Close To Returning

Dearest Mother,

Is it bad that the closer I get to the end of this transfer, the less I want to tell you because I know that I will be able to tell you myself when I see you again? Not that that means that I won't be emailing you.. I'm pretty sure if I didn't email you would worry forever and a day until I did, or you saw me.
This week was a pretty emotional week. There were some people that I had to say goodbye to because they are leaving to go out of town and don't get back until after I leave. These are people that I have already said goodbye to once. I[It] was right though way back when my trainer went home. It is a lot easier to say goodbye to people at the end of my mission then at the beginning because at least the people at the end of my mission I can call/text/message right as soon as I get home, whereas those that I knew from the very beginning of my mission might not even remember who I am. Or it will take them a moment. Yesterday was my very last Fast Sunday on my mission. A tradition of the missionaries here, and one that I have always tried to do, is that if you think you are leaving the area, or you are leaving, you bear your testimony to the ward about Christ and His restored gospel. My companion nudged me at one point and asked me if I was going up. Then she poked me and said ti was the Spirit telling me to go up. Well the Spirit already was telling me to go up, and so up I went. I tried to keep it simple and honest, and I tried not to mention anything about how long I had been serving or when I was going home. I left the podium and I started crying. My companion had kleenex ready for me when I came back to sit down. It was really awesome though especially, because we even had an investigator there that day. This is the investigator that has been in and out of the hospital, and fell asleep on us the one time, and to whom we sang the wrong song. She loves church. When I came back down, she had to stand up so I could sit down, and she gave me a hug and told me that she loved me and that she was super grateful to have me as "one of her girls". She [w]as crying too.. and then of course that made me cry even more. It really did make my week though because every single person that she spoke to she said how thankful she was the the sisters keep teaching her and inviting her to church. How at home and how peaceful she feels when she walks into the doors of church, and even how she tells everyone about us! She already is trying to get all her friends to come over to her house when we come by, or to get them to let us come by their house so we can teach and sing to them too, since we sound like "heavenly angels sent by God to give her peace".

I really will miss Georgia when I leave. There isn't much else I want to say this week, but just that I love all of you! Keep being the wonderful people that you are, and keep putting that trust where it belongs! (in God in case you didn't know)

Love you lots!!
Sister Monica Walker

PS. I only have two more emails after this one.. say what?

Women's General Conference Session

To my Wonderful Favorite  Mother in the Whole Wide World!!!

I love you:) Like a lot:) 

We had the opportunity to go watch the Women's Session of General Conference this last Saturday, and there were so many wonderful things that I learned!! One really important thing that I knew, but I was reminded of was how grateful I was to you and the example that you have been for me. I am so grateful that you have had a firm foundation in the gospel and that you helped build that in me. I know for a fact that I would not be here on a mission if it was not for that example to me. I love how you have taught me to be the best I can, and you expect me to do the best I can because you know that I can be like that. You pushed me to learn and to grow into who I am today. I am also so grateful for Daddy in teaching me (and then reminding me all the time) what a young woman should be. How I should act. He taught me to value myself and hold firm to my beliefs. He taught me not to be proud, but rather just remember my divine heritage as a daughter of a Heavenly King, and as such how I should act. I love you two for the things you have taught, for the character you have helped me developed, or the many other things I cannot even begin to describe of the effect that you have had on me. I love you two for being MY parents. I wouldn't have anyone else. :) I think all the time about how my actions would change if you or Dad were there, and many times I try to think of what you both would do and I try to do it. I had the sweetest compliment the other day from my companion about this, which is also why I was thought about all of this. 

Once upon a time, we were driving along in the car and she was telling me about an instance she had with someone who she had previously had a hard time talking to. Not because she doesn't like talking to people, but because this person sometimes can be rude or frustrating in conversations. We both recently made a goal to be this persons friend, and to help them understand that the way they speak sometimes is not appropriate for conversation, and even though we know they don't mean it, they are an adult and are capable of speaking nicely. Anyway, it was really cool, because when we were in the car, my companion leaned over to me and said something, but I didn't catch much of it because I was distracted, so I asked her to repeat it. She told me that in the last interaction she had with this person that they said something that upset her, and she was going to react in the way she normally does, but she thought in her mind "What would Sister Walker do?" and then changed her response to what she thought I would do in that situation. It was seriously one of the nicest compliments I have gotten ever. I honestly don't know what my response would have been in that same situation, and I know that I don't have an endless supply of patience like I sometimes wish I did, but it was really cool to have her tell me that she thought of my being patient with people when she was trying to be patient. That made my heart happy.. and then she and I cried because we love each other. the end... haha.. it was pretty funny, but very sweet of her. I really do love her a lot for it.

She and I have talked a lot in recent weeks about the image that we give to others. What is the first impression that people have, and what is the things that are most apparent and that they will remember? For example, to me the things that I noticed about her right off was her love for people. Whether it was mutual acquaintances that we have, or people I didn't know that she did, she loves everyone! She doesn't judge anyone for anything that she hears. She bases her judgments off of the interactions that she has with them, and even then she gives them the benefit of the doubt. She is funny, she is sweet, she is always happy and smiling. She gets excited about the randomest things and it will then make everyone else happy. She radiates with her testimony and from the other things that I have seen of her, and the stories that I have heard from her about her life, I know that she has a very firm belief in this gospel. She loves the Book of Mormon, and is seriously wiling to go through a lot of ridicule to keep it. She is awesome.

She told me that the image I give off is slightly intimidating... haha... not because I am scary or anything, but because she can tell that I hold myself to a high standard, and that I am intelligent. She said its intimidating because most people aren't like that. It just reminded me of the different scriptures that talk about the Lord's people being a peculiar people. How we will be set apart from the world, and it will be noticed. I am far far away from perfection, and I know there are many things that I have to work on, but it is cool to see all the different people that I meet, and I see the same things in others. My companion being one of them. The is most definitely a difference in the people that truly are followers of Christ and those that are just the Sunday worshipers.

This is where everything ties back in. The talks that were given during the Women's Session reminded me a lot of this conversation that I had with my companion, and who we are and who we are representing. They encouraged all of us to continue to grow our testimonies, and to do our best to secure them in the bedrock of Christ. So that when storms beat down on us, that we will be able to hold firm in our beliefs. We were also told to be that example to others that the Lord knew we could be. We were admonished to be the best mothers we can and the best daughters and the best wives, etc. Whatever the role that we have now is what we need to be working on. Promises given by the Lord will come to fruition if and only if we keep doing what we are supposed to do! Faith and trust in the Lord is so key! We must at the very least understand that the Lord is only ever trying to help us, and anything that He asks us to do is because that will be the greatest for us. I really do love the gospel. I'm so excited for what will happen in the future!! So much potential!

Love you all! I hope you have a wonderfully fantastic week!!

Love, your most favoritest child in the whole wide world,

Sister Monica Walker

Back in Columbus!

Dearest Mother:)

I am back in Columbus!! This was the place that I left 6 months ago to go to Albany, and now I just left Albany and I came right back! This time though it is in the other ward in Columbus, so it isn't exactly the same, but its still pretty close. We had stake conference this last weekend and it was kind of funny because I knew more people there then my companion did. Three people in the other ward I was in even offered to feed us dinner or lunch sometime.. Haha it was nice to know that I was missed and that people still remember me here:) The ward I am in now if the Flat Rock Ward, and my companion is Sister O'Brien. She is from Hawaii, and I'm pretty sure this is the first companionship I have ever had where one of us is not from Utah or Idaho.. Really all we need is to be in a trio with someone from Florida and then we have all the vacation states.. haha I thought that was funny. It has been pretty cool though, because this companionship is a lot like the one I had with Sister Danible. With Sister Danible, it was cool because she left the Rivercrest Ward 6 weeks before I got there, and then when I got to my new area in Albany, she was my companion, and we could talk all day about the Rivercrest ward. Here my companion is Sister O'Brien, and again, she had just left Albany 6 weeks before I got there, and my next area, which is ironically Columbus again, she is my companion!! So it has been fun to catch up with her about Albany and also to hear some of the updates of the Columbus wards.. I love Sister O'Brien though! We became friends almost within an hour of meeting each other, and we are still friends a week later.. haha.. so I am excited to see where this is going to take us in the next few weeks. It is entirely likely that she will be my last companion and that she will be the one that will see me off, and I love it. She is pretty much obsessed with Star Wars. I gave her a Star Wars puzzle and she almost freaked out on me. It was funny. She is an awesome person though, and we already have found a good rhythm in our teaching where both of us are teaching and testifying and participating pretty equally in all the lessons that we have. She makes me happy:) I have decided about this area though that I haven't seen as many sketchy areas as I did in Columbus. Perhaps that is because the Elders cover those areas here, but it does make it seem a little bit different, even if I recognize a lot of the people.

Alex sent me pictures of all of them, their family pictures are adorable! I love them so much. I can't wait to see them again! It will be fun to meet Henry for the first time. I love my family:)

That is so cool that all of you got to go to the Sacramento temple! I vaguely remember going there for the open house. I know I remember thinking the ceilings were really high, but I was also smaller, so I don't really know how tall they are.. haha. Didn't Alex go through the Sacramento temple for her endowments when the Oakland temple was closed last time? And did something happen to it to need major repairs? or did it just get old? 

This last weekend we had the opportunity like I said before to have Stake Conference. The cool thing about this Stake Conference was that there was going to be a General Authority there. This is the second time in a short span of time that I get to meet not just one but three of the General authority 70s. The one that spoke this last Stake Conference that I attended is a recently called General Authority named Elder Peter F. Meurs. He is from Australia, and he gave wonderful talks with his wife on the Atonement and the power of it. His wife shared a story that I thought really put into perspective for me repentance and how it works. Forgive me if I tell it wrong, but the general idea of it will be the same:)

-There was once a boy named Johnny who had recently been given a slingshot to play with. One day he decided to practice using his slingshot and spent a long time trying to hit his target of the trees. He continuously missed, and eventually got tired so started to make his way home. He had almost made it all the way home when he spotted a duck. Thinking to try his luck one more time, he shot at the duck. Surprising to him, he managed to hit the duck. Sadly, the rock hit the duck and killed it. Devastated, and knowing that he would be in trouble for killing the duck, he took the duck and hid it behind the woodpile in their backyard. After hiding it, he looked up to see his sister, Sally, watching him. She told him she saw what he did with the duck but that she wouldn't tell. Later that evening, his grandma was asking Sally to come help her with the dishes, Sally responded with "I would love to come help you with the dishes, but Johnny told me earlier today that he wanted to help with the dishes tonight." and then leaned over to her brother and whispered "Remember the duck!" Grudgingly, but a little guiltily Johnny went and helped his grandma with the dishes. The next day their family was going fishing, but the grandma told them that she needed Sally to stay home with her to help her prepare dinner. Sally again told her grandma that she would, but that Johnny had expressed a desire for him to help earlier to her. Again she whispered "Remember the duck!" After a few days of Johnny not only doing his chores, but Sally's as well, he finally went up to his grandma and confessed what he had done with the duck. His grandma looked him lovingly in the eye, and said "I know, I was standing at the window and saw it all happen. I was just wondering how long you were going to let Sally make a slave out of you." 

I thought that was a wonderful story! Because how true it is. Heavenly Father is much like the grandma who is watching out the window who sees it all happen, but is waiting for us to come to him to tell him. If this boy had only gone to his grandma earlier, he would have been spared the anguish of doing so many more chores. He would have been able to do all the fun things that he missed out on because his sister made him her slave. If only we would learn to immediately turn to our Father in Heaven when we do something wrong. We cannot hide it. He has already seen us do it. Our hiding it only causes more pain for us. What a powerful example of repentance though. Although I knew it, and I understood its significance, this made it hit a lot more home then usual.

I wish I had more time to tell you more about it, but again, time has run out. Remember that I love you all and I appreciate everything that you do for me everyday:)

Make today a great day!

Love,

Sister Monica Walker

Last Transfer

Dearest Mother,

News of the week-I'm getting transferred!! Both sisters in my area will be leaving because my companion went home today. I am currently sitting in the family history center in Perry, GA with Sister Danible and Sister Blackburn. I get to crash with them until tomorrow morning when I find out who my new companion is and where I am going. That's why I get to email today even though it is still a holiday because they have a key to get to the Family History Center computers. Yay!! 

Yes there was a "storm" last week. I was honestly kind of excited for it, but it really didn't come my way at all, we just watched the clouds move over us, and then it rained one night. However as a precaution, our mission president told all of us in the mission that we had to stay in our apartments until about 2 or 3 Friday morning, which made that day super hectic because we had appointments about an hr away at noon, so we had to push them until after President's lockdown ended, and before our other appointments that we had in Albany later that afternoon and evening. It was pretty amazing though, because even though we were rushed for time, we were able to see three of the referrals that we had there in Cuthbert, and every single one of them not only accepted a Book of Mormon, but also really wanted us to come back. I thought that was super awesome! We somehow still managed to see everyone that we planned on seeing, which was awesome too. Despite everything being pushed back about 4 hours. That was definitely a tender mercy, and something the Lord really wanted us to do. Other then that though, there wasn't really any other affects of the storm. From what I hear, there was a lot of worry about it, but it really didn't hurt anyone or anything.

Sister McCulloch arrived at the mission home ok and as now boarding the plane as I type this. Her flight leaves shortly after 11. In a few hours her family will be welcoming her home! Super exciting for her:)

I can't believe you sold the van!! that is so crazy to me!! Do you two just drive the truck and car now? Or is there another vehicle? I remember either last week or the week before you were talking about how both vehicles had been damaged by some form of a wreck.. I assume those two you are still keeping?

It is interesting that you mentioned the notes you took on a scripture that you don't remember anymore. I had a member that I knew in one of my areas who had lost a good part of his memory, but he still writes down his thoughts and impressions of his reading of the Book of Mormon, and he still tries his hardest to continue learning everything because he knows that eventually he will get all this information and knowledge back, but as long as he is learning something new everyday, when he finally gets to remember all the things he learned he says he is going to be pretty well off in intelligence.. I thought that was funny, but also a really smart idea.

Not much happened last week other then that because we were saying goodbye to a lot of people. I didn't get to say goodbye to very many people even though I had been told about 12 hrs ahead of everyone else because we already had plans for a good majority of the day. So that was sad, but it is ok, I will be able to find them all later when I get home from my mission. I was also hard to say goodbye to some people because many members went to Louisiana to help with a cleanup service there. So there weren't that many people at church on Sunday or home of Saturday either.

I will send a better email tomorrow when I have more things to talk about, but for now, I love you all!!

-Sister Monica Walker

Still here!

Dearest Mother!

I am staying in Albany for another transfer! And my companion is staying too!! So This means I get to send her home which is cool because she was my MTC companion:) I'm so excited for the next 6 weeks!

You have Sister Missionaries now? Awesome!! That is so exciting! I hope they keep sister missionaries until I get home! That will be so fun to get to know them! :) Tell them when I come home, they should feel free to use me for miles and member presents (as long as it is ok that I use the car while I am home:)) I think that is it awesome that the visiting general authority encouraged y'all to have "gospel discussions" with your non-member friends! If nothing else, it will definitely increase your testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel! I hope one day everyone will do that.. It would make it so much more fun to be missionaries:)

President Grayson decided that he was going to put two more elders in our area! And they are going to get a car!! So then we will be able to go to the far away areas more often:) I am so excited for it because it means that there will be so many more people that will be able to be affected! President Grayson officially announced it during transfer calls last Saturday night, but we knew earlier in the week because he would call us what seemed like daily to ask about the area and where a good place for them to be living would be. Its been a pretty hectic week, but it is so worth it! 

I'm glad people are still thinking about me:) I think about all of you all the time and when I get the ward newsletters from Brother Martinez each month, I am just so amazed at how much everyone has grown since I have been gone.. Its crazy how the world changes when you are away from it for even a short while!

I remember at girls camp we were always warned about bears, but that bears never actually came close.. I'm amazed that they did come closer though. I have learned that sometimes it is needed so that we can learn the importance of obedience.. (Gospel tie in ready?) Sometimes we are told so many different times the dangers of the "bears" in our lives. Gossip, bad language, laziness, etc. They don't always hurt us, but the potential is always there.. Until it hits closer to home, or it walks in on you at camp, we think we are still doing good! So what if it isn't necessarily 100% right? everyone else is doing it! We start to roam at night, we start to leave our companion. There is a reason there is the buddy system whenever you are in potentially dangerous places. We can get lost, we won't know where to go! Hope is there! First, know that Heavenly Father is always there, if we but just listen. Understand commandments aren't meant to confine, but to protect and free.. Your choices become very limited if you decide to break the rule of not going into the deep forest at night and you come across a bear. That works the same in life.. It's amazing what Heavenly Father sees in our lives that He tries to warn us about, but because we are too stubborn we don't listen and we trip.. A lot. He is always there though ready to pick us up and help us move forward:)

In some good news!! One of our investigators is getting baptized on Saturday! I am so excited for her! I will talk about it more next week, but I wanted to let you know that because it was so exciting when she passed her interview last week!!! Yay!

Anyway, I love you all and I hope everything is going ok with life:)

Remember to always count your blessing, especially when you are down, to choose happiness, and always TRUST the Lord. He does know you and He knows what is best for you:)

Always and forever my love,

Sister Monica Walker

New Companion and Father's Day

Dear Mother,

You can most definitely be president of my fan club:) I trust you to make sure everybody sees all the thousands of pictures that you have of me too.. hahaha :)

My new companion is actually one of my old companions!! Her name is Sister McCulloch and we were companions in the MTC together! We also figured out that if she and I are companions for the next transfer as well, then I get to send her home! It is a very strange thought, because we came out together, but because she served a mini mission in the Salt Lake City South Mission for 3 months before going to the MTC, her mission ends 3 months before mine does. She is super awesome though! I remember when I met her in the MTC, she was super quiet and didn't talk very much, now she talks a lot! which is nice, because sometimes I get tired of talking (surprising right?). While we were in the MTC, I remember being part of a lesson with her, where she shared with our "investigator" that her dad has passed away about 6 months prior. I was super impressed with her dedication to still be willing to go on her own mission so shortly after her dad passed. Remember she had already served fro 3 months by this point. Now I get to learn more about her, and I am so amazed by the strength that she has, and the support that she carries with her everywhere she goes (from both sides of the veil). I love how willing she is to talk to everyone (considering she doesn't know anyone). I love how she has decided to help me continue to prank the Elders every once in a while (no mean pranks though promise) because it is a nice stress reliever during the week, when all of us can just laugh about what was done. (we plastic wrapped their apartment last time). I also love how she is so willing to help me plan and do the things I ask her too, even though they are long and tedious, because I know it will help her learn the area faster, and because I know it will help us be more productive too:)

I don't think I know what the Doctrinal Mastery Program is, you will have to enlighten me on its purpose as you are learning about it:)

I am super excited for this transfer and all that I will get to learn with my new companion! It will be fun to catch up on all the things we have missed out on in the last year since I have really been able to talk to her, and it will also be fun to be able to make new memories with her as well:) We already made some fun memories yesterday when we attended the Sherwood Baptist Church (someone invited us too). It looked a lot like a mini conference center, but the service was basically a rock concert which was a little strange, but fun. I also learned that the movie Courageous, Fireproof, and Facing the Giants were made by Sherwood, or else someone closely associated with them. Apparently I met one of the actors too, but I didn't know it. My comp told me that later:) They were all super nice, and a couple came up later and introduced themselves to us. It was kinda funny to see how many people would look at our tags before they looked at our faces. I got lots of hugs there and lots of prayers. And everyone told me that God loved me, which was kinda awesome. It was very strange for me though because I was used to something so different, and that made me really think about the people that I invite to church, and am I preparing them for what they will see? Many people we invite are used to the type of services that we went too, and I didn't realize how differently they do it until I went myself. It was fun though:)

Tell everyone I said Happy Father's Day! and that I love them all very much!

Love forever and Always,

Sister Monica Walker

Still here!

Dear Mother,

I am not getting transferred this time! I get to stay in Albany! But my companion is getting transferred. We don't know where she is going yet, and I am going to be super sad to see her go, but it will be exciting to meet my new companion and have a new friend to learn all about her life with.

This week has been a super crazy week though!! On Wednesday Sister Danible left on exchanges and Sister Black (who was in my district back in Columbus but now was in this other stake with me) came to Albany with me. It was a really long drive, and so it took up much of the day just getting to and from there to here. It was fun though because then it meant that I got to drive and I haven't really driven in the Toyota corrolas yet. I will get to soon though once I have been in the area longer (so basically tomorrow once Sister Danible officially transfers) The tiwi/black box things that we have in our car are kinda frightening though when we would be driving and then suddenly some robotic voice yells at us to watch our speed. They are awesome for teaching people how to drive though so that is pretty cool.

Thursday we went to our ZTM and we gave the trainings that we had given the last week at MLC. It was a lot less stressful and scary because the mission president wasn't sitting behind us taking notes this time so it was less like a test and more like a discussion. I did however end up singing at the ZTM too. Sister Danible volunteered me to last time we had ZTM. I sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Font. It was actually pretty good considering we only went through it twice before the meeting.

Saturday we were in a city called Blakely all day and we did a blitz split where each of us had a member with us, and we had the elders there too with each a member and we tried to go see some of the people that wanted to be seen by missionaries over there. It is hard to always see them all because they live an hr away from us, and we can't feasibly go there once a week due to the mileage limitation that we have, as well as the time constraint that happens as well. It was really awesome though to see peoples reactions when we would show up and they hadn't seen missionaries in a long time, or had never seen missionaries, and they were so happy to talk with us and allowed us to share our message. It was nice and refreshing compared to much of the time here where people close their doors when they see that we are missionaries.

I really do love the South though, and I am so grateful to be able to be a part of the culture here, as well as experience how much people can really love their Savior, no matter who they are, how rich or poor they are, or where they originally came from. If nothing else, we are all united in that:)

Love you all!

-Sister Monica Walker

This Week's Happenings

Dear Mom:)

This week has been very interesting and really long and tiring. We traveled to far away places on 4 different days, and spent much of the day in each of those areas. 

On Tuesday we went to Tifton for our Zone conference meeting. We were told that there was a representative from Salt Lake coming to inspect our cars and so we needed to have our cars as clean as we could possibly get them. So last Monday Sister Danible and I went to an investigators house and she taught us how to detail our car so it would look super nice. That was fun! (really though it turned into a water fight). When we got to Tifton, we had to back our car into a parking spot, and after we finished inspecting it, and filling all the liquids it needed and whatnot, the vehicle coordinator for our mission told us that he was going to switch our car with some of the other elders in our district who ironically had just gotten the car that I started my mission with. We were a little disappointed because the car we had was a Ford Fusion with a USB port, and the car the Elders had was a Chevy Cruze that doesn't have a USB port.. So we were sad to loose all the music and talks that we had accumulated through our mission. Well not lose them, but not be able to use it for the foreseeable future.. And then the vehicle Coordinator surprised us with the keys to a brand new Toyota Corolla! They sold the car I started my mission off with. So that was pretty awesome! Also while we were there, we found out while we were in the meeting that the reason the representative from Salt Lake was there was because he was installing something called a Tiwi in all the mission vehicles. (it is commonly called a black box by other missionaries). The purpose of it is to teach us how to be better drivers. It speaks to us at real time if we are speeding, hit bumps too hard, take hard turns, stop hard, or speed up too fast (and other things I forgot). Any time you do one of these things, it will tell you what you did and then cite you for it. Those citations go to the mission office, and if we get to many then our driving privileges get revoked. We have talked to the tech people a lot about it in Utah because a lot of the speed limits are wrong and so we are trying to help them update them. We also got new phones (except they are still basic slide phones). Still no ipads though.. Maybe when the new mission president comes! haha..

Wednesday we went to Cuthbert (about an hour away) to try to track down some of the old referrals and some of the less actives that live there. Our goal in these far away areas is to try to update toe ward roster for those people that keep moving, as well as try to find out whether or not the people who we get referrals to online still want missionaries to come visit them. Unfortunately we keep finding out that there are a lot of these that say they have been contacted when they have never seen missionaries or received the things they asked for. Some of them are for over 6 months ago too.. Its been pretty crazy trying to track them all down.

Thursday we went to Blakely (which is about an hour away from us). We tried to track down some more of the people that we weren't able to see yet, and it took us a long while to find some of the houses. Some of them are seriously in the middle of nowhere, and the GPS thinks its 5 miles in a different direction. One member we found told us that he hadn't seen missionaries since he moved to Blakely and that was two years ago. He was also surprised to see us because as far as he knew, no one knew his current address and he hadn't changed his address either so he was in complete shock for about 40 mins of how he found that. And then add to that that his current address isn't found in the GPS. It was pretty awesome though, because he surprised us on Sunday and actually came to church! Which is pretty amazing considering he lives 55 miles away from where the church building is. He said he is going to try to start coming back which we think is super awesome and honestly a miracle since no one knows how his address got here and how we happened to catch him home at the exact moment that he was home on a day off that he rarely gets off. The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways. 

On Sunday our Spanish investigator came to church!! And that was a miracle in and of itself! His family was supposed to take him, but last minute changes made it impossible for them to take him to church. We ended up calling a member at 10 at night to see if he could go pick him up for church the next morning. The member said yes! It was even better because the member is a RM who speaks Spanish, and had come with us on a previous visit to meet Enrique. So they already knew each other! And then on top of that, Enrique lives about an hour away from the member and from church, and so the member drove a total of 4 hours to get this investigator to church and home! And he even stayed with him through the whole 3 hours of church to act as his translator so that he would know what was going on in church since everyone was speaking English. That was far beyond anything I expected a member to do, but it was so awesome because it allowed this investigator to go to church for the first time since he had come to America. Other circumstances (like not knowing where the church was or not having a ride) kept him from going this whole time, and it was so exciting to see him finally make it to church. :) We also went to go see his family, and taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was really awesome to try to teach them in broken Spanish and English, and it was really a testament to me of the power of the Spirit when the niece (who speaks English as her first language and Spanish as her second) said that this was clearer to her than anything else she had ever heard, and she really wants to learn more. She and her husband even promised to pray about baptism, and she is really excited for the prospect of becoming a forever family. A lot of the time when I teach about the Priesthood, especially the importance of having the correct authority and the power it has in baptisms, I compare it to marriage. In almost every other religion (as far as I know) when two people are married by the churches authority, they are married until death do they part. That is because that is all the authority they have. They cannot marry anyone further than this life because after life is God's domain and God's power. So unless they have his real authority, they can't marry for any longer then that. It is that same power by which people are baptized in other religions. So it is an awesome thing that they have done, and there is no doubt that their baptism will help them progress in this life to be closer to God. As soon as they die however, just like marriage, it will dissolve. When we explained this to Hannah (the niece) she said that she had never thought about it that way, but that it made perfect sense to her, and it also made her really want to have her marriage forever, because she doesn't like the idea that the marriage will end when one of them dies. 

I am certainly grateful for the knowledge that my family is a forever family and that my parents have been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity! I love that I have that potential as well, and that I grew up with that knowledge, and so never had to worry about any of my family being separated from me, whether by distance or death, because I know that eventually we will all be back together again! I was talking to Cassidy earlier, and we were talking about how many of our cousins are getting married, and how many cousin in laws we have. I realized that when we have a family reunion in later years with more of our cousins married, there will be (just including our cousins) close to 75 or even 100 people there. Including everyone else it will be even more!! And then I realized that that will be a lot like how the reunion in the Celestial Kingdom will be, except it will be 75 or 100 BILLION people.. It will be a wonderful experience:) 

Love you all!!

-Sister Monica Walker

Sister Dayton and I saw each other at Zone Conference!! It was so much fun to see one of my last companions:) Especially one that has become one of my best friends that I found on my mission:)

Finding People

Dearest Mother:)

This week has been super awesome! It also seems to have flown by, because of how much stuff we had going on. This week we had exchanges with the Sisters in Tifton, and I went there to Tifton. It was super fun because Sister DeMann, who I was with, had just finished being companions with one of my past companions Sister Dayton! So that was super cool to be able to talk with her about that and how they did in their previous area, and just reminisce about life in general. It was really fun:)

We went to try to visit some of the people in our ward that lived in the middle of nowhere Georgia, and we had a member come with us to help us try to track some of these people down. One of the places we went looked very secluded, and the member was afraid of getting shot (because we were in the middle of nowhere) and so she made us stop to say a prayer before we drove on their drive way. Their driveway was about a mile long and it felt like it just kept going on and on.. Finally we see a house only to discover that there are 4 houses! And none of them have numbers on them. We keep driving on the driveway, and it takes us up to the first house. We were going to get out so that we could knock on the door, but we see somebody walking back behind the house, so we follow them in the car and ask them if the member lives there. He said the guy did but that he lived in the back house and that we needed to continue down the driveway and take a left at the telephone pole and keep going until we hit his house. He told us though that he wasn't home, but his wife was. We thanked him, and then went back to go talk to the members wife. When we find her, she at first thought we were lost (they don't get very many visitors). When we explained who we were, who we were looking for, and why we were looking for him, she told us that he wasn't a member of our church. We asked if he had ever been a member of our church (because sometimes they were but because they stop going they think their records are gone) and she said he had been a member of their Baptist Church his whole life. She then told us we weren't the only people to think that that guy lived there, they get stuff for him and phone calls for him all the time. Apparently even the Sheriff called for the member guy once too. I asked her then her husbands full name, and it turns out his middle name is different than the members listed middle name, so unless it is the same guy and he changed his middle name for whatever reason, we had the wrong guy. It was pretty funny though and the lady was super nice, even though she wasn't all that interested in learning more about the Restored Gospel. 

While I was in Tifton, we traveled to a small town somewhere outside of Tifton, and it was really cool to meet all the differently people in the small little places around Georgia. It was also cool because we went to a gun shop to try to find an investigator of theirs who owns the place, and while we were there, they gave me a free pink t-shirt that has a gun on the back. Its pretty awesome:) I love being able to see how God is able to touch the lives of those who live so far away from anyone else, and how is still blesses their lives even when they don't have many of the things that I am used to in live. It is very humbling.

We also had our Zone Training Meeting, where Sister Danible and I had the opportunity to train the rest of the missionaries in our Zone. Usually we would train off the trainings we receive from our mission presidency, but we were unable to go to the last MLC because it was before transfers, and that MLC wasn't a normal MLC either because their was a general authority there who spoke the whole time instead of the mission presidency. So the Zone Leaders picked our topics and we got to plan a training off of that. My training was on Personal Revelation. I learned some interesting things about it which I wanted to share with y'all. First, it is important to understand that without personal revelation, none of us can be saved. Why? Because it is through personal revelation that all of us receive a witness that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is the Savior of all mankind. Second, personal revelation only comes through personal study. The Lord expects us to do our part before He gives us the answer. We have to ask a question before He can give us the answer. We have to try to find the answer ourselves as well. He gives us all these resources to look through and sometimes we just have to push through it all to find them. The object lesson that I did was that I had a dollar that I hid in plain sight, and had an Elder be blindfolded to try to find it where ever it was in the room. One of the sisters was the Spirit and her job was to make sure that she guided him to where it was using a soft voice, but she also couldn't touch him. Everyone else in the room was to be the distractions. One elder played the piano super loud, some of them yelled at him when he got close. Some Elders pushed chairs in his way as to make him stumble. Eventually he found the dollar. The point of it is to remind us that even when we know what we are looking for, and we know what the Spirit sounds like, we have to take the time to tune out the rest of the world in order to make the steps necessary to obtain it. The sister didn't just give him the dollar when he asked where to find it, he had to find it himself. But she did guide him to the place where he needed to go, and she even warned him of some of the dangers in his way. The same works with the Spirit. He doesn't always give us the answers. More often then not, we have to search for a long time before He will give us the place where it is.

Sunday, we met with our Spanish investigator again. We were a little worried though because the return missionary that we had previously asked to come with us to help teach couldn't come because he had family in town, and the investigator's niece who is usually the translator was out of town. We decided to go anyways, but were praying the whole way to help us be able to communicate with him. Luckily for us, earlier that day at church, we had 12 or so visitors at church that were going around selling Vivent, and most of them were return missionaries. One of them had recently returned from serving a mission in Mexico, and had told us that if we needed help that day to give him a call and he would do what he could to come help us. So we texted him and asked him if he would be willing to drive an hr away to help us with a lesson with a Spanish investigator of ours. He said yes!! That was a miracle in and of itself. Unfortunately we realized right before we left to the lesson that we were running out of gas (we had according to the car 70 miles left until the tank ran out) and the lesson was 44 miles away (in one direction). We discussed canceling the appointment, but we decided to go anyway. The whole way there we were praying that we wouldn't run out of gas, because we knew it was important for us to not go buy gas on the Sabbath, especially since it was because of our lack of preparation that caused the situation. We got there safe, and the member came with us to help us translate for our investigator. It was an awesome discussion though because we were able to figure out what was holding him back from baptism, and now that we know, we are going to try to work it out so that he can get baptized sooner than December. We are currently in contact with the missionaries there in Mexico so that we can mash out the details concerning his family. We are so excited for him though because he has such a strong testimony! We finish the lesson, and the member told us he was going to follow us home to make sure we were ok as we drove the many miles back to Albany. It was honestly a huge blessing though because we were not only able to make it home safe but we were also able to make it to the dinner appointment that we had that night about 8 miles away from our house. By the time we pulled back up to our apartment, we had 9 miles left of gas. The Lord really does bless His servants when they are doing His work, and when they show a little bit of faith:) 

As for some fun news, we were able to do some service for a member family and help them process some of the chickens they raised for food. We killed 40 or so chickens, and I participated in all stages of it. I have pictures of it to prove to y'all that I did it, but if you get queasy easy don't look at the pictures:)

We also got to go fishing for a little bit. We didn't catch anything, but we still had lots of fun! :)

Life is good:) I love you all!

Love forever and always,

Sister Monica Walker

Mother's Day

Dearest Mother,

I loved seeing all of your faces yesterday:) It was awesome to see my family, as well as all the other people that decided to say hi:) It's amazing to see how much people have grown in the last year even. I feel like they have grown so much while I am on my mission. Even more so then they did when I went to college for a year.

Here are some fun stories that happened this week:)

So last week like I told you were transfers. Neither I nor my companion got transferred, but one of the Elders did. It was the first time he was leaving an area, so it was really hard for him. We decided to cheer him up on Monday and so we planned out his whole P-Day for him:) One of the things we did was have a flour fight. I don't know if you have hear or seen it done before, but it was super fun! We didn't want the Elders to know what we were doing though, so we blindfolded them, and had one of the members with us to help guide them to the field of grass a little bit away from our apartment complex. We had earlier prepared a bunch of little nylon sacks filled with flour to take with us. When we got about halfway there, I realized that we had forgotten them, so I had to run back and get them. We told the Elders to stay where they were and we would be right back. When we got back, we discovered one of the Elders decided to try to keep walking, and then he stopped in the middle of the road. (It was a good thing there was a member with them to make sure they didn't get hit by a car.) Sister Danible decided to try and scare them, since they do it all the time to us, so we crept up behind them, and yelled in their ears. It was pretty funny because they jumped about two feet. haha. We kept going though and made it to the field, where we had them stand for a minute so we could take pictures and then we started to hit them with flour! They took their blindfolds off at that point and then retaliated against us, so by the end we were all covered in flour. It was awesome! Sad to see Elder Anderson go, but it was fun to welcome our new Elder here. :) I really do love being a missionary because of all the life long friends that you make with not just the missionaries, but the members as well:)

There really is a lot of potential here in the Albany ward. Yesterday I was telling you a little about it, but I thought I would repeat myself today as well. On Saturday, we planned on going to a little town called Edison (which is about 45 mins away) and then head over to Blakely (which is about 40 mins past that). There are a lot of potential people there for us to teach, that previous missionaries haven't had the opportunity to go to yet because of the far away distance. This month Sister Danible and I have been trying to plan out more of the far away places for us to go visit and then to hopefully help them realize the importance of what we do. While we were out and about, we met with 8 different people, all of whom said that they wanted us to come back, all of whom we were able to set return appointments for in two weeks!! It was amazing to me to see the difference in their attitude towards missionaries when they haven't had us knocking on their doors for the past long while, and how willing they were to listen to us, especially when they hear how far we went to talk to them. It makes me think about how much their souls are worth and that honestly, they are worth a whole lot more than what I have to offer. People coming to Christ is worth any sacrifice I have to make, even if it means a long day of a lot of traveling for me and my companion to come teach them about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If I haven't learned anything else, I have learned a part of how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ loves each and every one of us. None are more entitled to His love than any other, and all are equally loved. I know how much He loves me, and I know that He feels that same love for everyone else. I am honored to be the one who gets to help others understand that even more than they might already know. God is most definitely alive! Not just figuratively like many believe, but actually, in the flesh. He watches over every one of us, and knows exactly what you need when you need it. He will always make sure you have all the support you need to get though something when you are going through hard times, but sometimes we just have to dig a little deeper to find them.

I love all of you! (Even those I might not actually know.. I love y'all too!)

Keep on keeping on!

Love,

Sister Monica Walker

Finding His Sheep

Dear Mom!!

Oh how I love you!! Mother's Day is this Sunday and I am so excited to be able to talk to you face to face. To think, a year ago at this time I was preparing my farewell talk and packing for my mission! I can't believe it has almost been a year. Crazy. After I talk to you on Mother's Day the next time I get to talk to you is in person!! that is so crazy to think about. Especially since that still feels like a longs ways away and that I just got out on my mission.

This week has been pretty slow, but good news!! I'm not getting transferred! So I get to stay in Albany for at least 6 more weeks. I'm super happy about that. Especially since Sister Danible gets to be my companion again for those 6 weeks as well.

It has been a pretty slow week this last week, so not much happened, but there were some really awesome moments where we were able to be in the right place at the right time for the Lord to help us find people that needed to be found.

Backstory-My trainer began her mission in Albany about 2 years ago. Of course when I remembered that, I emailed her and told her that I was here. She emailed me back and told me to go find a part member family that she had been working with, whom she loved a lot and to go tell them that I knew her, and that hopefully they would let us talk to them. Apparently somewhere along the way, the family got lost because none of the missionaries that had been here before me and was still here knew who they were. We had planned on seeing them last week, but due to other things coming up, we weren't able to make it to the city in which they lived and try to go see them. Last Saturday though we were going to the Farmer's Market because we heard about a member who grows fresh produce and sells it there, but who also gives it for free to missionaries. So we went to go see what we could get, and plus we really wanted to meet this person. We go and find him, and after talking for a while, the family that was there buying stuff too was about to leave, when the mom told us that her daughter had something to say to us.. Super shyly she told us her name, and then ran away. It was super cute. The mom then said that her husband and her daughters were members and then told us their last name. IT WAS THE SAME FAMILY THAT MY TRAINER ASKED ME TO FIND!! It was pretty awesome how random of a meeting it was. We were able to set up an appointment with them, and the member who was selling the produce was from a different stake but he volunteered to come with us to go teach them because he is good friends with them. That was so awesome!

Another crazy story. So on Wednesday, when we were on exchanges, I had to make a quick stop at Walmart to grab something, and for whatever reason, this Walmart didn't have any self checkouts, so I had to go to a regular one. While I was going through the line, the cashier lady stopped us and happily exclaimed, "Hey! They brought the ladies back!" We gave her a super confused look, and then she pointed to our badges and said, I'm a member! The missionaries used to visit her, but about two years ago for whatever reason they stopped. We were later about to go visit her, and her son who is now 8 really wants to get baptized! Super awesome!

The last thing that was super awesome was that on Sunday one of the young Women's leaders came up to us and told us that there was a young women who had been coming to church for about a year now that wasn't a member (how the missionaries didn't know this, I have no idea) but that she wanted to meet with the missionaries and have the discussions so that she could get baptized! We are so excited to begin teaching her! It seems like she already knows all that she needs to know, but that she just needs to have the discussions so that we can make sure that she knows what she needs to know. I'm stoked to see how it is going to go!

Oh! Also this one is short, but the awesome moment when a member who is less active calls you out of the blue asking for a ride to church for her and her son, actually comes to church, signs up to feed us, asks us to then visit her family (none of whom are members), and then volunteers to go teaching with us. Yep. That moment made me so happy!! She seems like a pretty fantastic person already even though I have only known her for less than 48 hrs.

There are so many people here that I don't know, and so many that are amazing people but because there are just so many people to see that are on our records and then lots of people that aren't either, we hardly get to see even part of them. (here is an idea of how many people there are- in Albany alone, there are over 200 families. In Leesburg there are about 150, and then there are a lot in the outlying areas as well.. Those are just the members. We then have a list of online referrals that people want us to come see them of about 200 people over the last 18 months.) So we can't see all these people all the time, but we are working on it!!. There is so much work to do here and I am so excited for the future!

Love you all!

-Sister Monica Walker

Spanish

Dearest Madre,

Como esta? No hablo mucho Español, pero tangamos dos investigators de Mexico, y misionarios de español no vivan aquí. Mi compañero y yo vamos a leer El Libro de Mormon para aprender Español. Dios es Padre Celestial, El Niño es Jesucristo. Los profetas guían me. 

Yep. I'm not even sure I said that right, but there it is. My companion and I decided yesterday that we were going to read together the entire Book of Mormon in Spanish before one of us gets transferred, because as of yesterday, we have two Spanish investigators!! But due to the fact that there are no Spanish missionaries in the area, we get to teach them! It is going to be an adventure. We already taught them the Restoration, and luckily we had a Spanish book of Mormon in the car that we could give to them so they have it in a language they can read. We are super excited to teach them more about the Gospel. Fun story though, we found him through one of the dozen media referrals we received weekly, that take forever to contact due to the vastness of our area (probably two or so hours from the longest points), and it turns out that he moved here about a year ago from Mexico, where he was learning about the gospel from missionaries there. He had been taught for about a year before he came here, and his family is still being taught there in Mexico. I'm super excited to be able to help him. His niece (who is the other investigator) knows Spanish, and English is her first language, so she is acting as translator for us, when we can't figure out how to say it in Spanish, because we don't know Spanish, but she said she is willing to learn as well!! Super awesome! the only downside is that it is an hour away from where we live, so its a long drive, but the Lord willing it will all work out:)

Bro. Hawkins (from my home ward), me, Sister Danible

There is a great work to be done here, and I am so excited to see it come to fruition! Sister Danible and I are working hard to be the best missionaries we can be, and while it is true that we still have our ups and downs, we are still going strong. We had interviews with our Mission President and his wife last Friday, and it was really fun seeing them again! I loved what Sister Cottle talked to us about though, and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on it with y'all. First, a few months ago, she committed all of us to choose happiness every day. That is a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I did my best to do so. Last Friday, she checked up on us, to see how we did in choosing happiness, and then committed each of us on top of that to choose gratitude everyday. For me, the way that I am going to implement that into my life, is that any time I am feeling sad, depressed, angry, tempted, or whatever, I will begin a list of things that I am thankful for in my life. And I will continue listing until I can be happy again, and the moment of weakness is gone. I tried that over the weekend, when I was feeling particularly stressed, and I was amazing how quickly I was able to get around it, and to focus enough to get through it. The feeling of true gratitude that we can have in our lives, is akin to the feeling of happiness and love. I am so thankful for this opportunity to serve a mission and help those around me! I am thankful for my family who supports me from so many states away, and for all my friends who do so all around the world. I know that this is God's true gospel restored once again on the Earth, and that it will never again be taken from us! I know that through the gospel, and temple ordinances, that families can be sealed together forever, and I hold on to that hope and that knowledge as I go through life. I love my Savior! I know He lives! Not just as a spirit, but as a corporeal being with a perfect body of flesh and bone!

Thank you for all of everything that y'all do for me and all the missionaries in the world! Remember each one of them is a beloved child of someone else. Treat the missionaries in your own areas as you hope people around the world are treating your children, siblings, friends, etc. Love them, help them. This is your work too:)

Mucho Amor!

Hermana Walker

P.S. 9 days 23 hours and 54 mins until I have lived 20 years:)

General Conference Weekend

Dear Mother:)

It is interesting that I am away from so much at home and home life. There are so many things that I forget that I used to do when I was home, and a year hasn't even passed! It is crazy to me to think that at this time next year I will be in school, and continuing my education, when I still have a long time to go on my mission. There are some awesome memories being made though here:)

For example, last Monday it rained super hard pretty much all day long (which it does every other day it seems like), and so Tuesday in the earlier evening, so before it got dark, Sister Danible and I and a recent convert who was in the car with us were driving down this road to find a potential we wanted to see. The GPS took us down this dirt road, and it came to this curve with a mud puddle in the middle of it. We looked at it for a while, but because we really wanted to see this potential, we decided to try to see if our car would make it (not the smartest thing ever), and our car got stuck. We realized pretty fast it was stuck, so we didn't try super hard to get out, because we didn't want it to sink even more. We rolled the windows down to see how far up on the car it was, and it was pretty far up. We didn't dare open our doors for fear of mud getting to the inside of the car. Plus it smelled nasty and we really didn't want to have to smell that until we could get it cleaned. But since we needed to go see what the address was where we were, and to see if there was anyone who could help us, we climbed out of the window of the car (after taking off our shoes so they wouldn't get muddy), well Sister Danible and I did, the member just stayed in the car, and ran barefoot across lots of rocks to a trailer park to ask for help. Long story short, the people in the trailer park couldn't help us as far as getting it out, but they did offer up their homes for us to stay in until a friend could come tow us out. We took pictures of it, because it was funny, and an adventure, and when the member who was towing us out came to get us, he made us get back in the mud so he could take pictures too.. And then he posted them on Facebook.. So those pictures are out there somewhere too.. Super fun:)

The car is ok, minus a few unnecessary pieces (something about a splash guard? The Firestone guy said we didn't need it on the car), one of which fell off in the mud, and the other which got bent when we went through the car wash, and it got super bent and scratched the pavement until we were able to get to a Firestone to have them remove it. *hides the whole way there because it was super loud and embarrassing* We turned the music up loud so we didn't hear it scratching the ground, and laughed the whole way out of the parking lot where we had inspected it and seen it bent in half.. Possibly the best part. Everyone's attention was on us. We are ok too:)

Conference was wonderful! We worked it out so that we were able to go to some members homes with some of the recent converts, and it perhaps was one of the best conference experiences I have ever had. After conference at each members home, we went around and told each other something that we had learned, something that struck us, or a talk in general that we really liked. It was really cool to see the different things that people had pointed out, and what struck different people. One of the members afterwards came up to us and thanks us for asking them to have us over for conference and dinner because it was a wonderful spiritual experience for him that he hopes to be able to one day repeat. He said it brought a great spirit into his home:)

Love you all!! If you didn't get an opportunity to watch conference then I really recommend you do so:) It was awesome for sure!

-Sister Monica Walker

My mailman from my last area

Kalani was a recent convert who I LOVE!

Not a pro player, don't even know which string is which, but we were helping some lady move and she said I could take a picture with it, so I did:)

We celebrated Sister Danible's birthday shortly after transfers:) It was super fun!

New Place, New Companion, Stronger Testimony

Dear Mother,

Now that I hopefully don't have to worry about bed bugs (hopefully, unless I carried them with me when I left Columbus), I am doing a lot better. As I told you last week, I got transferred, and I am now in Albany, GA!! Side note for Brother Hawkins, yes, people remember him, and I was told that I can have some good stories of him when he was a kid here. From what I can understand, they are very similar to Robert Stories. Super excited to hear more. They think well of the Hawkins family here though. So it was cool to be able to make that connection to this area even in my first week.

I love the area already! There is an investigator here who has the same name as me, and it is the strangest thing to hear people say my first name, even when they aren't talking about me. Mostly though that is because it doesn't feel quite like my name right now. Kind of fun though! Monika is super nice and she is currently on date to be baptized in June. Hopefully that date sticks, because she thinks she might have to move to Atlanta soon, but whatever happens, I know the Lord will provide a way:)

My new companion is Sister Danible, and she is super awesome! It turns out that she served in my last area, and that she left 6 weeks before I got there, so she knows a lot of the same people as I do. It has been fun in the last few days reminiscing about all the people we knew there, and the many more people that came or progressed after she left. I was surprised to find out that there were a lot of people that she had been talking to that had somehow been lost after she and her companion had been whitewashed (her companion completed her mission, and she got transferred). It really hit home for me the importance of record keeping. Its also why it is so important for the ward members to be involved in everything because when things like this happen, then the members know who the missionaries had been seeing and will be better able to help the new missionaries figure out what they need to be doing, and giving them some people that they can go see. 

Sister Danible is from Idaho, and she has actually been out one transfer longer than I have, which is definitely a change from being the "oldest" sister missionary in my last zone. I was pretty sure there weren't that many Sister Missionaries that were out longer than I was, and I am glad to report that there are some, but they are hidden all in the other zones. I love Sister Danible already though because she is such the sweetest person ever! She also is more willing to go on fun adventures than some people are, seen by the fact that last Saturday when we almost slid into a ditch (multiple times), because it was stormy and we were on a dirt road, she and I just laughed and screamed the whole way through. Haha It was fun:) and it reminded me of all the fun adventures we have gone through on our trips to Utah and Oregon.

I've settled in pretty well here, which is awesome. And I am certainly ready for some fun adventures in Albany!

Well I love you, but I have to get off soon, so I will end my letter with a short testimony. 

I know so much more so now than ever before, of the reality of Christ's love for us! He is real! He really did suffer so much for us so that we can be happy. He did not have to do any of what He did, and if He so chose, He could have left us to ourselves, but He didn't. He sacrificed himself for each and every one of us. And He felt everything we did. Not just something similar, but EXACTLY what we feel. He is the only one who knows. He knows how to help. He loves us. And I love Him. I am honored to be numbered among those around the world who bear His name on a little black name tag. I am honored to be considered worthy enough to represent the one perfect Being. I, an imperfect person, representing He who is above all. What a responsibility. I love being a missionary, and I am super grateful for the opportunity to serve all around Southern Georgia! I love it! I bear my witness to you as His missionary that He lives! In Jesus Christ's name, Amen.

Love,

Sister Monica Walker

PS at the time of this email, 24 days exactly [until her birthday]!! Cause I'm sending it right at 9:55 California time:)

Bugs and Transferred

Dearest Mother,

Who came home to keep me from being your favorite missionary in Modesto 1st Ward? Shouldn't I be your favorite anyway since I am your child? Also, why in the world am I not your favorite missionary in the world? Having favorites outside of your children is not allowed.. It's hard enough to compete for the spot with 4 other people, we don't need to be adding in any more.. ;)

So we had an interesting adventure this week.. Last Sunday (the 13th) Sister Maher and I went home for lunch and Sister Maher went into our room to take a nap, while I stayed in our living room and read (what a surprise!) when Sister Maher starts freaking out and yelling and ran back into this room, grabbed her shoe and went back in our room. I followed her in, and discovered BUGS!!! There were many little black bugs crawling around our room, that had been there for who knows how long, but since we are only ever really in our room at the end of the day or the beginning of the day we never noticed them.. I then freaked out because it meant that I had been sleeping with bugs for who knows how long. Pretty much cried for the rest of the day. The Senior couple here who is in charge of helping with housing in this area told us to try to spray everything with permetherin (as did the Senior couple over housing for the whole mission) so Sister Maher and I spent the next 5 hours doing just that. And then we checked the mattresses for bugs (because we figured out it was bed bugs on the wall) and they were clean so we sprayed them again and brought them out to the living room and had a terrible night sleep as both of us couldn't stop thinking about the bugs. Day two of the bugs was P-day so after we finished emailing, we went home and vacuumed and sprayed everything again. We also called the office for our apartment complex (they were closed on Sunday) and told them that we had potentially bed bugs. They told us they would have the Knox people come look at it soon. So anyway, we did that again, I might have had a minor meltdown as well again because I realized that it was all on my side of the room that the bugs were, and we are pretty sure I had been bitten on my legs from before. (Nasty).

Tuesday comes along, and I am done with the bugs so I started to pack, because I didn't want any of my stuff to have the bugs in them so I checked and sprayed everything I owned before I packed it all.. At about 9 the Knox guy came for a inspection and when he went into our room, he flipped over our box springs. Mine was solid black in every corner on the bottom, and Sister Mahers only had a few. Super nasty. They then gave a checklist to us of all the things we had to do before they could come and spray our apartment. So we spent the next 6 hours doing all the stuff on it. Essentially it was like we were moving apartments, but we had to wipe down and spray everything in the process. So my beautiful map that I made a few months ago had to be taken down, all the fabric in our apartment had to be put in heavy duty trash bags to be washed when we left, all the stuff on the counters and bookshelfs and etc had to be put in bags and either taken with us, or we could leave them (but we took the supplies with us since most of them are paper, and we didn't know how those would fare in the bug bombing). The Sisters in the other ward, who we were going to stay with for the next week came and helped us pack all our stuff and clean everything. We filled both our cars with stuff and took it to the other Sisters apartment where we sprayed their apartment and then put the bags from our apartment in the middle of the room with a permetherin boundary around the whole thing so they don't spread. And then we went and did missionary stuff for a few hours, and then came home to the sister apartment and began what would end up to be over 15 loads of laundry. I stayed up that night until about 1 switching laundry around so that we didn't have to stay at the apartment and do it. As we took it out, then we sprayed them again and folded them.

The next day we had to go back to our apartment to vacuum the whole thing (including our room, which we honestly hadn't touched yet because neither of us wanted to deal with the bugs). We also had to get rid of our beds and box springs since the mission was going to just pay for new ones, so we called some members to come get them, since they had a truck, and we don't and so three of the brethren in the ward came to get them for us. We asked them before the went in to grab them if they wanted us to spray them, and they said no, then they went and got it all and afterwards asked us to spray them. (apparently after seeing it, they changed their minds.) Better safe than sorry people! 

Apparently we found out later, each of them went home to their wives and told them it was probably the worst they had ever seen it, and it completely freaked them out. So my meltdown Sunday was completely validated, even though Sister Maher was laughing the whole time.. I am the Queen of Drama is all:) Basically after we finished cleaning we left the apartment and haven't been back since. I will never be in that apartment again so that is strange. We still and to clean the rest of our clothes and we even had to send some to the dry cleaners which was interesting, but hopefully when we can go back it will all be fixed and there will be no more problems. They even get new mattresses and box springs so they know there are no bugs in them. It has been fun though at the other Sister's apartment for the last week. Tonight is our last night there.

Another blessing that came from this was the fact that after I cleaned everything of mine, I was able to pack it all, and transfer calls were last Saturday. Either way I would have had to pack it, so I just packed on the off chance I was going to get transferred, and I'm getting transferred! Luckily because this happened, we don't have to clean our apartment, and I don't have to try to locate everything that is mine, because everything is already packed. We also don't have to go shopping today because there is no point as we have no place to put it until we can get back in our apartment tomorrow. So I don't have to pack, or shop, or clean my apartment today, and I can just go say goodbye to people all day instead.

I am getting transferred by the way. I found out Saturday. I have been here 6 months and I knew it was probably time for me to leave. It will be interesting. I don't know where I am going though. I kinda hope I am either going to Savannah or Augusta but my thought is that I will go to Fort Stewart area since my last two areas have been military places. (Fort Stewart is over by those two places either way). We will find out what happens tomorrow and I will tell you all next week where I am and who I am with! :)

Also I am super excited to be able to talk with you when I get home because I am learning so much from my studies that I can't all email home, but that I am writing down for everyone to read (namely my companion because she wants to read it later when she can understand it better). Much of it is the thoughts and connections I have made in Jesus the Christ, but some of it is from my study of the Book of Mormon as well.. Super awesome! Plan for a whole month mom where I am just going to talk your ear off. It will be great!! :) Someday in the long distant eons of time these questions will be answered.

Super excited for that day.

Love you all!! Hope all is well with you:) I am thinking about you every day:)

-Sister Monica Walker

A Popped Tire

Dearest Mother,

Didn't we move into our house on the 29th of February? Or is that just something I made up because I thought it would have been cool if we had moved in on that day, and so I have always thought it my whole life? Either way it is pretty cool that I can say we have only lived in our house for 4 of todays.

Tell all of our neighbors that I miss them too!! Also ask Lorraine if she could tell you how to make the beans from those Mexican restaurants. I think she said that she knew how to make them, and I want to know how so that I can make them at home instead of having to go to a Mexican restaurant anytime I want refried beans.. hahaha

This week has been pretty great though. Here's a funny story for y'all. I will send a couple of pictures to go with it, but I didn't get too many because I walked away for most of it. So yesterday, we had three meals appointments that we had to go to in the space of 4 hours. The first one was a birthday party for our 97 year old investigator. That was awesome, but I was super nervous about eating her food. It was really good though:) We were there for a little bit longer than we had originally planned, and so we had to text the member family that was feeding us lunch after and told them that we needed to push lunch about 30 mins because we were running a little late. Eventually we head out, and are on our way to the member's home to get there at the time we had told them we were going to be there, when I'm driving along, and there is a loud bang. I realized that I had run over something, and looked immediately in my rearview mirror to check to see what it was. All I could see was a tiny strip of metal that was quickly disappearing. Looking back at my dashboard, I switched to a screen that allows me to see the tire pressure, and I watched as our tire pressure went from 40 to 10 in about 5 seconds. We managed to pull over at a safe spot and out of the way of traffic, and low and behold, the tire was flat. Whatever we had run over had ripped our tire. super crazy. We call the member and tell them that we had just gotten a flat and so we were going to be even later than we had said. They asked us if we needed help, and I told them we would definitely appreciate it if they came to help. Mind you, we have all the tools, and the spare tire, and I know where all of those things are located in the car, but I didn't know how to jack the car up to actually change the tire (which I did know how to do.) Plus we are in skirts, and its Sunday. Anyway, as we were getting all the stuff out to be all the way ready when the members got there, there was a homeless guy who couldn't talk that came up and tried to tell us what to do. He used gestures and seemingly tried to tell us that we needed to change our tire, and we politely tried to tell him that we appreciated his help, but we did have people coming to help us. (Honestly, it wasn't that he was speaking with a heavy accent that we couldn't understand, it was literally that he couldn't talk to us.) He did help us figure our though that we have those car brake things that you put on tires to keep it from rolling away when you park on a hill, or you do something to the car and so it is on the back tires or whatever. So that was nice of him. When the member got there, it was the father, their son, and one of their daughters. I wanted to go find the thing that pooped [popped] our tire, so I took the daughter with my companion and went up the road to find the thing that pooped [popped] our tire, so that no one else would get their tires popped. We left the boys there to fix our tire while we left (which is why I don't have many pictures of someone actually changing the tire). When we walked up the road, we saw one of two other cars that were changing their tires too because they had hit it as well.. Essentially it was a metal strip about 8 inches long with a bolt sicking out of either side (so two bolts total). We are going to see if we can somehow cut it so that each of us can have it as a souvenir. Super funny. By the time we got back the tire was fixed and the homeless guy had left, and so we were able to quickly go to our 2nd meal appointment for the day, but much later than planned. After we got done there, we had to go on Post for our dinner appointment with a less active family that was moving (which is why we agreed to have so many meals) but we had to switch cars with the Elders because Post is kinda far, and you can only get on it through the end of the freeway (unless you want to kill a bunch of miles, and when that's limited its not really worth it), and I didn't feel comfortable going so far and so fast with a spare tire. It was weird driving a Toyota car, because my whole mission I have only been assigned to Chevy Cruses. We were super blessed though to be able to eat all the food that was given to us, even though we might have possibly gained 5 pounds in doing so. Super fun.

Also we had an investigator go to Atlanta for a Doctor's appointment, and then she never came back. She took all her money out of her bank account and closed her bank account and her phone number and is disappeared. She lived with a member family here and they haven't heard anything from her, nor has any of her family. Super crazy. Keep her in your prayers. We honestly have no idea what just happened with her.

We had to say goodbye this week to many of our friends on post because they are being moved with the army. One of them is moving to Colorado, and the other is going to Utah because they just retired from the military. It made us super sad to have to see them go, because we had been working closely with one of the families to get them baptized, and the other family was their good friend, and ours as well. The second family was also a part member family, so I hope they will get the help they need in their journey to Christ that they couldn't get here. Pictures to follow.

Love you all! And I hope all is going well with you:) I love you and I miss you, but keep moving strong. It will all work out:)

-Love Sister Walker