OKC - Week 4 Farewell MTC - Hello OKC!

Note from Mom & Dad - We got to talk with Sarah last Tuesday when she was in the airport.  She had bought a phone card to call us from the airport pay phone.  (What's a pay phone?) She apologized for it taking so long to call because she and Sister Larsen couldn't figure out how to use it:)  Someone was kind enough to let the sisters use their cell phones.  Note to mom & dad - teach your kids what and how to use a pay phone.

OKLAHOMA!!!!!

The new "Greenies"

I's here!! Finally!! I will always miss the MTC, but its is so good to be here! 16 elders and sisters boarded the plane and man did everyone want to know who we were and where we were going. I sat next to this really sweet lady who is a member, but doesn't go to church anymore. We had a really good conversation, and she explained she was just too busy for church. Well I just simply bore my testimony of how important church was to me, and then handed her a Book of Mormon. She already had one, but I had a feeling I needed to give her one. She thanked me, and I pray and hope she opens it up again. Ahhh.... I totally wouldn't have done this a month ago! 

So when we stepped off the plane we were all consumed with the Oklahoma humidity. The weather here reminds me of Idaho (minus the humidity) its changes every 7 hours literally! It will be windy at 9 and cloudy, and by 12 there is no cloud in the sky and its humid and hot. Its quite an adventure. 

President Mansel is so AWESOME! He's hilarious and alot of fun! We stayed at the mission home (his home) Tuesday night, and we had our interviews with him. I swear he knows me better than I know myself. In just 5 minutes he had figured out my personality, and when I told him I was more quiet, he laughed and said I don't think so! (he was right haha). He is one cool president! 

Sister Karauria & Sister Walker

The next morning we went to meet our companions and see where we were going! My companion Is Sister Karauria (Sister K)...try saying here name...its really hard! but fun:) Well she is absolutely incredible! I LOVE her so much! Cool fact though she was born in New Zealand, and is from Australia! (ps. dont call her an Aussie, cause she'd rather be a kiwi;)  Her accent though! Everyone can listen to all day, haha! We are both shotgunning the OKC 7th area and ward. I absolutely love OKC 7th!  The members here are so driven to do missionary work, so they are our "go to" all the time.  I guess knocking doors isn't very effective here, so we have the members give us referrals, or we go out on the street and talk to people (OYMing).  There are so many acronyms I have to learn!  But The work out here is a BLAST, and Sister K is so driven. She's seriously the best trainer! 

This week has been really good, but kind of slow. We are shotgunning, which means both of us have not been to this area before, and we are both learning the best way to further the work. This has taken a lot of reorganization. And since we are the first set of sisters in this area since 2014, we've had to introduce ourselves to a lot of former investigators, and members.  Our main focus for the next couple of weeks is getting to know all of the members, and letting them know we want their help to fellowship the investigators. They are already so willing. I just love this Ward so much! We have a car, and since sister K's license has expired I was thrown out onto the road the first day! whooo it was quite the ride! Also our area is huge!!! The ward is made up of several towns in OKC, and about 2 hours from one side to the other. This is gonna be a crazy adventure!!!

Waltman Family

This is a very big ward but an even smaller world! The Waltmans and the Christensens are the families out here all related to each other. Haha, Hmm sounds like the Walkers to me:) Also the Waltmans lived in Middleton, and know us Walkers. Last night we spent 20 minutes making all of the connections. 

Something pretty cool, is that We have a baptism in a few weeks!!! Her name is Jordan, and she has been meeting with the elders before us. Fun fact! Elder Waltman from my district at the MTC is her boyfriend! told you this is a small world! She is the sweetest, most courageous girl I have ever met! She recently got permission from her mom and dad to be baptized, and we are all so excited for her!!! Can I just say how much fellowshipping is so important. The members that take these investigators and become their friend, change their life forever!  This helps them be around better examples, and invites the spirit to be with them alot more than having them convert on their own. 

We have a few investigators right now, and each of them are pretty incredible people! Blake had been meeting with the missionaries for a while, and has come to church a few times. He didn't show up yesterday, but we are hoping he comes next week:)! We hope to also teach his sister Julia.  Taylor we just picked up again after a month of not seeing the elders. He is very interested, and we can't wait to teach him again tomorrow! The Cardinez family is our family we are teaching. We met with the dad, George, a couple days ago, and he told us his story. To make it short he said that God found him at the lowest point of his life, and he said he has been a changed man ever since. We can't wait to meet with the whole family next Saturday and teach them the plan of happiness!

So one last thing I wanted to talk about is the man we met at Walmart. He actually stopped us as we were making  a quick trip to get toilet paper. He said "hey you're sister missionaries!?" and we both ran over pretty excited to talk to someone! He isn't a member, but has studied the church front and back, and wanted us to answer his questions. He's a very strong believer in Christ. Well we were willing, and he asked us why didn't God just come down and give the priesthood to our prophets and Christ, when its ordained from priesthood holder to priesthood holder. oh man he had me stumped (I didn't understand at first), but my companion as patient as she is, let him rant and talk, and she chimed in with a scripture here and there. He wasn't technically bible bashing, but he wanted to stump us. I guess past missionaries he's talked to just gave him a scripture and said "we have to go" or "find out for yourself". Well Sister K was not leaving, and I realized that this might have been what he needed. He even thanked us, and said that no one had ever continued the conversation as long as we did. I'm sure we could have done something better, but I hope he reads 3rd Nephi, as we felt prompted to ask him.  All we could do was testify, and I hope his heart is softened today. 

The first week in OKC has been AMAZING!! Thank you for your letters, and I hope you have a fabulous week. Your challenge this week is to be a member missionary, and invite someone to church:) I love you all!!

Sister Walker:)

PS - Good luck Makayla and Jacob!!  (Sarah's cousins leave this week for their missions)

You know the elders love you...when they leave cheesecake in the fridge!!

Such an Aussie..oh sorry, Kiwi ;)

MTC Week 3 - Couldn't find the Apostle room, but Found an Apostle!!!

Hey all my favorite people! 

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Sand Volleyball 

This week has been absolutely crazy!! Our district has found our favorite spot on the MTC Campus...The Sand Volley ball pit! We are seriously there at least 4 times a week! Once again, I absolutely love our district!! 

President Uchtdorf

So just starting at the beginning of the week, We went on our temple walk, and the original plan was to go right to lunch, but Sister Edwards had to get something at the residence hall first. So we headed in that direction. We came up on a few sisters, and they said "President Uchtdorf is here!!" I was like, "what really!?!?" but my companion had a different response haha, "Dont even think about joking about that!!!" haha, well they were right, and directly in front of us was president Uchtdorf coming up from the new buildings! We ran to get in line to shake his hand, and when he came up, it was a brief second, but he shook both our hands and said in his awesome accent "thank you for serving". Ahhhh This was the greatest experience ever! 

We also got our whole district to join the choir! Yes! We sang "Be still my soul" and it sounded like a whole choir of 700 angels+. The MTC choir is absolutely the best! I think it is the spirit of music that can just fill a room. Music is incredible! 

MTC Zone

Our 2 new Investigators (TRC's) are 2 of the stonggest sisters I know! Angela is origionaly catholic, and grew up believing in God, but not Jesus Christ. This was our goal, and the spirit testified to her that her savior loves her, and did so much for her. This changed Angela, and along with other testimony strengtheners, she decided to be baptized!!! Chelle (Michelle) has been looking into the Mormon church for a long time. She's a diver at BYU, so she's surrounded by the gospel!  She was hesitant at first that God actually cared about her and answered prayers, but she was touched by her Savior and all he did for her. When we went in for the last lesson we both knew we couldn't ask her to be baptized. She told us that she didnt like when her friends pressured her. Well lets just say that wasn't on the Lords agenda. I had the strongest feeling to ask her, and I guess so did my companion cause she started pulling up a scripture about it. Well i did it! And she said YES!!! Oh my gosh the spirit was so strong in that room! We never know if they are real investigators or not, but I had a super strong feeling she was! The Lord has a plan for each of us, and we should never ignore any promptings. Ive always remembered this from my family, "No random thoughts". I challenge all of you to have "no random thoughts," because "if it is good it cometh from God," and if it is doubts or "evil it cometh from the devil."

My companion and I got to sing "I am a child of God" for sacrament meeting. We sound so good together! Some days we will just burst into song, its so much fun! Because it is our last Sunday the whole zone is singing "I Stand All Amazed" and the Spirit was in the room when we practiced. There is something about music here in the MTC, it just brings so much Spirit, and I believe the angels are all singing with us. 

I have exactly 2 days left here in the MTC, and then I fly to the land "Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains!"  So excited to get to OKC!!!!  In order to go, we had In-field training on Friday, and it was the longest day of my life! Dont get me wrong it was so much fun, and alot of good knowledge gained, but so long, haha:P At the end of the 9 hours, they put on a play for us. It was pretty funny! Well the point to me telling you this was that my companion and I got there early, and Sister Edwards insisted on sitting in the very front row. I was like, no they're going to ask us to do something.  I just gave in...we sure enough were cornered by a teacher, and she asked us to be part of this act...I gave my companion the look in a loving sort of way, haha;) Well I got to be a primary teacher during ward council that gave a gold star to the bishop for being so reverent.  Yeah I never knew I would be acting this much in the MTC...With Role plays and everything. But I guess there's reason to love it! 

Well I wish I could write more, but Gotta get back to packing, and P-day stuff. I love you all!!! and my advice for this week is to Forget you self completely! "Don't be a Cookie Monster," as Elder Bednar would say...but way more bluntly:)

Sister Walker

LOVE Creamery ice cream!

MTC Week 2 - 10 more days to go!

Hello From The MTC!!! 

I am doing just fabulous!!! To be Honest there are days that are exhausting and hard, but that does not mean I give up. Nope pressing forward another 10 days!! I have learned so much about myself, and how I can be strengthened as a missionary and servant of the Lord. My biggest take away would have to be never give up and stay positive! Several times I would come away from a not so progressing lesson, and sometimes that is discouraging, but remember that you've tried your best and that is all the Lord wants. Never stop learning and trying to grow. Think of this...on a scale of fear and faith, where are you? No one but the Savior is the perfect teacher, but we can always strive for that. 

The MTC just opened 2 new campus buildings! The Lord is truly hastening the Work! There is an incredible exhibit of the Savior downstairs in one of the lobbies. These are giant pictures of the savior from the live bible videos. My comp and I took one of our investigators down there, and I believe it helped her recognize the spirit. We have something called TRC's and we don't know and will never know if they are actual investigators, or converts, but we go and teach them as if they were an investigator. It has been amazing to practice allowing the Spirit teach through us to their needs. We are not teaching lessons, we are teaching God's children. One of our investigators Kristina has a light about her, and we only had her for a week, but she wants to truly know that what the Spirit teaches her is true. She says they are beautiful stories that she wants in her life, but she is still working on the faith behind it. This is why we took her downstairs so she could connect with the Savior and His sacrifice for her. He loves her, and he loves all of his children. He loves You, always remember this. 

So just a side note, the MTC is having an open house, but I'm not 100% sure how you get tickets. I think it has something to do with the BYU education week. I strongly suggest you check it out. You will not regret it! I think its happening in July, but in case you can't I have a few pictures:) 

My District is absolutely AMAZING! They all have a strong testimony and bring the spirit of missionary work to life! Some of you have asked, the Elders in my district are going to Charlotte, North Carolina. We are going to miss them when we part, but we'll all be doing what we came out here to do, and thats represent our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Ah I wish I had more time to email, but I love you all and would love to hear from you! Remember to keep smiling, and be a light of Christ!

Sister Walker (Sarah)

MTC Week 1 - All we do is pray pray pray no matter what!

Hi all!!

Being my 4th day in the MTC I'm not going to be able to tell you everything, but I'll try my hardest! This place is truly the next place in line to the temple that you can feel the spirit so strongly! When I got off the bus I was in a daze at the fact that I am a missionary and at the MTC! all of this anticipation has finally come to an end. I'm still trying to get used to the schedule, but with the Lord's help its becoming easier. The past 4 days have been loaded with classes, scripture study, and prayer. I have learned so much, and I'm not even half way through the 3 weeks yet! My companion Sister Edwards is so amazing! her testimony is like a rock and she is never afraid to ask questions. I have learned to Love her the most over the time we have been here. Love is the answer! for investigators, and anyone that you want to feel the spirit of the Lord. Sister Edwards and I had our first investigator to teach on Thursday names Shelby. We taught her about God and who he is. Her initial question was if he heard her, and this was a perfect segway into prayer. This lesson wasnt perfect and both my companion and I are working on either speaking up or letting the other person talk. The next day we got to teach her again and this time we focused on loving her. The first lesson was lacking this, and it didnt go as smoothly. I testify that love brings the spirit, and helps change people. That whole room was filled with love as my companion (on the second day!) invited her to baptism!! Sister Edwards was working on this, and this was testament to her and me that you can invite them whever you feel is right. She said yes!! Greatest experience yet and I cant wait to see more. 

The Famous MTC World Map

So I'm jumping around like crazy, but the first day we met the MTC presidency in a huge meeting with all the new missionaries. When we sang Called to Serve, the whole room filled with the voices of these representatives of Christ, and the Spirit was so strong. But the song that made me loose it was Armies of Helaman. They changed the words "we will be" to " we are now the Lords missionaries" and I knew at that moment I was a missionary. It still hasn't hit me though that I'm going to be away for 18 months...it will eventually and I'll let you know. 

We went to the temple today for P-day, and there is something about going when your a missionary that makes it 10 times better! I love the Temple!! 

So we pray about 15 times or more a day at least!  And on a mission you will learn to pray always, for anything and everything. I think everyone should do that on a regular basis, even if its quick and in their heart. Well that is my challenge for you today! Pray more than 5 times a day this week! I promise blessings will come from it!

So to awnser some of your questions: My companion is from Holbrook Arizona (radiator springs was based off of it), The trio room with us, Sister Larsen is from Midway, Utah, Sister Asgard is from Fountain Green, Utah, and sister Kuss (cus) is from Springville, Utah.  I love them all and we are all going to OKC! My district is pretty awesome too! Elder Waltmon (from OKC) and Elder Christensen are our Zone leaders, Elder South is our district Leader, and Elder Anderson is the sacrament meeting cordinator. We have such a fun and entertaining district to say the least. Well I love you all and hope this week you can find someone to serve. Oh and enjoy the pictures!

Elder Walton, Elder Christensen, Elder South, Elder Anderson and Sisters

Sister Walker 

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Sister Larsen, Sister Asgard, Sister Kuss, Sister Edwards, Sister Walker