11/8/10

Well hello there everyone!

Once again, and to no surprise, this was a great week!

Elder Nelson took off Wednesday morning back to his territory of Sacramento California. He is currently hugging and kissing girls... weird. He still has his temple date of Nov. 27th to be married to Rachael. He was really excited to get back to her and his family. The last day with Elder Nelson was a great experience. He worked really hard and testified like I have never seen. Tuesday evening was filled with many tears and great emotions as he said his final good-byes and the assistants picked him up. This really is the best experience and he realized that it does end.

Thursday was zone conference. We now get zone conference every third month so when we get it we are very excited. For this zone conference President asked Elder Rudd and I to give a training for the three zones; we trained on qualifying for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I loved this opportunity to prepare myself for this training. I had no idea what to study or where to go but under the direction of the spirit I turned my scriptures to the missionary work of the sons of Mosiah. I thought that if anywhere in the scriptures would teach me about this topic it would be the sons of Mosiah. It's interesting because I found my answer in the first three verses. In Alma 17 we read about Alma reuniting with the sons of Mosiah and what he learned about them, he says, "...they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently...they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting" then the Lord gives us a very specific blessing for doing these things, it says, "they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation" or in other words they had the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

We began our training with everyone thinking about their greatest hero in the scriptures. We selected 5 missionaries to stand and tell us who their hero was, what their hero did, and why this individual was their hero; we also asked President and Sister Colton to do the same thing. We heard of such heroes as, Abinidi, Alma, Jonah, Ester, and Peter. After these great heroes were discussed we explained that in every case these heroes were considered heroes because they qualified to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost, we too will be considered "heroes" in the eyes of our investigators as we strive to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

I feel that this training was a success. We had great involvement from the missionaries and I feel that our zone at least is applying the things that they learned.

We had a great experience with an investigator this week. We watched the Restoration DVD after she told us she hadn't received an answer to her prayers. At the end of the DVD we asked her how she felt and she explained that she felt the same feelings as when she was done praying such as peace, relaxation, etc. We explained that this is how the Spirit feels and she then explained that she now knows that this is true. I love teaching with the Spirit! He is the only way to conversion and when investigators understand that they progress so much faster. Tiffany has a baptism date for Dec. 4th.

All is well. I love what I'm doing and I love the Gospel. This is the great cause of the Lord. He loves us.

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Peace and Love,
Elder Walker