Book of Mormon

Dearest Mother :)

Oh how much I love to read your letters! It reminds me of the times that we would spend everyday talking about all the stuff we learned in our Sunday classes at church, or after the seminary classes, or our own person study and reflection on the scriptures. I'm so looking forward to that when we get back home too:) I am 10 or so pages away from finishing the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on my mission, and it has been super awesome to make all sorts of connections this time! I studied this time in a little mini Book of Mormon, which when I finish I will be sending home for Robert in a package with a bunch of letters and some random knickknacks. I encourage y'all to look at it if you get the chance. It's pretty cool. It is in a tiny Book of Mormon though so you might have to have Robert read them to you. I love learning things in the Book of Mormon! There are so many connections in it that I had never put together before, even though it makes completely sense to have it the way it is. Pretty awesome. Also if you haven't yet, I also highly encourage you to read the article Mormon's Miraculous Book in the Feb 2016 edition of the Ensign. It brings new light to how important and amazing the abridging of the Book of Mormon was, and then to think of the miracle that the coming forth of it was as well, What else could it be but of God? Super awesome. I can't say it enough. :)

I was dubbed a princess at a member's home while we waited for dinner.. Super fun! (Little do they know, I really am a princess:))

There is one investigator we have, her name is MC, has had a pretty rough life with the Lord. When she was younger, her sister tragically died in a car accident, and she blamed God for taking her sister at an early age. From that moment and for a really long time, she wasn't very happy with God at all. she thought He was unfair and she didn't like Him at all. Recently she met a cousin she didn't know that she had had, or else a cousin she didn't know very well, who happened to be a Stake President over in Texas. In the last couple of years especially, without her realizing it, she was feeling something missing from her life, and so when her cousin came to meet them one day, she recognized that he had something that she wanted. There was a feeling about him that she liked. She agreed then to meet with the missionaries, and we have been teaching her since. She has a lot of hard trust issues to overcome before she can be baptized, but it is so cool to see her make those little steps that she does to get closer to her Heavenly Father. I love teaching the people here! There are so many that I could talk about, but that would take too much time. So for now that is what I will say. I will think of who I want to talk about next week, and hopefully I remember. :)

I will pray for Dad and Josh and all the rest of you in your various courses of life. All will be well I know it:)

I love you all!! Keep being you! Because you is awesome!

Love Sister Walker:)

I went bowling with an eye patch on, because my eye got super irritated and I wanted to see how hard it was to bowl with an eye patch on.. I GOT A 125! Probably the highest I ever had.. And it was with my left eye, my non-dominant eye.. super crazy.. You have a pretty strange daughter.. but then you have to remember whose daughter I am, and then it all makes sense:) 

Love Reading the Scriptures

Dear Mom,

Transfers were 2 weeks ago. I might not have mentioned it because neither I nor my companion were changed. It's a bit strange to not be a part of transfers.

My companion and I are one of three sets of missionaries in my ward. There is a Spanish set of Elders, and an English set of Elders, and us. I'm almost positive that in this mission, I will never cover more than one ward, and if I am ever by myself in a congregation, its a good chance that it is a branch, or a group. We almost always use our car to get to the different places we have to go, and then walk around for a little bit. It's hard to not use our car because our area from top to bottom is close to 25 miles. And we live closer to the top of the map where there are less people, so it would be hard to not have our car and try to reach the bottom of the map, especially when we don't ride bikes.. if you want to see my area, you can go to maps.lds.org and look up the Rivercrest Ward. Those boundaries are my boundaries. It's only half of Columbus, because the other ward covers the rest and then some..

I think the things I have learned the most, the abilities that have been enhanced as I serve as a missionary, are honestly my abilities to study. I had poor study habits at home, and I never really figured it out, being here on a mission though helped me to learn how to effectively study for myself and or other people. I love those few hours in the morning that I get to study my scriptures and talk to my companion about the things we learn as we study. The scriptures have opened up so much for me! I am on my 3rd reading of the Book of Mormon since I have gotten on my mission, and I am amazed at the connections that I can make from the smallest lines. Here is something I learned this week from my studies, that I was telling my mission president about.

This week has also been very interesting as I have been reading the Book of Mormon again and looking specifically for wisdom and insight that will help me improve myself, and to become more like Christ. I know all these stories. I have heard them my whole life, but the connections I have been making in the past few weeks, are amazing! And they are little things that I should know already, but for whatever reason never connected. For example, in the story of the 2000 stripling warriors, we always talk about the effect their mothers had on them, the spiritual growth and example that they were, but I learned last week that it mentions the fathers too and how they sent provisions to their sons. I knew that, but I thought it was cool that the scriptures mentioned something that the fathers of these 2000 boys did to help them, and to me it was awesome as well because you can see from that that without either of them, they wouldn't have survived. Without provisions, they had no energy. Without the Spirit, they would not survive. Both parents therefore were essential to their surviving the battles they faced. Just like today. Super awesome.

Its cool to see the connections between everything. I will send home the mini Book of Mormon I am using during this reading of it and you can see more of the connections that I have made as I read. Reading the book itself is much different than just hearing the story. There are so many details that you miss by just relating the story. Those ah-ha moments when after reading the connection is made to see that this particular thing relates to this other thing. I don't think I would be able to make these connections as easily had I not been on my mission.. I love [reading] my scriptures! It's super awesome. It brings new light as to why we are supposed to read our scriptures instead of just listen to the stories. Because it isn't the stories that are necessarily the important stuff. Sometimes is the words on the page that will stand out to you in a way that will help you right then and there.

Love you all! Sorry this letter is short..

Sister Walker

Tying It Into A Gospel Principle

Dearest Mother,

I actually get to email on a Monday this week!! There have been so many holidays it seems, so I feel like it has been a long time since I have emailed on Monday, and then also just so you know, next week my mission president decided to have our Zone Conference on Monday so our P-day is going to be Tuesday. (So no email until Tuesday).

That is so awesome that you used the training I gave a few weeks ago in your seminary class! It didn't really go as planned when I did it with my district either, but it was really cool to see the outcomes that could occur, and how you can still tie that in to the gospel. One thing I have loved that you helped install in me is the ability to tie anything to a gospel principle. It helps a lot when I am trying to talk to other people about the gospel, and they start to go into tangents about the weirdest things, and as long as I know what they are talking about, then I am able to tied it back into the gospel. The hardest part is tying it not just into anything, but to specific principles. For example, tying in Star Wars to the principle of how Heavenly Father loves us. If I can do it though, it helps me understand the investigator or the person we are teaching better though because we will start with whatever principle, and somehow it made them think of the tangent they went on, and if I can make a connection back to whatever principle we are trying to discuss then it helps me understand better how this person thinks, and what would be most effective in getting their attention, and allowing the Spirit to direct as needed. It's an interesting exercise to do, and I want to practice it more, because it is fun trying to get it all together, where everyone is on the same page. There are so many skills we learn as youth and children that I never really thought I would use as a missionary. Its a wonderful blessing to be able to recognize the help that my Heavenly Father has given me throughout my life to help prepare me for where I am right now with the people I am with in this very moment. Kinda cool..

So a short funny story.. Our dishwasher exploded bubbles last Friday for no apparent reason.. It was a good thing we were home planning otherwise we probably would have come home hours later to a kitchen filled with bubbles. So I spent two hours cleaning the floor and behind the fridge from all the grime and water and bubbles, while my companion continued planning. It was an interesting but super disgusting experience. Cleaning under refrigerators are not something I like to do, especially when I can't identify what some of the stuff is that I am cleaning up.. (especially when I have to be on my hands and knees to clean it). 

Other funny thing was that this morning when Sister Maher had her clothes running in the washing machine, it started in the spin cycle, and we heard a clunk, and then it was making a lot of noise, that it hadn't ever done before. So basically it was an affirmation that our apartment is old and all the appliances are starting to fail.. I wonder if the warranties are expiring..

Oh and also our oven burns our cookies anytime we try to make cookies.. So that's fun too.. Our microwave seems to be working ok though even though its also super old.. Hopefully it will last for the next while (at least until I leave.)..

I am glad the family is doing well! And how exciting to hear that Jake is getting married!! So exciting!! and Veronica too? Who too? I might actually know who that one is, unless things have changed since I left on my mission..

Also, I was emailing Hollie, and she told me that Tristine had a baby!! so exciting! It is kinda weird to think of how life moves on while you are on a mission though. But all is good.

Love you forever!

-Sister Walker

PS 80 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Until her 20th birthday].

Busy Busy

Dearest Mother,

Charles sounds like the cutest kid in the whole world. I am so excited to really get to know him for myself when I get home from my mission. It will be a lot of fun :) I sent home a picture of my wall in my apartment. Pretty much the only pictures I keep out are those of my two little darling nephews :) they make me so happy!

I don't know if I have told you about this or not, but I thought I would share this week about something that my District here is doing that I think is super sweet and awesome, and is called "The Chair." Basically the idea is that every week, at least one member of our district gets to sit in a chair at the head of the table, and we go around the room and each person gets to say why they love that person. Things they think are admirable or unique to that person, and the effect it has had on them. I have begun to make sure that there are Kleenex in my bag for these occasions because everytime I am crying because of all the things people are saying to each other. It is some of the sweetest things I ever saw, and especially when it comes down to those Elders who don't speak very much, and they were told about how awesome they are. I did find certain people to be a little harder than other people, but it worked really well anyway, and the Spirit was there so strong each time. It really has unified our district at least and I thought it was perhaps one of the best things to do to build someone's self-confidence. Super awesome and very touching. I am sorry this weeks email is super short, I don't really have a whole lot of time to email today and I had a lot of emails that I needed to catch up on due to my continual pushing them off. Know that I love each and everyone of you, even if I don't know you, or haven't seen you in a long time. You are all special to me, because you are special to our Heavenly Father.

Here is a condensed version of something that happened this week that I sent to my mission president. Enjoy! :)

This week has been good for Sister Maher and I in relation to the people we have been able to see and help. There are some really amazing people here that are so willing to do what they need to do to help grow their relationship with Heavenly Father. I love to see the progress they make as they accept and complete the invitations that we extend to them, and in so doing see the positive affect it has on their lives. We recently had an investigator very nearly drop us because she had "issues" with the Book of Mormon that were very minor, and honestly questions that had never occurred to me before, and frankly didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. However, because she was willing to do as we asked and pray about it, she told us that despite her reluctance to meet with us again, Heavenly Father pretty much slapped her in the face and told her that she needed to hear from us, because we had something really important for her to hear, and that she needed to read the whole thing before she could say it wasn't His word. It was really interesting that she would say that, and it made me feel very inadequate because I know that I do have those answers that she so desperately needs, but finding out how to teach them to her is a very difficult process and will go very slowly, because in her words, "it will be like going through a steel wall." It will be a test of my ability to have the spirit at all times, and it will definitely be something that will help me learn to really rely on the Spirit and try my hardest to put myself in a position in which (like was mentioned at the missionary broadcast) I can be used as a tool by the Spirit to help her be in the optimal place for the Spirit to teach her of the truthfulness of the things we speak about. 

Love you all!!

Keep up the good work!

-Sister Monica Walker

Encourage People to Come Up

Dearest Mother,

I love the pictures you all sent me of Charles and Henry!! They are super cute!! I printed a bunch of them out so I could see them every day:) Thank you so much for the pictures!!! I love them so much!! I can now sympathize for Josh when he was on his mission and you had Charles.. But the pictures are definitely appreciated:) Ps I'm totally printing these out and putting them on my wall.. I have a Prince Charles wall in my apartment all of pictures of my nephew. And now there will be an add on for King Henry.. Cutest pictures in the world! I love pictures of you guys! They are all super awesome!

A member who lives in a retirement home because she has Alzheimers. We visit her at least once a week since missionaries are some of the few people that she can recognize anymore.. Super sad but she is so sweet:)

It's interesting that you said that you learned something different about Lehi's dream the other day, mostly because I was reading that the other day and noticed a lot of things I hadn't known before. One of the things I noticed, was how when Lehi had partaken of the fruit, he immediately wanted his family to taste it, and instead of waiting for them to come over to him, he shouted at them and waved for them to come over to where he was. He actively worked to help them get closer, he didn't wait for them to see him. At the same time however, it wasn't like he left the tree, and went and pulled them over to the tree, he let them come at their own pace, but he stood at the tree waiting for them to come to him. It was an interesting parallel I thought with how we should be an example today. We shouldn't be going to someone else's level by lowering our standards, but by encouraging them to come up to the level we are at. Continually being that example for them, never degrading, but always encouraging. 

The lady with the green jacket we surprised on her 90th birthday.. (we actually crashed her birthday party Wednesday night and then crashed her birthday on Sunday.. Didn't actually plan that, it just happened.. We didn't even know that it was her birthday until someone came in and gave her a present.. Whoops.. Super funny though).

I also looked at Nephi's record of the same vision and I noticed something I hadn't before. In 1 Nephi 11:25, it talks about how the iron rod leads to the "fountain of living waters, or the tree of life; which waters are a representation of the love of God." I knew that the tree and the fruit on it represented the love of God, and how sweet it was to behold, but the way this was worded made me think of an even further analogy. In the New Testament, Jesus tell the woman at the well that He is the source of living water. When you put that with this vision, and how it was said that it was the fountain of living water-fountain being the source-literally it is saying that Christ is the representation of the love of God! How true that is! Heavenly Father has done what he has done to help us His Children, and Christ is the focus of it all. It is through Christ that we experience this joy and happiness and peace. By no other name nor any way can we feel that eternal bliss we so desire! And then further in that same chapter, it talks about Christ'd life, and how He was judged of the world (v32). Compare that to how the great and spacious building judged those who went to the tree, they are essentially mocking the tree and belittling it, just like the world did to Jesus in His mortal life. There are so many other things that I gained from reading it this time around, and one day I will have to show you all my notes on it, and we can have super long conversations about everything that you and I have learned while I am on my mission. For now though, I just wanted to give you that to think over.

The lady with the pink blanket is our 96 year old investigator Willie Mae.

I really do love the scriptures! There is not enough time in the day to do all that I want to do to learn and grow from them. Every time I study them I really get something new out of them. Things that I skimmed over, things that I never connected, all of it suddenly making sense. Speaking of, real quick since I have to go in a minute, there was a member who was able to go to the temple for the first time last Saturday. It was super awesome and so spiritual because this persons journey to getting there are led her to some really rocky roads. On Sunday when I saw her after that, we were having a regional broadcast from Salt Lake for all the South Eastern area. Before we tuned in for the broadcast, we sang Hymn #6. During the broadcast for the intermediate hymn, we sang... hymn #6... again... Later the next day, we went and visited her, and she pointed out something to us that I had never considered. So for those of you who have been to the temple, you will probably get it, but the rest of you wont. Go look at the hymn though and read through it thinking of the covenants we make. It's super cool when you figure it out. :) Its interesting to me that I have sung that hymn so many times and I never really understood its potential worth to me. The same works with the scriptures but a hundred times over:)

Love you all! Hope all is well with you:)

Love,

Your favorite child, and the most excited Aunt in the world,

Sister Monica Walker

Me trying this ab wheel workout thing the elders gave us and failing miserably.... and comforting myself with donuts after:)

Mircales

Dearest Mother,

I love you!! And everyone else in our family:) It's strange to not be there for all the fun things you guys do, but it's pretty cool to hear about it from all of you and also to have all the fun adventures here too. For example here's something that I told my mission president today about last week. It's a pretty crazy story, even if you don't have all the details.

So a miracle that happened this week, but it requires a bit of back story. When we were on exchanges a few weeks ago (Sister Dayton and I) Sister Dayton went to go try to visit a referral we had been given by the Elders, and happened to stop and talk to a lady named Vicky. They got talking, and at some point during the conversation it came about that this lady has great faith in the Lord. She told Sister Dayton that she had just lost her car, but it was ok because God would take care of her, and that she had enough faith that the Lord would give her another car, since she really needed one. But not any car, but a brand new one. She told Sister Dayton to come back, gave her her number, and her address on a piece of paper, and then they left. When Sister Dayton left, she handed me the piece of paper, which I then promptly lost, and freaked out about for about two weeks because I couldn't find it. So New Year's Eve rolled around and Sister Maher and I were reading our scriptures and the Ensign when we get a call from an unknown number, and it was Vicky! She had dug through her trash to find our number because she really wanted us to visit her. She also told us to guess what was sitting outside her apartment. "What?" We asked. "A new car!" Stunned silence for a few moments. It was an absolute miracle how she got it, and I don't really understand all the details, but suffice it to say that she got the car for a lot less then she should have. We went to visit her the next day and taught her the Restoration, which she loved. When we invited her to be baptized, she said as of right now, no, but if God tells her to then she will. We then told her a little bit of what we were going to teach her the next time (The Pan of Salvation), but didn't really tell her everything, just told her that it would answer a lot of the questions she had, and then told her we had to leave, she said "You can't leave now! You have to tell me what comes next!" She's so excited for our next appointment. She's pretty amazing though. And we are super stoked to teach her:)

I love that about every member being a witness. It is so true though. We actually have an investigator that is going back and forth on when she wants to be baptized, but she knows she wants to be eventually, its just the when that is iffy. We had her go over to a member's home for a lesson (the member family is really close to her already) and we basically had a testimony meeting where everyone was bearing their testimony of the things that they knew. We went through the baptismal questions (which I will list in a second) and after each question I asked them what it meant to them, or how it would change their lives, or why they thought that way. It was pretty amazing to listen to their answers, and I found out later that one of the girl's boyfriend who was there was a recent convert, which surprised me because more often than not he was the first to answer to the why. It made me wonder how often each of us asked these questions for ourselves, and not only would answer the way that was expected but really thought about WHY we answered the way we did.

1. Do you believe that God is your Heavenly Father?
2. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is your Brother and your Savior?
3. Do you believe you have repented of all of your transgressions/sins?
4. Do you believe that the Church and the gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith?
5. Do you believe that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God?
6. When we are baptized, we promise our Heavenly Father that we will take upon the Name of His Son, Jesus Christ. What does that mean to you?

After each of these questions I always followed up with what does your answer mean to you? It was pretty amazing to feel the Spirit that was there as we were talking and how strongly we were each testifying of the truthfulness of everything we were talking about. It was so powerful mostly because each of us really had to think about the answers we gave, and couldn't just say yes. It's something I'd encourage each of you to do for yourselves, with or without other people it doesn't really matter, but it is amazing to see the change that can happen because of it:)

I love what I do here! It makes me so happy to see somebody making further covenants with Heavenly Father, because I know how much He loves each and every one of these people. It's crazy how blessed we are. 

Thank you for all that you have done for me and for how you have prepared me for this. I would not be here if not for you and the rest of my family. You guys show me what it is like to be in a loving family and thats the best part about you:) It makes me super sad to see all the broken families here and how most of them grew up in single parent homes. I have been blessed to have a family like you and I love you for it! Thank you for being such a great example for me:)

Love you all,

Sister Monica Walker

The Affect of Simple Things We Do

Dearest Mother:)

Oh how much I loved seeing all of you on Christmas last week!! It was so awesome to be able to see all of my family. I really did love seeing Charles walk, and I know he has been doing so for a long time, which is partly why it made me cry, and is still making me cry every time I see it, because the first time he walked was the day I entered into the MTC. So I really never have seen it. And then it made me think of all the things that I am missing, but then I remember all the awesome things I get to see here and I am happy again. I am certainly super thankful for being able to serve the Lord in a manner that will help others and myself grow. But I always appreciate pictures so that I can kinda see what life is like for y'all while I'm gone:) Those are the things I cherish the most on my mission. that and my scriptures (which I lost the Bible I was studying in at the end of last transfer and can't find it anywhere..:( ) its all good though, because I still have my other nicer bible that we got before I left:)

Something I was talking to a less active about, that I never really realized until I came on my mission, is the affect of the simple things we do every day in our lives. It's interesting to me that there are a lot of people that I come in contact with that think I am just a wellspring of advice and gospel knowledge. I am so often reminded how little I know, and it scares me sometimes how much trust people put into what I say especially as I am aware of the faults I have. At the same time, I know that I do have a lot of knowledge that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with so that I can further bless those around me. I might have told you this already, but I feel like I need to share it again anyway. 

This member has been struggling with her testimony of the gospel, especially concerning the modern day prophets. As we were talking to her, I felt prompted to tell her of an interesting situation that I had found myself in in my teenage years. All throughout my earlier teen years, I had heard warnings of people who would say things like in the moment when you feel like you are doing great in your testimony and you don't need to pray, read, or go to church, that's when you are the most vulnerable and your testimony will be the weakest. I found myself in that situation during my later teen years, and my personal reading of the scriptures (ironically enough) ground to a halt. My prayers became less and less frequent and I found myself sad for reasons I didn't really know. I of course still went to seminary every morning, church every Sunday and mutual/institute etc, but spiritually I was lacking. It really wasn't until my mission, and I really began to study the scriptures myself and not just read them like I kinda wanted to do that I realized how long it had been since I had done something like that for myself. Last transfer was really hard for my companion and I due to some crazy circumstances in the area, and there were many nights I spent with tears streaming down my face and my head bowed in humble but earnest prayer. I have learned that life gets immensely harder when I forget to pray or read my scriptures. I have since I left on my mission, completed the Book of Mormon once (well technically twice when I read the standard works), the entire standard works once, the mission library twice, and years and years worth of Ensigns. I have learned that even a few moments of reading my scriptures and praying about it, makes me happier every singly day, despite the things that tumble around me in my life.

Basically I told this member that it was interesting that when we forget to do the simple things like read or pray or go to church, our world begins to fracture, and pretty soon it will tumble all around us, and we are left to pick up the pieces. I then asked her if she had been reading or praying, and she said that no she hadn't. I encouraged her to read, and then promised her that if she would that she would being to see many blessing in her life. Since then she has been coming to church nearly every single week, and her husband and her have even begun to reconcile and are trying to establish their relationship again that had been lost so many years prior.

Blessings come when we do what the Lord has asked of us. Even when it seems impossible sometimes, the Lord will always provide a way for us. I know that the Lord is there watching over us every moment of every day, and we may not be able to see Him, or even feel His influence, but He is there waiting for us to turn to Him. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much, despite the faults we may see in ourselves. He gives us such great gifts and all He asks in return is to follow His Son. It's not going to be the easiest thing because it was in no way easy for our Savior. His sacrifice was to make it possible for us to bear it, not to make it a smooth road. Life will not be easy. But it will be possible, and it most definitely will be worth it. I cannot wait until the moment I get to enter into the presence of my Eternal Father in Heaven and I can give Him a hug. Meanwhile, I have a work to do, as do all of us, and I can only work to do my best so that I can feel worthy to be in His presence. I love this gospel! I can't say it enough. I have learned so much from everyone I come in contact with. My friends at home, my family, my companions, and even the random people I talk to on the street. I love my Savior and all that He has done for me. Christmastime is awesome because I can talk to everyone about how much I love my Savior and they will all listen and tell me the same. Super awesome.

I am giving a training at my District Meeting this week on how we can establish personal relationships with each member of the Godhead. Should be interesting. I will tell you next week how it goes, but meanwhile, I challenge all of you to think of how you'd develop a relationship with each member of the Godhead, and then email me or write me about what your thoughts were. I'd love to hear your thoughts, even if I will have already given the training:)

Love you so much!

Sister Monica Walker