that way. It has been a very busy and a very stressful week! My new companion's name is sister sorensen. She's 24. She's from sandy utah. She taught high school math for 2 years before she decided to serve a mission. Shes pretty quiet, but were doing well together. Being a trainer is a lot of hard work! It's a lot of responsibility. I have to remember constantly that sister sorensen is learning from everything I do. We had a really great week though! The work in petersburg is really starting to pick up. We have been blessed to find a lot of people to teach lately. We found this young guy named nathaniel. We talked to him at a gas station for a while but he wouldnt really committ to meet with us. But the next night we saw him again as we were out walking. Set up an appointment for the next night, he came to church yesterday and left teary eyed. It was a total blessing. We have an appt with him tonight too. Sorry this is so short. I hate that p-day is so rushed, i wish i had time to talk about all the miracles that happened. Have a great week! Love sister walker

August 20th 2012

Hello Everyone Well I dont really feel up to writing much of a mass email today. The news about Emma was unexpected. We got transfer calls this morning, neither sister gritis or I are getting transferred. It was unexpected since we've been together 2 transfers already. And I like sister gritis and all, but I really dont want to be with anyone longer than 2 transfers, and she feels the same way. It gets a little stressful. Our mission president is doing some funny things. 3 areas in our zone are going to be shotgunned this transfer, meaning they're transferring both people out and and two missionaries who know nothing about the area are getting put in. Very strange. Its not something that happens very often. Other than that, everything is going great as far as missionary work goes. We were blessed to be able to find a ton of new investigators this week. We had some really great miracles happen. Sorry about this, Ill try to write a better email next week. Take care everyone Sister Walker PS: Mary Orchard- Good luck mp! you'll love the mtc! please please please have your parents forward me your weekly email. And get me yours so I can put it on my forwarding list

August 13, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! Goodness, what a CRAZY week it has been!! We hardly got any missionary work done this week were so busy with other stuff. Betty you asked for an update on all the people ive mentioned that were teaching. Well... as it goes with missionary work, almost all of them have either started avoiding us or they arent keeping committments - they arent reading from the book of mormon, coming to church, etc., so we're giving them a break. Wilson is still doing well though. He came to church yesterday. That makes 5 sundays in a row. Last thrursday was zone conference. Our new mission president and his wife are absolutely wonderful! I didnt think I could love them as much as I loved president and sister belliston, but I do! They are so excited to be here. They're bringing a fresh perspective into the mission. We talked a lot about setting goals in our lives and also what it means to "teach people, not lessons". We'v been taught this stuff since the MTC but for some reason it didnt click until now. It totally changed the way ive approached teaching people this past week. Last night sister gritis and I had an appointment with this man named william conrad. We didnt teach him a single thing about the restoration, which is normally the first lesson. Instead we followed the spirit and taught about the word of wisdom. Never in a million years did I think I would go into a fist lesson and teach someone about the word of wisdom. But that was exactly what he needed. He's had substance abuse problems in the past, and he got so excited when we started talking about blessings that come from avoiding harmful substances. Everyone needs something different from the gospel, and a lot of the time the message of the restoration isnt something they need right off. Well everything went pretty downhill after zone conference. I told you about our crazy member jane halterman. Well thursday night we show up at her house, and the first thing we notice is that were immediately covered in fleas. Jane has a cat and hasnt done much of anything to keep it from getting fleas. Oh yeah, and not only does this cat have fleas, but im also pretty sure it belonged to satan before jane got it. It tried to claw off my face every time I walked by it. I didnt think anything could be worse than Tasha's cat, but I guess I was wrong. Anyway. We ended up sleeping on a hardwood floor because we didnt want to sleep on a flea infested bed. But that night a huge storm rolled through and since jane's house is really old water started leaking through the window and sister gritis and I got completely soaked. So needless to say, I didnt get any sleep. The next day we had planned to leave at about 2:00 for baltimore. So for the morning we decided to go talk to people at the all in one gas station/ grocery store/ tanning salon/ gun store. Its the only shop in in Baker. Well 2:00 rolls around and jane is nowhere to be found. She doesnt get any cell service either in good old Baker West Virginia, so we waited around for about an hour until she finally showed up. So by the time we leave and pick up her friends, we're running about 2 hours late. So as we start heading off to baltimore we realize that jane isnt really stopping at stop signs, and that when she wasnt driving into oncoming traffic she's driving off the road. Somehow sister gritis got it out of her that she is on adderall for adhd and decided to take 2 extra adderall that morning to help her stay awake. It was a total nightmare. We ended up making a pit stop at the hospital, im not even going to go into that. THEN. 15 miles from baltimore we get a flat tire. I just gave up hope of ever getting to the game at that point. Luckily we were blessed and nice guy and his son stopped to help us. Sister gritis and I were pretty much useless in our dresses. So we did make it to the game during the fourth inning. I was really less than ecstatic about the whole situation. I had been looking forward to that day my whole mission. When we got to the game and relayed the past 24 hours with our district leader and mission president they refused to let us drive home with jane. So they overnighted us with some other sisters and it all ended well. It was a really rough day. But the orioles did win! 7 to 1. Despite our catastohpic adventure this week, im still happy to be a missionary! I couldnt imagine doing anything else right now. This has been the greatest 11 1/2 months of my life! The gospel is true. This is the Lords work, im certain of it! I love you all! Have a wonderfull week!! Sister Walker Ps... the pictures are terrible, but I dont have any good ones. We were a little stressed out that day....

August 6, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! Everything is going well here in petersburg! This week we got to go out and explore some of the far corners of our area. I thought petersburg was bad, but its a metropolis here compared to some of the neighboring towns. Sometimes it feels like im in a third world country... these people live in run down sheds, garbage piled around the house, dogs everywhere. It's a really strange world. I really am loving my time here though. Somehow. The atonement covers all things I guess. This week we started teaching this really wonderful woman named juanita. She's 83. We were walking to members house and saw her sitting on her porch swing and decided to go talk to her. Her grandson just died last week of cancer. She has a lot of questions about what life is like after we die. We were able to answer a lot of her questions from the book of mormon and she got really excited about reading it! She said she usually reads 2 chapters from the bible before she goes to bed, but this week she said she would read from the book of mormon instead. It amazes me how again and again we cross paths with people who are prepared. No coincidences. We still dont have anyone with a date for baptism. We have a couple investigators who are really close. Our new mission president wants us to set a goal to have a baptism every other week. Which is absolutely possible, but im not quite sure i've got the faith for that just yet. The assistants dont even baptize that much. Im excited for this upcoming week! We have zone conference on Thursday and the Orioles game on Friday!! A member of the ward, sister halterman, is driving us to baltimore, so we will be staying at her house thursday and friday night. She lives on a chicken farm and has cows in her backyard... im not so excited about that. Plus she's slightly certifiable... I'll send pictures next week and you'll understand. Have a good week everyone!! Sister Walker

July 30th 2012

llo Everyone! No time to write again. We're in Winchester today, so were not getting much of anything accomplished. We had a good week. We started teaching this woman who lives in a tent. permanently. She's from france and thinks its totally normal to live in a tent.. anyway... things are going well. Its hard to believe as of tomorrow I'll have been out for 11 months....Its going by way too fast!!! Have a great week everyone!!! Love Sister Walker

July 23, 2012

Hello Everyone!! We had an incredible week! I dont know where to begin! We were blessed with a lot of miracles this week... Well first miracle, we found out that the misson gets to go to an Orioles game on august 10th! I guess thats not really a miracle, but it is to me. I love petersburg, but im dying for some civilization. Not to mention I love baseball, so its a huge blessing in my eyes. Im pretty excited. Second, I was able to say a prayer and teach part of a lesson in sign language! I actually dont think i've talked about our deaf investigator in my mass email yet. So we're teaching this really sweet older woman named Reva. Sister Gritis knows a little bit of sign, enough to teach with atleast. Its been kind of a struggle, but were able to understand each other. Sister Gritis has been teaching me signs here and there throughout the day. The Lord has definitely been helping us with that. I always struggled to learn other languages in school, but sign has come a little easier. Its amazing the gifts that God blesses his missionaries with when they need them to teach! We also started teaching a new family who lives on celestial drive. Needless to say, they're pretty golden! Tuesday afternoon after we had stopped at a gas station to see if they had any good maps of the area because we have yet to find one. So while we were looking very confusedly at a map, this guy comes over and asks if we needed directions. We explained we were missionaries an why we needed a map, etc, etc. He was really intrigued by what we do, so we exchanged numbers and he said he'd be interested in meeting with us sometime, but wouldnt committ to a day or time. His name is Trevis btw. He's an emt in the area. So sister gritis and I didnt think too much about the exchange. Lots of people tell us they'd be interested in meeting with us, but they never do. So a few days pass, friday rolls around and as were out driving a huge storm rolls in and it starts dumping rain on us. I couldnt see two feet in front of the car, so we decided to pull over and make some phone calls until the storm cleared up. As we were flipping through our planner seeing who we could call and try to set up appoinments with, sister gritis suggested that we call Trevis. So we did, and amazingly, he picked up his phone and told us he wanted to meet on sunday! So yesterday we taught Trevis, and neither of us expected how prepared he was. Trevis grew up methodist and has attended several churches throughout his life, but he said none of them ever felt right to him. He told us that somewhere in his 20's, he gave up on religion because he was tired searching and finding nothing but a lot of hipocritical preachers. In the last few weeks, lots of things have been happening in his life, lots of miracles he feels he cant ignore. He's felt like for the last little while God has been nudging him to seek for truth again. So after we met trevis and gave him a mormon.org card, he spent some time researching the church. He told us that as he read about joseph smith's experience, he felt like that was just like him. He told us " I felt like there was this little guy on my shoulder and I felt something I hadnt felt in a long time." Ha! obviously he was feeling the spirit, he just wasnt quite sure how to describe it. So on friday, after looking at all this stuff on mormon.org, trevis had pulled out our number and was just about to call us when we called him. Freak rainstorm? Definitely not. The lord had it all planned out. They're arent coincidences in missionary work. Trevis realizes that none of this was coincidence either. But setting all that aside even, It was one of the most powerful lessons Ive ever had. The spirit was so incredibly strong because he was prepared, he was ready to accept it. He wants to be baptized next month. I cant even describe it well enough in words. I just know that the restored gospel is true. After lessons like that, I cant deny it. I love this work! I couldnt ever say enough how much I love being a missionary! I dont know how I became so blessed to have the chance to serve a mission. Have a great week everyone. I love you all! Sister Walker

July 16, 2012

Carly's e-mail this week was to Alan and I. She asked that I do not forward it nor post it to the blog.

July 9, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! So we went on a really long hike with the other missionaries this morning and it took up most of my email time. So this will be a short one again, Sorry! We went up to harpers ferry. Its so beautiful up there. Theres a lot of history in that area. Look it up. I dont have my card reader with me today, so i cant send pictures, but next week for sure! What a great week! There are so many good things happening in our area right now. I feel so blessed! I still havent quite figured out how to put missionary work into words still. I can only say that I am loving where I'm at and I couldnt imagine being anywhere else in the world or doing anything else right now. My mission has been the greatest blessing of my life! This week we've been really fortunate to be in all the right places at the right time. There were many people who felt like God had forgotten about them and then we showed up just at the right moment. Im so fortunate to be a part of this work. Its changed my life. Im not the same person nor will I ever be because of my mission. Call outs for transfers are today. They havent come yet, but I dont think im going anywhere. I guess you'll all find out for sure next week! I love you all! Take care!! Sister Walker

Carly's address

1401 Michael Ave Petersburg, WV 26847

July 2, 2012

Hello Everyone!!! It has been quite an eventful week!! But before I talk about any of that... Because I know she reads my weekly letters I have to say congrats to my very best friend mary orchard!!!! She got her mission call last week to the Thailand Bangkok Mission! Im SO excited for you mp!!! You will be an amazing missionary! I still remember the night we went for a run and had somehow decided on the very same day that we were suppossed to serve missions.Get excited, you will absolutely love it! I will write you soon! Ok... where to start. So there was a really bad storm here on friday night. It was 110 degrees that day.( We were out of miles on our car so we were walking around in it. It was awful.) But one minute is was scorching hot and sunny and the next it was storming with really high winds. Lots of trees came down. The power was out for a day and a half... there are still a lot of people without power actually, but since we live in the middle of town we got ours back sooner. So the night of the storm was the night that president belliston left and president richards got here. Poor guy. He'd been a mission president all of three hours before he had to figure out what to do with a whole zone of missionaries who didnt have power. He was originally going to move us all because 110 degree heat with no air conditioning isnt very safe. Luckily they fixed things pretty quickly. We're doing well. Everything has resumed to normal. Despite the heat and storm and everything else, we were really blessed this week with the work. We are teaching this 15 year old girl named brittney. Shes been coming to church for the last month or so. She is so great. Shes kind of in the same situation as chad. She doesnt have a lot of understanding, but loves coming to church and reading the BOM because she feels it. She knows its all true and really wants to get baptized. The only problem is her dad wont give her permission. He's really abusive and controlling with her. He's the kind of person who would keep her locked up in the house if he could. Thursday morning though, we got a call from the bishop. He said he had talked with brittney the night before and her dad finally gave her permisson! He was going to sign the papers and everything. So we were going to have a baptism on the 13th. Then yesterday at church brittney told us her dad had changed his mind. I was totally heartbroken. He knows she wants to get baptized and so one second he'll tell her she can and if she does even the slightest thing to upset him he changes his mind. So please just keep brittney in your prayers this week. It will be a miracle if her dad's heart softens. We also met this really great couple this week. We were leaving a members house thursday afternoon. Right as we were leaving we see this guy with two little kids walking right by the house. It turns out he lives just a couple doors down. He invited back to his house and we taught him in his front yard. His name is Wes. He grew up in foster care and has been in and out of jail his whole life, even spent a few years in prison. He's had a terrible life. But I guess since the last time he got out of jail he's been trying to starighten up his life. He's married and has two kids now. Talk about someone who needs the atonement! Holy cow. He feels so guilty for everything hes done in his past. He cant forgive himself. Now he's just trying to do his best and give his kids what he never had. He's tried to turn to jesus christ and religion, but every pastor or priest he's met told him he could never be forgiven for some of the things he did in his past. They pretty much condemned him to hell right there. We assured him that no one, no matter what theyve done, could ever sink below christ's redeeming light. He looked so hopeful as we left. We met his wife Mona on our way out, and we have another appointment with them tonight. It was a total miracle that we met him. Had we left the house even a minute later, we wouldnt have crossed paths. What a great week! Our heavenly father knows and loves us. There is nothing better than witnessing his hand in the lives of his children dad after day. He reaches out to us constantly. I feel how much He loves the people in petersburg. Its certainly not just me loving this. Im surrounded by meth houses and chicken farms, theres not much to love. But the Lord loves these people, and he's blessed me to have a love for them too. I wouldnt chose to be anywhere else in the world right now! Have a great week everyone! I love you all! thank you for the love and support and prayers! Sister Walker I added some pictures from chads baptism... theres a picture with us and another with his family. The last one is the winchester missionaries after capture the flag last week.

June 25, 2012

Hello Hello!! What a great week! Chad was baptized on saturday!! And confirmed and ordained a deacon!! Theres nothing better than baptisms! His family came too, which i was really happy about. Atleast they support him somewhat. He's such a good kid. He has a lot of good things coming to him if he stays close to the lord. I hope he serves a mission someday. Unfortunately I dont have a card reader this week so I cant send pictures. We played capture the flag with the zone today so were all the way out in winchester, which is about two hours away from petersburg. Well so our week started off a little rough. We were working so hard, harder than i think ive ever worked on my mission thus far. And NOTHING was happening. So saturday night rolled around and we still hadnt found any new investigators this week, and we baptized the only one that was progressing. kind of discouraging. But we still had hope! We decided to fast to be able to find a new investigator on sunday. So we got to church on and the miracles started pouring out from evrywhere. three of chads siblings decided to come to church, and they want to keep coming! Two of the youth in the ward brought friends who are interested as well. Then we had three members come up to us and give us referrals for friends and neighbors who they think might be interested. AND. We also got a new move in on the records the bishop wanted us to go meet. So, we went and met the move in after church, she wasnt home, but her mom was. The mom told us to go check on someone she knew, who also wasnt home. We decided to knock on some doors on the street, and found sheila and jeff. Jeff is a member but has been less active for years. Sheila has been asking him for 2 years if he would get her a copy of the book of mormon to read. They want to come to church and she wants to be baptized! We found our new investigator at 7:00 sunday night! And she also gave us the name and address of a cousin who also really wants to read the book of mormon. It definitely strengthened my testimony of fasting. The Lord wants and will grant us our righteous desires if we excerise our faith. I know it! I feel so blessed! It makes walking up mile long driveways in the baking heat all worth it. Theres nothing better than missionary work. I cant imagine being anywhere else right now! Missionary work has a lot of paradoxes, the greatest I think is the fact that you can only be happy when you completely forget about making yourself happy. You cant love this work if you think too much about yourself. The happiness comes when you forget yourself and start thinking only about those who are waiting to hear the gospel, and are willing to make any personal sacrifice to bring it to them. Have a great week everyone! Love Sister Walker

June 18, 2012

Hello everyone!!! We had a great week! We are getting the last details of chad's baptism worked out. His baptism date was originally for august, but after a lot of prayer and talking with him we decided to move it up to this sunday! So things have been a little hectic. He's being interviewed tomorrow, which in itself is a hassel. Our district leader has to drive 3 hours to get here to interview him. Its weird being out here so far away from the rest of the mission. Anyway... I'm really excited for Chad. He's such a great kid. He cant wait to pass the sacrament in a few weeks. We have had some really great miracles finding some less active members this week. No one has addresses out here, so its impossible to find people. Friday we decided to go look for this guy named david hendrix. We knew what road he lives on but had no house number. The problem was the road is atleast 10 miles long. So... we decided we were going to knock on doors until we found him! The third door we knocked on was him. I couldnt believe it! We were definitely suppossed to find him that day. And even crazier, the next day we were wandering down a road and we found his brother! I dont know whats going on with this family, but we're going to visit them again soon. Lots of other miracles this week... too many to talk about. Missionary work is the best, thats all I have to say. This area of the country is so strange. I learned this week that most of our proselyting area is in national forest... Im not sure exctly who were suppossed to find to teach in the woods. We did go hiking this morning though. We ventured out into the dolly sods. Ill send some pictures. I really do love it out here. Its beautiful and the people are wonderful! Its going to take me a while to get used to the fact that no one has teeth though.... Have a great week! Love Sister Walker

June 11, 2012

Hello Everyone! Sorry my email last week was so short. Petersburg is great. Not somewhere I'd ever want to live otherwise, but its nice to get to see this part of the country for a few months. Its pretty much impossible to do any proselyting here because all of the towns in this area are so spread out. Everyone lives half a mile away from the next. Hmm... I really have no idea what else to write about the area.... if anyone has any questions ill try my best to answer. Right now we're teaching a 13 year old boy named chad. He's been coming to church with a family in the ward for the last couple of months. He comes from a pretty disfunctional home. 7 kids piled into a dumpy little trailer. HIs family has absolutely no interest in the fact that he wants to come to church and be baptized. Its odd, really. We could be teaching chad about satan worshipping and his mom couldnt care less. She has no interest in knowing what hes learning about when we teach him. He's such a good kid though. He loves coming to church. He doesnt understand much, but he says he feels the happiest when he's at church. Thats the beauty of the gospel. Its not about how much we understand or comprehend, but about what we feel. And we can all feel the spirit, so in that sense were all equal. We had our last zone conference with President and Sister Belliston this week. I actually dont think ive mentioned that yet, our mission president is finished with his 3 years at the end of this month. It was super depressing. Ha. President just looked really sad the whole meeting. I cant imagine what it would be like to go back to normal life after being a mission president. I'll miss him. President Richards will be taking his place. Theyre a pretty young couple. Mid 50's I think. They have two teenage kids theyre bringing with them. Well im loving the mission still. I feel more and more fortunate every day for the extremely blessed life ive been given. These people out here have nothing. But the gospel is a way out. Im so excited for chad. Hes realizing that theres better things in life than what hes grown up with. I hope he serves a mission some day, goes to byu, and gets out of west virginia! Have a great week everyone! Sister Walker

June 4, 2012 West Virginia

hello everyone!! I dont have much time to write today because we spent all of our time driving today. why? because im in petersburg, west virginia. Im out in the most western part in our mission. in the middle of nowhere. It takes atleast an hour to get anywhere. There arent even cows out here let alone people. I think theres about 3000 people in the town of petersburg itself. Or thats what my new companion says atleast. Her name is sister gritis by the way. Anyway... people dont even have street names or house numbers out here!!! There just have HC boxes, which is just a mail route, so most people are impossible to find. Its really different. I have to say, ive had quite a diverse group of areas. The city, an island, and now the middle of nowhere. Im getting used to it. Its really beautiful out here. Lots of mountains. The people are super nice, just really poor and uneducated. There are a lot of drug problems as well. I suppose I should have expected this. When i guessed where id go on my mission I guessed west virginia. This is pretty much exactly what I expected when i made that guess. I love it already :) Everything is going well so far here... No complaints. Ill tell you all a little bit more about the area next week! Love Sister Walker

May 28, 2012

Hello Everyone!!!! I hope you all had a great memorial day! Transfer calls came yesterday and I AM getting transferred! Obviously I dont know where yet, you'll find out next week. I actually knew I was getting transferred as of friday night. I'll just say we had a situation that ended in a late night phone call to president belliston, and he told us someone would be getting transferred. I suspected it was going to be me since i'v been here the longest. And it's time for me to go. I'm grateful i had the chance to serve here in kent islnd. It's been a really rough 3 months, but I know that I needed it. I needed to learn a few hard lessons and learn to be a little more humble! It's made me a better missionary. I'm excited to get to my next area and get to work. So we're stil teaching the pakistani family. We found out that augustine, the dad, has an uncle who's family is a member of the church! They live in another ward in our stake. So we're trying to work something out where they can come with us next time we have a lesson. Definitely not a coincidence that we found this family. They are so amazing. Augustine told us a little bit more about all the persecution he faced in pakistan. I still cant get over how much they've given up to be christian. Augustine was kind of an important person in pakistan from what im gathering. And now he's working at a seven eleven making $8 an hour. I guess his education and degrees in pakistan arent good for much here. He can barely support his family. His kids were both planning on going to medical school, but that hasnt worked out now with their financial situation. It's so sad. God will bless them though, im sure of it. They've been faithful, so good things are bound to happen. I've met the greatest people and families here. As a missionary you get to know a lot of people, and you get to know them really well really fast. People seem to pour out everything to us. I love being on this end of things. I love seeing how Gods hand is in everyone's life, moving things along. I think we get to see things about people that they dont even see about themselves. The more I learn about them, the more I realize that we were sent to them for a reason, even though they might not realize it. Being a missionary is the best. Have a great week everyone!! I'll tell you all about my new area next week! Love you all! Sister Walker Oh. And I said I was done with maryland seafood for a while, but that didnt work out so well this week. I tried hard and soft crabs this week. They are a lot of work! I'll send before and after pictures of the crab feast we had last night... It's a mess.

May 21, 2012

Hello Everyone! Not much to say. Its been a pretty rough week. I'm having the hardest time keeping myself motivated lately. I think im having a mid-mission slump. Transfers are next week and I'm kind of hoping I get moved. Its not very likely, but I have wishful thinking. Im realizing that I wasnt set here to learn a few hard lessons and not so much to do missionary work. We started teaching a pakistani family this week. They're christian and moved to america five years ago because of religious persecution. Really bad persecution actually, the dad had to have body guards for a while. The mom doesnt speak english so thats going to be a challenge, We have a book of mormon and the joeseph smith history in Urdu so it should all work out. What else... Um I ate raw tuna this week. A less active family went on a tuna fishing trip last weekend. Brother pruitt sells it to local restraunts, I guess fresh tuna is expensive? Anyway.... they had us over for dinner. Apparently its suppossed to be eaten raw, but i thought it was pretty gross. I think i've had my fill of maryland seafood for a while... Well I dont have much else to say about this week. I hope you're all well! Sister Walker

May 14, 2012

Hello Everyone! Thans for the birthday wishes. It's been a good day so far. We had a barbeque with the zone this morning. It was kind of depressing actually. Theres a big group of missionaries is going home in a couple weeks so that was the last time we'd see them. But it was good. I didnt take any pictures! sorry! I've been horrible about taking pictures lately! I can't believe i'm 22. It feels like im still 16. And whats even more crazy is that this week is my halfway mark!! I cant believe it! My mission is flying by. It makes me a little trunky if I think about it too much, so i'm going to quit... We had a good week. We've made some good progress with some part member families in our ward. Theres a woman named janene schenider who'd been an investigator for 12 years on and off. Shes mentioned a few times over the years that she wants to be baptized, but it never seemed to happen. She's had a pretty rough life.. shes dealt with a lot of addiction problems. But she seems to be overcoming them finally and sincerely wanting to make changes in her life. She's quit drinking. She's in the process of quiting smoking, and she said next is coffee. We didnt even ask her to do any of these things, she just came to us and told us this was her plan. She wants to be free of any addictive substances. Her greatest desire is just to be clean. So she mentioned baptism, we didnt even bring it up. She's amazing! Hopefully she can keep this momentum going. Were also working with the father of another family, the Elburns. The only word I can use to describe that family is disfuntional. They've got their fair share of issues. The mom and 3 kids joined the church last year, and since then the kids have made a lot of progress socially and in school. Joe, the dad, has been adamantly against the church up until recently. But we had a lesson with him the other night and he was so sincere! he said he's so many good changes in his family since they've joined the church and hes impressed with how kind and helpful the members have been to him. So now he's curious. He wants to know about the book of mormon and joseph smith and everything. He's really prepared. I'm excited to see the whole family at church some day soon. Well i think thats about everything for this week! Take care Sister Walker