I'm gonna be a "DAD"

Hola everyone!

 

I just want to thank you all for the Christmas tree.  I love it! I look at it everynight and surprisingly it keeps me focused! It keeps me thinking about why I came out here and the example I GET to be to those little sobrinos and sobrinas (nieces and nephews) that I have back at home.

 

What a year in sports! The sad thing is, I've had more people ask and know about Brandon Davies than I have about Mitt Romney. What a sad sad twisted world it is in these days, huh? We should definitely be more informed on who's running our country than who's running a fast break.

 

WE had an unusual turkey day. No jello. No gravy. No stuffing. It was good mexican food but I've never seen beans and horchata or eaten my turkey with a home made tortilla (which, by the way, I know how to cook!) on Thanksgiving day. But hey! I was super grateful for how good it was! I got some great relaxation time, that's for sure. Got us all rested up for today :D We finally played basketball again, so that was great! ALMOST dunked off of a miss, but then remembered I'm still white and just layed it up.

 

Transfer days yet again. I love Elder Guzman and wanted him to stay SO bad. I wish I could say my prayer of him staying was answered because we FINALLY hit our best day on Monday where the spirit was just FLYING and people couldn't help but want to be baptized. I wish he was staying but sadly, he's gone. He will be doing one transfer in English work with my good buddy, Elder Fitt. He and I were in the same apartment in Lodi and became great friends. I'm very excited for my companion and KNOW that he will be a great Elder in the English work and also learn a LOT about why he's here. He's such a great Elder and I can't wait to see him get even better. He's been one of my favorites and we will see each other around a lot during the next transfer seeing as he's literally just around the river bend.

 

And the scary news? President has asked me to train.... A brand new elder..... AHHHHHHHH!!! When those words came out of his mouth I immediately forgot to breath. haha K see ya later I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but I'm so scared! If he gets trained wrong it could effect a lot a TON of his mission. And I would be responsible for it. That scares me a lot. President and I had a nice short phone call about it and he calmed me down (he already knows when I'm scared and I think he giggled a little at my reaction of, "Wait... What? Are you serious?") I almost asked where Ashton was, thinking I was being punked. But I accepted and I'm very excited to see the Lord carry this area. I still feel like I was just barely born the other month and now BAM. I'm having a new bouncing baby boy! I'm pretty scared but very excited to meet my new friend :D

 

This week we had an all-star week. We had a spiritual down pour and the blessings just showered upon the area. There were many, MANY miracles that happened this past week. Just in the short few days we had! We saw the blessings when 5 came to church, 2 unexpected including the sister of Erick, who also came to church, and is getting baptized this Saturday at 6. This is the 4th baptism in this area in the past year and we're looking at at least 2 more in december. The Lord is opening up Rancho Cordova. It's hard to go under with our small little buckets and try to catch all the blessings!

 

My only problem this week was feeling down. Sometimes, I felt like the WORST missionary in this mission and I didn't understand why. I thought it was Satan trying to get me down but then I realized what I had fasted and prayed for lately. To be more humble. Let me recommend something. Never pray and fast for humility unless you are ready to be hammered with humbling experiences. There were times when I couldn't think of ANYTHING in Spanish. I was shocked because of how little I could say. Then last night I was praying with tears streaming down my face and heard a soft voice or feeling telling me that I had asked specifically for what I was getting. I had a short moment of laughter and then another down pouring of the Lord's spirit. I've learned to love humbling experiences. I guess that's a good thing since I will be receiving them a lot this transfer.

 

Our other investigators are doing great! We've fixed some problems in the ward and after passing out some candies and a 21 day plan that Elder Ballard gave to a mission in Salt Lake, they really took hold of missonary work. We're now trying our best to plan our schedule around theirs. It's hard sometimes because we forget who works when, but it's getting a lot easier to get them to come out with us.

I love Rancho.

 

I will be picking up my new companion tomorrow at about 10:00. I'm very excited to get to know him and tell you all about him next week! I'm sure he'll be EXACTLY what this area needs.

 

The Lord will never let us down XD!

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Walker

No tricks, but this one's a real treat!

Hola todos!

What a wonderful week. I'm so excited to tell you and share these wonderful experiences with you all XD

We had a zone conference on Thursday with Elder Yamashita of the 70 who talked last conference. He was very fun. Oh. and surprise surprise. Since my old zone leader and mission hero, Elder Kelley, was moved to AP, there's now someone up there that knows me really well. I had gone under the radar for a while lol but now he's there. So ya know 2 days before zone conference he calls me up to congratulate us on the last week and I was thinking oh great how nice. But no, there's always something else. He asked me to sing a song, a special number, solo, for Elder Yamashita and President and crowd there. I just about wet myself. But did it with a great pianist Elder Johnson. He's super great so we got it down in an hour. An hour of practice and we were then going to perform in front of a man who's probably witnessed Jesus Christ himself.... It went great and Elder Yamashita and his wife were so kind. Sister Lewis wanted mom to know that she should be proud and that she felt like my mom sitting there. She almost got up right after to give me a hug. Then realized her calling and kept down lol. She's a great lady!

We had a great week serving the people here and God blessed us to achieve many goals this week. Our lessons, invites, referals but most importantly, firms and people at church.

Mayra, the girl we've been working with who works at this rocking bakery, free bread and drinks everyday. They're the nicest people with the BEST bread in the whole world ps.... Anyway, we went over there saturday to 'firm her up' or in other words, get her with a solid baptismal date. This friday. We went over and she said she's felt good about it but wasn't sure. We felt inspired to ask if she felt the scriptures were true. She said she always got her answers through just opening up to a page and then there it would be. I got super nervous but asked her to do it. I felt the spirit really strong, testifying that she needed to do it with the Book of Mormon, so I gave her the book and she opened it. NOw, to build some suspense, the last 2 times I've done this here have backfired, terribly. FIrst the guy opened to where Nephi killed Laban and the other was just a random war scripture. But this time it succeeded. She turned to Docterine and Covenants 84:64 and it talks about how after baptism you recieve the Holy Ghost and how it helps. What a miracle! She came to church and got the answer to be baptized. She had her interview and is firm for the 4th of November. Probably the first November baptism in the mission. What a joyous experience that will be! She's so happy.

We also had a miracle of finding Felicita and her family. They're what you call Platinum investigators. So we have Golden investigators who are like great and want to hear the gospel and want to be baptized but you have to work really hard on things with them. Then there are Platinum. They're so solid that you can't believe or understand what you did right to be able to teach them. That's Felicita. We met her on thursday and got her to church on Sunday. She made best friends with all the members AND signed up on our dinner calender. 3 times. W-O-W. I've never seen a person like this! We have to teach her everything still but she is ready. Already had a book of mormon and a best friend that taght her a lot. I'm so excited for her. Her son, Benito and I are BFF's already. When we came on Sunday, he ran to the door and gave me a big old hug. He's great and I"m excited for him to learn more about our Heavenly Father.

Also, a less active named Miguel Franco is awesome. He came to church 2 times. HIm and I immediately clicked. So much that he's going to Utah and wants to pass by Mom and Dad's house to try and talk to them a little bit haha. He asked me Friday if I could baptize his brother. My mouth dropped and said yes, obviously not gonna turn that one down lol. It was so great. He came with his brother and they had a great time! HIs brother will be baptized on the 20th.

We had 5 people to church on sunday that are investigating the church. 5. That's the highest in this place for years. It's amazing to see how the Lord is working with us and helping us. I don't know what to do. I feel so small in this grand work but feel the Lord's hand so strong. Pushing us to where we need to go.

All day today is a PDay. No leaving to trick or treat for us. AKA time to write some good ole letters lol and eat at Home Town Buffet.

I know this is the church of God. I know that if we can only do our little tiny percent we have, God will make up for the rest. I"ve learned que mediante Jesucristo, ninguna otra persona, podemos ser salvos. Podemos tener el amor de Dios para compartirlo con todos. Solamente tenemos que trabajar.Ir y hacer, tratar y superar. Es todo. I just realized I was speaking spanish lol. We just have to go and do. That's all. I know that that is the only way God can help us is if we're doing!

I love you all!!!!!

Elder Walker