Prayer

I am doing Wonderful! I love being a missionary! It is super hard though. I'm always tired.. But the more I teach, the less tired I get because the more excited I get! There are so many people here who are so amazing and have such great testimonies of their Savior. The people we teach usually have some knowledge of Him as well, but they don't know very much about Him, or they think since he lived so long ago, they have a disconnect with him, and it makes me a little sad. The worst is when they tell us they have already been saved and shut the door, or those who believe their religion is right for them. They are just so close to the truth they know those truths are good for them, but they don't take that lest piece to add to their knowledge and their faith, and then they won't be able to live in the Celestial Kingdom again. That is always hard to hear and see. But those who accept the things we share, and keep the commitments are the best people in the world. I love it when people really pray for the first time, or they share their testimonies of the restored gospel with us because the Spirit is there so strongly. 

Last time we talked to Jo, she hadn't yet read or listen anything from President Monson yet, and she asked us to giver her a little time to think about the things she had heard. She's one of those people who has to mull over everything she hears for a while before she can truly absorb it, and come to terms with it. So we are going to give her a little bit longer, and then we are going to call her and ask if we can go back to teach her a little more. I know that most often, when we are sharing things about the gospel, the investigators don't actually have their spiritual moment until after we leave. More often than not it is a few days later in a quiet moment when they are thinking about the things that we had said that the Spirit will touch them and they will have that "Ah ha" moment. I'm content to wait, but of course, I am still listening to the spirit to know when and what to say to all of our investigators.

I don't know if you had heard, but Sister Preston has been emailing me about her grandson who lives in the Warner Robins 1st ward where I am serving. She gave me his name and address, and we were able to go see him the other day. We didn't end up teaching him a lesson, but we did give him a pass along card of Jesus and told him to call us if he ever needs service or if he ever wanted to have us come over to talk and share about our beliefs. I'm glad we were able to go over and see him, because it showed that we were serious about what we do, and when people tell us to go visit others, we actual do. He was super nice, and he has some cute kids too:)

Here is an excerpt from my letter to President Cottle about some Jehovah Witness's we saw last week.

This week has been a very interesting week. We were invited to come back to a Jehovah Witness's home and to share a little of what we believe with them. According to Sister Applegate, this is a very rare occurrence since many of the people belonging to the Jehovah Witness faith are almost anti-Mormon. We did not teach a lesson exactly, but we were able to bear our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Restoration and the gospel to them. They even accepted a Book of Mormon and a Restoration Pamphlet. We were able to find out more about their faith as well, such as the fact that they believe that Jehovah is Heavenly Father and not Jesus Christ. I didn't know that's what they thought. At one point they asked us if we had ever read the name of God in the Bible, we looked at them all confused, and I honestly wasn't sure what they were asking. Eventually We realized they were asking about Jehovah, and we were able to bear our testimony of who God was to us, and who Jehovah was. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I do know that if it hadn't been for the Spirit, I would have had no idea what to say. 

Needless to say, I really learned how important it was to have the Spirit with us as we taught because they sometimes throw questions at us to either confuse us or make us say the wrong thing, and if we didn't have the Spirit, I personally would have a hard time knowing what to say. I love the Spirit. It is the best thing ever as a missionary!

The Jehovah Witness's were very nice, and as we ended our discussion, we had asked them if it was ok if we could say a prayer, and they said no. We thought they were kidding at first, but apparently they weren't. We didn't know if it was part of their religion or just their preference but we didn't say a prayer out of respect to their wishes. The father said that he was the only one who prayed in that house and that he didn't feel the need to pray right then because he had nothing to pray about.

I totally respect their religion and their beliefs, but it makes me sad that someone wouldn't want to pray because they had nothing to pray about. There are so many things that we can pray about. Our Father in Heaven wants to hear from us, and wants to hear about the concerns and questions we might have. He wants to hear the worries in our lives, and what is hard for us. He loves us so much!! Yes he might already know all about the day we had, but he still wants to hear from us, just like our own parents everyday want to hear about the day and week that we have had.

Love you all!

-Sister Monica Walker

I got this from one of the missionaries in the picture :) It's the people that came out with me.

From the left: Me, Sister McCulloch, Sister Pilimai
 The three Sisters in the back from the left: Sister Zenovieff, Sister Lee, Sister Lara
The two Elders: Elder Heyland, Elder Lloyd

Sister Lara came straight from Arizona since she had already been to the MTC, but then got sick so she went home for a bit before come out on her mission.

Elder Heyland actually came out when the Macon mission formed, and Ben was his Zone leader. He also apparently kinda new Josh as well since he lived in Josh's mission and had him over for dinner once or twice. CRAZY! So he wasn't at the MTC either.

Everyone else was part of my MTC District. They are all super awesome:)