Pocatello Postings

Lindon's Baptism

2011-11-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

07/25/2011 Feed My Sheep

2011-11-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all received or heard about the package I sent home for all of you.

Sounds like this week is going to be one crazy week for all of you with family and weddings. Don't worry about me, I'll probably be teaching someone or knocking on doors. haha! Life is good.

Saturday I had the great opportunity to attend a baptism in Idaho Falls for Linden Schlenker. If you remember or if I even told you he is the one who requested us to come see him and bring him the DVD Finding Faith in Christ. When we went to deliver it he said, "I was wondering when you were going to come." Needless to say he is super golden and teaching him was a breeze. The WML for that ward said it best when we said that we were just hanging on for the ride. Brother Schlenker works for the BLM (burrow of land management) so he asked us if he could be baptized outside. I had never been asked that question before so we called President and he said, "well it's hard to tell someone no when Christ was baptized in a river." We worked close with the bishop and planned is baptism in the Snake River in Idaho Falls. That's a baptism to remember.

Brother Schlenker asked me and Elder Owens to be witnesses and when I stood on bank of the river I tell you I have not had deja vu like I had at that moment watching him be baptized in the river. That moment took me back for a second. I thought about this that night and came to the conclusion that I saw what I saw before coming to this earth as Heavenly Father commissioned me to find Linden and bring him into the fold. I could be wrong but I know I saw him being baptized in that place at that time before.

Elder Markert and I are planning our first baptism together for this Saturday. Rick is ready to rock and roll. We met with him last night and put together his program, his baptism was announced in the singles branch, and he passed his baptism interview. The best part is when we first met Rick he claimed to be Atheist which was just 3 1/2 weeks ago, however when we reviewed the baptism interview questions with him he has learned who his Heavenly Father is and knows that Jesus Christ lives. The first question to the interview is, "Do you believe that God is our Eternal Father? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world?" When we asked this question Rick looked at us for a second then said, "Yes, I really do." Oh boy! You betcha I was so excited to hear that! How cool is it that he was lead to Menan Idaho of all places from Seattle and in just 3 1/2 weeks time he is now a Christian soon to be LDS. The Spirit is incredible!!! My calling is incredible!!! These are the moments that make everything worth it, all the time spent, the studying, the obedience, the patience, the stress...everything. There is no greater cause in all the world and I get to be apart of it.

I learned something so great this week from Elder Holland. We know Peter to be the great Apostle of Jesus Christ. He was by the Saviors side in everything. When Christ was crucified the Apostles looked to Peter as their leader and asked, "now what?" Peter didn't know what to do or how to do what he was supposed to do so he did the only thing he knew how to do, he went fishing. We know the story continues and the Apostles had a terrible day of fishing, they hadn't caught anything. To their surprise there was a man on the beach sitting by a fire who told the Apostles to try fishing on the other side of the ship. Elder Holland continues to state that they probably were looking to this unknown man on the beach as an unlearned man who didn't know anything about fishing yet they had nothing to loose so they cast their nets on the other side of the boat. The nets are full, in fact too full to pull up the fish and the boat starts sinking. Peter then recognized that this man is Jesus Christ and tells his buddies who He is. The interesting part is though that Peter doesn't wait to go to shore but he bails over the boat and swims. He finds the resurrected Lord sitting on the beach cooking them breakfast. Just a side note of how merciful the Lord is, he knew his friends would be hungry and worn out from a day of fishing so he cooks them breakfast. It's at this point that we know the great conversation between Jesus and Peter. The Savior asks Peter, "do you love me?" to which Peter responds, "of course Thou knowest I love Thee" the Savior then responds so perfectly, "feed my sheep". Peter is asked this question again, and then the third time we know he is asked the same question. I can imagine that Peter is sad that the Lord is asking him this question a third time but it's the third time that Peter then understands what he is to do. The Lord responds to his answer by telling Peter that He's told him before, leave your nets (Elder Holland refers to these nets as anything from our past) and feed my sheep! "Go and do what I have commanded you to do, there is no going back, there is no turning around, you are in this now and you have to fulfill your purpose." We learn that it is this point that Peter becomes the great Apostle that he was. People would push through crowds to get to even be in his shadow.

Now, Elder Holland teaches, we, you and I, are in this. There is no going back, there is no turning around. Do we love God? Feed His sheep. We are told and given the same commission as the great Apostle Peter is/was given to invite others to come unto Christ. We have been blessed with a testimony and now it is our turn to share it with others. I hope that we all can fulfill what we are sent to accomplish. This is what I felt as I saw Linden be baptized and that feeling will always be with me. Remember that we are never alone in the Lord's work.

I love you all. Have a great week and enjoy the wedding on Saturday.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

07/18/2011 Cute Note from Elder Walker

2011-11-04T20:15:00.001-07:00

By the way... Last week I received Chelsee's wedding announcement, Elder Rudd's wedding announcement, and Kate Adamson wrote me to tell me that she's engaged and getting married on the 6th of Aug! I think everyone is taking last conference too seriously with President Monson telling the men to get married! haha!

07/18/2011 Pioneers

2011-11-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

This week was great as always. This morning I finished the Book of Mormon for the 6th time on my mission! I can't believe how much I learn from it each time I read. This time I took a different approach when I read by highlighting each reference to the God-head, each doctrine or principle, each characteristic of the Savior, and every time the Savior speaks. Each highlight of course is a different color.

My e-mail this week is going to be rather short because I'm going to be sending home a letter with a gift for the family.

With the 24th of July coming quickly I've been in this mood to learn of the pioneers. As a trainer the missionary department gave me a DVD player for the apartment so I can show Preach my Gospel DVDs to Elder Markert and introduce him to other church produced DVDs. This week I was so involved in watching the movie "Mountain of the Lord" which is about the building of the Salt Lake Temple. I also was intrigued by the "Church History" DVDs that are used in seminary and institute classes. I learned so much about the pains and sorrows the pioneers had to go through for us to have a better environment to learn the gospel. I didn't realize the love that these pioneers had for us that they would sacrifice everything just so they/we could further our testimonies of the Savior.

When the pioneers made it to the Salt Lake Valley after much loss and devastation the Prophet immediately began thinking of plans for a temple to be built. I can't imagine having to think about building a temple after I just walked so many miles and not even having my own house built. The great news is that they wanted the blessings of the temple so bad that they gave everything they could to build a temple for to their God. This makes my challenges seem simple and insignificant especially when I'm asked to walk by faith over something far less significant than building a temple when for all they knew they'd have to leave it again.

These are my thoughts for the week. I look forward to you receiving the package I send with my testimony. Have a good week!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

07/11/2011 Photos

2011-11-02T21:58:00.001-07:00

Headstones of family ancestors...

"My Two Sons"... Elders that Elder Walker trained

07/11/2011 Menan Week 2

2011-11-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Yup, Menan is still way awesome. I've really enjoyed my time here and I love each day as we meet new people and find those that are ready for the gospel. This past week has been super busy and has been very productive. We've had the opportunity to set 3 baptismal dates this week! It feels like I'm right back at home in St. Anthony.

Last Monday was super fun. We started by attending the fair in Menan. The little town of 700 was crazy! There must have been 3,000 people that came in town for this day! I was completely blown away at how many people there were especially because I didn't know that Menan could fit that many people on the streets. After the fair we went in to Rexburg to hang out with some other missionaries and go to the rodeo. I forgot how funny the members are in Rexburg; at the rodeo the announcer had recognized all the missionaries there in at the rodeo. haha! The crowd was cheering for us as we stood and waved to everyone. Good ol' Rexburg. I guarantee that wouldn't happen anywhere else in the world.

The week continued on really well. Elder Markert is getting more comfortable every day. I found that if I really prepare him before the lesson by going through each point and discussing the parts that he would teach, then our lessons turned out much more successful and he would be much more confident in himself. I also found that putting him on the spot proved to be successful too because he's learned that he can open his mouth and have it filled with the words to speak. For example, we were asked to give a blessing to a lady we're teaching so she could receive strength to live the word of wisdom. When she asked us I told her that we would love to and that Elder Markert would be the voice in the blessing. This was his first blessing to give and let me tell you, I thought I may have given him his first heart attack! I coached him through what to say and what steps to take and then told him just to speak the words that came to his heart. The blessing was so powerful and exactly what this sister needed to hear. When the blessing was done, she stood, shook his hand and told him that he was inspired by the words he had said. I love new missionaries!

Yesterday we had the wonderful experience of having a missionary fireside for one of the wards we cover. The event was a success. We shared spiritual experiences from our mission and how we came to know the church was true. I was pondering on what I would share to these members and I felt impressed to share an experience I had when I was in the sacred grove prior to my mission. I explained how I took a few minutes to myself in the grove and how the Spirit taught me what I already knew. I then had the great opportunity to share the first vision and testify of this event that changed the world. I love sharing these experiences with people especially because I feel the Holy Ghost testify of the words that I speak. There is no better feeling except to feel a God testify of your words.

After we shared these experience we had a fun activity to help the youth feel more confident in sharing the gospel. We bring two of them up and give on a snickers bar and ask him or her to "sell" that snicker bar to his friend. We learn that it is extremely easy to give a friend a snickers bar and you both can enjoy sharing of this candy. We then pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and explained that this book is far more important than a mear snickers bar and that the happiness we receive from living these guidelines is eternal and in fact this book contains the message of salvation. I think that put in perspective for the youth how easy it is to give a candy bar but the significance is nothing but how easy it can be to give a book of mormon when we understand the significance is eternal.

I received a letter from Grandma telling me all about our family relations to Grant. She had told me that a lot of the Dabells were buried in the cemetery there. The next time we were in the area I stopped by the cemetery and found the headstone to Alfred and Julia Dabell. That's pretty cool huh?

Everything is looking up. The area is great! My comp is great! Life is good, so good.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

07/04/2011 Menan, Idaho

2011-11-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Happy Independence day!

Where do I begin? Well I'm in Menan now...

This place is GREAT! Very very similar to St. Anthony in the fact that everyone is laid back and doesn't have a care in the world. It really has been a weird adjustment from being in Poky and IF for the past year. I've forgotten what it was like to be around people who have such simple lives. We cover the whole stake which includes 9 units. We have the cities of Menan and Lewisville and the areas of Grant and Annis. This area is the biggest I've served in including the most open space. For the past 5 days I've been so lost! I just learned North and South ;)

My companion is Elder Markert from Pennsylvania near the NY border. He's even in the Palmyra temple district. When we first got together he was really nervous as most new missionaries are but even after a couple days he was still being really shy. I'll admit that I was nervous to have a shy comp especially because he didn't speak much. The great part is that now he's comfortable with talking to anyone.

We had a way cool experience our first day together. We received a phone call from a man by the name of Randy who said that we didn't show up to our appointment the day prior. I called him right back and explained that we were both new to the area and that we would be more than happy to come see him. He told us to come in a couple days but that we should see Jason from the church. Now we didn't have any idea who Jason was since we'd only been in the area for 2 hours. After a few questions we were able to find out that Jason was the elders quorum president. We went to see president Fullmer to find out the situation about this family. Let me tell you, brother Fullmer was so happy to see new missionaries! He wanted to go see them right then so we loaded up in his truck and went on a visit to Randy. When we got there we found out that this family has just recently moved here from Washington and were meeting with the missionaries there. Randy moved here with his son Rick (19) and his girlfriend Georganne. The first thing they asked us was, "so can we have the first lesson now?" Randy is already converted to the gospel and is currently studying Jesus the Christ, Georganne is re-activating, and Rick said he isn't opposed to learn more. What we didn't know is that Randy set this whole thing up for Rick because Randy knows it's true. After teaching about the Book of Mormon and the Atonement I wrote on a sticky note to Elder Markert, "I want you to invite Rick to be baptized." He looked at me with wide eyes and I simply looked back to Rick in silence. Elder Markert invited him and he accepted!! It was way cool! There is nothing better than having a new missionary set a baptism date his first day in the field. The best part was that we didn't even know these people but we were able to follow the Spirit to see the EQP who helped connect us to this family.

You're probably wondering about Randy... well he will be baptized when he can figure out how to live the Law of Chastity. When this happens he will be baptized in a heartbeat.

Things are looking up. It's weird not being a zone leader anymore, really weird but I told Elder Markert that I don't believe in Jr./Senior companionships but that we're both equal. I've been used to having an equal companion for the past 12 months and that I look to him as the same. Since that conversation he's been taking the lead on most every aspect of missionary work. He's going to do great.

Tonight we're going to Rexburg to a rodeo with our zone and we get to be out until 11 PM. We're going to stay the night with some Elders up in Rexburg and then come back to Menan tomorrow. I'm excited for the fireworks tonight!

I hope you all have a great week. Remember to always share your testimony!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

06/27/2011 Emergency Trip to Challis

2011-11-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Some pictures. You'll be surprised to see me in Challis... long story.

President called and said, "Elder Walker and Elder Owens, are you ready to take a trip for me?" We spent all day Friday driving up to Challis to do an emergency transfer. Long day, long drive. It was pretty though.

06/27/2011 Going To Menan

2011-11-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Well the transfer news is in and Dad has somehow already found out what's going on! Haha. Got to love the members in Idaho. Well if you don't know by now I am going to Menan Idaho to train a new missionary. I will be released from my assignment as a Zone Leader to focus all of my attention on Menan and this new Elder I'll be picking up on Wednesday. Because we're both going in to this new area together we call this a "white wash" where there is no missionary in the area that knows where things are or who anyone is - we get to start fresh.

I want to share with you what President Colton told me about my new assignment as a trainer but I hope you don't think I'm boasting, just sharing a compliment that was given to me. I called President right after we received transfer info to ask him a question regarding another issue, while talking with him he asked me if I was excited to serve in Menan. I responded by telling him that I was very excited to train a new missionary but that I wasn't sure about Menan because I don't know anything about that place. President told me the reason he is putting me there is for a couple reasons:

1. He said it is very similar to St. Anthony in the way missionary work is done and working with the members so I'll know how to get things done.
2. He told me that for a while now the missionaries in the area have killed the relationships with the members and have destroyed the work. He told me that he's sending me there for the purpose to turn it around and re-build the relationships with the members. How great is that! I've always wanted to white wash train in a dead area! This is going to be a great opportunity to work hard and build from the ground up rather than continuing to build from what was left. Nothing has made me happier than to hear President say that he's putting me there to turn things around because that means he trusts me and knows what I can and will do.

It's crazy to think that my new missionary is having his last day in the MTC right now and probably way excited to get to work. New missionaries are the best because they have so much faith and desire that miracles happen. Tonight I'm going with some other Zone Leaders, who are getting released to train as well, to Pocatello for the "train the trainers" meeting and dinner with President and Sister Colton.

I'm pretty sure I'll conclude my mission in Menan which is just the way I wanted it to be with 4 areas. Exciting things are about to happen. I can't wait until next Monday to tell you all about my new adventure. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to remember how to be a regular missionary though ;)

Yesterday was stake conference (President Polson's granddaughter spoke about the recent trek they went on) and I learned an interesting principle. Tomorrow I hit my 20 month mark of being a full-time missionary and at each month mark I take a few moments to ponder and then write in my journal the lessons I've learned from the past months of service. 20 months is a big mark because now is when the end seems too close and time is too quick. As I was pondering on the past 20 months of my life I heard this quote from conference, "becoming a better person is a process, not an event." The speaker continued to explain that the process takes time, focus, and a diligent effort. I truly believe that my mission and especially my experience as a Zone Leader has caused me to become a better person. It's interesting to look back on the experiences we have and see how time, focus, and a diligent effort played a part in God molding, shaping, and building us. I am the person I want to be and am continually becoming who I want to be in the future. I have found reading past journal entries to be a great way to see the development I've experienced. I was reading a page from when I was in Pocatello serving with Elder Rudd and I saw this, "I am so happy. Why am I so happy? It's because of the gospel of Jesus Christ."

I'm super excited for the next adventure in my life. I'm going to miss Idaho Falls and Elder Owens but I know there are great lessons to learn in the next 4 months of my life.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

06/20/2011 Letter from Son to Father

2011-11-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad,

There is this lady in my area by the name of Mabel Ebner who is one of the best people I have ever met. She has a load of health issues and hasn't been able to make it to church for several years. Bishop Luke has asked us to stop by her house each week to give her some company and share with her the Spirit. Sister Ebner not only has a heart of gold but she also has a super powerful testimony and relationship with our Heavenly Father. I really look forward to our visits with her because she has strengthened my testimony a bunch. My point of telling you this is at our visit yesterday she told us that she wanted both Elder Owens and I to tell her about our fathers since it was father's day. I wanted to share with you a few thoughts I had while telling Sister Ebner about my father.

When talking about you, dad I think of Doctrine and Covenants 121 but specifically verses 41-43:

41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—

43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

The reason I think of this section and specifically these verses is because you are an example to me of what the Lord is expecting of us as Priesthood holders. You are what the Lord has asked us to be. Thank you for being the example so many of us need in our lives. You are a fantastic man who teaches so many by your example and especially by the spirit you carry as you labor to lift up others. My whole life you have been in service in the kingdom that has required a lot of your time, talents, and attention but I never appreciated what you have done until I came on my mission. You are a valiant servant who has blessed so many lives, especially mine. Even though these callings you've had have called you away from your family in the aid of others I've learned the most from your example in helping, loving, understanding, and supporting our brothers and sisters. I believe these qualities have helped me become the missionary I am today.

I learned yesterday that Jesus Christ became who He was and did what He did because He followed His Father. Our Heavenly Father glories in His Only Begotten. Dad, I hope my service the past 20 months has brought you joy and has been one that you can glory in. I do think a lot of you when I'm out working and inviting others to come unto Christ.

A lot of the talents I have come from you. I am not afraid to talk to anyone and I love to do it to. I believe this comes from watching how you've interacted with people and how you are not afraid to teach about the Gospel and share your testimony. This talent alone has helped bring several people in the fold.

Now, I understand I haven't been the best person at times and I know I've made mistakes but you've always desired the best for me and I've felt the countless prayers you've offered in my behalf.

The closest I've ever felt to you dad was when I went through the temple my first time. When everything was new and I didn't know what I was doing you were by my side helping me understand. I feel like this is what heaven will be like, with you by my side.

These are a few of the thoughts that I've had over the past day and what I explained to Sister Ebner yesterday. At the end she made this comment, "wow, you have a really great dad." To which I responded, "I really do."

Thanks for being you and especially a valiant servant in the Lord's kingdom. The greatest work we can do here on earth is laboring with the Lord in His vineyard and you have done and are doing this very thing.

I love you dad, always remember the great example you are to everyone around you.

-- Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

Some Photos 06/13/2011

2011-11-02T21:04:00.001-07:00

The first two photos are just to show you how high the river is. The third is of Tyler's baptism.

06/13/2011 And My Soul Hungered

2011-11-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

This past week has been one of the most emotionally stressful weeks of my mission. Let me fill you in on it day by day with Tyler's conversion:

Sunday (5 June) He came to church and we had his baptism announced for Saturday (11 June) at 4PM. At church we told him we would come by on Tuesday to finalize any questions and prepare his program then have his interview on Thursday. That night is when we had the fireside that I told you about last week.
Tuesday - When we went to our appointment Tyler seemed to be heavily weighed down and not as bright with his testimony as he usually had been. We talked with him to find out that he didn't think he was going to be ready for baptism on Saturday and that he needed to prepare himself more. He said he felt bad because he felt like he was going to let everyone down especially because we had announced it at church and people were planning on attending but of course we knew this wasn't the real problem but was a cover-up issue. After questions and testimony we came to find out that he hadn't really prayed yet on his own and sincerely asked if this was true. We invited him to pray right when we left and promised him that he would receive yet another witness that this is all true. Keep in mind that Tyler knew that this was true and we knew it the problem was that he didn't know that he knew. He told us that he didn't want to give up on Saturday but that he would probably need to push it a week so he would feel more prepared. We asked him if we could come by the next day for a follow-up visit; he accepted.
Wednesday - Had a great lesson with Tyler! He prayed and he prayed hard. The closest experience I can relate him to would be Enos when he said, "and my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul." He had an interesting experience when he explained to us that he felt this feeling of burdens relieved from his shoulders. Now that I think about it we gave him a promise some 5 months ago that no matter what challenges or concerns we might have, the Savior and His teachings - the gospel, will help him. That's cool, the Holy Ghost just taught me right now that the answer to his prayer was a promise fulfilled. Interesting; I need to write this down.
We talked some more and at this point he was still a bit unsure for Saturday but we promised him that if he went on with the baptismal interview he would know if we was ready or not based on what the Spirit tells him. We explained the role of the Elder that would be interviewing him as a representative of Jesus Christ and if the Elder said he was ready then it would be like the Lord telling him he was ready. He asked to have the interview so he could see for himself if what we promised him was real.
Thursday - The baptism interview. We met Tyler at the church and he went in for what usually is a 10 to 15 minute interview but this interview went for 50 minutes! When he came out he looked to Elder Owens and me and said, "looks like I'll be getting baptized on Saturday at 2:00."
Friday - Went to his house to put together the program. He explained to us that this whole time his family hasn't been supportive in any way which we had no idea about. He said that every day he experiences a new opposition like his friends not wanting to hang out with him because he doesn't drink anymore or his girlfriend who he's dated for 10 years gets mad at him because he's changing. Tyler explained to us that the opposition has only strengthened his testimony because he knows the gospel is true. He was telling us how frustrating it is that people don't think we can change but are the same person always. Tyler shared his testimony to us that change is possible and not only did it happen to him but that he's happy with the man he is becoming. This was one of the best moments of my mission to hear him testify of the change the gospel brings and that it is possible.
Saturday - the day of his baptism. Tyler showed up to the church all alone with no family support. I was surprised to see him by himself because I was expecting at least his girlfriend there but not a single person showed. He had the support of his new ward family there and that meant a lot to him. The baptism was fantastic; Elder Owens baptized him. Tyler shared with us his testimony when he came out and talked about how much he felt the Spirit and how great he felt. When everything was done we hugged him and the crowed left so we started cleaning up, after 5 minutes Tyler came back when it was just Elder Owens and me and told us that he had to come back and thank us for the gospel we have brought into his life, hugged us then left again. This is the power of change, the power to heal, and especially the power of God. I testify that these past few months of my life have made me the most happy than any other time in my life; I have a fullness of joy.
Sunday - I had the wonderful opportunity to confirm Tyler a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. This event was powerful and emotional for me to be voice for Tyler to receive the gift that he so needed and worked for. How great is my calling!

Words in an e-mail don't adequately explain the feelings in my heart nor the emotions that my spirit feels. This is what I imagine heaven to feel like all the time.

We had another extremely awesome experience Monday night when we met with Linden. Linden moved here about 18 months ago from Montana from a divorce. He found a lady from Blackfoot who happens to be a young women's president in her ward. She has taught him the gospel and shared her testimony with him to the point where he became interested in the gospel. His girlfriend Heather took him to the visitors' center where Linden requested us to come see him. When we had our first lesson Monday and invited him to be baptized to which accepted. At our appointment Thursday he told us that he wasn't doing any of this for Heather but for himself because he believes the church to be true. Can you say GOLDEN??? He's preparing himself to be baptized on 9 July (Patrick Welch's birthday).

All is going well. I love what I'm doing. I love this area. I love the IPM!

Peace and Love,

Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

06/06/2011 Be Not Weary In Well Doing

2011-11-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Hello there!

Alright so I feel that Monday just comes faster and faster each week. Time is flying by too fast. I'm getting tired of hearing the following conversation daily:

person: "Elder, how long have you been out?"

me: "19 months"

person: "oh, wow, you are almost done!" or "you don't have much longer"

me: "yeah, I guess"

person: "well what are you going to do when you go home?"

me: "enter the 'real' world I guess and go to school"

I was getting tired of this conversation which happens practically verbatim daily so the other day I was in Shelley working with a companionship and had this following conversation:

person: "how long have you been out Elder Walker?"

me: "well these missionaries are training me so I haven't been out very long"

person: "how long?"

me: "a few days"

person: "cool, you've got a long time left to serve then don't you?"

me: "I sure do"

okay, okay, so it might have been bad to lie but it felt so good to hear the words "you have a long time left." I still do have a while left to serve and I'm going to make the best of every second of it.

We had a great experience with Tyler yesterday. We took him to the Temple Visitors' Center for an investigator fireside on the restoration. After the fireside I got to talking with him and he expressed to me that he didn't think he was ready to be baptized on Saturday. When I asked him why he didn't really have a good reason other than he didn't think he was ready. I explained to Tyler that if we all waited until we were ready to live the commandments then none of us would be baptized. We explained to him that it doesn't really matter if we think we are ready but what matters is if the Lord thinks we are ready. We sat down in front of the Christus and had him read D&C 20:37. When we read this verse with him we had him stop after each requirement the Lord lays out for baptism and asked Tyler if he believes the Lord accepts his desire for each point. The great part was that at the end Tyler was looking at the Christus and then told us that he is ready to be baptized on Saturday! Tyler is the most prepared investigator I have ever taught. I love that he is really searching and being "difficult" because that means when he is a member of the church he'll be more solid than if he was just jumping into it.

On Friday we had our monthly zone leader council which includes all the zone leaders, the directors of the visitors' center, the assistants, and President and Sister Colton. At each council President takes an hour to give us a doctrinal training. This doctrinal training is my favorite part of the month as President expounds the scriptures to us. This time we were studying in Gal 6:9, 2 Thes 3:13, and D&C 64:33-36 and learned a very important principle on enduring. When you read the passages listed you'll find a common trend in them which is "be not weary in well doing". This was a directed to me I'm pretty sure. It's interesting being out 19 months because I'm so tired all the time and I've been searching for my "second wind" if you will. President wrote the word "entrenched" on the board and said this is what we need to get out of. Why do we get ourselves stuck in a rut? So common we find ourselves doing the same thing time and time again and getting the same results. We find ourselves in a rut when we try our own will, let our pride get in the way, or even sin by omission. We constantly need to pray and ask the Lord what would he like us to do today to fulfil His purposes. I don't know about you but this puts a whole new meaning to the principle of endure to the end.

I think Heavenly Father is much like a theatre director to where he wants us to try something different each time we run a scene or in other words try something different in our efforts to building up the kingdom of God. Every soul is different and therefor their needs are different. This is a principle I'm learning as I approach people and offer them the Gospel.

I had a great experience with this when I was in Shelley on exchanges. We were driving through this Elder's area when he stopped the car, turned around and said he felt impressed to knock a certain door. We knocked and waited then a Hispanic man came to the door (I was in a Spanish area so luckily my companion speaks Spanish). Elder Duarte talked with him for a little bit getting to know him and then asked him this inspired question: "do you believe God has a plan for your family?" The man replied that he didn't know if He did or not. Then Elder Duarte said, "we felt that we needed to talk to you because we are here to teach you what the plan for your family is." This man let us in to an empty trailer with nothing but a husband and wife and three children ages 11, 10, and 8. The Hernandez family just moved from Mexico a week ago with nothing but their family for work. Elder Duarte and I (well actually just Elder Duarte because I don't speak Spanish) were able to teach them about the Book of Mormon and God's divine plan for them. They were so excited to hear the good news of the Gospel and invited us back and told us they wanted to be baptized. This work is so great!

Sorry this e-mail is random thoughts but this is what happens in my brain daily. I love you all. Hope you have a great week!
--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

05/30/2011 Faith

2011-11-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

It seems recently that we've been hearing a lot about the tornadoes out in the mid-west. I don't know if I understand the magnitude due to no pictures or seeing stories on the TV but I do feel sorry for those families involved. We've heard here that the missionaries in the area are no longer proselyting but are full service missionaries. It seems recently that crazy things are happening all over the world. Here in Idaho even there are some serious scares of flooding. The snake river is super full and the falls by the temple aren't really falls anymore because of the amount of water that is flowing down. We've heard that there is still loads of snow that is in the mountains that hasn't melted off yet which is really scaring people in IF and Firth especially. We've been told that the last major flood was in the mid '90s and we have more snow pack in the mountains this year than that year that it flooded. The citizens in Firth are already lining sand bags to prepare the even higher raise in snake river. The palisade's reservoir has been lowered down to only 10% in preparation of the snow melt. Crazy!

On Thursday we traveled to Pocatello for a leadership training meeting at the institute of ISU. I really really really enjoyed this training meeting because the focus was on faith and developing faith in missionary work. I may have shared this with you in the past but at the last interview President Colton told me, "we can have an obedient missionary that does all right things but without faith in Jesus Christ that missionary is useless." I think this is why we are in a slump right now in the zone because we have become complacent in our faith. What I'm about to share with you is what I learned in regards to missionary work but can still be applied to all aspects of living.

In Jacob 5 we learn the parable of the Lord of the Vineyard. President expounded this chapter to us and taught me a very important principle of the gospel about the Lord and missionary work. He said, "the Lord is always working in our area but He works specific parts of it daily." He encouraged us to pray and ask the Lord, "where are you working today? I will meet you there and labor with you." I love what President Faust said, "this is the Lord's work, we should let Him to a little bit of it." He said that when we, members of the church, were doing too much and not letting the Holy Ghost do His job. Anyway, we have seen much success from doing this and especially have seen how prepared people are when we meet them because they have already been prepared by their Savior to receive us. The important part is knowing that the Lord is working and preparing our brothers and sisters to receive us. So I invite you to do the same thing, ask the Lord where He is working that day and then go labor with Him. President Eyring said, "you are never alone in the Lord's work."

Another point of the training meeting I wanted to share was what Elder Peterson, one of the church's scholars on Joseph Smith, taught us about faith. He taught us what the Prophet Joseph taught in regards to faith. He said faith comes in three ways:

Have an idea that God exists
Have a correct knowledge of the attributes, characteristics, and perfections of God
Knowing that the path you pursue is in accordance to the will of God

These three things are what brings us to have full and complete faith in our Heavenly Father. The more we come to know Him the more faith and trust we'll have in Him. Faith is the first principle of the Gospel because it leads us to act and to change. Faith is necessary if we are to receive revelation which is the only way to actually know God. When we say we believe in Christ that is because it has been revealed to us by the power of the Holy Ghost and this belief is the driving power to all joy and happiness which comes from the principles and ordinances of the Gospel.

This morning I read in Alma chapter 26 and I love verse 22, "Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing-unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God...yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance."

The work of the Lord is wonderful and always will be. Our greatest joy comes from bringing an individual into the gospel of Jesus Christ and fulfilling the purposes of God.

Peace and Love,

Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

05/23/2011 Photos

2011-11-02T16:34:00.001-07:00

The Colorado Elders! We're throwing up the 303
This is this past week on Tuesday when we decided we wanted to bike to Shelley for district meeting. 15 Miles from our house to the Shelley South stake center
These are the Sisters that were in my zone. The sister on the left is now home and lives in Orem Utah.

05/23/2011 The Word of Wisdom

2011-11-02T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Alright so this week I do have a story to tell about an investigator rather than to tell you about what I have learned. You all know about Tyler well at least I think you do because I've talked about him much before and how awesome he is. The update with him is that we finally got him to attend church a couple weeks ago which we thought was the missing piece to the puzzle. He now loves church and really enjoys learning about the principles of the gospel. Come to find out, we found ourselves back in the same slump the following week of him not having a complete testimony of the gospel to be baptized. He was getting himself involved in the Old Testament rather than the Book of Mormon which caused too many questions for him about things not relevant to what we were trying to teach him. Elder Owens and I prayed and prayed about what to teach him and how to help him progress. The answer wasn't what we were expecting it to be; we were told to teach him about the word of wisdom. Now keep in mind Tyler is 23 and the most solid investigator I have ever taught on my mission and definitely the most prepared to receive the truth.

Our following lesson we taught him about the word of wisdom and found out he had an issue with alcohol and was pretty much getting drunk everyday. He understood the word of wisdom but was lacking the confidence he needed to live the commandment; he thought he would fail. The best part is we put it in his hands and told him this was the way to a full and complete testimony for baptism. From that point on we had daily contact with him to show our support and encouragement and at our next lesson 4 days later he told us that he hadn't had a single drink of alcohol! We were so excited for him and the best part is he had this new light about him that was fantastic to see. He seemed to be more excited about the gospel and more confident in his ability to live the commandments. Now, the best part of the whole deal is when we went to have our lesson last night. Tyler informed us that he had set down the Old Testament and started to read from the Book of Mormon and New Testament, he still hadn't drank any alcohol, and said that he is ready to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

It was amazing to see the difference in his life as we watched the Holy Ghost completely take over and teach him the truth of the gospel. There is no better feeling than working with the Spirit to knock down barriers that will allow Him to teach and testify. There is a huge difference when an individual lives the word of wisdom and feels the Holy Ghost in their life. The promise is real, "And [we] shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures." (D&C 89) Tyler will be baptized now on 11 June.

Life is good, really good. I am happy and healthy. The church is true and God's promises are real! Let us shout this knowledge to the world!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

05/16/2011 I Feel My Savior's Love

2011-11-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hello Mom and Dad,

Alright so I'm sure you are anxious to hear about transfers and where I'll be going. To my surprise I am going to be staying in Idaho Falls and serving with Elder Owens another transfer. I was shocked when I heard that because I thought for sure President Colton would be moving me but as it seems I do have more work to do here in the Taylor Mountain stake. I'm excited to stay don't get me wrong especially because I only wanted to have 4 areas on my mission so if this is my last zone leader area then I most likely will only have one more area. Of course this is all speculation but I really hope it works out this way. President did say that they'll be starting the new training program next transfer so we'll see if I get to start that. Crazy thought: the zone leader that was in longer than me just got rotated to train so I am now the oldest zone leader in the mission with 9 transfers serving in the assignment. There are no longer any zone leaders that were at my first zone leader council which makes my heart skip a beat because that means I'm getting super old.

I have a really personal story I want to share with you today and I'm not sure if this story is going to have any relevance to you but it does to me and I want to share it with my parents. Last night I was caught up again not able to sleep because my mind was racing and I kept thinking about this and that and mainly thinking about future life and plans with college. The thought came to my mind of what President Colton taught me, "the biggest temptation for a missionary is to ponder too much on the past and the future which causes us to forget about the now." After this thought came to my head the next thing I remember is waking up but the part between that thought and me waking up is what I want to share with you.

I had a dream, which felt like a reality; I was pondering in a strange room on the subjects which I was thinking about prior to falling asleep when President Hinkley walked in and sat with me in a chair opposite the one I was sitting in. The interesting thing is he looked just like you and me however this time he had a glow and a radiance about him that I would picture a spirit or a resurrected being to look like. What I loved most about the dream is he asked me, "my boy, what are you doing here all alone?" I replied and expressed all the thoughts, desires, discouragements, problems, and feelings about current matters and future ones. President Hinkley just listened and listened but what I could tell is what I was saying to him really mattered. We didn't just talk about school but we talked about the rest of my mission and other personal matters. All I remember him saying in return is, "Elder, I love you. Everything is going to be okay in the end." He then smiled at me for a minute, stood up, and walked out of the room. When he told me he loved me I could feel the Spirit overcome me like a wave of emotion. I woke up when he left the room and sat on my bed just crying because of how much I knew I was loved.

I will always remember this experience especially because of the way I felt. I can only remember feeling the Spirit so strong just three other times; when I decided to serve a mission, in the sacred grove, and in the celestial room of the Provo temple. I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who gives us experiences like this that helps us to feel His love. The lesson I learned from this is we feel the real form of God love when we feel it by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know my Father loves me and I know He watches over me and shows His love to me when I need it the most.

I'm excited for another transfer in Idaho Falls and to bring the world His truth. How great is my calling!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

Which Way Do We Face - 05/09/2011

2011-11-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

The e-mail following Mother's day is the most difficult because you pretty much talk about everything and don't know what to report on this day. I did promise that I would send an e-mail today and I hope we can both learn something together.

If you recall Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the first quorum of seventy came to our mission on the 28th of April. This man is truly a disciple of the Lord and a witness to the world of Him. I wish to share everything I learned from this conference but most of it is about missionary work and things that I can change which would be boring for you to read, however I do wish to share with you two things I learned from him.

Elder Duncan told us that he was in a meeting with President Packer when President Packer asked him this question, "which way do you face?" This question was asked without much explanation at the start because Elder Duncan wanted us to ponder this question for ourselves. I wish to do the same with you; ponder what this question means to you. These are my thoughts on the question: do we represent the world to the Lord, or do we represent the Lord to the world? I believe this is what President Packer was referring to when he asked this question because Elder Duncan explained to us, "do we represent our area to the Lord or do we represent the Lord to our area?" This has really helped me put my baptismal covenants in perspective and I hope will do the same for you. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ at all times and in all places and people notice; we are always on stage. I believe we should constantly ask ourselves "which way do I face?"

At the conference I met Elder Bishop from England. The conversation was hilarious because I said to him, "Elder Bishop! You don't know me but I sure have heard a lot about you." He replied, "what do you mean?" I then said, "well let me just say that Bishop Ball is one of the greatest men I know." Haha! He was so confused! He did remember that he was supposed to look for an Elder Walker after we talked a while. He is a great missionary! I'm sure he'll be in leadership before we know it.

Preach my Gospel says, "Charity, like faith, leads to action."

I hope you all have a great week! I'll have much more to say next week.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

Flying High

2011-11-02T16:04:00.001-07:00

This is a picture that was taken of me jumping off a swing. I think it's pretty cool!

Grandma - I Can Quilt!

2011-11-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

This is for Grandma. I was taught how to bind a quilt so everytime I go to this humanitarian service project they give me my own machine and I go to work. This is actually pretty hard work.

May 9, 2011 P-Day Fun

2011-11-02T15:53:00.001-07:00

A Talk Written By Elder Walker 4-28-2011

2011-11-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

Elder Tyson Walker

28 April 2011

The Atonement and the Doctrine of Christ

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the foundation to all happiness and to my purpose as a His representative. My commission is to bring the message of salvation and the doctrine of eternal joy to my brothers and sisters; I do this by fulfilling my purpose of “inviting others to come unto Christ…through…Jesus Christ and His Atonement.” The Atonement, although difficult to define, is our means of receiving eternal life with the Supreme Creator; God, our loving Heavenly Father.

I heard this quote by Elder McConkie, "the Atonement isn't apart of the gospel, it is the gospel." The Atonement is central to God's plan and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve been trained on a principle from Elder Hallstrom of the presidency of the Seventy of how important our purpose is in fulfilling the plan of the Atonement. He teaches us, the doctrine of Christ or the missionary purpose is: faith in the Atonement, repentance through the Atonement, baptism because of the Atonement, and receiving the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost by the Atonement. This is our great purpose; when we fulfill this purpose it is then that we are one with the Godhead. Remember Christ's words, "If ye are not one ye are not mine." (D&C 38:27)

I've recently studied in 2 Nephi 25 and I love verse 20 that reads, "...as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved." I testify of what the prophet Nephi has said that it is only through Him, by Him, and of Him that we can be saved.

May we all increase our testimony of the Atonement and the Savior Jesus Christ. The promise is real in Preach my Gospel that as our testimony of the Atonement increases our desire to share the restored gospel with others will increase.

This knowledge has helped me internalize my purpose as I strive to understand the Atonement for myself. I too must invite myself to the same purpose as those I interact with. I am a witness that from the past 18 months of my life as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints my desire to share the restored gospel has indeed increased as my knowledge of what my Savior has done for me increased. Because of the Atonement I am here today standing as His witness in word and deed.

I testify as His witness that Jesus Christ is the living Son of the living God; He truly lives and reigns. The Savior is our Master, our Redeemer, our Lord, and our God. I know that by following His example we can and will find peace in this life and eternal joy in the life to come. His Atonement is real and because it is real we too will live again and become perfect spiritually, after all we can do, and physically because we have followed Him before. The best feeling in the world is to testify that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus is His son; the reason this is the best feeling in the world is because the Spirit will testify to each of us time and time again that this is true.

I leave you with the words of Elder Holland who says, "may we stand by Jesus Christ 'at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,' for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

04/25/2011 A Missionary's Thoughts on Easter

2011-11-02T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. From what I understand you woke up to snow there in Colorado; we didn't have any snow here in Idaho, just a beautiful spring day. I'm so thankful that it is finally warming up! We have almost run out of miles on our car because we were cut 300 so the nice weather helps us walk and ride bikes.

We have Elder Duncan from the first quorum of seventy coming this week for our zone conference. This zone conference is going to be way awesome because Elder Duncan has requested specialized training for all the zone leaders in the mission! We get to meet with him before zone conference in the high council room for an hour and he's doing it in two sessions so there will only be 10 of us meeting with a General Authority. Way cool.

For this zone conference I'm in charge of the musical number and the prelude and playing the organ... surprise, surprise. I guess I shouldn't say "for this zone conference" because I do this for all zone conferences and leadership meetings. Good thing I love to play right? For the musical number we'll be performing one of my favorite hymns, "Lord, I would follow Thee." I've arranged to have 6 Male and 4 Female voices with a way cool piano accompaniment. I hope Elder Duncan likes it.

For this e-mail I've entitled it "a missionary's thoughts on Easter" because I wanted to share with you my testimony of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ especially because of His Resurrection and His life.

My favorite part of being a missionary is to testify, to all I interact with, of Jesus Christ. My commission is to be a living witness in word and deed of the divinity of His great and marvelous latter-day work.

I testify as His witness that Jesus Christ is the living Son of the living God; He truly lives and reigns. The Savior is our Master, our Redeemer, our Lord, and our God. I know that by following His example we can and will find peace in this life and eternal joy in the life to come. His Atonement is real and because it is real we too will live again and become perfect spiritually after all we can do and physically because we have followed Him before. The best feeling in the world is to testify that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus is His son; the reason this is the best feeling in the world is because the Spirit will testify to each of us time and time again that this is true.

I heard this quote by Elder McConkie, "the Atonement isn't apart of the gospel, it is the gospel." The Atonement is central to God's plan and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is faith in the Atonement, repentance through the Atonement, baptism because of the Atonement, and receiving the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost by the Atonement. This is our great purpose, "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in the Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." When we fulfill this purpose it is then that we are one with the Godhead. Remember Christ's words, "if ye are not one ye are not mine." (D&C 38:27)

I leave you with the words of Elder Holland who says, "may we stand by Jesus Christ 'at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,'for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone."

I hope you all have a great week and look for opportunities to share this great news with the world because this is the best news this world has ever heard.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

04/18/2011 Hard Week / Heartbreaking News

2011-11-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

After receiving some heartbreaking news from a family that Elder Walker has been working so closely with, he sent his weekly email just to his mom and dad - which just happened to be their wedding anniversary. The letter is too personal to share here. However... here is a portion that expresses some of what he is feeling:

Why them? Why now?

I love what Joseph says in the movie, Joseph Smith: the prophet of the Restoration, as he's talking with the builders of the Nauvoo temple, he says, "don't loose hope brethren, the Lord isn't just building a temple here He's building us." I firmly believe that my mission is what Elder Holland says, "the greatest person you save on your mission is yourself." The Lord has built me and will continue to build me. I have learned so much from Him.

President Colton said this, "you can have an exactly obedient missionary but without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that missionary is useless." I know I must have faith in all things especially in times of trial. I love the Rigby family so much but I know if they remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ good things are to come.

Thank you for being faithful to each other for 31 years. Thank you for being the example we all need in this world. You have overcome the trails that have been presented to you thus far that would normally destroy a family not built on the gospel. I love you very much. Thank you for all the support you've given me.

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad.

please send your prayers this way as I know you always do.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

04/11/2011 The Power of the Holy Ghost

2011-11-02T15:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Monday again? I feel as though I was just at this computer... Time flies.

Yesterday I had a great experience to play the piano for a Spanish investigator fireside at the temple visitors' center. This was the first time I listened to the hymns of Zion sung in Spanish. The best part of it all was the Spirit is just as strong.

I was surprised when I got there last night to have a huge bag of goodies for me from the Hahn family. Thank you so much!!! It was interesting trying to carry that bag out to the car when there are at least 20 missionaries to pass through that see candy and food! Luckily I made it through safely :)

Good week this week. I wish I had this epic story to tell this week but it looks like the most memorable stories to tell are the lessons I learn. I've started a part of my journal entitled: lessons I've learned from my mission.

This weeks lesson is as follows: To be honest I've had a really difficult time accepting Chelsee's new adventures in fact I think I was in denial. I felt like I wanted to be supportive but how could I when I felt so helpless. I knew I didn't want to make any of this about me or draw any attention so I didn't really mention anything except to Dad in e-mail. Yesterday I fasted to understand our Father in Heaven's plan and be accepting of it. When our Savior explains to His Apostles, "peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you", I understood the comforting power that the Messiah was explaining that would comfort his friends after his departure and through their trails. I learned that only through the Holy Ghost can we understand and be content with the plan of our Heavenly Father.

The Holy Ghost taught me a very valuable lesson yesterday that although I won't be apart of this milestone in my sister's life I will still be around for eternity to rejoice in the goodness of the Gospel with my family. I can say that I understand more fully the Plan of Happiness especially now I can understand who the creator is of this plan. "And by the Power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things."

Our Heavenly Father cares about us. Even though my problem was minor, and probably insignificant it was not insignificant to Him. He cared about me enough to not only comfort me but help me understand His purposes.

When 6 months comes and I'm preparing to enter back into the world I think I can say the biggest trait that I have developed is trust in the Lord for He truly is concerned for each one of us.

I love you all. Hope you have a great week! "Let us all press on in the work of the Lord."

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

04/04/2011 The Book of Mormon is True

2011-11-02T15:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

This week truly was a fantastic week!

Exchanges are a wonderful experience and my favorite thing to do as a leader. Miracles happen when you bring other missionaries in your area to work. The miracle that happened is as follows: I brought Elder Mecham (from Monument, Colorado) to my area and we had scheduled to take an investigator to the visitors' center to show him our new exhibit called "reflections of Christ" a photography exhibit and the Joseph Smith film. Mike, our investigator, has attended church several times, reads the Book of Mormon daily, and prays, so our question was the same as I'm sure yours is; "why does he not have a date to be baptized?" Trust me, we invited him about 5 times before but to no success, in fact the last time he almost dropped us because he said we were being too pushy for asking him so many times. This time, however, was different because we knew the missing ingredient, Mike didn't know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. After we showed him the film we all sat there for what seemed like a couple of minutes in silence as the Spirit did His job. We then asked him the inspired question, "do you believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet?" His response was simple yet very profound when he said, "after that movie, I do." We then immediately asked him to be baptized to which he accepted and said he was wanting to be baptized on his birthday, May 18th. How great is the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion! This is yet another testimony to me that this is His work perfectly united with our Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ.

We do have transfers this week and it looks like there is more work for me to do here in Taylor Mountain. Elder Owens and I will be together for another 6 weeks which I am totally okay with; Elder Owens and I get along great. Next transfers will be on the 18th of May.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week again. I love each time I finish the Book of Mormon because the power of the Spirit teaching me that it is true is remarkable. There is a power to this sacred book. I'm still on track to completing it 7 times on my mission. I feel old in the mission when I think that I've already completed it 5 of those 7 times already! Time is going far too quickly.

I add my witness to that of our General Authorities from conference that the Book of Mormon is true. I know it is the word of God and contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. I have found in my life that I have come to know my Father in Heaven more by reading this sacred text than any other book. I know the Book of Mormon is the way we are intended to truly know Him and His plan for our happiness.

Pretty much what I am saying is the Book of Mormon is great! Read it.

Well that's it for here in Idaho Falls. I'm doing great and I'm excited for my 13th transfer in the Idaho Pocatello Mission!!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

03/28/2011 Murder Next Door

2011-11-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention something really important! My mission is as cool as Devin's mission because we had a murder next door last Monday night! This is legit! Not that someone died but that Idaho is semi scary too. haha just joking, Idaho isn't scary at all. This event is the biggest news Idaho has seen in years and the cool thing is that it happened right outside our house.

Not to worry though because we didn't even know it happened until people started telling us about it. :)

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

03/28/2011 Busy Week

2011-11-02T15:24:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

This past week has been crazy and extremely busy. Tuesday morning we left for Pocatello and didn't get back until Thursday afternoon from the leadership training meeting. Our training went really well. We received some great compliments from it afterward and President Colton told us we trained exactly the way he wanted. We focused a lot on the preparation necessary to receive revelation and looked a lot to the Prophet Joseph Smith as an example to how we should prepare ourselves to receive greater revelation. We may not have quite the experience as the prophet but we are promised that if our heart is prepared, God promises answers. Moroni 10:4 teaches us how to be prepared.

Friday we had a zone leader council for several hours and made plans of how to implement the trainings we received and "make it rain." When Elder Scott was in a stake meeting the discussion was how to get word out to all the members of the stake; they discussed several metaphors of gardening like trenches and rivers when Elder Scott said, "brethren, we need to make it rain." President Colton likes to use this example when talking about sharing what we know with the missionaries we serve.

At this zone leader council President trained on Jacob 5. I now love this chapter because we learn the importance of laboring with the Lord. We particularly studied ch. 70 to 77 and learned that the servant that is talked about is the Prophet Joseph Smith. These verses are all about this last dispensation and how we need to labor with Joseph to gather zion before the earth is destroyed by fire. As I ponder on this I assume that the servant can also be known as President Monson and the allegory is the same. Our dear prophet is laboring to gather the elect preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah, we too must labor with him and fulfil our purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. We are so blessed to have a prophet to labor with and to know the secrets of our God. I love to state to others that I have been called by a prophet of God to share what I know; I know that my message is true.

Saturday was a payday as brother Rob House was baptized. His wife was baptized back in September and has been trying to get baptized since then. He's had a smoking habit that he couldn't kick but finally was able to do it with many prayers and fasting. He has already been interviewed and will receive the Aaronic Priesthood the Sunday after next. Elder Rudd and I were able to travel to Poky to see 2 baptisms that we helped with. It was really great to see people in Pocatello again.

All is well in Idaho. We received a few inches of snow last night! I thought is was all going to be gone finally but I was definitely wrong.

I hope you all are doing great and that you love life. Keep smiling!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

3/28/2011

2011-11-02T15:15:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures from the past week:
The picture on the tredmil has a sweet story attached.
The baptism of a family Elder Rudd and I taught in Poky
The baptism of Brother Rob House

The former Sister Wardell who I saw at the Visitors' Center last night. She's doing well and is planning on going to LDSBC in the fall.

Elder Owens and I being legit.

Prayer 03/21/2011

2011-11-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

We have successfully moved into our new house. I wish I took pictures that I could show you all how awesome our new place is but I forgot. We are having the zone over today for a BBQ in our backyard.

I'm not sure if you've seen the new videos called "Mormon Messages" maybe online or if you've purchased the DVD at Deseret Book. It is a collection of videos that contain messages of hope and inspiration from the Apostles and our Prophet and even some members of the Church.
These videos were created originally for youtube but are now available on DVD. I invite you all to search them out on youtube or purchase a copy. These videos are fantastic! I've used them in nearly every teaching appointment since I bought it last week and have seen success from doing so.

Tomorrow we leave for Pocatello to go to a 3-day leadership conference at the Idaho State University institute building. I'm pretty excited for this conference because they are all usually pretty good and I learn a lot. For this one Elder Owens and I have been asked to give a 2 hour training on revelation through prayer. I learned something about prayer in an experience we had while preparing this training on prayer... interesting isn't it?

We have been praying and pondering on the topic for several days now and several times we tried to put the training together but nothing would come. We had these ideas so we wrote them on the board but then they wouldn't make sense or we would forget where we were going with it. I received this prompting on Saturday to call President Colton and ask him for some advice to which he said, give me a couple days to think and I'll get back to you. Now mind you, we are leaving really early tomorrow which leaves us with today to prepare the training. This morning President Colton got back to us and asked us to focus on the revelation part more so than the prayer part. With that advice we grabbed the white board and all our notes and study material and sat on the ground to draw up the outline. The ideas flowed and the outline came with ease. We finished everything in an hour. The Spirit completely took charge and guided us on what to train the missionaries on. The lesson I learned is that the Lord is mindful of us and only answers prayers on His time and when He does, it's perfect.

In my study of prayer I learned a lot about the preparation that takes place prior to and during a prayer. We learn of the preparation of the Prophet Joseph that took a significant amount of time prior to him actually entering the sacred grove to plea with the Father. We learn of Job of old who was taught about the preparation necessary prior to asking the Father, "...prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him." And of course we know of Moroni who exhorts us to prepare for revelation, "...ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ..." I've learned that receiving answers or help from our Supreme Creator we must prepare ourselves prior to even asking in the name of Christ. The question is do we explain this to people when we invite them to pray to know if the Church is true? Do we understand the significance of prayer and the commandment to pray often? I know that I can rise to a new level and apply myself better.

I love what Elder Scott says in regards to prayer. He explains that Heavenly Father is the Grand Creator of all things both in heaven and in earth and yet He invites you and I, as insignificant as we are, to call Him Father and have a personal relationship with Him. Elder Scott then concludes by stating that He will listen and answer our prayers.

I'm excited to let you all know how the training goes this week. We're the last part of the conference and will present on Thursday.

I hope you are all doing great and are loving life. All is well here.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

3-14-2011 Crazy Week Ahead

2011-11-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

First off we are officially moving houses tomorrow so please discontinue letters to the current address and either send to the mission office or direct to the new house.

What a great week! This transfer we are packed with exchanges going on 2 a week. This past week I was able to go with a new missionary and with Elder Rudd. Both exchanges were awesome for different reasons. The first was wonderful because Elder Starley has a huge amount of love for everyone and wants more than anything to be the best missionary he can be. For the exchange I prayed and asked Heavenly Father that He would allow us to set a baptism date so the exchange would be one that Elder Starley would always remember. Not only did Heavenly Father allow us to set a baptism date, he let us set two! We were following up with a new investigator on his reading and praying when he asked us to come in because he had a couple questions. When he asked his questions I could see the wheels turning in his head as we answered questions about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. One question led to another which led to another until finally he was taught the whole restoration lesson. When we were about to conclude his girlfriend came in and asked us a question about life after death and she was then enticed to ask more questions which led to teaching all about the plan of salvation. Normally I would never teach all of 2 lessons but they were soaking in everything we taught them! Their questions would lead to the next principle of the lesson and we couldn't teach fast enough to what they were gathering. At the end I nodded for Elder Starley to invite them to be baptized and they both accepted a date for 16 April.

The exchange was sweet with Elder Rudd. Usually an exchange takes some time to get to know the missionary and learn quick how to teach with them but since I already served 3 transfers with Elder Rudd we just hit the pavement and went to work. It was a weird feeling serving with him in a different area other than Poky but great for the work we accomplished. I'm going to be sad to see him go in a few weeks.

Elder Owens and I are constantly running like crazy and giving trainings right and left. We are preparing a training for next week that President Colton asked us to give at a leadership conference in Pocatello on Revelation through prayer. We are responsible for training roughly 75 missionaries for 2 hours! Yay. Try balancing that plus a training for the zone on Thursday on obedience then a training for our district leaders right after, a training for a district meeting tomorrow, planning and preparing a zone blitz for Saturday, packing and moving house tomorrow, exchanges Wed and Fri, plus teach the gospel in 4 wards.... Welcome to the life of a zone leader. Funny thing is I love every second of it!

The Gospel is true. I'm so excited for conference in a couple weeks to hear the council from our Prophet (and also to take off the suit jacket until October). The work is moving forward. I love this great standard of truth!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

3-14-2011

2011-11-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you give 2 missionaries a Subaru and the snow melts which causes muddy roads... not a good combo. haha!

March 7, 2011

2011-11-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe it is Monday again and here I am writing about what has happened this week.

The work seems to be picking up since this week we were able to set 2 baptism dates and tonight we're going to set another. The first was an awesome experience for a guy that is going to be leaving for England to serve a mission next month. We challenged him to memorize the baptism invitation and told him that for this lesson we were going to be inviting Brother House to be baptized and when he felt the Spirit tell him to extend the invitation to go ahead and do it. Austin was way nervous but he did invite when he was directed and invited Brother House to be baptized. Brother House accepted and will be baptized on the 26th. I think this experience did more for Austin than any mission prep class or study of baptism. It's neat to see the lives of even active members change as they are involved with the Spirit and act on His promptings in regards to missionary work.

Do you remember Travis Stevens? He's the one who had the tragic experience of his 13 year old son passing away. Because of this experience his life became chaos and he wasn't baptized on his first scheduled day in January. We finally met with him after several weeks last night. In the lesson I felt impressed to ask him if the Book of Mormon is true and to my surprise he said that he knew it was. I then went to the introduction and pointed out that if he knew the Book of Mormon is true then he would also know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is His revelator and prophet, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom on the earth. I believe this expanded his understanding and his testimony because then that led right to him setting another date to be baptized for April 2nd. He told us that his only concern at his point is that he isn't quite sure of what all the commandments are that he commits to live when he is baptized. That is an easy concern to overcome in the amount of time we have to teach him. I'm so happy for him and his decision to become a member of the Lord's kingdom. I learned that although we weren't meeting with him for several weeks the Spirit was still working on him and still teaching him truth. Our Heavenly Father never lets us alone. He really loves us and will continue to do His part.

All is well here in Idaho Falls. We might be moving houses again this week due to some location and contract issues so please send letters to the mission office first then next week I'll send out my new address. Thanks for all the prayers and support. The Church is true and the standard of truth has been erected!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

February 28, 2011

2011-11-02T14:53:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,

This week was crazy as every first week of the transfer is. Transfers were successful this last Wednesday and Elder Owens made it here. We received 2 new missionaries to the zone which makes over half of the missionaries in the Idaho Falls West Zone 6 months or younger in the mission. We are currently leading the mission and I think it's because of the new missionary fire that we have which includes the desire to go and work. We ended this transfer with 17 baptisms in the zone which is incredible for 10 companionships.

Elder Owens is pretty sweet. He's from Mesa, Arizona and has been on his mission one transfer less than me which makes him only my 2nd companion that's been out less than me. He's athletic like most of my companions have been which I like because it helps us focus on the only thing we have in common, our purpose, rather than worldly commonalities.

This past week I finished "To the Rescue" the biography of President Monson. What a wonderful book! I encourage all of you to read it if you haven't yet. President Colton put it this way, "reading 'To the Rescue' is a life changing experience." I agree with him. I learned so much about our prophet and the great example he is to us. Two great lessons I learned from reading this book: 1. The Spirit re-confirmed to me that President Monson is a prophet of God, like He did when we participated in the solemn assembly nearly 3 years ago. He is the one who has been chosen for God to reveal his secrets to for the world. 2. President Monson made this statement, "whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies". President Monson is a perfect example of this, he wasn't anyone extraordinary or famous but he was prepared from the beginning to fulfil his sacred assignment as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Elder Scott said this when he came to the mission, "the Lord often calls un-ordinary people to do extraordinary things." President Monson is a perfect example of this statement.

I am so thankful that we have a prophet on the earth today. Isn't it great that we know clearly, as clear as black and white, what God's plan for us is? We know this because he has again reached out in love and chosen a messenger to give us constant revelation. The windows of heaven are not closed but are ever open, we should declare this to the world!!! In every interaction with people that I meet that are not of our faith I always tell them 2 things, one that God loves them, and two that He has called a prophet. I am here in Idaho because the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and I have been called by a living prophet; I know my message is true. How great is my calling!

We haven't experienced any new baptism dates this week but we're planning on having set a few by the end of next week. Thanks for the prayers and the thoughts. I really appreciate them all. I went to the temple on Wednesday with Elder Durnall before he left. It was nice to remember the prayers for the full-time missionaries in the world. It's an interesting experience to be prayed for specifically in the temple. I realized this will only happen again in my life if I am in a temple presidency or the prophet. I can tell you that those prayers are answered because I feel the power of heaven each day I invite others to come unto Christ.

I challenge you all to let someone this week know that we have a prophet on the earth and what this means to you. I promise you a deeper testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ as you do so. Let me know what experiences you have this week as you take this challenge.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

02/21/11 Transfers

2011-02-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I feel that this week was a rather eventful one. We've been working really hard to find new people to work with and especially people to be baptized. This week we found a very solid man who the Lord directed us to. His name is Tyler, he's about 25. Elder Durnall and I found him by a referral from the Spanish Elders. We went to our first appointment Friday surprised to what happened. We started with "How to begin Teaching" from Preach my Gospel chapter 10 which led us to him asking questions about the plan of salvation (he had questions because we left him with a pamphlet when we set up the appointment). As we talked about the pre-earth life he kept saying "that makes sense" or "that feels right". We moved right along to our life on earth and what our purpose is. Tyler's questions about our life on earth led us to teach a quick Restoration of the Gospel and focused on the Book of Mormon after he made the comment, "the Bible can't be everything, if it is then why do we have all of these religions?". As we explained the Book of Mormon and what its purpose is he said, "that makes complete sense". We couldn't teach fast enough to what he was soaking in. The wheels in his head were turning and we could see the Spirit working on him. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said, "well I guess I need to pray about all of this so I can know for myself too" to which we said, "YES!!!!" That was the next principle that we were going to talk about but he jumped to it. Elder Durnall and I were smiling the whole time! We then invited him to be baptized on the 19th of March and he gladly accepted.

The other sweet experience we had was with and investigator we had recently dropped. It was Saturday and he called us to tell us that he had done a lot of thinking and he wanted us to come back and teach him more, he also said that he had been thinking about baptism and he wanted to set a date to be baptized within the month. Hubada hubada, okay! We're meeting with him on Wednesday to set a baptism date and make goals to accomplish it.

I bet you are curious about transfers... Well, Elder Durnall is getting transferred to Ashton in the Yellowstone Zone and I'm staying here in Idaho Falls. My new companion's name is Elder Owens from Arizona. I don't know too much about him other than he is one transfer younger than me and he's been a zone leader for 3 transfers. From what I've heard about him he sounds pretty sweet. I sure am going to miss Elder Durnall but I know there is going to be great adventures ahead. The other great news is that Elder Rudd is going to be released as a zone leader and he is coming to my zone to train!!! I'm so excited for that to happen! I love Elder Rudd and it'll be exciting to spend his last transfer together again.

Well that's pretty much all the exciting things that have happened. The work is picking up and great things are happening. I hope you all have a great week!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

Elder Walker hanging out in the UPS truck...

2/14/2011 Valentines Day

2011-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Lunch last week with the Terrils. What a great experience! Elder Call is going home next Thursday! I can't believe it! When we served together he was only out 9 months. That was a great experience to spend time with him before he leaves. The Terrils are doing great!
___________

Hello Everyone,

We are in a slump right now with finding investigators. It's interesting because it seems like we've just done a whole renovation of our area with individuals either getting baptized or getting dropped due to no commitment. Recently we've temporarily dropped 4 investigators and baptized 3 so now our teaching pool is to a total of 3. I keep thinking, "oh it's fun to find all the time". I wish we all lived in a perfect world where we get called all the time to teach and teach and teach until we pass out from teaching so much but as Elder Bednar said, "nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach." We're slowly seeing progression happen with some potentials and hopefully this week we'll be teaching them. We've set a goal to talk to 10 new people everyday, 70 new every week and this seems to be working as people see the missionaries out working and not just hear about it.

This is the last full week of the transfer. Can you believe it? I feel as though transfers come and go faster now than ever before. Next week I'll have been a zone leader for 9 months. Where does time go???? I'm about to start transfer #12! I wish time would slow down. I think that Elder Durnall is going to get transferred because he's been here now for 7 1/2 months but who knows, President Colton is extremely unpredictable. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we get the transfer call on Saturday.

Saturday night at around 10:15 a Bishop in our area called us and told us that he had a last minute cancellation for his speakers the next day and asked if we would fill in to be the speakers the next day; of course we gladly accepted. I had prayed that night to know what to speak on and then went to bed, the following morning we wake up and pretty much run and run all day and before I knew it we were sitting on the stand and sacrament meeting started and I still didn't know what I was going to speak on. I was reminded of something President Colton said once, he had told us in a council meeting that he never prepares a written talk but what he does is studies on the topic and makes notes and then he allows the Spirit gather from his "storage" and speak what is directed. I figured I had a knowledge of the missionary lessons so I would allow the Spirit to direct what was needed. The Bishop asked me to speak first and to take 20 mins, when I got to the stand I was directed to share the message of the Restoration of the Gospel. As I started into the talk one of our investigators walked in who we were not expecting to attend church that day and I felt as though the message was intended for her. When Elder Durnall got up he spoke on the Doctrine of Christ. I thought that was cool because I spoke on how the Restoration happened and he spoke on what was Restored. We didn't even plan that! Comp unity? I think so.

Well all is well. Every week is a great week. I wish I could carry a camera around to show you all what we do. Missionary work is the best work. Remember your calling and strive to fulfill the Lord's purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

2/7/11 Zone Conference

2011-02-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

Sheldon at the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center

Baptism of Tiffny Zitterkopf

Hello Everyone,

One word for this past week... crazy!

Tuesday was zone conference and now that we only get them quarterly that was my favorite part of the week. This zone conference was great! The topic was on Revelation through the Book of Mormon and how any concern our investigators have can and will be resolved through the Book of Mormon. I recently shared with you all my testimony of this sacred book but even though my testimony was strong then it is even stronger after this conference.

I want to share with you something that Sister Colton said at the conference. Now I don't quote this to boast of myself but I include this for Mom and Ginger Blake. When we have a break at any meeting President Colton asks me to play "called to serve" which invites everyone back to the chapel and invites the Spirit back to our meeting. Just a side note, when 70+ missionaries are singing called to serve there is no greater time to feel the power of missionary work. Anyway, Sister Colton said, "the day we can all sing 'called to serve' as well as Elder Walker plays it, Angels will attend." That to me is the best compliment I have ever received for playing the piano my whole life. All the hard work and practicing was finally worth it to me when that comment was made.

President Colton taught me a very powerful lesson at this conference just by one simple statement he made; he said, "remember your calling if you want the power of it." The reason I really like this statement is because this applies to all of us, we all have callings in the Lord's kingdom and no matter that calling. we all have the same purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. If we become what we think about the most then we better be thinking about our callings because that is where our greatest lessons from God come and then we will become who our Father in Heaven wants us to become. I don't know if that made any sense to you but that is what is in my mind and it makes sense to me. :)

Saturday I had the great opportunity to travel to Poky to attend a baptism of a Sister I taught with Elder Rudd. I was so excited to see people from my last area and especially to see Sister Zitterkopf baptized.

Today the Terrill family from St. Anthony who Elder Call and I baptized is taking us out to lunch! Of all places to take us they are taking us to Chuck-a-rama; this will be a great day.

Well that's all the updates from Idaho. We just had an ice storm last night so everything is super slick. The temperature seems to be getting slightly warmer but still Idaho cold. I'm going to need 2 years in Aruba to warm up from this place.

The church is true. God loves us. President Monson is our prophet today.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

1/31/2011 The Holy Ghost

2011-02-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I'm sitting here at the computer thinking about what has happened that I can report on. I'm racking my brain because this week was way busy but mostly with administrative items. There is a week here and there where as a zone leader we have tons and tons to do for the zone/mission and then find any possible time to proselyte. Elder Durnall and I have made it a goal to have as many exchanges as possible because it seems during exchanges is when nothing else matters or has to get done but proselyting in our area.

This week especially has been packed due to zone conference tomorrow. President Colton has really put an emphasis on the zone leaders to prepare the tri-zone conferences. For this zone conference we were asked to conduct which means the whole plate of assignments was put on our shoulders. I've been busy arranging two musical numbers in just one week which will include Sister Castillo and Elder Quillon singing "come thou fount" with myself on the piano. I will definitely record it and send it with next weeks e-mail.

As I was thinking about this week my mind keeps going back to the lesson I learned. We are teaching this girl named Suzy who is 19 and has no christian background. I think I may have given info on Suzy before but I'm not sure. She has just moved out because her mom is an alcoholic and she took her younger sisters with her. Suzy is so ignorant in the Gospel that she doesn't even know who God is. Anyway, I was stressing about the lesson we had with her on Saturday because we've spent 4 lessons just explaining who Jesus Christ is. Elder Durnall and I both felt impressed Friday night that we needed to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel. I must admit I was a little apprehensive about doing this because how was she going to understand prophets and apostasy on top of who Heavenly Father is and Jesus Christ. In my personal study I decided to study about the Spirit and teaching those without a christian background. I learned from this great study in Preach my Gospel that as we teach our brothers and sisters they may not understand what we are saying but what they will understand is how they feel.

When Elder Allan F. Packer of the seventy came to our mission he taught us that conversion comes about in a process. He said these are the following steps:

An investigator must hear what we say
An investigator must remember what was said
An investigator must understand what they remember
An investigator must apply what they understood
Last, an investigator must become what they apply

I was so caught up on Suzy understanding what we taught that the Spirit taught me on Saturday morning that it doesn't matter if they understand what I teach but that they understand what the Spirit teaches and how they feel.

Saturday evening at the appointment with Suzy we taught her about the restoration. During the appointment I asked her if some questions for clarification and to no surprise she didn't understand completely what we were teaching but she did understand that a prophet is a leader to guide us back to God. I decided to rephrase my question and I asked her how she felt, her response was golden; she explained to us that she felt like nothing else mattered but what was going on in her house at that time. Her boyfriend had just broke up with her and she didn't even care about that. We were then able to testify of the Spirit and then offer more.

I'm so thankful for the Holy Ghost teaching me how to respond to those without a christian background. The Holy Ghost truly is the great testator of truth and the comforter which the Savior sent. I have learned what the Father would have me learn this week and now I can apply it to my service for the rest of my life.

I hope everyone had a great week and will have a great week this week. I love you all very much.

peace and love,

Elder Walker

1/24/11 Great Week

2011-02-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Lizzy Rigby, daughter of recent convert Tiffany Rigby. I was so proud of Lizzy because she is terrified of water but she was braved and was dunked.

Baptism of Alan Welch

Hello Everyone,

This was an awesome week!!! I loved every minute of it. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had a leadership conference here in Idaho Falls. I learned so much and my testimony was strengthened. The main focus of this conference was the Book of Mormon.

We had the District Leader from St. Anthony stay with which was great because we were able to catch up on individuals I taught there. I found out that most of them are doing well and several are preparing for the temple. There is no better news to hear as a missionary than to hear that a family or individual is preparing for the temple. This news I received has helped me learn even more what our real goal is.

I wanted to share with you what I learned this week which was nothing new or anything I didn't already know but what I learned was how powerful the Book of Mormon is. As I stated earlier we had a District Leader stay with us during the conference and I wanted more than anything to have an experience with him that he would always remember. I feel that my desire was a righteous one and that the Lord would grant it to me if I asked in faith so that's what I did. Tuesday was not the day we received the great experience and in my mind was a waste for this missionary but Wednesday is when the miracle happened. We learned that morning that "the Book of Mormon, combined with the Spirit is [our] most powerful resource for conversion"; so that's what we were going to focus on in all our appts. We had an 8PM appt with a 19 year girl named Susie that night and I was pretty hesitant on teaching her about the Book of Mormon because she has no religious background to the extent that she didn't even know who God was or what Jesus Christ did. This lesson we had was the second lesson with her and despite what we wanted to teach her we went in with only the Book of Mormon and the Spirit which was exactly what she needed! I don't think she understood much of what we were talking about but what I do know is that she felt the testimony of three humble missionaries about this divine book. Susie accepted a date of Feb.19th to be baptized. The Book of Mormon is truly the keystone of our religion and a man really will get closer to God by reading it than any other book; Susie too felt that. We went to our appt on last night and she read Alma 7 and now knows the role of Jesus Christ.

This work is wonderful. I love the Book of Mormon and I testify that it, combined with the Bible, is the fullness of the everlasting gospel. This book provides us with the pathway to salvation and the perfect way to find happiness. What a great opportunity we have in this time to share this sacred text with those that are ready to receive it.

The Gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives and is our redeemer!

Have a great week. Share your testimony!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

2011-02-19T13:38:00.000-08:00

This is our car in the water that melted yesterday.
Look at the tires to see how deep the water is. Crazy Idaho weather!

Elder Walker and Elder Kellogg

Photo of sweet hat Torie Lee sent me! Way cool beenie!

Photo of the three districts in the zone

1/17/2010 The Power of Preach My Gospel

2011-02-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Another great week has passed. It's interesting to me how fast time flies when you're in the service of the Lord. I believe missionary work and feeling the Spirit is a glimpse of what eternity will be like and that is why time flies on the mission.

Let's start with something I've learned this week. I learned the power of Preach my Gospel. Elder Durnall and I were talking about how crazy the adversary is working on this area. I have seen and even at times felt his influence more here in Taylor Mountain than anywhere else I've served or been. It really is an interesting experience to see Satan working so hard on these people. I've seen more trails and roadblocks come into the lives of our investigators than at any other time; it'll be interesting to see why he's working so hard on these people.

Anyway, because of this issue we were talking about ways that we can get him out of our area and to stop his pathetic work on the people we're working with. We hold the keys of the preaching of the Gospel which is something Lucifer cannot control; "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing". We are commissioned to preach the restored gospel to all who will listen. Long story short we were at a correlation with the Stake President and he told us the reason Satan is working so hard is because ward councils are not using Preach my Gospel... interesting... We decided that since we will do everything we can to get this scum out of here that we will visit each member of the ward council in every ward and teach them what Preach my Gospel is and how they can use it and then share with them the story of Joseph Smith and have them feel the Spirit of the first vision. We've done this to one of the wards now and there is a huge difference! The ward seems to be more missionary minded and focused on "inviting others to come unto Christ..." Everything in the Lord's church is missionary work; anything from sharing time in primary to a stake or general conference, the purpose is the exact same to "invite others to come unto Christ..."

It is amazing to me how perfectly Preach my Gospel was designed for everyone. Sister Julie B. Beck, the general Relief Society President, gave us a great example of this. In her general address in the April 2010 general conference she quoted from Preach my Gospel. Now I don't know what she said or what she quoted but I remember the feeling I got from the Spirit that this book is designed for all aspects of the Church. My invitation to all of you is to pull it off the shelf and use it in your study of the gospel. I promise you that as you do so you will be a better prepared servant of the Lord and He will trust you to bring lost sheep into His fold.

I know that is a long story about what I've learned but I can tell you that I know Preach my Gospel is the way we can keep the Lord's church focused on what His purpose is. We all play a part in this great work. I also invite you to print off a talk by Elder Richard G. Scott called The Power of Preach my Gospel and read how the prophets want us it.

We were able to have 7 investigators to sacrament meeting yesterday! That is the most of my whole mission. Our zone broke the record (since I've been a zone leader) of investigators taught with a member present and sacrament meeting attendance. Great things are happening.

This Friday Alan Welch is getting baptized. He is way excited and really wants to serve a mission in a year. On Saturday Lizzy Rigby (recent convert Tiffaney Rigby's daughter) is getting baptized. This weekend is going to be great!

We are supposed to have Travis Steven's baptism but tragedy has struck his family once again and has added to his son's death; his wife's mother passed away this weekend from the very very rare mad cow disease. He has gone through so much in the past month that someone shouldn't have to go through in a lifetime. Please keep him in your prayers.

Also starting tomorrow we will have all the leaders in the mission come to Idaho Falls for a 3 day leadership conference. I look forward to sharing with you all what I've learned.

Have a great week everyone! I hope you are all happy and healthy.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

1/10/11 Transfers

2011-02-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Well transfer info has officially come and to not much of a surprise I'm staying in Idaho Falls for another 6 weeks; Elder Durnall is going to be staying here also. I'm excited to stay because there is so much work going on and still so much to do! We have scheduled, so far, 4 baptisms for the next 6 weeks! The Lord is blessing us so much and will continue to bless us as we are diligent in seeking the elect.

We had such a great day yesterday with 6 lessons, two of which I wanted to share with you all. The first is the appointment we had with Alan. Alan is such a great guy; he's 18 and is very knowledgeable of the gospel and his relationship with our Heavenly Father. He received a triple combination for Christmas which he's already read most of the Doctrine and Covenants and the Book of Mormon, but his new world translation of the Bible was confusing him when he would cross reference and especially in Sunday School. After some thinking I decided it would be best to buy him a KJV to go with his triple and put his name on both. Last Monday we went to Deseret Book and bought him his own Bible. You should have seen his face light up as we gave him his book. Yesterday in Sunday School was much better as he was able to follow along and reference the Bible dictionary and JST. Anyways, back to what I wanted to tell you... He was scheduled to be baptized on the 29th but we felt like that date was too far away for him because he is ready now. He's been living the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity for a while now and has attended church since we've been teaching him. After considering his desire and how ready he is we invited him to be baptized on the 21st instead. He gladly accepted the change of day and is still preparing to be baptized.

The second experience was last night at our appt with Travis Stevens. Brother Stevens is the one who had his 13 year old son pass away a "couple three" weeks ago. For this appointment we invited President Colton who at first said he wouldn't be able to make it but then he asked, "tell me about this man". After we told him Brother Steven's story President said that he would move his schedule around and to plan on him being there. It was so great to teach with President Colton. We expected him to take the lead and answer the questions but to our surprise he took the back seat and let us teach. Don't get me wrong, President did add his testimony and brought a very powerful spirit but I learned something from this experience; President Colton is a full time missionary just like I am and he teaches the restored gospel of Jesus Christ the same way that I do and he invites others to repent the same way that I do. This truly is the Lord's work if he has all of his servants doing "His work in His way and by His power". Brother Stevens is still preparing for baptism on the 22nd.

I'm so excited to continue my mission here in the Taylor Mountain stake. There is much to be done and not much time to do it. May we all continue onward and "invite others to come unto Christ".

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

I saw Bishop Polson yesterday. He and I talked about so many things... paintball at President Polson's barn, stake youth council sleep overs at President Polson's house, DCHS, and many other things. He was excited to hear that I graduated with Taylor and that Nate was my scout leader for a while when we were in the Plum Creek Valley Ward.

I also met a sister in my area that is Pete Anderson's sister. She too grew up in Castle Rock and her Dad was the Bishop there for a long time. She is friends with Julie Graves and remembers the Johnsons (Gary and Linda) very well. I don't know her first name but her last name is now Athey. She said she would tell the Andersons hello from me. Speaking of Andersons, I didn't realize that Cole and Hunter are now 16!!! What the heck! Crazy!

Small world here in Idaho Falls. I've made more connections to Colorado and Walker here than any other area.

January 3, 2011 Happy New Year

2011-02-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe it's 2011 already! Where did 2010 go??? This new year has caused me to reflect on the events of 2010 and see where I was and now where I am. I feel that the Lord has taught me more this past year than the previous 19 years of my life combined. I have grown closer to my Savior and have learned and studied His gospel to the point where I can say I know His gospel is true where before I only believed it was. What a great lesson to learn right? I believe so.

I feel as though 2010 was a year full of challenge and success, sorrow and joy, disappointment and excitement, but most importantly full of love and charity. Another great year has come to a close but brings a new year to learn, grow, and continue to pursue happiness.

On Wednesday my companion and I traveled to Pocatello to attend the funeral of Brother Stevens' son. This service has caused me to reflect on the purpose of life and the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us. From this experience a principle of the gospel that myself and Brother Stevens learned is how great it is that Jesus Christ is our perfect judge. Too many of us would wonder what would cause this 13 year old boy to take his life and mourn over the potentials that he has given up, however, all things are to fulfill a purpose in this plan of salvation. I don't know exactly why Dylin took his life nor do I think anyone will know but what I do know by the Holy Ghost is that Dylin is completely covered by the Atonement of our Lord. I felt more powerfully than probably anything I have said on my mission to say what the Spirit shared with me and I in turn shared with Brother Stevens last night at our appointment, the Spirit told him that Dylin is being taught about the gospel the same way that he is learning the gospel from Elder Durnall and myself and that they are both in this together with the same goal in sight to be sealed together in the temple. Behind tears Brother Stevens agreed and understood what his purpose is now for his son.

Now this experience didn't come from what I had to say or even what I was thinking but through a servant of God, our Heavenly Father, delivered what was meted to him at that time in his life. How great is the plan of salvation!

I love you all very much. I am doing well and Idaho is great too, well a little cold but still great!

I hope you all have a great week and have an opportunity to share the most important message this world has ever heard.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Happy Holidays 12/27/2010

2011-02-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone and Happy Holidays,

I hope you all received the Christmas cards I sent out to you all. The picture is very dark but you can still tell it's me. I took that picture at Sister Newbold's house (the lady we used to live with). I appreciate the gifts that I've received and truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers. The present I sent Mom and Dad is for the whole family because we all started in 1980 at the alter of the Salt Lake Temple when our parents were sealed for time and eternity. Merry Christmas everyone!

Yesterday was a wonderful day! The performance at church went great; not because I was apart of it but I think it was the best Christmas program I've heard. I loved the pieces I got to play on the piano. My favorite part of the whole ordeal was in Joy to the World when I got to play fortissimo this sweet into that blew my mind and then the organ came in to blow my mind again and then the choir belted out "joy to the world, the Lord has come!" You should have heard it. I also really loved playing Peace, Peace with the sweet runs in the left hand and the beautiful melodious choir part written with silent night by the congregation. If only I had a digital recorder I could share the magic of music.

A really great step happened with Travis Stephens yesterday, he is the one who had a 13 year old son commit suicide a few days ago. When we visited him he, of course, was in shock and despair but even with all of this happening in his life he asked us if we would give him a priesthood blessing of comfort and guidance. I was shocked that he even knew what a blessing was or even that he would ask for one; goes to show the humility of a disciple of Christ. We offered him a very reverent blessing and I want to share with you a part of the blessing that really stood out to me. In the blessing it was stated that "soon he will be sealed to his son in the temple of the Lord and will one day be reunited with him again". How powerful those words were to Brother Stevens yesterday. At the end of the blessing he gave my companion and I a hug and broke down in tears. I will forever remember this sacred moment I had with him. As I've reflected on Travis and this event the Spirit taught me something very important, he taught me that although God can't control our actions because of our agency, he can prepare us for events that take place in our life. How wonderful it is that Travis had gained his testimony of eternal families and the restoration of the priesthood right before his son passed away. Heavenly Father could not control the death of Brother Steven's son but he could send missionaries to bring him the comforter and the Gospel. How great is the plan of salvation!

This Christmas season was wonderful. I really feel that I missed Christmas, which is a good thing, because nothing really changed for us. Sharing the Gospel is the same now or in July and is definitely the best thing I can do. I've really come to understand the true meaning of Christmas and that the Lord doesn't care about gifts or lights or music, even though these things are great, but what he really cares about is that we remember him and commit to follow Him. May we all remember the perfect child born of Mary and Joseph and rededicate ourselves to follow His example. He lives now as He did when He was born and loves us ever more. How grateful I am to bear His name and declare His message of peace and safety. As His authorized representative I leave with you my witness of Him and His love for our family and each one of us individually and specifically.

All is well here in Idaho. This Gospel is the great news of our Lord. I love you all very much and will continue to do my best to fulfill my purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ; I pray the same for you.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Photos 12/20/2010

2011-02-19T13:16:00.001-08:00

Sister's Rigby's baptism

A little bit of Colorado in Idaho :)

Merry Christmas 12/20/2010

2011-02-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

Another "payday", as I like to call it, has happened again. Sister Tiffany Rigby was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a wonderful opportunity I had to be apart of such a wonderful event in her life. She was way prepared for this milestone in her life. Now her baptism isn't even the best part of her conversion story because the best part is what will happen in a year from now when her and brother Jason Rigby are sealed for time and eternity in the house of the Lord. I love when my brothers and sisters that are not a part of the Lord's Kingdom understand that we aren't about baptism or that their goal isn't just baptism but that baptism is an essential step that leads on a path to the mountain of the Lord. As a missionary I love to be a guide to those searching for that missing link in their life and now Sister Rigby has that link that binds her to eternity if she stays faithful to her covenants.

Sister Rigby has a daughter who is an "un-baptized member" (I have no idea why the church calls them that because to me that statement is an oxymoron). Lizzy is 9 years old and wants to be baptized like her mom so bad! At the baptism on Saturday she kept saying, "my baptism is going to be in 2 days." I love how thin the veil is to children and their spiritual sensitivity. We explained to her that her baptism will probably be in 3 weeks so she can learn more about the church but she was insisting that her baptism is going to be in 2 days. We have an appointment tonight with them and we'll set a date for her to be baptized on the 15th of January.

We moved apartments on Saturday. This is the second time that I've opened a new apartment and I didn't like it even the second time. This new place is way sketchy! Saturday night we killed 37 cockroaches! I sent a text to a less active we're working with telling him about it and he showed up 15 mins later with wal mart bags full of repellent. Yesterday we only killed 3 so we're in business. We're calling the landlord today to get an exterminator out here.

Way cool thing that happened this week. We held a zone council on Tuesday which we like to do once a transfer to train the missionaries in our zone. This council we trained on teaching people, not lessons with an emphasis on revelation through church attendance. For this council we asked the assistants to help us with the training. This council was one of the most spiritual meetings I've had as a missionary; the Elders and Sisters just seemed to understand and feel what we were trying to train on. The best part of the whole thing is when we collected key indicator numbers last night we saw that we had 27 investigators attend church yesterday! That is remarkable! I've never seen a zone reach above 20 since I've been a zone leader and now our zone, with the help of the Spirit shot that out of the water. The zone has also increased baptismal dates to 28. Great things are happening here in Idaho Falls I'm so blessed to be apart of this great cause. The best feeling as a zone leader is when I see application and success on what I've trained on, especially in my own area.

Great things are happening. The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.

Remember the Christ Child and have a very Merry Christmas.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Elder Walker Christmas Photos 2010

2011-02-19T13:04:00.000-08:00

Elder Walker's MTC District just a little over a year since the MTC

Piano

2010-12-15T19:11:00.001-08:00

So interesting story I forgot to add to the weekly e-mail. Yesterday one of the wards found out that I play the piano and after Elder Durnall said, "he's a musical genius" they roped me in to playing for the ward choir for their Christmas program. Haha! This always happens to me. I'm also now the Priesthood pianist for opening exercises. Oh boy! I hope they don't expect too much from me because I never get time to practice nor am I anywhere close to a "musical genius". The best part is that they are performing next Sunday which means I have to learn a few pieces before then. They do have a pretty decent choir; it'll be an adventure.

12/13/10

2010-12-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Everything is going great here in Idaho Falls. Things are just getting ready to explode! Yesterday was a way good day for us; we set 2 baptism dates last night. The first, AJ is 18 and loves to learn about the Savior. He's read the Bible and is looking for more. He was way excited to accept the 29th of January as a day for him to be baptized. The problem though is that we got a call from his uncle last night who told us that AJ had to be sent to the hospital a few hours after we left because he had an internal rupture of the intestines and was heading into emergency surgery. Please keep AJ in your prayers. Elder Durnall and I are going to offer him a blessing today.

The second individual, Travis, accepted a date of the 22nd of January to be baptized. Travis is such a great guy with a wonderful family. His wife is a member and he has 4 kids. The lesson last night was one of the more powerful lessons I've ever had on the mission. We focused a lot on Temples and eternal families. We explained to him that baptism isn't what we want for him although it is a great step and a wonderful blessing, we want his family to be united eternally in the holy temple of our God and baptism is the first step to get there. There is much more to this story than I have time to tell but after my companion and I bore witness of the divinity of the priesthood sealing families for time and eternity he and his wife were in tears. Now keep in mind, this is not the first time Travis had been invited to be baptized in fact it wasn't even the second but what we found out through the Holy Ghost is that he needed to know that this is about his family and what our Heavenly Father's plan for them is, once he knew that, he accepted to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. I know that this missionary work is not done by me nor is any conversion accomplished by me but only by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. How great is this work!

I am doing great, busy as always. We were asked by President Colton to go on an exchange with every Elder in the Zone so we're booked twice a week conducting exchanges. I love learning and growing from the Elders I serve and witnessing their desire to serve the Master. The church is true. President Monson is a prophet of God. Jesus is our Savior and he loves us so much and very individually. "For behold, the field is white already to harvest..."

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Dec. 6th 2010 The Season of Christmas

2010-12-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

It is official, the Christmas season has begun. I love this time of year when people seem to have a complete change in attitude and are willing to accept the promptings of the Spirit. I am starting to get myself into the Christmas spirit as I see Christmas lights up and music playing everywhere. "It's the best time of the year."

I have officially been transferred to Idaho Falls. This area is way different than Pocatello! I serve in the Taylor Mountain stake which is full of Doctors and other rich individuals. About half of my area is very comparable to that of Castle Pines and the other half to that of Sedalia. I'm still trying to learn the area and even figure out which way is North but so far I really like Idaho Falls.

Elder Durnall is awesome. He's from Sacramento Cali and as I said last week he and I came out together. He and I served in a different district in the MTC but we entered into missionary life on the same day. We seem to mesh really well so far. Our zone is way big! We have 5 stakes in the zone covering from Ammon to Shelly. It's way nice being super close to the Idaho Falls Temple to take investigators there and especially to have the Visitors' Center so close. I'm pretty excited to have a zone activity today so I can get to know the Elders and Sisters; we have 4 sisters and 16 Elders in the zone (6 of us all came out together). This is going to be a great transfer.

When we talked with the assistants today to give them our zone's weekly numbers they asked me if there is anything they could do for me, I told them to go to Alameda, get my brain, put it in a medium flat rate box and then mail it to me. This is how transfers are, you don't get your head back for a while. It's hard not only learning my area but learning the whole zone and missionaries and individuals that have a baptism date; I'm doing my best though.

I will have some stories for you all next week when I can actually remember people's names that I'm teaching! haha! No worries though I think I'll be back on my feet by next Monday.

I hope all is well and everyone is safe. Idaho is doing great!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

2010-12-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

I get bored when everyone plays sports so last p-day I took some pictures... random.

Nov. 29th Thanksgiving

2010-12-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving.

This week went so so so fast! We had a lot of great things happen to us. As I said in the last e-mail we received another group of visa waiting missionaries to the mission, two of which were assigned to our zone. As a part of my responsibility as a zone leader we have to go on exchanges with the new missionaries ASAP so Elder Rudd and I had to do 2 last minute exchanges, plus Thanksgiving. I love exchanges, especially with new missionaries because of the many great things I can re-learn that I once new. Simplicity is the best quality about new missionaries. I heard this quote the other day from Divinchi that says, "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Truly the Lord works many mighty miracles through the faith of new missionaries.

Those of you that went to the Priesthood session of Oct. 2010 general conference remember when Elder Russel M. Nelson said that he had 49 grandchildren that have served or are now serving a mission. Interesting for you to know that his 49th grandchild to serve a mission is currently serving in the Pocatello Central Zone in the Idaho Pocatello Mission, which happens to be the zone that Elder Rudd and I currently lead. Weird huh? It's interesting to be an authoritative figure over an Apostle's grandson. I told him today at e-mails, "make sure you tell your grandfather hello from your favorite zone leader."

Thanksgiving day was great! We were able to have an all day p-day from 10 to 9. Elder Rudd and I organized a tri-zone football game that morning. I didn't play because I'm not one for sports but the missionaries that did play are dedicated; it was 8 degrees and there was at least 6 inches of snow on the ground. Crazy Elders. We were then picked up at 12:30 to have lunch with the Lammers. I loved spending time with that family! We ate quickly so we could have more time to play games; we played a game called "the game of things" for 3 hours! It is so much fun. We definitely need to get that game for when I get home. After spending time with the Lammers we went to the Hulet's house for dessert (tons and tons of pumpkin pie; no complaints). When we were finished eating like kings we gathered our zone together for the evening at the institute to play a huge game of Apples to Apples. Let me just tell you that 20 missionaries chillin playing Apples to Apples is a huge highlight to any Thanksgiving day.

I learned something great on Thanksgiving. In D&C 78:19 we learn what the Lord thinks of gratitude. After you read this verse think about what President Monson has recently told us about gratitude. As we apply an "attitude of gratitude" the Lord says he'll bless us "100 fold". Now just think about this a second, not 100 times, 100 fold. Fold a paper once and you get 2, fold it again and you get 4, again and you get 8, etc. Now think about 100 fold! That is a lot. Be grateful for what you have, we've truly been blessed with so much!

The time has arrived for Elder Rudd and I to be separated. We got transfer info on Saturday and it looks like the Lord needs me up in Idaho Falls. I've been assigned to work with Elder Durnall (we came out together) in the Idaho Falls West Zone. I'm pretty excited for several reasons, one, I get to go back to a car, two, Elder Durnall is sweet, and three, I've wanted to serve in Idaho Falls for a while now. Don't get me wrong I am extremely sad to leave Alameda and Pocatello. I have really enjoyed my time here and the miracles I've witnessed, like Brandon Beers getting baptized. I will forever love these people and will miss Elder Rudd a lot; he has been my favorite companion by far. It's alright though because we've already made plans to kick it on the beach in Jacksonville. Interesting for you to know, Elder Call (my trainer) is replacing me here in Alameda and I'm replacing him in Idaho Falls. When I get to Idaho Falls on Wednesday I'll be serving in the Taylor Mountain Stake.

All is well in Zion. I love this mission and I know I will love my future adventures with Elder Durnall. The Lord has a lot to teach us, just open your eyes to the miracles and we will learn.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

11/22/10 What I have learned...

2010-12-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Wow... Great week.

My journey up to Idaho falls was awesome!!! I loved the conference we had and learned so much. We focused on the Fundamentals of Preach my Gospel. President Colton did the majority of the training and we were taught all 8 of the lessons. President Colton started the training with telling us why we have these new fundamentals of PMG, he said, "The Lord is showing us the way we always should have used Preach my Gospel."

We focused a lot during this conference on Revelation and how we, members, and the investigators have to receive revelation for conversion to take place. There was this quote given from Elder McConkie that says, "revelation is the making known of divine truth by communication from heaven." Who doesn't want that? Direct revelation from heaven is what we're searching for here and we get it from several ways: scripture, church leaders, feelings, and many more. Our focus as missionaries is to connect an individual that is searching for heaven with heaven and we do it by the power of the Holy Ghost.

The three specific ways that an individual can and will receive revelation if they have a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ, is from the Book of Mormon, attending church, and prayer. These are the ways we focused our efforts on for this conference. In the mission we've been struggling to get investigators to attend church and receive conversion but this past weekend we had more investigators out to church than we've had in a long time. It's interesting to see the Lord's hand in play as we apply His way of doing missionary work. We were told at the conference a quote from President Faust, he said, "this is the Lord's work, let Him do a little of it." It's true, how many times do we try to do our callings on our own or think that our way is the best way? This really is the Lord's work and we are privileged to help.

I learned so much from President Colton this past week and now I'm excited to have a full week to apply what I was taught both by him and by the Spirit. I only have room to grow and that's what I am going to do. After all that is why we are here on earth right?

All is well here in Poky. It's been snowing like crazy off and on for the past few days and is supposed to continue until tomorrow. I love the snow! The only bad part is that I can't play in it.

We have transfers next week (Dec 1st) so if you will please send letters to the mission office first until I find out if I'm going or staying. I really hope that I stay here for Christmas but we'll see. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get transferred up to Rexburg but of course that's all speculation. I will have official transfer info for you next p-day.

Love you all very much and hope you are finding happiness in this journey we call life.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

11/15/10 Celestial Stew

2010-12-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

So tomorrow I head off to Idaho Falls for a 4 day leadership conference. I am looking forward to this conference a lot. This will be the first time we hold this conference outside of Pocatello which means I'll be staying with another companionship for the week. It'll be interesting to see what we're going to be taught at this conference. Our high counselor over missionary work in the Alameda stake is taking Elder Rudd and I out to lunch on Saturday so we can teach him what President Colton teaches us. That goes to show how great the leaders over missionary work are here in the Alameda stake.

We got word last night that another group of visa waiting missionaries have received acceptance into Mexico. This mean we'll be loosing a couple Elders from our zone which is way sad because I've really grown close to these two Elders. The good news though is that we've received a new group of visa waiters today that are trying to get into Brazil. Two of those Elders will be placed in our zone to replace the ones that have left. This whole visa issue is crazy! I wish the world would just get along and not be so complicated. We love having the visa missionaries in our mission though they really have brought a lot to the table.

We have an investigator named Kevin who came to church for the first time yesterday! We were so excited! Kevin has had a baptismal date for a while now and was being so stubborn on attending church. Kevin is an extremely hard-headed man but it's been great to see the Spirit work on him to soften his heart and help him be humble. He has changed so much since we've been teaching him. I do not take any credit for what he has done because I have done nothing, I've only been a mouth piece for the Lord. Kevin is preparing to be baptized on Dec. 15th, his 30th birthday.

On Saturday we had a great time at our lesson with Kevin on Saturday. He told us that he was willing to try anything to quit smoking. That sentence is almost as great as someone saying they want to be baptized. Elder Rudd and I heard of this method called "Celestial Stew" that has helped other investigators quit smoking. What it is is a glass of milk with a pack of cigarettes broke open and dumped in and salt and pepper. What you do is heat it up and stir it up then get the addicted person to drink this "stew" and of course they'll throw up. The next time they go to smoke a cigarette they remember this nasty drink and it makes them queasy so they loose their desire to smoke. Kevin did a great job. He didn't give up and finished the whole thing but probably threw up about 30 times; it was nasty. The good news is that when we saw him at church yesterday he said he hadn't smoked yet! Oh the fun missionaries can have.

Everything is going great here in Pocatello. The work is progressing well and exciting things are happening. This work is great! I'm excited to e-mail next week to share with you what I've learned and how I will change from the conference this week. I love you all!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

11/8/10

2010-12-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

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.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

10/25/10 Great Week

2010-12-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

This week has been super crazy!!! Transfer week is always super crazy. As I said last week President Colton did transfers a little bit different this last time with sending all the info out over the phone on voicemail. On Tuesday however, 8 of our visa waiting missionaries received their visas and took off on Wednesday to Mexico so that made even more transfers. President sent out a voice message to all the zone leaders telling us more transfer info. Before this second message our zone was pretty much untouched with effected companionships but he decided to "drop a nuclear bomb on the Poky Central Zone" as the assistants called it. We had every companionship change in the zone including ours. We got put in a threesome for a few weeks with Elder Nelson. Elder Nelson is a great guy! He goes home in a few weeks to Sacramento and then is getting married three weeks after that. It's kinda weird to be honest, I mean he has a fiancee as a missionary and has their wedding announcements all over the house. He has her pictures all over his desk and his walls and receives at least 2 letters from her a day. He's happy though and that's the important part.

We had an amazing week! We had the great opportunity to set 3 baptism dates this week! Two of the three was in our first visit right after giving the account of the first vision. What a powerful account. The Lord taught Elder Rudd and I patience this last transfer because we were working really hard teaching over 20 lessons a week for 7 weeks but with nothing to show from it, well at least I thought there was nothing to show from it but the Lord quickly proved me wrong. Not only were we able to teach over 20 lessons for 7 weeks with the help of the Lord but he showed me that by working as hard as I could for a short time he would prepare his children for us to teach them. I think we sometimes have to prove that we wont give up on our Savior and when we do that then He'll open the windows of heaven and we'll witness miracles; that is the idea of enduring to the end right? I think so. Great lesson learned this week. I love learning so many great truths and lessons while being the Lord's missionary.

Yesterday there was an Elder that returned home from his mission in Little Rock, Arkansas. His family volunteered me to do a musical number so I turned right around and said, "well if you volunteer me then I volunteer you to sing with me." They accepted as well as I and we had a great musical number singing "Army of Helaman". I want to give you the words to 2 verses that we changed when Elder Rudd, Elder Nelson, and myself sang:

"We have been called by Father above,
to serve His children and labor with love.
We will go out His word we'll obey,
to bring Him souls the Savior's way.

We know the truth and so we declare,
to read and ponder and kneel in prayer.
We will proclaim in these latter days,
to be obedient and keep His ways."

I got emotional singing these verses because they mean so much to me about what I'm doing here in Pocatello. I will go forth and I will declare His gospel "in His way, by His power." How grateful I am to have this opportunity in my life to serve my brothers and sisters and declare the most important message this world has ever heard. God loves us. Jesus is the Christ. I bear you my witness of them as His authorized representative.

All is well here. I love what I'm doing. I love Idaho. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts I appreciate them so very much.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

October 18th Transfers

2010-12-15T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hello my family and friends,

So transfer info came this weekend... Guess what's happening? I get to stay here!!! I'm very very excited! I will be here for Thanksgiving for sure and I'm hoping for Christmas. This transfer is crazy! President transferred over 70 missionaries and Elder Rudd and I got untouched. This area is so great and I'm very glad to be staying. Elder Rudd and I get along really great which is a huge bonus to a great area. Cool thought: with 3 transfers with Elder Rudd as my zone leader in St. Anthony and now three transfers together, we'll serve together for 9 months. How great!

My thoughts are that next transfer will be pretty mellow because President isn't going to move too many people right before Christmas. I hope this will be a 7 1/2 month are for me. I love it here!

This week was pretty eventful. Elder Rudd was sick for 5 days! I don't have the patience to sit inside all day so we arranged exchanges with the zone to take turns to be with him so I could work in my area. Haha. I worked with my companion for only 2 days this week in our area. Weird.

Nothing too exciting happened this week. We taught 20 lessons again this week. This makes week 6 of teaching over 20 lessons a week! I'm very excited about that.

This area is great. This work is great.

Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Oct. 11th Crazy Week

2010-12-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

Another p-day has arrived. Can you believe how fast time is flying by? Just a couple more weeks and I'll hit my year mark! Holy smokes!

This week has been quite an eventful week. A lot of great stories have happened. Where to start... Fist off I got an AMAZING package from Grandma and Grandpa! They sent me zucchini bread, a cake, and best of all they sent me a bunch of pear tomatoes!!!! Yum yum! My favorite! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Great story number one: There is a man here who was taught by missionaries for the past 4 years at least. The reason he hasn't been baptized is because he can't kick his smoking habit. Elder Rudd and I have been trying everything we know how to help him quit. He's enrolled in the church's 12-step program, he's meeting with a cancer specialist at the hospital to help him quit, he's taking medication, he's reading the whole Book of Mormon, etc. We've done everything we know how but this week we came up with a great idea! We cleaned his house for him. This might sound like a great idea but let me tell you, never in my whole life have I been in a house as gross as this one! There was dust that has built up for 25 years! With 4 missionaries it took us 3 hours to clean that place. Elder Rudd and I hid his ash trays too. Haha! The agreement was that he would get rid of his ash trays if we cleaned his house so we hid them so he couldn't go back on his promise. We'll see how that goes.

Last night we were walking to an appointment when we heard someone yell out "missionaries, missionaries! I need to talk to you missionaries!" When we turned around there was a drunk man walking a block behind us that wanted to talk to us. His name is Kurt. We stood there and talked with Kurt for 40 mins! He had to tell us all about his problems and what he's done in his life. He kept telling us that he's a great person and not to judge him. We tried to give him advise be he would just talk and talk and talk. Finally he asked us if we would pray with him and of course we agreed. When we folded our arms he wouldn't have any of that. He put his right had out and asked us to do the same (kind of like a huddle before a football game or something) then asked Elder Rudd to say the prayer. Now keep in mind this is on a sidewalk of a busy street. I asked Kurt if we could just fold our arms be he said, "are you afraid of what people will think about you?" I didn't want to cause any problems so we prayed his way. He then had to tell us more about his life and then I think he forgot that we prayed because he asked us to do the same thing 4 more times. Haha! Awkward! I don't think he'll remember that today, he was plastered. Good times!

A spiritual story of the week is when we set a baptism date with Kevin! I must say that was a great experience we had. Last week when we met with him we told him that he has now hit the end of the road and he has to decide to go right or left. We explained that the Gospel is either true or it's completely false and he is the only one who can make that decision. We invited him to pray about it and decide, then we set a return appt. for a few days later. When we went back he told us he prayed and decided that it was true and his life will be blessed by being baptized. We set the date for December 15th because it's his birthday and he wants to start his life over on that day. I'm very excited to be a part of his journey.

Well next week I'll know transfer information. I hope I stay her again because next transfer is Thanksgiving. I would hate to go to a new area and have to build relationships again before the Holidays. I guess we'll find out next Sunday.

I hope everyone is doing well and you are all happy. Life is great! Let's enjoy each day and witness the miracles that surround us.

Peace and love,
Elder Walker

10-4-10 General Conference Weekend

2010-10-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well hello there everyone!

Hasn't life just been great? I've really enjoyed this past week as I do every other week I've had.

General Conference was wonderful wasn't it? I love that the focus of this conference seemed to be on the Plan of Salvation and Faith to follow Jesus Christ. I really soak up what our Prophets have to say while I'm serving a mission. I especially loved Priesthood session! I encourage you ladies out there to print out the talks from Priesthood session and study them. Funny thing is when we were at Priesthood session and Elder Nelson had all the missionaries around the world stand up I turned to Elder Rudd and said, "10 says my Dad is crying right now", was I right??? If Dad wasn't crying by that point then 10 says emotions were running during the closing song of "Called to Serve" by the missionary choir from the MTC in Provo. I must admit that I got really emotional listening to those Elders sing. I also got really emotional when President Eyring said something along the lines of "I am honored to be considered to have the same calling as these missionaries behind me." I couldn't hold it in when he said that, I mean here's a man who serves in the highest quorum of the Priesthood here on this earth and he puts himself down to the level of a missionary who doesn't even remotely have the same calling as he does. He's one of the 15 that holds the priesthood to the kingdom of God on this earth and yet he's still a missionary. How remarkable are our Priesthood leaders!

The only down side to this General Conference is that now we have to be back to full time suit jacket wearing. I would be fine with wearing suit jackets in a month but not now when it's still 80 degrees outside and I'm on a bike. Not my fav thing to do. Just a little perseverance and it'll be cool again.

For Conference Elder Rudd and I decided that we wanted to get the whole zone together to watch. I'm really glad we did because there is now this bond in the zone that we wouldn't be able to get elsewhere. I have a testimony of our Prophet. I know that President Monson is God's servant for us. I love being an authorized servant of God to be able to declare to all that God has opened the windows of heaven and called a man to safely lead us home. It's no wonder that God really does reveal his secret to President Monson who declares to the world to follow our Savior.

Speaking of President Monson... On Friday at our Zone Leader Council President Colton was giving us his testimony of President Monson and while quoting from the new book "To The Rescue" a biography of Thomas S. Monson, President Colton has now approved that book to be apart of the missionary library and has asked that all the missionaries in the IPM read the book and know our Prophet better. Just so you know Mom and Dad, you'll see a 30ish dollar charge to my account, that's from buying this book from Deseret Book today. I hope that was okay since I didn't approve it with you before hand. I'm so excited to read this book!

One of my favorite parts about being a Zone Leader is exchanges. This upcoming week we're going on exchanges with our visa missionaries that are waiting to go to Mexico. Tonight I get to go with Elder Ursua from Hawaii. He's way awesome! I'm looking forward to work with him in my area and show him how great our area is. Each time I stay in my area with missionaries from the Zone I pray really hard to have an opportunity to invite someone to be baptized. I hope that will happen tomorrow.

I love you all very much and hope all is well at home. I love my calling. I love my boss. I have the greatest calling in the church! I wish you all well.

September 20, 2010

2010-10-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker and Elder Rudd with Idaho State Flag

Ice-blocking at a ward party... (Be Careful!!!)

September 13, 2010 - Twenty Years Old

2010-10-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

HELLO everyone!

Well it is officially official. I'm old. Twenty! Holy smokes.

My birthday was a really great day! Nothing too exciting happened. We weekly planned and then taught people the gospel... pretty much the best thing to do on a birthday. The great highlights are the three meals I had. For breakfast the Spanish Elders came over and we made omelets, and for lunch Elder Rudd and I went to the Sizzler for steaks. The best part of the whole day was when we ate dinner with the Robinson family. They called a week ago and asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner and I told them they can make what ever they want. They asked what my favorite food is so I told them Crab legs. The best part is Sister Robinson is from Maine and loves to cook sea food so she flew in several pounds of crab legs from Maine for my birthday dinner. How great is that?!?! I loved it so much! Tasty for sure.

I received the birthday package from home. Thanks for the things you sent. I love the ties and pants and the box of random birthday things. My favorite part of the package is the Spider-man night light! We use it every night and it goes great with my other Spider-man things all over the apartment.

When we got in from the day there was the coolest cake I have ever seen in our apartment. Benji Bosen brought a "missionary cake" for me. I can't even describe it so I'll attach a photo for you to see.

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday cards! I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. Thanks especially to Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday money. I was just about to scrounge for some cash because I needed to go to the dry cleaners for my suits before winter comes again.

I forgot to mention this last week to give you a heads up but I have an idea... Today I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on my mission. I'm planning on starting again to read for the 4th time on Wednesday. I want to invite all of the family to join in with me on reading the Book of Mormon again. What happens is we read only 5 pages a day which means we'll complete the book in a little over 3 months. My ultimate goal is to read the book 7 times on my mission which I will do by reading just 5 pages a day each day. I invite everyone to read with me starting on Wednesday, 15 September. The first day you'll have to read 6 pages (the introduction first then 5 pgs in 1 Nephi) and also the last day you'll have to read 6 pages.

I know this sacred book is true. I have a testimony of this volume of Holy Scripture. It is another testiment of Jesus Christ. Please take this challenge for yourself and feel of the Saviors love for you by his Prophets of old.

We had a pretty average week this week this week but the coolest part was that Elder Rudd and I taught 24 lessons!!! That's the most I've ever taught on my mission.

I hope all is well back home and everyone is doing great!

Happy Birthday Elder Walker

2010-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Spoiled Missionary! Crab legs flown in from Maine!

Birthday cake arranged for and delivered by Elder Bosen (Thanks Benji)

English beans... a fav!!!!

2010-10-05T18:11:00.000-07:00

At Brandon's baptism
Elder Fernberg, Elder Rudd, Brandon and Elder Walker

9-6-10 Best Weekend Ever

2010-10-05T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well hello there everyone!

Once again transfers have come again. The verdict... I'm staying with Elder Rudd in Pocatello! I'm so excited! I love this area so much! I was really worried because the Assistants told Elder Rudd and I that they were moving 50 missionaries! 50! That's over half the companionships in the mission! I'm way happy to be staying here. I would love to stay here the rest of my mission but that's probably not going to happen. We are getting an additional 2 companionships added to the zone which will be great. We're already leading the mission in baptisms so with 2 more additions we'll be leading every month, or so we hope.

Let me just say that this past weekend was by far the best weekend of the mission. I've seen several baptisms but there was nothing like Brandon Beer's baptism. What an amazing experience that was. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I've had to know Brandon. He will be a close friend throughout the eternities.

There's nothing better than witnessing a baptism that an individual has had to work really hard be baptized. Don't get me wrong, all baptisms are great but there is just something a little more special about those that don't get everything so easy and have to entirely place their will in the hands of God; Brandon has had to do that for the past 7 years. I know the Lord answers prayers, He answers them on his own time but He does answer them. This ward has prayed and prayed and prayed for this day to finally happen but for some reason our Heavenly Father decided that September 4th 2010 was the day for his son to enter into the waters of baptism. How great and marvelous are the works of God.

Last night we received a message from a brother in the ward expressing to us how grateful he is that we prepared ourselves to be on a mission and to especially be here for Brandon. I don't know why the Lord chose Elder Rudd and myself to be the ones to baptize Brandon but he did. Those comments from Brother Porter was simply the icing on the cake. Right now is most definitely the highest of my mission.

This work is real. It IS the Lord's work and the greatest cause on this planet. There is no greater happiness than to be a servant of the Lord. I know that this is the Lord's kingdom and I wouldn't be anywhere else than working to build up this kingdom.

I love you all. Keep persevering. Align your will with the will of the Lord.

2010-10-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

Two amazing and wonderful missionaries!!!
Elder Bosen and Elder Walker
Elder Bosen is from Pocatello, Idaho and served his mission in Castle Rock, Colorado.
Elder Walker is from Castle Rock, Colorado and is serving his mission in Pocatello, Idaho

Ten Months of Greatness August 30, 2010

2010-10-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!

Can you even believe that I have been out 10 months now? I can't believe how fast time is going. I hear it only gets faster and faster.

There are a few things I forgot to mention last week. The first really cool thing is that I'm in the Ensign. Open up the September issue to pg. 37 and you'll see me there. It's kinda ironic because in the picture I'm teaching a Filipino family but I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt. haha! I just noticed that. I'm pretty sure no missionaries in the Philippines wear long sleeve shirts. Pretty cool to be in a magazine that goes to millions of people though huh?

Another cool thing that happened. Extreme Make-over came to Pocatello and rebuilt a house half a mile away from my area! That was way cool. It was great to see the whole community get involved to help out this family. The story is way sad too, it's a single mom with 9 kids who has cancer. Her house caught fire a few months ago and burned pretty much half of the house. We weren't allowed to help because the church doesn't like missionaries being on national television. Elder Rudd and I rode our bikes by it a few days ago and it's way nice. Check out the show on the 31st of Oct, that's when it shows I think.

Yesterday was such a great day. Definitely a huge highlight of my mission. I was able to speak with Elder Bosen at his speaking assignment yesterday. What a great experience! After the talks and sacrament meeting was over there was a sister that came up to me and told me, "there are no coincidences in this life, there is an eternal reason for you and Elder Bosen to have met." That's true. I'm really thankful for the opportunity that I've had to know Elder Bosen. He's such a great person. I first saw Elder Bosen on Saturday when we practiced the song we sang at church, that was super weird seeing him without a shirt and tie on! It was a great reunion though.

Cool thing happened this week. I got a short letter from a good friend of mine from DECA. She was my Secretary when I was President of Castle View's DECA chapter. She is out to school in Oklahoma. In her letter she simply said, "Tyson, I don't really know much about what you're doing on your mission or much about your religion is there a way I can learn more?" HELLO!!! talk about golden opportunity! I immediately called the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center and sent off a referral for her. I requested missionaries to visit and take a Book of Mormon and a Restoration DVD. I really hope this goes well.

All is well here. I love what I'm doing. Hope all is well with you.

quote of the day... I heard this yesterday at church... "life is like shaving, no matter how good you do it today, you just have to do it again tomorrow."

I forgot something I wanted to tell you. We had zone leader council this last week. At these council meetings we report to President Colton our numbers. Our zone is by far the smallest zone in the mission but we were able to lead the mission in baptisms for August.

We were really excited to report 14 baptisms from the Pocatello Central Zone for the month of August. Our missionaries are really applying the simplified curriculum and as a consequence we've seen incredible results. I would have never guessed our zone would lead the mission in baptisms but I stand corrected. I don't say this to boast of myself but of these Elders and Sisters that are working so hard to be the best missionaries they can be in fulfilling our purpose.

How grateful I am to be involved in such a great work. The Lord is mindful of us and has indeed opened the windows of heaven on our zone.

August 22, 2010

2010-10-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Lots of items of greatness this week. I will present them in bullet format...

I talked with Elder Bosen yesterday on the phone. That was super weird! We talked for a little bit about his return from the Colorado Springs mission. He's doing great and wants to take Elder Rudd and I to lunch this week.
I witnessed the weirdest baptism ever on Saturday. This man that was baptized asked if he could play some music while he was changing. The music that was played was some southern baptist gospel music! Haha! I was laughing so hard!
I got the best package ever! A binder full of music! I love it! I have planned 3 hours today to play the piano. I'm stoked.
I got a letter from Torie Lee!!! That was so great! That was a long awaited letter.
We had another 2 day leadership conf. this week. We have now been taught all of the new simplified curriculum. President Colton read us a letter from Elder Holland and in that letter Elder Holland announces that there is going to be a new version of Preach my Gospel coming out soon. I hope it comes out before I leave.

That's pretty much all the new exciting things that have happened here. Everything is going great. Pocatello is awesome. I hope all is well with you.

Elder Mecham

2010-10-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Oh cool story!

There is an Elder Mecham here that I heard was from Colorado. I called him the other day to ask him where he is from. Of all places guess where he is from???? Monument.... Crazy!!!! We got talking and I told him I have a good friend from Monument and told him about Whitney Baker. He said, "no way you know Whitney, I dated her!!!" Crazy huh! He also knows Mykel who went to seminary with me from monument also.

As we got talking he said that the Baker family told him about me before he left and to tell me hello but he forgot my name so now I finally got the message. haha! Crazy crazy crazy...

Elder Mecham corrected me on my language and said it's "cool-orado". Just so you all know.

Photos August 16, 2010

2010-10-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

Elders Rudd, Rust and Walker

Elder Walker at Elder Rudd's birthday dinner

Elder Walker's new bike!

2010-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker in his apartment with his Spiderman towel that Devin and Lianne gave him for Christmas.

August 9, 2010 - Expect Miracles

2010-10-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Sorry the letter is super late today, this is Elder Rust's last p-day so we've finally decided to take a quick break and send a letter home.

So how is everyone doin? I ask because I don't know... hint hint (that means send more letters). I do have to say that I received a great letter from Hedy Lu and Karli this week. They are great friends.

83201

It would be great to see a few letters in the mail box this week! haha.

So I couple of great miracles happened this weekend. I wish I could emphasize the greatness of these miracles but there is no way to understand completely unless you were here. The first miracle is that Brandon Beers finally got permission from his dad to get baptized! Brandon is the one that I told you about who knows more about Preach my Gospel and the scriptures than most new missionaries. He's 16 and has read the Book of Mormon 7 times! That's more than I've read it. This has been a battle for 7 years to get him baptized and now it is finally going to happen. Cool story about how he told me. We went to his ward's neighborhood party and Brandon was there. I asked him about how it went with talking to his Dad and he totally played it up that he hadn't talked with his dad yet after we committed him to it so many times. After letting it go for a while he said, "well I guess we'll have to move my baptism day to Sept. 4th." I said, "ok, is that to give you more time to ask your dad? He said, "no, because that's the day my dad said I could get baptized." Now mind you this whole time he's just playing it off all cool like it's no big deal. Then I jumped on him and started freaking out! Greatest day of my mission for sure! His fellowshipper, Bro. Porter came over to join the excitement but knew what was going on the whole time! They said they planned the whole thing out to mess with Walker. Oh boy am I excited!

The next miracle is that Clifford Bacon came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never thought I would see him inside a chapel for as long as I was here for sure! What happened is the ward asked me to do a musical number so I was pestering him for weeks to come hear it. I thought all hope was lost but when we got to the building he was there! He has set a date for the 11th of September to be baptized.

The Lord is blessing us with so much success. We have 7 people with a specific date to be baptized. Every new investigator seems to be accepting a baptism date which in and of itself is a miracle. I can't wait to see what is in store for this week.

I hope all is well in Colorado and where ever you are in the world who reads this. This work rocks. Remember to always pray for a desire to serve and you too will be called to so great a work. "Shall we not go on in such great a cause?"

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Photos from Transfer Day

2010-08-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker and Sister Missionaries ("Best Sister Missionaries ever now that Chels is home.")

Last picture with Elder Fernberg on transfer day July 2010

God Speed Elder Fernberg - 8/2/2010

2010-08-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by telling you a great thing that is going to happen. Yesterday I got a call from Brother Bosen, he left a message that said, "Elder Walker I have your beans and I also have a question for you, call me back." When I called him back he asked me to speak at Elder Bosen's speaking assignment for his return to Pocatello! He and I will be speaking on the 29th together. So if you want to fly out for Elder Bosen's return you will see me too. haha. How cool is that? This is going to be a great time and one that I will always remember.

On a more serious note. Let me share with you something really close to my heart. I love Elder Fernberg. He and I got along so well. I don't know what it was about him and I but we just meshed really well. On his last night with me in Pocatello we stayed up super late just talking. He and I both shared what we learned from each other and what the Spirit taught us this transfer. This is when he shared with me a story I will never forget:

Elder Fernberg is a Spanish speaking missionary and has been his whole mission. It was extremely unusual for President Colton to have put him in English work especially for such a short time. When he was in the MTC his third day there he was laying in his bed at the end of the day staring at the ceiling with thoughts of the Hispanic people he was going to teach in Idaho, learning the language, and what the Lord had in store for him. At the time of pondering his future he said that a man's image came to his mind as clear as if he was standing in front of him. This man was Hispanic, shorter, a little heavy set, and balding. When this image came to his mind he had a distinct impression that the Lord wanted him to find this man; this man was who he was called to bring into the fold. Elder Fernberg's first year was so focused on finding this man, when he would see someone who looked close to what he pictured he would run to them with a hopeful heart only to find that the person wasn't who he pictured. After about a year and a half of this searching he was starting to give up, he couldn't find who he was looking for. President Colton then called him to English work in Pocatello. He wasn't happy that he was called out of Spanish work and did not want to be working in English. He came to this area with Elder Paterson and together they found the man who was baptized a few weeks ago, Mark Soto. Together they taught him and set a baptism date, then Elder Paterson got transferred and I was put here with Elder Fernberg. Together we continued teaching and preparing Brother Soto for his baptism. The day before his baptism Elder Fernberg was staring at the ceiling again with many thoughts coming to his mind about the baptism like most missionaries do. At that moment the image of the man who he distinctly pictured in the MTC came back to his mind and it was Brother Soto. He told me that the Spirit overwhelmed him more so than any other moment in his life. He found the man who he was sent to find. He fulfilled the purpose he was sent to fulfill. He told me he couldn't describe the emotions that came to him at that moment other than it was one of the happiest moments of his life. No wonder the Lord tells us, "if it so be that ye should labor all your days...and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" I am now beginning to understand what the Lord is trying to tell us in this scripture.

Now why do I tell you this story? I tell you because it is a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work. To add to that testimony, Elder Fernberg got transferred back into Spanish work. The Lord used him to fulfill his purpose to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." I know this is the Lord's church. We will find success as we "do his work in his way, by his power". Please know how grateful I am to be His missionary. I love every minute of what I am doing. There is no greater work in the world than that of missionary work.

We have had such a great and successful week. I really like being in a threesome because there is never a dull moment. Elder Rust and Elder Rudd are my companions. Try introducing those names to all the people you meet, it is a clear challenge. Anyway we had a successful week because we were able to set 2 baptism dates one of which came from a man who we met while walking home (we were walking home because they took our car away and gave it to the sister missionaries). His name is Joel and invited us to come back. When we went for our appt we taught about prophets and priesthood authority; during the lesson we invited him to be baptized and he accepted for the 18th of Sept. Joel brought is the sixth person that has decided to be baptized in our area with a specific date. The zone has 19 dates set, 17 for this month, which is more than this zone has seen in a long long long time. This success is coming from the new simplified curriculum from Elder Holland. Man, I love missionary work!

I hope all is well back home. I hope everyone is happy and healthy.
Love you all!

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Pocatello 24th of July Parade

2010-08-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Transfers Again 7/26/2010

2010-08-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

We got transfer info last night. Can you believe that this transfer came and went like that??? Holy smokes. Come Wednesday I have been out 9 months! Wow.

The transfer news is that I am staying in the Alameda stake. The sad news is that Elder Fernberg is getting transferred... I was really hoping he wouldn't. We've really got along this transfer and I've learned so much from him. The good news about that though is that I'll be getting Elder Rudd. I don't know if I've said anything about Elder Rudd in the past but he was my Zone Leader in St. Anthony for 4 1/2 months. I really like Elder Rudd. He and I went on exchanges twice while I was up north and we joked about serving together. When I got the leadership assignment Elder Rudd was the first one I called. He is way awesome. I'm looking forward to the next transfer. We'll also be having Elder Rust with us. Elder Rust goes home in three weeks so they wanted to put us in a threesome until he goes. Elder Rust is currently serving as a District Leader in our zone. Elder Rudd is from Jacksonville Florida and Elder Rust is from Philadelphia.

We were able to set another baptism date with a lady named Maria Mariani this week. She is in her 50s and has been way prepared for this to happen. Her life has been such a roller coaster of emotions. She was in prison for several years and was highly addicted to several drugs. She has completely changed her life around and now teaches at the prison to help inmates with addictions. She has such a great testimony already; it'll be great to see the testimony she'll have when we finish teaching her. The great thing about Maria is that she recognizes the events in her life and knows that it all happened for this moment. I love missionary work.

Oh way cool thing happened... Kinda worldly but still cool. If you remember back to December I made the comment that a missionary going to a ward party is a like a movie star walking the streets of Hollywood. I was way wrong. This is the comparison... A missionary in the 24th of July parade in Pocatello Idaho is like being a movie star walking the streets of Hollywood! Great times! We were asked to be on a float for the parade and I have never had so many people get excited to see me! Wow. Lots and lots of people shouting and cheering as we went by. Did I like it? Of course. It's me.

I forgot how wild people get around here for the 24th.

Well family, all is well. I am doing great! I love life and look forward to what the Lord has in store for this next transfer.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

New Way 7/19/2010

2010-07-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hello my great family!

How are ya? I'm doing great!

Man, time just keeps flying by! Can you believe that this is week 5 of this transfer?!?!? I can't. My 6th transfer just came and went like the wind in good ol' St. Anthony. The assistants and President Colton are meeting Wednesday to begin transfer meetings! When I was in St. Anthony one of our ward mission leaders told me that there will be a day when I get on my knees and plead with Heavenly Father to slow the time down, I'm now starting to understand what he meant by that and I'm not even past my year mark yet. It'll be interesting to see how the time goes next year.

Let me just tell you, this week was GREAT! I loved every second of it. As I told you last week we had our 3 day leadership conference here in Pocatello; it was fantastic! My mind was completely blown away and hasn't exactly returned to earth quite yet. Elder Holland has completely changed missionary work world wide. We now have what's called the new "simplified" curriculum. It is way inspired and has already worked wonders on our zone. One companionship set 3 baptism dates in just 2 days by applying the new curriculum. I must say though that if I was really to give you any details about it you would all be super confused except Chelsee because it is a spin off of Preach my Gospel. I guess Devin would kinda get it. What you need to know is that this is the difference in missionary work; we are no longer going to learn the lessons in PMG but will be completely focused on this new "simplified curriculum" for our missionary work. This doesn't mean that we disregard PMG, because this is all taken from it in just a more detailed way, what it means is that we focus more on the Spirit of prophesy and revelation for our investigators and only teach them what they need. Intense! The Pocatello Central Zone will be reporting 9 baptisms this month compared to the 0 from June, that is the difference in the new missionary work. And I'm pretty sure that's why President Colton put me in this zone.

Pretty much that meeting has been the focus for the week. We are doing really well and are starting to see miracles happen in our area. I'm excited to write next week and give you an update for what's happened with applying this new curriculum.

It was so fun to see the Bosen Family last week! It was really fun to see the other side of "missionary life". The reason I say that is because I knew Elder Bosen pretty well and knew all his missionary stories. When I met with his family they didn't know half of them or didn't know much detail to his Castle Rock stories, so I filled them in with details and awesome stories. The first thing Sister Bosen said when I met her was, "I guess Benji is supposed to marry your sister huh?" HaHa! YES!!! It's all been arranged! I don't even care if they get married while I'm on my mish just as long as it's in the Rexburg or Idaho Falls temple! This is going to be so great! Elder Bosen can be my best friend and my brother all at the same time! But seriously though, Chelsee, you gotta make this happen... I have it all arranged for you. Plus he's a great missionary so you can rest assured that he'll be a great husband. If you think about it, the Lord wants you to be married to him too... We wouldn't have gotten to know him as well if dad wasn't called as Bishop, I was sent to the IPM then got transferred to the same zone that he lives in for his homecoming, he's going to go to school at ISU which is in my zone still, he really helped me to get on my mission, his parents are now acquainted with mom and dad... the list goes on and on. Let's just recognize the little details here in the grand picture. I'm so excited!

That was my tangent for the day.

I hope all is well at home. I hope everyone is happy and well off.

Thank you all for your love and support.

I love this work. I love my companion. I love my area. I love the IPM.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Great Week 7/12/2010

2010-07-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

Howdy,

For those of you who have served a mission.... be jealous. I say be jealous because I am sad to tell you that your mission does not even come close to qualifying to the amount of awesome that the IPM has.... sorry.

So with that start into let me just tell you what is going to happen this week that is going to be so great! As I told you last week President Colton received a letter from Elder Holland with the new Preach my Gospel DVDs, with that letter and videos we are having a three day conference for all leadership in the mission (i.e. trainers, district leaders, and zone leaders) here in Pocatello at the institute building on ISU. All the leaders from the mission will be rooming with companionships in Pokey, Blackfoot, and American Falls. We will have a trainer from Rexburg staying with us. The conference will be Tues through Thurs from 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM then we will work in our areas with the extra missionary from 6:00 - 9:00 applying what we learned from the conference. When we get back to the conference the next day we will evaluate what we learned from the previous night in proselyting. It's gunna be big!

I had my first baptism in Pokey on Saturday for brother Mark Soto. He's in his 30s and is having a baby really soon. When he was dressing he made the comment to Elder Fernberg that he has known the church is true for a long time but its now that he had felt that he was ready to make the covenants. His sister-in-law was there, who is not a member, and was in tears the whole time. She told us that she wants to go to church; we'll be following up on that this week.

I had the opportunity to confirm Brother Soto yesterday in church. I don't know about you but for me a confirmation is much more rewarding than performing a baptism. I'm glad that I've been able to confirm so many converts on my mission.

Yesterday in the Alameda third ward was definitely on my top 3 most spiritual sacrament meetings ever. We had Bro. Soto's confirmation, Elder Fernberg and I did a musical number with a 7 year old boy who sang "I am a child of God" which brought everyone in the congregation to tears, and the Bishop and his counselor were the speakers on Tithing and Obedience. It was so so so great! We had two investigators there and the one who we sat with, Lori Allison, was balling the whole time. She was recently a victim of domestic violence from her boyfriend and when that boy, Beau, sang I am a child of God she couldn't hold anything back, she was balling.

We were able to set a baptism date with an "eternal" investigator yesterday. His name is Brandon Beers. He's 16 and has been meeting with missionaries for 5 years!! Let me just put some things in perspective for you about Brandon. He has read the Book of Mormon 7 times, he's read Preach my Gospel, He's more active than most of the teenagers in his ward, he's been in Seminary for 2 years, and he says "when I go on my mission..., and he gets asked to give talks at the sacrament services at the nursing home down the street. What 16 year old member or non-member do you know that does that? I don't know of a single one. What's been happening now is he is teaching us the missionary lessons because he knows them better than most greenie missionaries that come out. Awesome huh? I think so.

Well yesterday as Brandon was teaching us about Prophets we came to the conclusion that he needs the Holy Ghost now more than ever to prepare him for his mission. When we talked about that for a while I asked Brandon when he knows that he'll be ready to be baptized. He told us that his date is going to be the 24th of July. The ward council, us, and Brandon are fasting today for his dad to say yes. Please keep him in your prayers.

That's about it for the missionary work here in Pokey! We had a very very good week this week and I know that next week will be just as good.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

7-5-10

2010-07-12T15:00:00.001-07:00

What a great week! I am loving Pocatello more and more each week! I love that everything is so close and that we can actually talk to people on the street.

We have had a successful and extremely busy week. First off I went to my first zone leader council on Friday with all the zone leaders of the mission, the assistants, and President Colton. What a power house. I loved it. I didn't know the work that goes on behind the scenes of missionary work. I had no idea what the zone leaders had to do or the council they received. I really look forward to the next one on the 30th. We rode up to Idaho Falls for the meeting with the assistants and they informed me that we got a new zone leader last week due to some emergency transfers and such. Guess who the new zone leader is.... it's Elder Call! I was way excited to see my daddy again. I'm excited for this new change. He had just been called the night before the meeting so he still had the "dear in the headlights" look like I did for a few days.

At the zone leader council we learned of some huge changes that are taking place. Since Elder Holland has been the executive director over missionary work he has made huge changes. Well the other day President Colton received a letter that is taking missionary work to a whole new level. With out boring you with all the details pretty much what's going to happen is that the assistants and President are going to have much less to do with the IPM and the zone leaders are going to carry out everything. Kinda like a Stake President with a stake. You don't have the area authority seventy come for every training or for lead out all activities but rather a Stake President and Bishop do the work. That's how our mission is going to run but with much more detail and new plans. We think this is leading to a new version of Preach my Gospel. We'll see. We're having a 3 day zone leader conference in Idaho Falls to learn the "new way" of doing things.

I have learned so much this last week. Such spiritual growth. We had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the assistants on Friday. I went to their area with Elder Curtis; what a great missionary. He taught me so much. I really learned what it takes to be the leader I need to be. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to do what I need to but I will give 110% to be the best I can be. There is so much to learn from the assistants, I wish I could have spent a week with them. They are great.

Cool story; I got a phone call the other day from a Brother Wild. He told me that he is Elder Bosen's grandfather and he and his daughter (Elder Bosen's mom) would like to take me and Elder Fernberg out to dinner. That's going to be great! I'm way excited! I'm also really confident that I'll be here when he gets off his mission. President Colton told me to be thinking at least 6 months here in the Alameda stake. That's going to be great!

I also got another phone call from a Brother Drake who says, "Elder Walker I was just in Idaho Falls and talked with a missionary by the name of Elder Call, he tells me that you are a great organist. Well I play recitals at the conference center and the tabernacle in Salt Lake all the time. I would like to play the organ with you sometime." My thoughts were, Elder Call is a tool! I don't play the organ! He only said that because he knows how much I hate to play the organ! haha. Maybe if we played a little piano I would be okay but I would be way lost trying to play the organ with one who plays in SLC for recitals!

We have my first baptism in Poky coming up this Saturday. Brother Mark Soto is going to be baptized at 7:00 PM. I'm way excited for this to happen. The best part is that he is excited too.

Well the work is moving forward. I love every minute. I'm smiling all the time and love to do the work of the Lord.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Poky 6-28-2010

2010-06-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well hello there everyone!

This has been a great week! I'm pretty sure I've worked harder this week than any other week of my mission. As Zone Leaders we have to have the example area for the rest of the missionaries. We taught more lessons than one of our districts, we have 3 baptism dates right now and are planning to set some more this week.

Being a Zone Leader isn't as bad as I thought. I assumed that we would be busy doing administrative things most of the day but that isn't true at all. Although we get a million phone calls asking for permission to do things we don't really loose too much proselyting time. We do have a few more meetings to go to and some nights are hard to get to bed on time because of phone calls and such or dealing with issues but most days are not too bad. I have really enjoyed getting to know more missionaries and being able to offer advice by the Spirit.
Things I don't like are telling someone "no" when I would want to do the exact same thing that they are requesting permission to do. haha. That's life though isn't it.

This last week I conducted my first exchange ever. I've been on several exchanges as a missionary but never as the one to conduct the exchange. It was a success. I went with Elder Merrell from Georgia who has a super thick accent! It was fun. Kinda weird to be one who gets asked for advice or to help set goals of how to become a better missionary. I hope I was able to help him find new insights to his missionary work.

Coolest story for the week... There is a man that we've been working with who has made an incredible change in his life. Brother Pitman hasn't been active in the church for several years and has had events in his life that have led him back to the church. The great thing about Bro. Pitman is that he commits himself to change or he teaches himself. So here's the story, we went to our appt and the first thing he says is, "come in, I need the Spirit bad today and you bring it with you." As we started talking we wanted to commit him to live the word or wisdom. Well definately he felt the Spirit because before we could even say anything he says, "it's time to change, yup, get out the ointment, I need a blessing." At this time he gets on his knees and keeps saying get out the ointment. I did all I could to not chuckle. I said, "Bro. Pitman, I think you mean the consecrated oil. We don't need that for this type of blessing." He then says, "Well I don't care what you use, I just need some divine intervention here!" What a great man. Well long story short he is now starving for the Spirit and doing all he can to quit smoking. He goes out to teaching appts with us and now helps us to commit others to live the word of wisdom. We gave the talks in his ward yesterday and when I started I promised the congregation that as I shared my thoughts they would have a name come to their mind of someone who needed to be invited to come to church and to meet with us. When we were done Bro. Pitman came up to us with a list of at least 10 names and said, "Elder Walker, I need some Book of Mormons." He is so awesome!

Well we are working hard and having fun and most definately living it up! I really like this area. I really like the people we work with and the leaders of the church here. Doesn't mean that I don't miss St. Anthony because I really really do but this place is just as good. In fact when I have missionary dreams they are still with me proselyting in St. Anthony apparently my brain hasn't come yet... I can see me loving this area just as much.-- Peace and Love,Elder Walker

2010-06-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker with Elder Ponce - one of the AP's. Elder Ponce's last day on his mission was Tyson's first day in Pocatello.

Elder Walker and Elder White - This is the Elder that Tyson trained.

Elder Walker and his favorite missionaries!

Elder Walker's home on the Snake River in St. Anthony

Pocatello - June 21, 2010

2010-06-21T17:26:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Well... Probably the most crazy week of my mission.

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning were by far the hardest times for me emotionally. I didn't expect it to be so hard leaving St. Anthony. We made visits all Tuesday night to say good bye to everyone and then Wednesday morning I cried as we drove down the highway towards Rexburg to the transfer sight. St. Anthony will always have a very special place in my heart. I will forever thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have the many many great experiences I had and to know the people I knew there as well.

It is official, I am a Zone Leader in the Pocatello Central Zone. I don't even know what I'm doing but I'm learning each day. My companion is so great! Finally I got a companion that I will work really well with. He and I are doing so well. Elder Fernberg is so different than Elder Call and Elder White but different for a really good thing. He loves performing arts! He sings really really well and likes theatre! He's from Murrieta, California. He works super hard but has so much fun also. Man this is going to be such a great transfer.

The hardest part of being a Zone Leader is trying to get trained so fast. I've had to learn everything the District Leaders do and everything we do in just a few days. I've never really known the responsibilities of the leaders because I haven't been around them much. I've learned how important it is to be the example for my Zone but how to learn from every missionary around me. We had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the Assistants on Saturday and I asked Elder Curtis how I can be the most effective leader he said, "be the missionary who leads but is also willing to learn." I have already learned a bunch from my companion and from other missionaries in our Zone and will only continue to learn much much more. I love every second of it.

Pocatello is definitely a huge culture shock for me. I was so used to being in St. Anthony. A quiet place with not too many people. An area that is completely removed from everyone. We ruled the world up there in that little town. Here in Pocatello there is a huge difference! We see the Assistants all the time, our Zone sees us a whole bunch, and we drive past the mission office all the time. Definitely some changes. I pretty much went from Sedalia to Castle Rock. But great news! Elder Bosen's home is in my Zone! I'm pretty sure I'll be here when he reports his mission and because I can, we will be going on exchanges that day with the Highland Elders so I can be there. hehe.

Well I'll give you more experiences and I'll have some spiritual stories next week when my brain arrives from St. Anthony. I love you!-- Peace and Love,Elder Walker

2010-06-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker
The Tank in St. Anthony

A family Elder Walker has been teaching and reactivating since November

The St. Anthony Elders - (oh my)

June 7,2010 witness after a trail of faith‏

2010-06-07T10:41:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it's been a couple (or a "couple-three" as we say in Idaho) weeks since I've e-mailed the whole group. Let me just tell you that this week has been crazy! So much has happened! I don't even know where to start...

This week we've had the Spanish Missionaries stay with us at our house because of a teenage girl that came to stay with the family they live with. It was so much fun! There is wisdom behind President Colton not letting 4 missionaries stay together because I was super distracted during studies and getting to bed on time was near impossible. Probably the most fun I've had in one week than any other week since I've been here. When they were packing up to leave on Saturday we took their mattresses and made a slide down our stairs... you would've had to have seen it.

We had interviews on Tuesday with President Colton. During the interview he unofficially told me that I am getting transferred and where I'm going. His exact words were, "now Elder Walker we haven't decided this yet but I'm pretty sure your time is up in St. Anthony." After talking about how great this area is he then told me, "you'll have great areas anywhere in the mission but I think you'd do great in Pocatello. Yeah, let's send you to Pocatello." So there you have it. I guess I may possibly be going to Pocatello. How cool would it be to serve in Elder Bosen's home ward when he gets home? That would be so great! Obviously this doesn't mean that it is going to happen because they are deciding transfers this week but I'm pretty sure my time is up too. We'll find out for sure next Sunday when they send out the transfer information.

On Saturday we took Stephanie Westover, my recent convert, to the Idaho Falls temple visitor's center to see "Testaments". What we didn't know though was that her husband showed up too! He isn't a member, in fact he normally avoids church things. We were running a bit behind in getting there so while they were waiting for us they took a walk around the temple grounds together. Stephanie made the comment to us that she feels such peace there. She said that it feels like she doesn't want to talk but to just soak it all up. We then went into to theatre to see the film. Anyways, the Westovers had a great experience. The next day, which was fast Sunday, Stephanie got up to bear her testimony. She told of her experience and then testified of the reality of Jesus Christ actually coming to America. There is not much more rewarding than to hear the testimony of an individual who you helped bring into the church. I will never forget that moment.

(Side note: When the film started I decided to go use the restroom so I didn't have to get up from the middle of it to disrupt the spirit. In the visitor's center the women's restroom and the men's restroom doors face each other. When I opened the door the women's side opened too. Jessica Bartholio was coming out at the same time as me! Crazy! I guess she was with a group from school to see the Joseph Smith film. We got really excited and then took a picture in front of the Christ statue there in the center.)

To top off my day with even more greatness yesterday we had another wonderful experience. Caroline Clemens, the lady who is getting baptized on Saturday, went to church with us. Before the meeting started we explained to her what testimony meeting is and how it works, she then said, "I don't have to go up there do I?", we explained that she doesn't have to but we encourage her to if she feels the spirit tell her to. Now a little background on Caroline, she is an extremely shy person. She hates being around large groups of people. It took us a few weeks just to convince her to sit up front with us rather than in the very back at church. Well as the meeting gets going she starts getting a bit antsy. We thought that she was wanting to get out. She finally stood up and walked up to the pulpit to share her testimony with the congregation! She gave a very simple yet very powerful testimony. While talking she said, "I am very thankful for Elder Walker and Elder White..." She then started to cry up at the pulpit. Trying to regain herself she managed to get out, "...for bringing the church into my life." At this time my companion and I are just balling on the front row of the chapel. Our ward mission leader, Kurt Harrison, was sitting behind us and was balling. The Bishop up front was balling. President Crapo was there too and was balling. Pretty much that was the moment I've been needing for a very long time.

I am so blessed. The Lord gave me just a great experience yesterday, an experience I will never forget. Those moments are what make this worth it. To know that I was able to bring joy to some body's life makes every challenge, every sorrow, every heartache, worth it. The Lord has to give us a trail of faith before he will give us a witness.

I am so happy. I can't wait for this Saturday when Caroline gets baptized. What a glorious day that will be. -- Peace and Love,Elder Walker

Spud Factory Tour

2010-05-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

Elder Walker at the Spud Factory

Spuds 5/17/2010

2010-05-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well howdy everyone,

Oh boy, what a week. We went to the spud factory last Monday which was awesome! You might not think that a spud factory sounds that exciting but it was. This place puts out over 3 million pounds of potatoes a year. Crazy amount of spuds.

On Tuesday I went to Big Jud's for the first time up in Ashton. If you have never been to big Jud's, let me just tell you, it lives up to it's name. Those burgers are HUGE! And that is an understatement. What a great experience.

My companion had to have surgery on Thursday on his foot. He wasn't allowed to move around so we had to stay in on Thursday. I hated that. I was so antsy; our apartment hasn't been as clean as it is now from Thursday.

Friday we went to Zone Conference. This zone conference was the best one I've been to yet. The theme for this conference was charity and love. President Colton gave such a great talk and the assistants gave an awesome training. I was asked to play the organ, which I do at every zone conference, but this organ was the oldest thing I've ever seen! I had no idea how to play it. The buttons were all different and it was way smaller than usual. I did my best though and it all worked out.

My favorite part of zone conf. is at the end when we sing "How firm a Foundation". We sing all 7 verses of that song every time as the closing hymn. The words to that hymn are so powerful and so motivating. I encourage you all to read those words and think about how the song applies to you. You will find new great insights to life.

We finally got a baptism date set! Caroline Clemens is her name; she has a 2 year old Son and raises him all on her own. She is 24 and just recently went through a terrible divorce. Get this, she is a Seminary graduate but has never been baptized. She grew up in a foster family that encouraged her to go to seminary. Don't ask me how it is possible for her to attend seminary for 4 years and never join the church but here we are. She has had a really rough life and hasn't ever felt genuine love from anyone before. We explained that although she hasn't felt love in her life, there is one who has always loved her and that is Jesus Christ. She went silent and then said that she never looked at it that way before. She said that our persistence has meant more to her that we will ever know because it shows how much we care about her. We taught her for the second time on Saturday and she accepted a baptism invitation for the 12th of June.

Yesterday was Stake Conf. This time was different though because it was broadcast from Salt Lake. We got to hear from Elder Grow of the Seventy, Sister Johnson of the Relief Society General Presidency, Elder Robert D. Hales, and lastly President Monson. This broadcast was for all of south eastern Idaho, 72 stakes I think. I really enjoyed hearing what these incredible people had to say to us Idaho people. My favorite part was listening to Elder Grow's talk. The majority of his talk was about President Phile of the Colorado Springs Mission! Elder Grow talked about his conversion story.

Well that's pretty much all the updates. I hope you all have a great week!--

Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

Crazy Week: 5/10/2020

2010-05-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody,

Well pretty much this week has been chaos! We packed on Tuesday, picked up the new missionaries Wednesday and showed them their new area, moved Thursday, got furniture Friday, and called home Sunday. Crazy week!

Technically I got transfered because I opened a new area in the same area which I reside. We moved houses across town and split geographically the area which I had. The new house where we live is huge! Probably the biggest in the mission. It's a two story house for just two of us. Let me just tell you, missionaries don't have a whole bunch of furniture so our house looks pretty empty. We are located right on the snake river and have a great view of the Teton Mountains out our front windows. Pretty awesome hook up.

Pretty much that is all the exciting things that have happened. Doesn't seem like much but it was a crazy week.

I hope all is well and everyone is fine. I love you.

paz y amor
E. Walker

2010-05-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Transfers!!! 5/3/10

2010-05-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Well I'm sure you are all so anxious to hear transfer information... Let me tell you something first. I've served faithfully in St. Anthony for 6 months now. From Nov 18th to now, May 3rd... 4 transfers. 13 baptisms. 2 companions. And now the verdict... are you ready???? I'm staying in St. Anthony another 6 weeks!!! I've actually known that I was staying for a while now because President Colton told me last week. He told me that Elder White doesn't know this area well enough to be on his own.

Oh boy, I don't know what to think about this. I'm pretty sure that President Colton has forgotten about me because I'm so far from Pocatello. Just joking I know he hasn't. 5 transfers?!?! that is forever! Don't get me wrong I love St. Anthony. I really do. The people are so great here. I just don't know how much longer I can stay in one area. I discovered that I am the only one of the 20 that came out with me that is still in my "birth" area. How great is that? Pretty much I've come to the conclusion that I'm spending 2 years here.

Some exciting news though... They are splitting this area! Because of the amount of work and baptisms we've had President Colton is adding two missionaries to this stake. I'm sure how I feel about this. I don't want some missionaries coming in and taking half of my area away from me. That's terrible! We found out that the other missionaries are going to be staying with President Walker. I hope I get to move out there. He's such a great man. I think that President Colton is going to ask me to split this area. Pressure! I don't know how to split up the work. I guess I'll be praying pretty hard the next few days. Which wards do I want and/or don't want?

As I'm sure everyone knows I had the great opportunity to see Chelsee on Friday. What a great experience that was. I love love love the Rexburg temple and soak up every opportunity I get to go. I must confess that I did do something I wasn't supposed to do. When President told me I could go he told me that there is one condition, "do not hug her in broad daylight" he said. Well let me just say when we pulled in the parking lot and I saw the "green machine" (the aveo) I got super excited. Then I saw my sister. I couldn't hold back I just gave her a huge hug in the parking lot of the temple. oops. My bad.

One of our ward mission leaders was in that session and when we got to the celestial room Chelsee came and sat by me and I put my arm around her for a second. Brother Hirschi looked at me all funny so I went to explain who Chelsee was and let him know that I'm not an apostate missionary. haha

What a great reunion that was. She had some great advice to give and some awesome stories to tell. I can't wait until I get to that point when I can tell some sweet mission stories.

I must say though that I got just a little trunky when I saw my cell phone and found out that she'll be reading this e-mail on MY brand new macbook laptop!!! It's okay. I can learn to share.

Well this week has probably been the hardest week of the mission; a definite trial of my faith. Without going in too much detail pretty much a summary is that we have two boys, Jonny and Jordan, that were supposed to be baptized on Saturday. Well their mom called us Thursday night to tell us that she doesn't want her boys to get baptized. Let me just tell you, when a child has such a desire to get baptized and someone tells them that they can't, not only does that rip my heart out but worse is that it kills me to see the sorrow that comes to them.

The next terrible thing is that Jace who also was supposed to get baptized on Saturday postponed his baptism to the 15th, which is okay because he said that he needed more time, which we respect. Well on our way out to the lesson last night he called us to tell us that he needs to take a break. AWW!!!! He knows this is true. He has a testimony and yet he is destroying his potential of becoming great! We know why he needs a 'break' and that is because of the influence of his stupid anti family.

Well long story short, I was feeling pretty bad for myself and was on the verge of depressed when I read a scripture that changed my perspective. In the book of Helaman ch.14 vs. 30 it says, "...whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself...for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves" I know that these people have the gift of agency because they are exercising that right to choose for themselves. Although it hurts, I know that when I stand at the judgement bar of Almighty God I will be guiltless because I did all I could to help them succeed.

There is a lesson to be learned here. We must do all we can to help others. We do not want to have a knowledge of a person that was placed specifically in our path to help and we did nothing. Reach out and exercise charity. You will experience something great.

Well this is a super long e-mail. I hope you all made it through. I love you all very much.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

4/26/2010 Yesterday was a Bad Day!

2010-05-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

For those of you who have sent me letters, and I haven't replied to them yet, I'm sorry. I think something is wrong at the mission office and them forwarding the letters to me. Usually the mail only takes three days to get here from Colorado but for some reason it's taking it a week and a half to get to me. I think the reason is because we just got new senior missionaries in the office and they probably don't know what they are doing. It's sad because I thought nobody was writing to me anymore until I got a letter from Hedy Lu that was stamped 13 Apr from Denver and I just got it a few days ago.

Transfers are next week and when I found out if I'm going or staying I'll give you my home address rather than the mission address so the letters get here on time. Thank you for your patience.

Last Monday was such a great day! We always go to Wal Mart in Rexburg (where BYU is) on Mondays but usually around noon. Last week my companion took a few hours to do e-mails which pushed our schedule back. We finally got to Wal Mart around 2:00 and when we walked through the doors I heard some girls calling out Tyson, Tyson. Now keep in mind I haven't heard my first name for about 6 months but I still had the reaction to turn around and look. When I turned around I saw a person who looked like Torie Lee but my mind couldn't register who she was. Although I know I'm only 10 miles away from the college I still feel like I'm completely isolated from the world. I just stood there for a few seconds and then light bulb! It was Torie! I was in complete shock! I went over to say hello but probably seemed like a complete weirdo because I had no idea what to say. Not that it was awkward, but definitely a shock. What a great experience though. I knew that would happen at one point I'm glad that it has. When we got done with our shopping all these things started to flow to my brain about what I wanted to tell her. Oh well, maybe it'll happen again.

Yesterday I had the worst day of the mission. My first official sick day. Being sick as a missionary is not fun especially on a Sunday when we have so many meetings and appts. I think what happened is that the dinner we ate on Saturday night wasn't cooked properly so all day Sunday my companion and I were throwing up everything. It was not pretty. I'm just fine now which makes me think that it had to be the dinner from Saturday night.

This Saturday is going to be a great day. We are going to have 4 convert baptisms! The most in one day I have ever had here. They are Jace Crain, Liem Dillmore, Jordan Badachi, and Johnny Badachi. I'm very excited for this weekend. Pretty much any weekend when I can go to the temple with my sister and then the next day have 4 baptisms is a great weekend in my book.

We had such a great experience with Jace last night. When we taught him last Wednesday he was having doubts about his baptism and if these things really are true or not. Last night when we taught him he was still having those same concerns and doubts. He said that when he prayed he felt like he needed to push his date back to June 1st. I told him that Heavenly Father told me and my companion through the Holy Ghost that May 1st was his day and that by pushing it back he would only be pushing back blessings. I told him that we wanted to ask right now. We all kneeled down and I said the prayer. When I said, "Heavenly Father is Jace supposed to be baptized this Saturday" I paused for what seemed to be a lifetime but was probably only 15 seconds. The Spirit filled the room. I thought I received a witness as to when he is supposed to be baptized but after that experience I know that this Saturday is when is to be baptized. He knows it too.

Well I know this e-mail is pretty scattered and extremely unorganized but that is how my brain is today. I hope you all are doing well. I love you all.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

Baptism #12 4/19/2010

2010-05-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

What a great week! Oh my heck. Probably the busiest week so far in the mission.

We had another baptism for Kyler Kunz on Saturday. What a powerful baptism that was. Probably one of the best I've been involved in. Kyler is such a stud. He is 12 years old and was so ready for that day. He came to his baptism in his new suit he got from his grandparents which was too big for him so he can grow into it. His mom who isn't a member is soooo close to getting dunked. Amber has such a desire to get baptized. She has been to church every Sunday since the first Sunday in January. She has family prayer every night, prayer over their food, and scripture reading each day. She knows the church is true and wants more than anything to get to the point of baptism. The problem is that she can't quit her smoking. It really rips my heart out to see her desire and her testimony grow but yet she is so addicted to a substance that is preventing her from recieving the blessing of eternal life. She tells us that she wants more than anything to go to the temple and be sealed together. At Kyler's baptism she was an emotional wreck. Especially when President Walker gave some closing remarks. I know she was emotional because of her sincere desire to make this covenant.

Speaking of President Walker, he is such a great stake president. Even though he's been the only one I've worked with, he's the best. He has been to every single one of our convert baptisms. He calls us often to ask what he can do to help. He takes sincere interest in the people we are teaching and makes an effort to get to know them. The spanish elders had a baptism on Saturday also and instead of taking his day off President Walker was at the church most of the day supporting the missionary work in his stake. He tells me every transfer that I need to let him know when transfers are so he can call President Colton and work out a deal to keep me here. I would choose to finish out my mission in St. Anthony if I could. There aren't better people on the planet than these people here.

I hope you remember our recent convert Aaron Boots. We went out to his house yesterday for his first new member lesson. We went a few minutes early to check up on them before their home teachers came. While talking I was invited to go and "shoot dog" next Monday. Shoot dog is when the calf runs out of a "shoot" which is like a cage and you have to grab hold of it by the horns and twist to get him to lay down on his side. Be ready for some awesome pictures next week! I'm so excited. I don't know if this is exactly approved but we're supposed to experience the culture right? I think of this as a cultural experience.

We had the wonderful opportunity to pick up 6 new investigators this last week. Four of the six is a whole family! That doesn't happen too often here in Idaho. We are teaching this lady, Mary Lu, and her 3 kids. One day this family went to the church on a Tuesday night to go to church. One of the Bishops found her and took her information and gave it to us. We have now taught them two times and are working on getting a date for their baptism. Miracles happen every day. I think of the movie August Rush when August says, "music is all around us all we have to do is listen" I want to change that to say "miracles happen all around us all we have to do is look". Who says that miracles stopped with Jesus' Apostles? I am a witness that miracles do happen. There are no such things as coincidences; coincidences are what people call miracles that are too blind to see God's hand in our life.

I love you all. More importantly I know that God loves you all.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

Rock It Up 4/12/10

2010-05-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

We officially have rocked up St. Anthony. Well maybe not us, but the Spirit has rocked up St. Anthony.

We were successful in setting 3 more baptism dates which will total 5 baptisms this transfer. And people think there isn't work to do in Idaho... Sheesh, apparently there is. Well there is in St. Anthony anyway.

We have had a great week. Missionary work has seemed to explode the last few weeks and I am very excited to be apart of it. St. Anthony is such a great area with such great people. It is going to be a very sad day when I have to leave here and leave these people. I have built such a bond with these people I'm sure it will last for eternity. Missionary work is great.

Last night we had the great opportunity to take Jace to the Idaho Falls Temple Visitors Center. We watched "Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration" with him and then stayed for a fireside. When the video was finished we sat there for a few moments just letting the Spirit work on him and then finally I spoke up and asked him what he is feeling inside. His response was, "it's amazing to see what people can do. On both spectrum great things were done." He has now officially accepted the gospel and knows that this is true! What a great time we had.
The brother who spoke at the fireside was just recently called to preside over a mission in Indonesia. His presentation was perfect. He has his PhD in science and talked about putting faith before science. We couldn't have asked for a better topic. That is exactly what Jace is struggling with is science and faith. Afterwards I talked with this man and before I could even tell him anything he said, "Elder, I know that what I said tonight was exactly what that man who was sitting by you needed to hear." The Spirit works in such great ways! One more or the many miracles I have been able to witness as a missionary.

Training is going pretty good. I feel that this assignment has helped me become a greater missionary. My companion is doing well. Although he and I are completely, completely, completely different we are trying to find common ground. He is super into Science Fiction and Pokemon. He talks about all of these characters that he makes up each day to go into a book he is writing, kinda like another star wars, harry potter type thing. Despite all of that he is my brother and I love him. We may not be similar in any ways but what he are similar in is the gospel of Jesus Christ and our testimonies of what is true. be are both missionaries and that is what makes us the same.

I hope all is well with everyone. I hope everybody is finding success. Above all I hope you are all happy.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

Happy Day After Easter 4/5/10

2010-05-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

What a great week! Well every week is great but this one was great too.

Conference was great! I loved it. I have never experienced conference in the way I did the last 2 days. What a great time we have to listen to the prophet speak to us. Since Elder Scott came to the mission I have had a new view of the Apostles and a definite testimony of their divinity. I don't think I have ever wished for there to be more conference but after this weekend I really want more to be said.

I thought that for sure we would have some people to sit with in the stake center but with this being Idaho, us and the Spanish Elders were the only ones watching conference at the stake center. We tried to get our investigators to go with us but when they can get it on local television we had no success. We did get some to come to priesthood session but that's all.

I'm glad to hear that my great Sister is home safely. She is still the best missionary ever. I can't wait when I get to see her and hear her stories in a few weeks.

Yesterday was such a great day. As many of you know, I am training right now. I love to train because I don't do most of the training. All I have to do is be the best missionary I can be and use the Holy Ghost in all aspects of missionary work and then my companion will follow suit. This was witnessed to me last night when we were teaching Jace, our investigator who is going to be baptized on 1 May. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with him for Easter and then after the video bore witness of the reality of the Resurrection and that the Lord Jesus Christ lives. After the lesson my companion sat really quiet in the car and then started to cry and expressed that he felt the spirit so strong. I then helped him understand and recognize the authority he has to proclaim to the world that this is true and that Jesus Christ lives. He and I both had such a great lesson with Jace last night. He told us that he has no more reason to believe that this isn't true. Now mind you that when we started he didn't even believe in the Bible or comprehend faith. The Spirit works in such wonderful ways.

In my studies this morning I was reading in Alma and came upon some scriptures that have such a great meaning to me. In the 29th chapter of Alma, verses 9 and 13, "...I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. ... that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full.

My joy is full. I am so incredibly happy. I can't even express my joy and my pure spiritual happiness. No greater joy have I ever felt than being part of bringing a soul to God. I am eternally thankful to my God for giving me this chance in my life to serve him. At this Easter time I gladly give my whole self to this great cause. The Savior gave his all for me, I can do all I can for him. How great is my calling!

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13

I love this work. The Lord is my savior and redeemer. I love him.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

3/29/2010 New Adventure

2010-05-03T11:47:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

So let me start by saying that I appreciate all of your love and care for me in this new adventure of my mission.

I gave a very successful birth on Wednesday morning at about 10:17 AM to a baby boy. His name is Elder Christopher White from South Carolina. When I first saw him his first words were, "I will never call you 'daddy'". I just laughed. I think he was having a rough morning... Things have changed and he is starting to loosen up.

He really is a great missionary with great potential. I have really felt the mantle shift from Elder Call to myself this week though. When we plan I feel more inspiration and direction than I did before; when we are in teaching appointments I feel more direction in what scriptures to use and answers to questions than I did before as well. I never thought that I would miss Elder Call but when I was laying in bed on Wednesday night I really felt the appreciation that I never thought I had for that great missionary. He is one that I will always remember. He truly has set me a path that will make my mission and my life successful. I know that I wouldn't be training now myself if it wasn't for the lessons and the experiences that my trainer taught me.

Let me share with you an experience we had yesterday that is both funny and humbling. We were asked to speak in the Twin Groves first ward yesterday, which was Elder White's first assignment. I told him at the transfer sight that his first assignment was to prepare a 15 minute talk on the role of missionaries in missionary work. He accepted the assignment and had a few days to prepare. Well we get to sacrament meeting in which there were no sustainings and the youth speaker only spoke for 2 minutes. We were left with about 35 minutes for the two of us. As the senior companion I was asked to speak last. Elder White was really nervous. When it was our turn I told him to talk for 17 minutes. He got up and gave great insights on missionaries and what we do and then started to bear his testimony after only 6 minutes! I was flipping out when he concluded leaving me with 30 minutes to fill... Let me just tell you, that talk was definitely when I depended upon the spirit for help the most to help me with what to say to double my planned talk.

That is the funny part of the story. The serious part is while I was speaking I had such a direct impression come to me that Jace Crain, one of our investigators, was going to accept a baptism invitation that night if it was extended by Elder White. I pushed that thought out of my head because Elder Call and I invited him 3 previous times to be baptized with no success. When we were driving to the apartment to eat lunch I told my companion that he needed to listen very carefully to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and act upon them in the appointment with Jace. Now mind you I didn't tell him to set a baptism date or even tell him that he had rejected an invitation 3 times in the past all I simply said was to follow the promptings. Well we got to the lesson in which we started to talk about blessings and the example of Jesus Christ. I then turned the lesson over to Elder White to add his testimony or any comments he had. As soon as my companion opened his mouth I felt the Spirit just fill the room, he then proceeded to extend the invitation to be baptized. Jace accepted the invitation and will be baptized on the 1st of May.

I'm reminded of what President Colton told us in the "train the trainers" meeting. He said, "the Lord loves to use 'green' missionaries in his work." I know that is true. I know that the spirit told my companion what to say and when to say it. I also know that the Lord works on his time, not ours. Elder White was sent here to invite Jace to be baptized and he was the only one who could do it.

I remember the first baptism date that I set. It was with the Westover family. Elder Call did the same thing to me and let me set the first baptism date. I will always remember that moment. When I was able to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost and successfully set a date, it was then that I finally felt like a missionary. I hope my companion feels the same way.

We are working hard each day. Harder than I think we have strength to do. There is still so much work to do here in St. Anthony and I'm glad that the Lord has me here to stay for 6 more weeks.

We do the Lord's work, His way, and only by His power. I know that this is the true gospel because of the miracles that I witness each day. I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and will always do what he requires of me.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

I'm Pregnant!!!! (March 22, 2010)

2010-03-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!

First off I've been working on my Spanish. The Spanish Elders in my district, who I have become extremely close to, are working really hard to teach me their language. When we go on exchanges with them we have some serious Spanish learning. I have now learned to pray, bear testimony, and teach a bit of the lessons in Espanol. I'm really thinking about asking President to put me in a bilingual or Spanish area because just the other day he said that he really needs more Spanish speakers in this mission.

Well here is the most exciting part of the week; well I don't know if I would say exciting as much as terrifying. We were on exchanges this last week on Thursday and Friday and while I was laying in bed for the night I was thinking about transfers, which are on Wednesday, and as I was thinking the thought came into my head that I was going to be called as a trainer. I immediately pushed that thought out because there was no way I was going to be called to train with only being out 41/2 months and especially with only 4 new missionaries coming this transfer. That was the end to my thinking on the topic. Well Friday nights are when President calls to give new leadership assignments and when I didn't hear from him that night I just assumed that Elder Call and I would be staying together again because President Colton said that he wasn't going to be moving too many missionaries this transfer. Saturday morning as we were finishing personal study I got lost in my thoughts about this transfer and what was going to happen. At 9:07 the phone rang and it said "President Colton" and my heart skipped beats. I answered and he said, "Elder Walker I have a new assignment for you." That sentence coming from the mission President is enough to make you start shaking. I know because that is what happened. Well President has asked me to serve this mission as a trainer and a senior companion.

Well that was enough to get me to shake for the rest of the day. I think I have coped with the idea now but come Wednesday when I pick up my new, new companion I will be shaking again.

I am staying in St. Anthony again and will be a daddy. I am giving birth in my birth area! Weird huh? I haven't ever had another companion other than my trainer. I really need prayers come Wednesday especially because I'm still "green" myself. I know that I'm not ready for this change but the Lord is and he is my senior companion. This is going to be an adventure.

We set a baptism date this week with a boy named Kyler Kunz. He is 12 and he and his Mother are not members. Kyler's mom, Amber, is sooooo close to getting wet. I think when she sees her son get baptized that might be the catch to get her to commit.

Missionary work is still going forward. St. Anthony was sad to hear that Elder Call is leaving to Idaho Falls but we will continue to work hard and labor in the Lord's vineyard. I love this work and love the Lord.

peace and love,
Elder Walker

Elder Walker March 15, 2010

2010-03-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Well I asked President about seeing Chelsee when she comes up here. He said I can! That makes me very excited. He told me I can do what ever I want, I can go to the temple, go to lunch, maybe both... He told me to give her a big hug (not in front of a lot of people) and then tell her I'll see her in two years. I'm very very excited that I can see my sister when she gets home.

Transfers are coming up not this week but the next. I asked President Colton about transfers and he told me that this mission is only getting 4 new missionaries; he wants to keep this transfer as invisible as possible. I said so does that mean that I will be staying in St. Anthony with Elder Call again? He said that most likely we will. I told him that means I am the only missionary that came out with my group that is still with my trainer and will be with him for 6 months. He then responded and said, "well if you didn't baptize 11 people in 2 1/2 transfers then I would consider splitting you up. I do like Elder Call, and I love St. Anthony but things are getting a bit monotonous. I think it's weird to be with your trainer for 4 transfers. Elder Call told me the other day that if we do stay together again then that is cheating me of some learning experiences from other missionaries. He said that he learned the most from his second companion anyways. Who knows though, President told me that before they even decided anything.

Well we still don't have any baptism dates set yet but we are trying really hard. We have a couple that are getting close but are afraid to commit because of word of wisdom problems. I hope to see a difference here this next transfer if I stay again.

I never thought that the temperature getting to the 30s would be warm, but let me tell you, we are getting toasty here in the 30s. When the temperature gets that high we like to park the car and walk because it's warm enough to be outside without coats.

We look forward to general conference because then we can take off our suit coats and just wear white shirts. I wish we could go out in jeans but that is just wishful thinking...

We are going to take Robert Terrill to the Idaho Falls temple visitor center on Tuesday to see the Joseph Smith film and Legacy. It's great to have a visitors center close to take investigators and recent converts to see films and paintings.

I love you all very much. I hope all is well and life is great.

Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

March 8th

2010-03-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

So the funniest thing just happened 30 seconds ago... Elder Call just flipped while reading his e-mail, stood up and started pacing. I was like what's going on? He says read this e-mail. I read a paragraph that says that his family has put up his house for sale and they are now moving to Texas from Illinois. The reason this is so funny is because he has always given me grief about Colorado being the second most prideful state in the Union with Texas being the most. Karma! This is hilarious! Only because this didn't happen to me. hint hint... please don't move away from Colorado... ever.

Alright so the update for this week. We concluded our 11th baptism this Saturday. Robert Terrill was baptized very successfully. He was very excited and very prepared for that day. Once again I had the great opportunity to confirm Brother Terrill. There is no greater opportunity than that of giving a child of God the gift of the Holy Ghost. I can't wait to see him take his wife to the temple a year from now. After the baptism Brother Terrill took me aside and told me that if he had a son he would hope that he would be just like me. I will never forget that moment. That means a hole bunch to me.

We have now run into a problem... Yesterday was the first day of the mission that we did not have anyone with a baptism date. I don't know what has happened. Actually I think that the problem is that the stake just got rearranged and we got 7 new ward mission leaders. I think the work is going to explode when these new bishops and ward mission leaders get things under control.

The next transfers are on the 24th of March. I'm pretty sure Elder Call is going to get transferred because he has been here for a while but then again think of Elder Bosen, he had a lot of junior companions leave before he did. I think we need a little change here to get things going again.

Congratulations to Iver to get his call to Mexico. That officially means that every one of my friends are Spanish speaking except Scott. Bernie, Casey, Spencer, Patrick, and now Iver are Spanish speaking. I think it's great for Iver to go to Mexico because he is already used to eating bugs... haha. I'm very excited for him. I know he'll be a great missionary.

I do have one thing to say about the Idaho Pocatello Mission. There aren't too many missions where you get a shoulder workout because of waving to everybody who honks at us to say hi. Also I feel like a celebrity sometimes especially going to ward parties or church. Everyone wants to shake the missionaries hands.

Yesterday the lesson in church was about home teaching. I had the impression that I know that dad and I taught the Lindsey family for a reason. I believe that by dad making me teach the lessons I was prepared to teach families here in Idaho. I know that wasn't a coincidence. What a great family for me to "practice" on for preparation.

Well the last thing that happened is that we got our new car on Saturday. We got a brand new Chevy Malibu. It smells like new car which is my favorite part. The funny thing is that because our mission is so close to Utah our car has Utah license plates. Now everyone knows who the missionaries are.

Well the work is going forth. We plan on working hard all the way to the end of this mission. I know there are more people to find. We had a district fast yesterday to find more people to teach. I shouldn't complain because having 11 baptisms in 3 1/2 months isn't a bad thing by any means.

I love you all very much. I hope and pray that little Briggan is doing well.

Peace and Love,
Elder Walker

March 1, 2010 Four Months

2010-03-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to hear the news that Briggan is doing well. There is not much worse than being so close to him and knowing that I am so helpless. I'm am relieved to know that all is well and that I can continue with out worry.

Yesterday I hit my 4 month mark. Can you even believe that it's been four months already? I can't. I also realized that if I stay in St. Anthony another transfer I will hit my 6 month mark here meaning that I would have spent a quarter of my mission in this great place. I hope that happens. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks though.

At church yesterday they had a returned missionary speak. He said something that has really made me think... He said, "homesickness results in the guilt of not showing your love for your family when you had the chance." I then think about Max Bastian after he was out a bit and how Spencer would say that he turned into a softy. Maybe I'm just going through one of those stages; I hope you all know that I love you. I know I wasn't perfect at showing my love, especially my Junior and Senior year of high school with the chaos, but please know that If I could do it again I would show more of my love to my family. If there is one thing I learn from this mission it is how much my family means to me.
President Walker, the stake president, said at a recent baptism, "Heavenly Father could have had us do this on our own but that isn't the way he created His plan, he put us here in families for a reason." I strongly testify of what President Walker said. My greatest joy is seeing a family become united in the gospel.

Aaron Boots was baptized Saturday! None of you will understand why that is so significant just trust me when I say that it is. He has been meeting with missionaries for 3 years! The last month or two we really focused on eternal families and our Heavenly Father's plan for us. That has really hit home for Aaron. He now understands the responsibility he has as a husband and father to keep his family together in the Celestial Kingdom with our Father in Heaven. I had the wonderful opportunity to confirm Aaron yesterday. Let me tell you, if there is ever a light that turns on in someone after baptism, Aaron Boots was a spotlight. He had such a different countenance about him. His burdens were lifted and his spirit was rejoicing. THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT. This is why I am here. This is who my Father in Heaven has sent me to find. Aaron is now apart of his fold and I have never felt such spiritual satisfaction than to watch his progress.

On a more temporal note... Elder Call crashed this week. We were late for a meeting so he was speeding. Well the roads were icy and we went off the road. The problem was that the car crashed into this large chunk of ice which took us air born and flip us 180 degrees. We were protected and we are fine. We do get a new car this week which is great. It's either going to be a truck or a Subaru so we will have four wheel drive. The brother who pulled us out asked where we were from and when I said Colorado he made comment, "well why don't they have you drive? I wouldn't be pulling you out of this mess if you were driving." I just laughed because that's what most people say when they find out where I'm from.

Well that's pretty much all the exciting things I'm doing... I do spend quite a bit of time with the Spanish elders because Elder Call has a bunch of leadership meetings this transfer. It's great though because they are teaching me Spanish. I now know how to bear my testimony in Spanish and how to pray. I'm going to ask President if there is an opportunity I would like to be put into a bilingual area. Wouldn't that be cool? Espanol es muy facil.

Peace and love everyone... amame

Elder Walker

Feb 22, 2010 ... IPM

2010-02-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

This week has been quite the eventful week. We got a call on Tuesday night that our 75 year old investigator, Robert, had a heart attack and was taken to the Rexburg hospital. Robert Terrell is the one that is going to be baptized on the 6th of March. We immediately canceled our appointments for the night and rushed down to Rexburg. We found him in the ER just as they were strapping him up to take him to Idaho Falls to a heart specialist. When we got there his wife Rose said that we got there at a perfect time because they were just about to go. We asked brother Terrell if he would like a blessing and he replied that he would. We gave him a blessing of comfort and council. I don't remember what was said in the blessing except that the phrase, "everything in your life has prepared you for this moment", has stuck with me since that time. Well they found out that his heart had sped up to about 250 bpm which sparked the heart attack. He now has a pace maker and defibrillator to keep his heart on track. When we got to the hospital his first concern was if he was going to make it to his baptism. We told him that it didn't matter if he did or if his father in heaven called him home that we would take care of his baptism either way. We stopped by to see him yesterday after church and he is doing well. He told us that we are to plan for him to be baptized on the 6th of March unless his doctor tells him otherwise; I'm thinking we are going to have to postpone it...

That event has made me really stop and reflect on the authority that I hold to stand in place of my Heavenly Father and use his power to bless his child. I'm sure that it was hard for Heavenly Father to watch one of his children experience the pain that Brother Terrell went through but to know that I can stand in his place to do what he himself would do is such a humbling experience. I told you last week about Trevon's baptism and how that experience is my most memorable so far on the mission. From the first time I met him he said that he wanted to be baptized so he could have the companionship of the Holy Ghost. Trevon asked me to confirm him and give him that gift that he so desired. That event and the event of Brother Terrell have made me really respect and understand the significance of the priesthood. Think about it, how great is it that we have the priesthood on this earth to be able to give the gift of a God. How great it is to bless someone with comfort and counsel literally from our Father in Heaven. I know that Joseph Smith restored that priesthood to this earth from Peter, James, and John; Christ's original Apostles. I know that our Father in Heaven has blessed us with this power so we can be blessed. I will forever honor and cherish this authority that I hold.

I had the strangest dream last night. I had a dream that Iver Johnson was called to the Idaho Pocatello Mission and that he was assigned to St. Anthony and I served him as his trainer. Weird. Maybe it'll happen...

Well that's all the exciting news here in St. Anthony Idaho. I hope you all are having great experiences too. Remember that we can always expect miracles.

peace and love,

Elder Walker

St Anthony is going to get Translated

2010-02-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

So this week wasn't as exciting as last week due to the fact that we didn't have any Apostles come speak to us. We have had a great week though. Saturday concluded baptism number nine. Trevon E was finally baptized after lots of prayer and fasting for his parents to soften their hearts. Trevon asked me to confirm him a member of the church which, if you knew him, was a huge honor. Treven was more prepared for his baptism than anyone else that has been baptized since I've been here. I will never forget the first time I met treven nearly 12 weeks ago and I asked him why he wanted to be baptized, his response was more profound than I think he realized at the time; he told me that the reason he wanted to be baptized was so that he could have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to protect him. Keep in mind that answer came from a 10 year old.

We've been teaching this man who is 75 named Robert Terrell from Colorado. He just recently moved here to get married to his 4th wife after loosing the past 3 to cancer and sicknesses. He has been so prepared throughout his life to receive the restored gospel. I can't even describe to you the experiences that he has had that have led up to this point of him meeting with us. He has experienced more heart ache and more sorrow than any one person I have ever met, yet he has keep looking forward to see how he can make the future better. The reason he married his current wife was so that he could give her a better life than the one she has had with the death of her husband due to illness. That goes to show the kind of man Robert Terrell is. Well we met with him two days ago to teach him for the 3rd time. While teaching him we got on a conversation about how the world is today. He spoke up and said, "it's going to be up to the Mormons to save this world from corruption and I'm ready to join them." That was way cool to experience someone recognizing the power of the church. We have set up to go to Idaho Falls with Robert and his wife Rose to the temple visitor center. He said I'll agree to go on one condition; I get to take you out to dinner at Chuck-a-rama. Anyone who knows me knows that I am so excited for that! I would always have my birthday dinners there when I lived in Utah every year until I moved to Colorado.

We also set another baptism date with Aaron Boots. This is the first time he has committed to a date since he started meeting with the missionaries three years ago. He will be baptized on the 27th of this month. He was super emotional when he accepted the date. Aaron is going to be such a diligent member of the church.

I love this work. I know that I am on the Lord's errand. I am the Lord's missionary and will bring the world his truth.

Peace and Love,

Elder Walker

p.s. this stake has seen 9 baptisms in 10 weeks... That is remarkable

Elder Scott

2010-02-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

It is now official, the St. Anthony stake has now been redone and is starting new. We sustained 5 new bishops, lost 4 ward mission leaders, got a new ward, and now have new ward boundries for 9 of the 11 wards... pretty much the most exciting thing that has happened around here since the Teton Dam broke in '76. This change had been the topic of discussion in every house we have gone to. We were told what the boundries were going to be before they announced it to the stake due to our investigators and their fellowshippers. So now that the word is out we have been trying to re-pair our investigators with families that can take them to church and such. Pretty much chaos.

Saturday was definately on the top 5 of my most spiritual experiences. Elder Richard G. Scott is an amazing man. We left for Idaho Falls on Friday night to stay with some Elders down there so the drive would be shorter for us in the morning. We got up around 5 to get ready and to drive the rest of the way to Pocatello to be seated and spiritually preparing at 7. We had the whole mission in the Alameda Stake center in Pocatello, roughly 190 missionaries. It was quite funny actually because we would look down to our scriptues to read a few verses then look up to see if Elder Scott had come in yet, then down to read some more verses. Finally Elder Scott came in around ten to 8:00. The whole mission just stood up in silence as Elder Scott walked with Elder Snow and Elder Hammond to the stand with President and Sister Colton. Elder Scott asked us to shake hands at the start so he could get out quickly to a meeting at noon. He asked us to tell him our name and where we were from. I learned something about Elder Scott that day. Number one he is shorter than I thought, and number two he has more qenuine love than any other person I have ever shook hands with. We all sat back down anxiously awaiting his message. To be honest, I didn't care too much for what he had to tell us. Not to make that sound like I was disregarding the message of a Prophet, its just that he was talking about marriage and getting married in the temple and such. My thoughts are that I have 21 months left before I need to think and/or worry about that. During his talk he brought up one of the Sisters who is learning English. He asked her a few questions and then said,"as an Apostle of Jesus Christ I bestow upon you the gift on tongues." My favorite part was the last 10 minutes when he bore his witness of the Savior. He said, "Elders and Sisters, I have been talking to you as Elder Scott, I am now going to talk to you as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ one of the 15 who holds all keys of the priesthood in the Kingdom of God. Me as Richard G. Scott doesn't mean anything, I am nothing, but what I represent and testify of means everything." at that point the Spirit just filled to room, He, the spirit, was preparing us for a testimony of our Savior given by Elder Scott. I don't remember everything that was said other than his last sentence that I will never forget. He said, "I bear solemn witness that he lives... I know Him." I will never forget those words that were spoken by an Apostle of the Lord.

So let me just tell you transfer information with a little story of how I found out about transfers... Our zone leaders called us last night around 9:45 which is weird because they never call to give us transfer information, they usually just send it out in a voicemail. So Elder Dangerfield says, "well Elder Walker and Elder Call, I have bad news." We were thinking alright well one of us is getting transfered, that's cool. Then he proceeds to tell us that President has seen it fit to white wash St. Anthony or to transfer us both out. I was like yeah right, you're joking, why did you call us. He then said that we wished he was joking and that we are number 3 and 4 in the baggage line. Oh at that point I lost it. I was like are you kidding me! We just got new ward boundries and all of our investigators don't have fellowshippers yet, I am calling president, there is no way they can take us both out of here! Finally after getting me heated for 5 minutes Elder Lagazo our other zone leader gets on to tell us that they were joking, they just wanted to see how we would react to that. Let me just tell you something, I have been in theatre for a very long time and I have not seen/heard anyone be as convincing as Elder Dangerfield was last night. I still get heated thinking about that mean joke. Long story short, Elder Call and I are staying in St. Anthony for another transfer. I am very excited and thankful for this opportunity. I know that there is still work for me to do here and I am ready to get it done.

well I love you all so much. I hope you know how much I really appreciate you. I am loving each day more and more as a missionary. This is such a great opportunity to stay here once again. I look forward to telling you about the growth that will happen in the next 6 weeks here.

peace and love,
Elder Walker