Monday, October 26, 2015

Exchanges

Mom!! This week has been great fun! I went to Auburn, Alabama this week for exchanges and it was kinda strange to be in a college town where I wasn't a college student. There are a lot of people there who are from Asia too, none of who even know who Jesus Christ is. One person we had taught told me that people in China are very jealous of Americans because of the freedom that they have to even know who God is. So many of them want to know God and His goodness, but aren't allowed to because of their government, or their situation. It made me kinda sad, but it also testified to me that we really do have Spirits who knew our Heavenly Father, because why else would these people who know nothing about God, desire to know Him? It makes me glad I am here so that I can be the instrument in the Lord's hand to help these people around us. There are so many people who need the gospel and they consciously don't even know that their Soul is screaming for help. 

I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. Brother Burgamy (counselor in the Bishopric) asked me to speak on "the reasons for and effects of modern revelation for the church as a whole and how this helps families and individuals stay closer to Christ." So pretty much he wrote my talk for me.. haha. Just kidding, but it was a really long subject he asked me to speak on. First thing I did of course was go to the Bible Dictionary and look up the word Revelation. (Because missionaries have limited resources this is what they go to a lot..) First thing I noticed is that Revelation is a word translated from the Greek word apocalypse which means to uncover or make known. Like the Apocalypse so many people are afraid of? I think at some point everybody has somehow made that word to mean something entirely different than what it is supposed to mean. This is why I think at least for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Christ's Second Coming isn't a scary thing. It reminds me of the story you used to tell me about Ben as a kid, and when he asked you once why we aren't praying for the Second Coming to come. I really do think we should all be doing that, and sure it has to get worse before it can get better, but how great and marvelous that better will be! And how much knowledge will be restored to us that has been lost through time!

Anyways sorry about that tangent, but I thought that was something interesting that I learned when I was reading it, even if it didn't really have anything to do with the talk I actually gave. The BD also talks about how divine revelation as being one of the grandest concepts and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Revelation is dependent upon the person, and their faith. I remember in Joseph Smith-History when Joseph told that preacher about his vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the preacher told him that there were no such things as visions and revelations in these days and that they had ceased with the apostles, and anything he thinks he saw came from the devil. I can testify that modern revelation has not ceased. We have a LIVING prophet, and his name is Thomas S. Monson. God wants His children to learn more. and there is never a point where I can say in this life that I have learned enough, and that I know everything. Even if I lived to be as old as Adam was, and I was a diligent seeker or truths and wisdom, I still wouldn't even know 1% of what God wants me to know. Like in 2 Nephi 28:30 the Lord gives us "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little...for unto him that receiveth will I give more" He then warns us not to be proud in what we know and think that we know everything with the words "and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them it shall be taken away even that which they have." Scary thought. It makes me wish though that I had so much more time to study my scriptures instead of just the hour of personal study we are allotted each day. There is so much to learn in just the 2600 something pages of the standard works..

All is well here though, and I really do enjoy the work that we do here! Going on base is fun too, and we seem to do it a lot which is hard because of the limited miles that we have along with the distance that the base is from home. I'm going to send you some really cool pictures though of some stuff we just happened to see as we were driving around on base the other day.

Love you! And don't forget to find something to be happy about every single day!
-Sister Monica Walker

This sign was super funny so I wanted to take a picture by it 

I don't know if I sent these or not, so I am sending them again. This is our Zone helping the Red Cross install free smoke detectors in peoples homes. 

Also my companion decided to dress up at Walmart since we can't dress up on Halloween, so she saw this and immediately put it on.. Its about 2 ft too big for her.. haha
We played disk golf, and my companion accidentally hit one of the elders in the head. I happened to be taking a picture right at the moment when she realized it was going to hit his head. haha

Monday, October 19, 2015

Trial Run of Idaho Initiative

Silly Mom, my birthday countdown doesn't start for another 2 days.. So we are almost 6 months out. Crazy right? Because that means I have also almost been out 6 months on my mission. I remember when I came out thinking the people who had been here that long were pros at everything, but I still feel like I don't know anything. It's interesting. However I have discovered this great missionary time warp where the days are everlasting long, but the weeks are like days, and the months are like minutes. Its way weird. 

We are working very hard with the people that we have on base, but it is hard to talk to people there, because if somebody complains about our talking to them, then we get kicked off base and might not be allowed back on it. So there is no tracting allowed, and we either have to wait for referrals or go visit all the less active people who live there. That's hard too because of the nature of the military that is there is a less active person who leaves and doesn't tell anybody where he is going, then they get lost, and we don't have any way of tracking them down. We did find this one family though who has been there for 11 months and she said this was the first church visit she had had since she had gotten there. That made me kind of sad to hear because she had been here for some time, and apparently she did go to church sometimes, even if it wasn't all of the time. I was really glad though because we had a member with us who lives on base too, and she isn't that far from this other member, and she plans on going back and visiting with her more often now. The other member has only been in the states for 6 months and is originally from the Philippians. Her Husband is American and in the military and currently away somewhere else, and so she is really lonely because she doesn't know anyone and she is living in a foreign land. We plan on having her help us with all the members on base while she is here. She feeds us too which is awesome. (I love Philippine food. And Thai food. Members are awesome when they feed us that:))

Our mission is going to do a trial run of something they call the Idaho Initiative. Apparently in Idaho, there was a mission where they decided to push the work on part member families in their mission. The Bishops and Auxiliaries of all the different wards prayerfully selected a few families that were part members and referred the missionaries to them. The missionaries would then go over and teach the families, as well as the members going to visit them during other times. Because of this (there's more to it, but this is basically what it is) the missionaries were never tracting because they were receiving so many referrals from these families, and the average number of BAPTISMS from the REFERRALS from the part-member families was 6 PER FAMILY. That a crazy amount. Especially since on average I would say that about 1 in 20 referrals end up being baptized. That's a lot of baptisms and a lot of people who are coming to know their Savior:) Super duper excited!! We will see how it goes:)

Life is swell though! I really do love Sister Dayton, and its super funny how much our lives are connected, first through Sara, and then it also turns out that Grandpa knows her great Uncle. Or something like that. Anyway she really is an awesome individual, and she is desiring so much to learn more about the gospel and the teachings of Christ. We have a lot of gospel centered discussions even when we aren't discussing investigators or members or whomever we are teaching next. If anyone ever has a question about the gospel she always refers them to me because she thinks I will know the answer. (Sometime I do, but many times I don't. I'm still learning too:)) Haha its pretty funny though. She calls me Bruce R McConkie.. Haha it makes me laugh. I learn a lot from her too, like she is always a great example to me of her willingness to do things. She honestly makes it seem really easy to do so many different things because she is so willing to do them, even if those things are really hard. 

Well I love you! Super duper a lot! And I talk about you all the time in church because it seems like in the last little bit all the lessons we have had in Gospel principles are on families and parenthood and etc. So naturally I talk about you a lot and the effect you have on me in my life even now:)

Love, your favorite child,
Sister Monica Walker


PS Keep sending me all those spiritual thoughts you have, I love reading those:) That's usually what I talk about when I talk about you. Because you and I have had some great gospel discussions, and those are some of my most treasured memories:)

PSS: I did get a package in the mail from the YW in Modesto.. It made me cry because it was so cute! They sent me a Book of Mormon with all their testimonies written in the back. It was so sweet! I read them to my companion and she cried too.

What types of things do you like to receive as a missionary? Or that missionaries would like to receive in general?
I like to get letters honestly. I like knowing what is happening in peoples lives or what they learned recently about in their studies of the scriptures and what not. Really anything that shows that somebody is thinking about us. Pictures are awesome too. Whether its of my cute little nephew or my cute little brother:) (sans the fact he's not little). Most missionaries would rather have letters than a package, but I can't deny that it is fun to open up the package when you get it. It is almost like Christmas!

Monday, October 12, 2015

I love Georgia!

Dearest Mother,

I love Georgia!! And I love service! Last Saturday we went out with the Red Cross and went door to door installing free smoke detectors for those who didn't have smoke detectors, replacing old batteries for new ones if they did, and also telling lots of people how to be safe in case of a fire, or a tornado. They probably should have been telling us about how to be safe in case of a flood, but we didn't. No flood have happened here yet, and I don't think they are expected to yet, but I did here about South Carolina. One investigator was telling us that her mom came to stay with her for a little bit because she is afraid of the flooding that is occurring, and that many dams have broken up there because of it, which really isn't helping anything. On the bright side though, we are all safe where we are right now, and everybody is aware and looking out for anymore floods which they will then warn everyone else about.

I have decided I really like being able to go on base here. Sure its a hassle to have to go through security every single time we are visiting investigators or less active members, but its also fun to be able to say that I have been on a military base. Sister Dayton and I are considering getting 30 day passes though because every time we go on base we have to get a day pass, and that takes more time than if we were just to get a 30 day pass. I see the Lord's hand in my life every day though with some of these people. Because as military people, they get moved around a lot, so we have to check on some of the less active military members to make sure they are still there, and sometimes it will lead us to people we would not have been able to find other wise. Or it will help others be more involved and active in church when they weren't before. I am also learning a lot of military terms that I didn't know before, and I am getting to know a lot of what military people do on base, because we get fed a lot and each of them tell me a little bit (well the parts that they can tell me) and it is kinda cool to hear about because before I honestly couldn't really have told anyone anything about any military job because I didn't know anything.

There is a street called Walker here and we have 3 investigators on that street. Its my favorite street:) We went and tracted on it because I really wanted to see who would want to hear about the restored gospel from a lady whose last name matched that of the street that they lived on. Haha.

Well, I love you all, keep on Ponderizing! and don't forget we are trying to make that a new word that people use constantly:)


-Sister Monica Walker

Monday, October 5, 2015

General Conference, New Companion, New Area

MOM!!!
I LOVE CONFERENCE! There are some really amazing things that I learned at conference, and it was really cool to be there as a missionary because I feel like so much of it had just greater impact on me than it had before. I saw the little boys holdings hands too and it made my heart melt. So cute!

So my new companion's name is Sister Dayton, and she is actually one of Sara Buckley's best friends! So we kinda know each other because we had met once when I went to someone's farewell. That was crazy! She is from Salt Lake City proper and her Great Uncle was actually Elder Perry so she cried though a good part of the conference because it was hard for her. But she is such a trooper and she is so willing and ready to learn about everything there is to know:) I'm second half training her so she has already been out 6 weeks, but she and I have a lot of leg room to cover in this area because she still doesn't know exactly what she is doing.. haha.. its all good though:)

I'm actually in Columbus, GA so I'm about 2 hours away from where I was before in Warner Robins. This base here is Fort Benning. There are some really nice people here, and the members that have fed us are a lot like the members I would suspect you'd find in Utah.. Haha. So that is pretty fun too.

And Sister Shephard actually wasn't from the mission office, but rather a member we had lunch with. Probably should have gone though the mission office, but we were on a time crunch and needed the information ASAP. Haha that was super fun though to hear you talk to her.

I do automatically receive a Ensign from the mission, so I think I should be fine. We might fight over the little insert with all the new apostles on it though.. Haha Ok not really, I'd let my companion have it, but its funny to think about..

I'm sorry this email isn't as long as most my emails are, but I have a lot to do today since its a new area that needs a lot of updating and fixing up.
Love you!

Sister Monica Walker